Kate the Black Burro at the 2021 Brooke USA’s Sunset Polo & White Party in Wellington, Florida. Kate is an equine friend of Brooke USA and can be seen at the upcoming Ponies & Pearls event in Aiken at New Bridge Polo & Country Club. � Brooke USA Foundation / Rachel Spencer
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From the Editor
This summer has been sizzling, but the high temps offer a chance to enjoy slowing down with time for bareback trail rides and long baths. Shaded spaces, fans, even misters, have become commonplace as considerate owners seek ways to keep their horses and ponies cooler.
Not all equines have such luxurious circumstances. Brooke, an international charity, does important work for horses and donkeys in areas where care is not as advanced as it is for our pampered pets. Learn more about Brooke and its Carolina connections in our cover story.
Speaking of pampered pets, there are amazing facilities in the Carolinas with some incredibly high tech offerings for equine conditioning and rehabilitation. Taking a plunge in the salt water spa or splashing in the water treadmill sounds like the best possible way to work out in the summertime!
Another tried and true way to beat the heat is to head for the mountains – we consider a Southern tradition for people from all over the Carolinas who escape to higher ground and take cover in those cool Blue Ridges.
I had never heard of the horsewoman Sandy Glynn, but I was floored to learn more about this pioneering equestrian and gifted artist right here in my backyard in Camden. We also introduce readers to a young rider who is a five-time national champion in the Pinto world. And while we are on the topic of champions, The Carolinas Equestrian congratulates the 2024 IHSA Collegiate Cup Team champions, Savannah College of Art and Design.
We hope you love these stories and pictures. Please reach out to us through our website at TheCarolinasEquestrian.com or on Facebook or Instagram and tell us about people we need to talk to, events we need to cover or places we need to go see.
Lauren Allen, Editor
Brooke
Action for Working Horses & Donkeys
Brooke, an international charity operating in some of the poorest places on earth, has earned support from horse people in the Carolinas. It all started in Egypt, with a horse lover on a mission.
When Dorothy Brooke first laid eyes on the working horses of Cairo, Egypt, her heart broke. It was 1930, and she knew the emaciated and neglected horses she saw had once been British Commonwealth war horses. Left behind after World War I, the horses had been sold into lives of misery, working day and night with little food or veterinary care. Their owners were poor people who did not know how to care for them.
From that day forward, Brooke, the wife of a British major-general, worked tirelessly to rescue the old war horses. After reclaiming nearly 5,000, she went on to establish ways to help impoverished owners learn to take better care of their horses and donkeys.
Today, Brooke Action for Working Horses & Donkeys in the U.K. and its sister organization, Brooke USA Foundation, are helping improve working equines’ lives in some of the poorest countries on earth. Supported solely by charitable donations, Brooke creates equine
welfare programs designed to ease the suffering of working animals while also shoring up the livelihoods of the families who depend on them.
Brooke directly helps 1.4 million working horses, donkeys and mules every year. Operating in more than 7,000 communities worldwide, Brooke sets up local equine welfare groups, educates children on equine welfare, and provides training in the compassionate handling of animals. It has programs to teach owners about hoof care and first aid, and it builds shelters and brings clean water to communities in the Middle East, Asia, South America and Africa.
In addition, Brooke campaigns globally on animal welfare issues and works with national and local governments to ensure that animal welfare laws are effective. It lobbies to consider the welfare of working animals and pushes for improvements in industries that exploit equines, including mining, brick-making, and tourism. Finally, it supports community emergency preparedness and disaster response.
Although Brooke began as a British charity, it has come to rely on its American sister organization, Brooke USA Foundation, headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, for fundraising and support. Like its British counterpart, Brooke USA helps ensure that working animals’ needs are a national priority.
“Across the developing world, the lives of working equines and their owners are intertwined,” said Emily Marquez-Dulin, the chief executive officer of Brooke USA. “When one suffers, so does the other, and when one thrives, the other does too. At Brooke USA, we recognize that when working equines have the appropriate nutrition and water, a comfortable and caring environment, adequate veterinary treatments, and receive overall good husbandry, they exhibit positive behavior, boast positive interactions with their owners, and possess a good state of mind. Under these conditions, working equines deliver more for their owners and communities, creating a win-win situation for all.”
