Untacked march-april-2017 by HRCS

The Chronicle of the Horse

THE EQUESTRIAN LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

TURNING THE LENS ON ELMA GARCIA SPRING FASHION PREVIEW WARMER WEATHER WEAR

HUNGRY AND HURRIED?

FOOD DELIVERY OPTIONS FOR BUSY RIDERS

WORLD, MEET OMAHA

LEARN THE INSIDER TIPS FOR THIS NEBRASKA CITY

WILD AND WOOLY

THE HORSES OF ICELAND A SUPPLEMENT TO THE CHRONICLE OF THE HORSE

MARCH/APRIL 2017

MARTHA W. JOLICOEUR FARMS AND ESTATES

PALM BEACH POLO CLUB HOME. Within the prestigious Hunters Chase community is this gorgeous waterfront estate, perfect for entertaining during our world-famous polo season. The 3 bedroom property looks onto the 15th hole of the Cypress golf course, and features a large pool with a sleek marble pool deck. Truly a must see, the home features a designer cooks’ kitchen with Jen-air appliances. $899,000

RUSTIC RANCHES FARM. An exceptional opportunity to own a perfectly situated 10-acre farm, made up of 2 available 5-acre lots. Just a hack away from the Winter Equestrian Festival and Wellington Environmental Preserve, the property features a charming 3 bedroom, 2 bath home with an updated kitchen and french doors. $1,325,000

SOUTHFIELDS EQUESTRIAN ESTATE. Oﬀering easy access to bridle paths, this home is within hacking distance of IPC and all WEF show grounds. The property boasts an immaculate 4 bedroom, 4.5 bath home, including guest cottage, 12-stall courtyard barn with 8 paddocks, regulation dressage arena and a lovely pool. $5,900,000

PALM BEACH POLO & COUNTRY CLUB . Rarely does an exquisite home of this magnitude become available in the elite gated Bridle Path neighborhood, near the area’s world famous equestrian festivities. Expertly designed by Laszlo Wagner of the Landfall Group for the current owner, the main house provides 6 bedrooms, 8 baths, and over 9,000 feet of air-conditioned living space. $8,450,000

Martha W. Jolicoeur, PA

marthasproperties.com | martha@marthasproperties.com 11199 Polo Club Road, Wellington, FL 33414

561 797 8040

MARTHASPROPERTIES.COM WELLINGTON, FL PRICE REDUCED

PALM BEACH POINT ESTATE. On this sprawling 5.77 acre lot, within hacking distance from WEF, could soon be a new 12-stall show barn. The main house boasts 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, marble ﬂoors, and a cherry gourmet kitchen. Permitting and site work have begun, and your new barn can be ready for next season should you choose to move forward with it. $2,500,000

AERO CLUB. This 4 bedroom, 3 bath Mediterranean-style home features granite kitchen countertops, a ﬁreplace, garage and outdoor pool with spa. Conveniently located in the prestigious Wellington Aero Club, this home is adjacent to a private 4,000 foot paved runway and is a short drive away from WEF show grounds. Perfect for those who want to ﬂy in for the winter season. $1,299,000

PALM BEACH POINT EAST FARM. A short hack away from PBIEC, this incredible 10-acre farm is fit for any professional rider. The 12-stall center-aisle stable recently underwent a full renovation, leaving it totally updated and ready for the new season. The property features an owner’s lounge with full kitchen and 2.5 bathrooms, a large grand prix field and a new ring with top-grade fiber footing. $7,700,000

WINDSOME FARM ESTATES. Long regarded as one of the most prestigious equestrian estates in Wellington, Windsome Farm Estates has been redeveloped into four of the ﬁnest 10-acre lots the area has to oﬀer. Phase one has been completed, and site plans are approved. Don’t miss the endless possibilities. $3,600,000

1111 LINCOLN RD, MIAMI BEACH, FL 33139. 305.695.6300 © 2017 DOUGLAS ELLIMAN REAL ESTATE. ALL MATERIAL PRESENTED HEREIN IS INTENDED FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. WHILE, THIS INFORMATION IS BELIEVED TO BE CORRECT, IT IS REPRESENTED SUBJECT TO ERRORS, OMISSIONS, CHANGES OR WITHDRAWAL WITHOUT NOTICE. ALL PROPERTY INFORMATION, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO SQUARE FOOTAGE, ROOM COUNT, NUMBER OF BEDROOMS AND THE SCHOOL DISTRICT IN PROPERTY LISTINGS ARE DEEMED RELIABLE, BUT SHOULD BE VERIFIED BY YOUR OWN ATTORNEY, ARCHITECT OR ZONING EXPERT. EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY.

Visit us in the VIP Lounge at WEF 2017

WORLD EQUESTRIAN CENTER Presents the: SERIES

of the

Midwest

WORLD EQUESTRIAN CENTER SHOWS WEC Fall Show II........................................ Nov. 30 – Dec. 4, 2016

WEC Winter Classic III ............................... Feb. 15 – Feb. 19, 2017

Wilmington Winter Show .......................... Dec. 7 – Dec. 11, 2016

WEC Winter Classic IV .............................. Mar. 8 – Mar. 12, 2017

Wilmington Winter Classic ....................... Dec. 28 – Jan. 1, 2017

WEC Winter Classic V............................... Mar. 15 – Mar. 19, 2017

WEC New Year Show ............................... Jan. 4 – Jan. 8, 2017

WEC Winter Finale .................................... Apr. 5 – Apr. 9, 2017

WEC Winter Classic I ................................ Jan. 11 – Jan. 15, 2017

Wilmington Spring Classic ....................... Apr. 26 – Apr. 30, 2017

WEC Winter Classic II* .............................. Jan. 18 – Jan. 21, 2017

Prize Lists Now Available at www.horseshowing.com USEF Premier and *USEF National Shows, Jumper Level 4