Brooke USA is preparing to celebrate its 10th anniversary next year — a decade of improving working equines’ lives.
“We kicked off operations in June 2015 when Her Majesty Queen Camilla — at the time, the Duchess of Cornwall — visited Churchill Downs,” said Marquez-Dulin. “For the last nine years, we have been working with friends and supporters to expand awareness for the plight of working horses, donkeys and mules, and the people who depend on them for survival.”
Brooke USA is currently advocating for a ban on importing and selling ejiao, a gelatin made from donkey hides used in traditional Chinese medicine, cosmetics and luxury products. The organization has started a campaign directed at Amazon to convince the company to stop selling products made with ejiao and is encouraging American voters to reach out to their congressional representatives to support the Ejiao Act (H.R. 6021), banning the import and sale of donkey hides in the U.S.
Equine owner Yasmeen feeding dry fodder received from Brooke India subsidies.
Another priority is assisting horse owners in Havana, Cuba, who need help caring for their animals in the increasingly urban environment. Brooke USA supports Cuba’s Horses, an organization working to help equine owners provide proper feed for their animals.
Other Brooke USA projects include fundraising to create veterinary health centers in Ethiopia and outfit them with medicines and medical supplies. The organization also gives financial assistance to Animal Relief for Rural Communities (ARRC), in Limpopo, South Africa, which addresses a near-total lack of services for the town’s donkeys. Harnesses in the community were often made from rope, wire, or scrap metal, and almost no veterinary care was available. ARRC confronted the problem by providing properly fitting harnesses and bridles made from locally sourced materials and conducting weekly educational meetings in the community. Since the project’s inception in 2021, ARRC has reached an
estimated 20 percent of the community’s donkey population.
Brooke USA also operates in the United States, offering grants in line with the organization’s mission to improve working equines’ health and quality of life. This includes supporting Native Americans and their equine partners. Additionally, the organization assists American nonprofit organizations by providing bridge grants in conjunction with the EQUUS Foundation, a charity dedicated to the protection of horses. Brooke USA’s fund within the EQUUS Foundation contributes financial support to rescue organizations during unplanned or unexpected circumstances such as natural disasters.
A Carolina Connection
All these efforts require significant fundraising, and that’s where the Carolinas come in. Each fall, Ponies & Pearls, a special charity event highlighting women’s polo, takes place at New Bridge Polo and Country Club in Aiken, South
Carolina. This year’s event will be held on October 20 and will feature the finals of the Women’s East Coast Open, a prestigious United States Polo Association national tournament that will attract the country’s top female polo players. In addition to the polo match, attendees will enjoy a gourmet meal at the New Bridge Polo fieldside pavilion. There will be a silent auction and fashion show. Drinks will be served by Kate the Black Burro, the Ponies & Pearls equine mascot.
“Ponies & Pearls is a Brooke USA proprietary event, conceptualized right here in Aiken,” said Katie Roth, a Brooke USA board of directors member and New Bridge’s public relations and marketing director. “I had the idea of merging my two passions: my professional work at New Bridge Polo and Country Club with my volunteer work with Brooke USA. I rallied a few friends and contacts to join me on Brooke USA’s regional advisory council in Aiken to implement the event, and the rest is history!
“The people we help make under $2 a day and depend on their working equines for the most
basic of chores – fetching water, taking goods to sell at market, transporting children to school, and even taking the elderly to the hospital,” continued Roth. “These animals are the engines that mobilize the developing world. When we created Ponies & Pearls, we knew that there would be an immediate connection between those who loved polo and the mission of Brooke USA. How could one not be moved by the horrific life that these equines live when we have our own at home, pampered and cared for?
Ponies & Pearls isn’t the only Carolina connection for Brooke USA. South Carolina resident Hope Arellano, the top female polo player in the country, is an ambassador for the organization. Her job is to help call attention to Brooke USA’s invaluable work.
“Brooke USA reached out to me to be an ambassador, and if you know me, it is pretty clear that I am an animal lover,” said Arellano. “I think their organization shows that same love, and I couldn’t be more proud to be a part of it.”
Leah Bouch of Engineered Equine Performance works a horse on the cold saltwater treadmill
Pam Gleason
When it comes to horses, time does not heal all wounds. While many owners still rely on stall rest and pasture turnout if their horse has a problem, the reality is that both options leave a lot to be desired. Horses may move too much or not enough, and injuries are hard to monitor in a home stall or pasture. More and more owners are turning to dedicated rehabilitation facilities in the Carolinas to give their equine athletes the best chance of full recovery and return to top form.
Modern rehabilitation and conditioning facilities offer an impressive range of high-tech options to promote healing and strengthen tendons, ligaments, muscles and bones. There are lasers and pulsed electromagnetic field devices, water treadmills, and even ionized oxygen rooms. However, the most important element is a carefully tailored, individual plan that considers when and how much of each modality is ideal for each horse, along with the expertise to carry it out.
Modern technology offers updates to ancient
tools for healing, such as water and salt. Salt water can get colder than fresh water because the salt keeps it from freezing, which makes it excellent for addressing the heat and swelling that injuries often cause. Water and salt are deployed in a variety of ways at Alvie Equine Rehabilitation Center in Waxhaw, North Carolina. According to Kicki Nordlander, the manager and trainer at Alvie, the facility boasts a saltwater spa, a water treadmill with an optional incline, and a SeaClimate System sea salt and ionized oxygen room.
“The salt water spa is good for promoting healing or post-workout cooling and also for preventing damage or improving circulation,” she said. “There are even bubbles to increase circulation, like a giant soaking tub.” The sea salt and oxygen room is similar to a sauna for skin problems. “It helps with sweet itch, fungus, problems like that…and it also helps with lung problems, or if you want to get a horse more fit or make the lungs healthier with less galloping.”
Left: TheraPlate treatment at Alvie Equine; Above: The cold saltwater spa.
Pam Gleason
The water treadmill is a perfect example of capitalizing on the possibilities of hydrotherapy. Water height can be manipulated for precise objectives: strength, stamina, conditioning or rehabilitation. Setting the water low can encourage the horse to take higher steps, which can increase range of motion. Setting the water higher can increase resistance, and take up more of the horse’s bodyweight. Maxine Emerich, who owns and operates Engineered Equine Performance in Aiken, South Carolina, relies on her water treadmill for both conditioning and rehabilitating clients’ horses.
“Our cold salt water treadmill, which can be a cold salt water spa or a dry treadmill, is probably our most useful tool in rehab,” she said. According to Emerich, the treadmill helps horses use their bodies evenly.
“We love it for preventative work. For conditioning, it builds topline and turns on their stability muscles … So many horses in sport have their big weightlifting muscles but their small
stability muscles are turned off—it’s amazing how well they can compensate for our imbalances, their imbalances. They can produce a straight line but they’re not actually straight through their body. And when they get on the treadmill it really shows. It’s a completely flat, straight surface and they have to take even strides within their own body, so if they’re compensating a little bit or holding their hips one way or another they will either ‘banana’ or be wobbly.”
Many of the high-tech options at modern rehabilitation facilities incorporate multiple features to give the most bang for the buck. Engineered Equine Performance, for instance, has a Combi Therapy Plate that horses can stand on for two treatments at once. The device combines the vertical and horizontal vibration of a Theraplate with a pulsed magnetic therapy (PEMF) loop. Emerich says that the device has improved healing rates with fractured legs.
“Instead of 6-8 weeks in a box, they’re being released to start walking at five weeks.” She says Below: Laser and PEMF treatment. Engineered Equine Performance
Pam Gleason
Pam Gleason
Maxine Emerich and Leah Bouch at the water treadmill
the device helps stimulate the lymphatic system and reduces scar tissue. Because the horse is simply standing on the plate, there is no impact, but the vibration can help increase bone density, release tight muscles, and push lactic acid out of the system. “The combi plate is incredibly beneficial for every horse, particularly if they aren’t allowed to move. It is good for warm-up and to get blood flowing and also faster recovery time if they go on it after working out” says Emerich.
Using these devices requires expertise and patience. Horses need to become accustomed to the different efforts required, and injured horses have to be strengthened very carefully, or there is a risk of reinjury. Nordlander at Alvie Equine emphasizes that rehabs take patience.
“It takes time to rehab a horse. Depending on the injury, it takes ‘as long as it takes,’ and sometimes people want it a little faster. But sometimes if you try to heal them up faster ... they come back with even worse injuries.” Nordlander works with Alvie’s owner, veterinarian Dr. Emma
McCullough, to generate a precise plan for each horse in their care.
Some facilities offer a la carte menus for shipin customers. Engineered Equine Performance has a mix of ship-in conditioning clients who live in the area and longer-term medical rehabilitations. Alvie Equine rehabbed about 30 horses last year, and Nordlander says that the average stay is very individual, but the majority are long-term, six months to a year.
“Some owners want the horse back directly after the injury is healed, but most owners don’t like their horses very much when they’ve been on stall rest or hand walking only, so they leave them until they are fully rideable on the flat, or jumping again, depending on how fit they want their horses when they come home,” she said. “Most horses stay about an extra three months after they are healed to get fit, so when they come home, they can just reload them and take them to the show.”
Nordlander emphasizes the importance of careful and correct riding when the horse is returning to work. She says that Alvie Equine has several different riding areas so that horses can work on a variety of surfaces. These include soft sand, harder sand, and a geotextile arena: which surface is best for a horse often depends on his or her particular injury.
In addition to treadmills and spas, horse owners working with their veterinarians may try acupuncture, shockwave therapy, chiropractic, massage, and so on. The list is potentially endless. The important thing is selecting the appropriate tool with care. Expert handling and precise exercise are crucial components, along with frequent re-evaluations, while keeping the horse as happy and healthy as possible.
“Everybody needs to be on the same page - the owners, veterinarians, everybody working with the horse” says Kicki Nordlander. “It’s really fun! Sometimes these horses come in, so broken, and the owners have lost hope … But those impossible cases, I like them the most because when people give up, I just want to do it for the horse. It’s so joyful to get text messages and pictures from the owners when they get their horses back competing and winning and they’re so thankful.”
Above: the dry treadmill at Alvie Equine
Pam Gleason
Under 21
Jana McConnell Story & Photography by Jessica O’Connor
Jana McConnell, 18, a Georgetown, South Carolina native, can’t remember a time without Paint horses.
“I started riding before I could walk,” she said, calling out for confirmation from her mother, Tess McConnell, a lifelong horsewoman and her role model. “Jana started riding alone when she was 3,” agreed Tess. “But when she was 2, I’d put her in front of me to ride until she fell asleep.”
Jana’s determination to excel appeared early. “I have pictures of her doing showmanship in Clemson when she was 4 or 5 years old, and you can just see the dedication on her face,” Tess recalled. “She’s always been so intense – you could see it in her eyes. I thought that was unusual for such a young child, and so did everybody else.”
Goal-oriented and self-motivated, Jana has ridden with Georgetown Equestrian Center’s Rona Jacobs for her entire show career. She and Kausing Khaos, a 2011 American Paint Horse gelding, show the all-around at American Paint Horse Association events. The McConnells especially enjoy showing with the Palmetto Paint Horse Club, competing successfully on that circuit in everything from showmanship to trail.
“I love his grumpy old man attitude in the stall, and his goofiness on the ground,” she said of her gelding. “After a ride, he follows me around with those big, goofy eyes waiting for his treat. He’s definitely best at the hunter under saddle. He has the look for it, and he knows his job.”
Jana’s hard work and dedication have paid off. She and Khaos won their first world championship at the Pinto World Championship Show in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 2023, and Jana had even loftier goals for her final trip to the worlds as a youth this year.
“My favorite class is equitation,” she said, noting that equitation puts an emphasis on the connection between horse and rider. “My goal was to make top ten in eq at Pinto World this year, and I unanimously won the youth senior eq with a score of 89½. That meant a lot to me.”
The pair garnered a total of four world champion titles: youth senior equitation, youth senior English disciplined rail, youth senior novice English disciplined rail, and youth senior Western disciplined rail
Jana will be attending Clemson University in the fall with hopes of becoming an equine vet. She says she was inspired by her walk-trot horse, Aubrey, who fell ill when Jana was 10 years old.
“When we realized she was sick, vet after vet looked at her, and for months everything was blank. We had no idea what was wrong,” she said. “That was the worst feeling. But the vets at NC State were nothing short of incredible and found out quickly that she had a rare kidney disease. They were so good to her (and to us), and all of this shaped my reasoning behind wanting to become a vet. I want to pursue my dream and have the same good things said about me one day.”
Head for the Mountains Equestrian Escapes in North Carolina
By Pam Gleason
When the mercury rises in the Midlands, horse people in the Carolinas have the perfect remedy: go North – to North Carolina, that is. Although the climate is similar throughout most of the Carolinas, North Carolina boasts mountain ranges blessed with spectacular views and cooler temperatures. What’s more, the North Carolina mountains are horse country. Horse people retreat to historic equestrian communities such as Blowing Rock and Tryon or live in modern equestrian developments with every amenity. There are even vacation trail-riding opportunities for anyone who needs a break from summer in the South.
Blowing Rock, North Carolina
“We head to Blowing Rock every year around May 15 and leave about the first of October,” says Sue Zeimke, who lives in Camden on a farm that has been in her family since the 1700s. “It’s always about 10 to 15 degrees cooler in Blowing Rock, sometimes more.”
Perched at the crest of the Blue Ridge Mountains 3,500 feet above sea level, Blowing Rock boasts an average high of just 77 degrees in July, with an average low of 59. Compare that to steamy Camden (average high 89; average low 68) or tropical Aiken (high 93; low 70), and the appeal is obvious. The leading equestrian attraction is the Blowing Rock Horse Show, established in 1923. This show comes to the Broyhill Equestrian Preserve for three weeks every summer and includes a Saddlebred show in June and two weeks of hunter/jumper shows in late July and early August.
The Broyhill Equestrian Preserve borders Moses Cone Memorial Park, a 3,600-acre property once owned by Moses and Bertha Cone. Moses Cone made a fortune in textiles and was known as the Denim King. He and his wife
Bertha created their estate, Flat Top Manor, as a gentleman’s farm and nature preserve during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They brought white pines, sugar maples, hemlocks, and apple trees; they planted gardens, created artificial lakes, and established 25 miles of groomed carriage trails lined with rhododendrons. Today, the property belongs to the National Park Service, and the carriage trails are open to riders, who can access them through the Broyhill Preserve.
“The trails are really nice,” says Zeimke, who rides western when she is in Blowing Rock. “There are two lakes, and if you go up to the farthest one, it can take you a couple of hours –you might pack a lunch and have a picnic. ... I’ve been going to Blowing Rock for 17 or 18 years, and I just love it there.”
But what about the rain? Anyone who has attended the horse show knows that Blowing Rock can be wet, with clouds that drop down on the mountaintops and sudden rainstorms. Sue Zeimke laughs.
“You can get rain,” she says. “But just wait 20 minutes, and the weather is going to change.”
Above: The view from Flat Top Manor in the Moses Cone National Park, Blowing Rock. Photo by Dee Browning
Equestrian Developments
Nineteenth century tycoons bought vast tracts of land to build their estates in North Carolina for a reason: it’s spectacular. Today, people seeking the same kind of privacy and luxury might find it in an equestrian community.
Developments with an equestrian focus are becoming more popular, and growing numbers of horse people appreciate living in a place where horses are welcomed and their neighbors have similar interests. Additionally, many developments have a variety of top-notch amenities, including golf courses, gyms, spas, restaurants and community stabling.
For example, Yolanda and Richard Knowlton found their paradise at Balsam Mountain Preserve, a private community in the Blue Ridge Mountains about 40 minutes southwest of Asheville. Longtime horse people, the Knowltons own two companies dedicated to breeding, raising, training, and selling world-class
showjumpers (Windward Mark Farm, LLC and Dolomite Partners, LLC.) Their main home is in North Salem, New York, and Yolanda is a former Master of the Golden’s Bridge Hounds, where she has been hunting for 28 years.
“After doing much research and looking for second home options in Virginia, Maryland and South Carolina, we came upon Balsam Mountain Preserve,” she said. “There was simply nothing like it out there. It ticked all our boxes: mountain locale, gorgeous homes, golf, spa, wellness center, hiking, fishing, and, most importantly, a lovely equestrian center with miles and miles of trails.”
The Knowltons bought their property in 2017 and expect to retire to North Carolina in the future. In the meantime, Yolanda says she spends her summers at Balsam Mountain while Richard goes back and forth to work. She keeps a trail horse at the preserve’s equestrian center year round. “It’s a four-minute hike from my house to the barn and I can ride my horse up the trails right to the edge of my property. Weather permitting, I ride every day.”
Above: Blowing Rock Horse Show: A tradition for over a century. Right: Between the ears at Balsam Mountain Preserve.
Pam Gleason
Yolanda Knowlton
Pam Gleason
Pam Gleason
Sharon Packer
Pam Gleason
An important benefit of living in a private development with an equestrian focus is that there is always someone to ride with. “There’s a tightknit and growing group of ladies that prioritize equestrian activity, and there is always a group going out to hit the trails together, and then there is great camaraderie back at the barn,” says Yolanda. “It’s an extraordinary place to live.”
Balsam Mountain Preserve is in Sylva, North Carolina, at an elevation of 2,750 feet. The National Weather Service says that July highs average about 85, but residents say that once you go up on the mountain itself, the air is cooler and it is never too hot to ride, even in the middle of the day. The development encompasses 4,400 acres of woods and streams and is literally a nature preserve: 3,200 acres are in permanent conservation.
Tryon Horse Country
Horse people who choose Tryon horse country in the Blue Ridge foothills swear they have the best of all worlds. It’s not too cold in the winter or too hot in the summer. The area is brimming with equestrian activities and resources, and there is something to do every day. Tryon is best known for Tryon International, a premier competition facility located in nearby Mill Spring where the World Equestrian Games took place in 2018. The Foothills Equestrian Nature Center in Tryon also holds shows, combined tests and horse trials on a regular basis. Residents can take advantage of hundreds of miles of trails by joining the Foothills Equestrian Trails Association or the Collinsville Equestrian Trails Association. There are excellent tack shops, a veterinary hospital and views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Summer temperatures have a bit of a range in the foothills. Mill Spring sits about 1,000 feet above sea level and has an average July high of 85 and a low of 62.
“It’s a very doable climate here for a horse girl,” says Abby Kogler, who moved to the Tryon area from southern California in June 2023. “The thing about Tryon is that we cool down at night, so even
if it gets hot in the afternoon, it’s always nice in the morning.”
Although she is a California native, Kogler has lived in various places, including western Massachusetts and Greensboro, North Carolina. An FEI dressage steward, she came East with her horses and is currently building a covered arena at her new home. For her, Tryon is ideal, no matter the season.
“I’ve lived in so many places, and been a horse girl in so many places, but Tryon seems to have a cross-section of everything that I love,” she says. “Aside from loving horses, I also love being in such a historic area. I love that this area was the home of our Olympic team before it went to Gladstone. We just have such a history of horse shows and horse people here, and of course Tryon International is amazing. And then the people have been super friendly and very welcoming to me.”
Weekend Getaways
If you need a break from the heat, you can plan a Blue Ridge Mountains vacation, with or without your horse. For example, stalls at Broyhill Equestrian Preserve can be rented by the day, week or month, and the property includes campsites and camper hookups. All these things are unavailable during horse show weeks, and the management recommends making reservations early: there are 450 stalls but only 35 camper spots.
If you like the Asheville area, you can take your horse to The Biltmore, America’s largest private residence. The estate occupies 800 scenic acres and has 80 miles of estate trails. There are rental stalls and primitive camping for overnight stays. Tryon International boasts 1600 acres of trails – although you can’t currently take your own horse, Tryon Western Adventures says it has horses and rides for all levels at its public facility. In addition to these options, the Blue Ridge Mountains have many national parks that allow riding.
So if it is hot where you are, think about going to the mountains. It’s a Southern tradition.
For more information: Broyhill Equestrian Preserve: brchs.org
The Biltmore: www.biltmore.com/equestrian-center/ Tryon International: tryon.com
Above left: The view from Double Top Lodge at Balsam Mountain Preserve. Below left: Gabriel Grasso at Tryon International. Below right: Morris the Horse, the mascot and symbol for the town of Tryon, where horses are a way of life.
Savannah College of Art & Design
2024 Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association Champions
The Savannah College of Art and Design equestrian team took home the 2024 Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association (IHSA) Hunter Seat Team Championships this spring. Approximately 500 athletes took part in the event at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in Mill Spring, North Carolina.
Alex Alston, a sophomore at the college, earned top call in the Dover Saddlery Individual Open Equitation Over Fences and Dover Saddlery Team Open Equitation on the Flat. Peter Cavagnac was the champion in the Chronicle of the Horse Team Limit Equitation on the Flat, and Kameron Riggs
was named champion in Team Introductory. Celia Cram, an Aiken native and a junior at SCAD, took reserve championship honors in the prestigious Cacchione Cup. The Cacchione Cup was named in honor of IHSA founder Bob Cacchione’s parents, Marty and Ann, and is awarded at nationals to the high point hunter seat rider.
This is SCAD’s fourth time winning the national title. Previous championships were in 2013, 2016, and 2017, all under the leadership of head coach Ashley Henry. Henry is a SCAD alum and has coached the team since 2005. The equestrian team also captured the reserve championship in 2018, 2019 and 2023.
Alexander Alston and Capri from Centenary University, coaches Ashley Henry and Sammy Perlman, with IHSA founder Bob Cacchione. Photo by Ella Peterson
Colorful:
The Life and Art of Sandy Glynn
by Lauren Allen
Sandy Glynn may be the most amazing woman you’ve never heard of and she has been hiding in plain sight for years at her farm in Rembert, South Carolina. The tiny 86-year-old moved to Camden in 1990, and she and her husband, Ed Sweeny, trained racehorses until their advancing age became an issue. Now Sandy has just one retired racehorse, a well-bred mare that she continues to care for, but the house is filled with the art created by both Sweeny and Glynn over the course of their astonishing lives.
Sandy Glynn doesn’t really consider herself a ‘professional’ artist.
“Ed, my husband, was very good,” says Sandy. “He was in galleries in New York and he did a lot of work for Abercrombie and Fitch.”
This was, she says, when the company was still an illustrious sporting goods outfitter, before the name became synonymous with teenage fantasy. She points to Sweeny’s paintings on the wall, which are mostly of African animals.
Meanwhile, Sandy would draw the annual Christmas cards that the couple sent out, and she enjoyed sketching polo and racing scenes, and portraits of horses or dogs she liked. She works in watercolors and pastels, and “anything that shows up” she says. “Except oils. I don’t do oils. I always felt afraid of oils ... Something you can keep in the room and you don’t have to make a lot of arrangement for.
“When I was a little kid, I doodled all the time, and my mother encouraged me. There was a wonderful artist, named Paul Brown.” [Brown (1893-1958) is considered the pre-eminent
American equestrian artist and illustrator: Camden residents may recognize his name from his exceptional paintings in the National Steeplechase Museum.] “He lived on Long Island and my mother wrote him a note asking him what sort of materials to buy me, and he wrote back! He was just the loveliest man. He wrote me a couple of letters and he did a picture of me on my pony.” Sandy still has several of Brown’s pieces hanging just outside her kitchen, including that drawing.
Perhaps even more colorful and dramatic than their art, Sweeny and Glynn both shared not only a love of horses but a life of adventure. Sweeny, who was a native of New York, had lived and worked in Hollywood, California as a stuntman in the movies before he and Glynn met. He was part of a group of horsemen making Westerns with John Ford, until the rise of television and action films eroded the popularity of the genre. Sweeny headed back to the East Coast and the racetrack, where he encountered Sandy Glynn, a 100-pound scrap of a girl galloping very fast horses among a sea of hard men.
Lauren Allen
Before finding her way to the track, Glynn, whose given name is Sanford, had started out with show horses. “My father and mother were great horse people, and they had been wealthy, but their families lost all the money.” Both her parents were excellent riders; her father, Tommy Glynn, was a polo player and polo pony trainer who was inducted into the Polo Hall of Fame in 2001. Sandy was born in Westport, Connecticut, right near the historic Fairfield Hunt Club.
“There were a lot of show horses. They were nice to little kids then; you didn’t have to have a lot of money or a fancy pony, and I ended up riding a lot of horses and ponies for other people. We had a couple of nice horses, too, my family did, because Pop was a very good horseman so he would find things at a bargain. I had the horses in the back of the barn that Pop would come home with in the middle of the night.
“It was a different time, we did everything!” continues Glynn. “I did racehorses, foxhunting, jumpers ... They asked me to try out for the [United States Equestrian] Team when I was 18.”
However, her best horse was not sound enough for the rigors of international competition and when William (she calls him Billy) Steinkraus came to her father and asked her to be the first woman in history to claim a spot on the U.S. Olympic Show Jumping Team, her father said to her, “We have to sit down and talk about this; you know we don’t have enough money. You don’t have a sponsor. I have a suggestion: you need to get a job.”
In the early 1960s the United States Equestrian Team was still strictly for amateurs, but Sandy Glynn had to turn professional, and the equestrian team spot went to another amazing woman, Kathy Kusner. Meanwhile, Glynn got a job breaking yearlings in New York. “I just loved horses. As long as it had legs and it could go forward, it was fine with me.”
It wasn’t long before Sandy was asked to ride for Eleanora Randolph Sears who had a farm in Virginia.
“She had the most fantastic show stable in the country and backed the Olympic team. She
The name Sanford Glynn worked well on the racetrack “because nobody knew whether I was a boy or a girl.” Tommy Glynn & Sandy, show hunter days
owned Ksar D’Esprit that Billy Steinkraus rode. I rode for her until probably two years before she died. That was a really beautiful, wonderful, lucky experience,” says Glynn.
Eleo Sears, as she was known, must have recognized a kindred spirit in Glynn. Sears was a legendary athlete and female sports pioneer. Born in 1881, she made headlines by being one of the first women to fly an airplane and to get a speeding ticket in an automobile, and she won trophies for a huge variety of sports from horse racing and showjumping to tennis, squash, golf, swimming and distance walking. Eleo Sears specifically broke ground for female equestrians by insisting on riding astride before it was generally accepted
(it did not become normalized until the 1930s), wearing men’s riding pants instead of a skirt, and playing polo on men’s teams. She died in 1968.
Afterward, Sandy Glynn moved to Southern Pines, North Carolina, where she lived with and worked for Ginnie and Pappy Moss (Virginia Walthour-Moss and William O. Moss) until she married her first husband Raymie Woolfe, Jr., an accomplished rider and jockey whose father, Raymond Woolfe Sr., trained racehorses for Marion DuPont Scott in Camden and founded the Colonial Cup International Steeplechase. Glynn spent time at the racetrack with Raymie Jr., and when their marriage broke up, she remained smitten with racing.
“The show ring changed a lot. It was wonderful, but it got to be kind of a horse dealer’s thing –it was a lot more money, a lot of wheeling and dealing. I just felt like I was done with it. I was just disenchanted. I loved riding and making young horses.” Glynn approached Allen Jerkens, an Eclipse Award winner and National Hall of Fame trainer, for a job several times before he finally hired her to gallop for him. She worked for him for five or six years. “It was 59 men in the barn and me. It was difficult, but it gave me tremendous credentials.
“Racehorses were beautiful and beautifully bred, and they were just the epitome of what a horse should be. They were difficult, a lot of them! It was fascinating to get a difficult horse. They were so high strung, intelligent, talented ... I got to gallop some really good horses. It was a privilege.” On the track, she said, “There was no one telling you what to do. You had to figure it out with the horse. And you had to figure it out
“You don’t get to do the things I did without having a lot of people help you. I am very grateful for all the people who helped me along the way, and I have had a really, really, fortunate life ...”
fast, and you didn’t get to go back in the ring and do it again.”
Sandy was a licensed race trainer in New York for several years, but eventually she partnered with Ed Sweeny and they moved to Southern Pines and built a farm where they did layups and started yearlings.
“From an eight-stall farm, we had four Grade One winners.” Sandy attributes their success to giving the horses confidence and making them happy. The couple moved to Ocala for a bit, and then to Camden, and developed young horses until their own age and the hard-knock life caught up with them. Sweeny eventually became bedridden with dementia and Glynn cared for him for five years until he passed away.
Today, Sandy looks out of her sliding glass door at the field where she used to gallop horses. A deer stands in the clearing and stares hard at the house, and then a tiny fawn emerges from the tall grass and they peacefully cross to the woods.
“You don’t get to do the things I did without having a lot of people help you. I am very grateful for all the people who helped me along the way, and I have had a really, really, fortunate life, particularly with horses, because you know it wasn’t easy if you didn’t have a lot of money.”
Now it is her art that Sandy counts on to help her make ends meet. She plans to keep her farm, and her mare, as long as she can. “I just like to look at her,” she says.
Sandy Glynn has a website and some work in galleries. Camden locals can visit Frames and Calico where her art is exhibited for sale at 703 Dekalb Street. She also has pieces in the Chisholm Gallery in Wellington, Florida (ChisholmGallery. com.) Learn more at SandyGlynn.com