WORLD EQUESTRIAN CENTER

Perfect

Indoor

All Year

Conditions

Perfect

Indoor

Conditions

Al l Ye ar

COUNTRY HEIR

WILMINGTON SHOWS

Country Heir Wilmington.......................... Jan. 25 – Jan. 29, 2017

Country Heir Wilmington.......................... Mar. 22 – Mar. 26, 2017

Country Heir Wilmington.......................... Feb. 1 – Feb. 5, 2017

Country Heir Wilmington* ........................ Mar. 29 – Apr. 2, 2017

Country Heir Wilmington.......................... Feb. 8 – Feb. 12, 2017

Country Heir Wilmington* ........................ Apr. 12 – Apr. 15, 2017

Country Heir Wilmington.......................... Feb. 22 – Feb. 26, 2017

Country Heir Wilmington.......................... Apr. 19 – Apr. 23, 2017

Country Heir Wilmington.......................... Mar. 1 – Mar. 5, 2017

Offering $100,000 in Prize Money for each "AA" event! Offering $65,000 in Prize Money for each "A" event!

Photo courtesy of Tracy Emanuel Photography

Quality. Class. Distinction. www.wec.net Wilmington, Ohio

Tryon, Horse Country North Carolina

RONALD PICCARI

e state prope rtie s & h or se farms

Lakes, Hills and Horses

hummingbird hill farm

In Golden Hills of Fairview Farm: Unique floorplan w/ 2 master suites, chef’s kitchen, spa-like bathrooms, media room, sunroom and two FPs. 4-Stall barn, riding arena, paddocks, private trail system. $1.60M

mountain view estate

Lake Adger Private Lake Community: Fantastic home w/sweeping mtn views. This 4,000sf contemporary home; private marina slip; direct access to miles of shaded trails. On 12+ acres with pool. $995K

Advantage Realty 177 N. Trade St. Tryon, NC 28782

828-606-7441 828-859-5454

bent oak farm – stirrup downs

On 14+ acres, well-appointed, low maintenance, Victorian style home. 2-3 Stall barn, tack room w/laundry, equip. barn, run-in shed and large fenced pasture. On CETA riding trails, 5 mins to TIEC. $890K

snooty fox farm

Main residence offers the best of finishes, appliances and mechanical upgrades. Located in a park-like setting amidst rolling pasture, mature plantings, water features and 250° mountain views. $1.290M

woodwind’s farm & wedding chapel

58+ acres of total privacy: Its historic character dates to 1700’s, large main residence, three log guest cabins, plus a glass walled chapel. Creek, pasture, stream…a unique property! 15 min to TIEC. $989K

oak hill farm – stoneybrook

Custom 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath home w/year round mtn views. 6-stall barn, 3-board fencing, lush pastures - a perfect small farm… . Direct access to FETA trails, 5 min to FENCE, only 12 min to TIEC. $559.9K

LakesHillsAndHorses.com

Home of 2018 FEI World Equestrian Game at TIEC

BONNIE LINGERFELT Fine Equestrian Properties & Country Homes

think french country elegance

Farms at Mill Spring 4BD/4.5BA French country home set on 23 acres. Luxury abounds: soaring ceilings, walnut floors, custom cabinetry, 3 Mendota FPs. Private flagstone balcony & minutes to TIEC. $1.450M

think turnkey – motlow creek community Stunning 4BD/3BA, home with endless designer amenities. 4-Stall custom Morton barn, 4 paddocks w/3-board fence, private trail system access. 5+ acres. 22 min to TIEC. Priced under appraisal. $620K

think meadow wood

4BD/3.5BA Brick plantation house set on 39 acres. Views from every room, heart pine floors, custom molding, LR w/solarium. Pasture, woods, CETA trail access & 10 minutes to town and TIEC. $1.50M

think green pastures – motivated seller

Luxury living in Motlow Creek equestrian community. 4BD/3.5BA home on 9+ acres; endless custom details, enhanced by countryside & mtn views. Apt above garage. Barn, pastures, creek. 22 min to TIEC. $799K

think panorama! – reduced $100k

27+ acre property with exceptional 180° mountain views. Established pasture with wooded perimeter. Ideal location to build equestrian facility – only 4 miles to TIEC! No restrictions. $549K

TryonProperties.com

think c hoic e s in tryon hor se coun try

think honeyhill cove

Custom 5 BR, 4.5 BA home on 54+ acres: features FP, white oak floors, high ceilings. patios. 2-Stall barn, fenced pastures, mtn views, privacy, FETA trails. Close to shopping, interstates and TIEC. $1.650M

Advantage Realty 177 N. Trade St. Tryon, NC 28782

828-817-0166 828-859-5454

@eorellana_surf

@yulrusse

@animo05

FRIENDS TRUST FRIENDS. NOT ADS.

We could go on and on about all there is to see and do in The Palm Beaches. Fact is, though, most people won’t believe our ads. So instead, we asked real people to share real experiences via their social media photos and videos. See for yourself just how much there is to discover at #ThePalmBeaches or see some of our favorites at ThePalmBeaches.com Discover The Palm Beaches, The Official Tourism Marketing Corporation for Palm Beach County | The Best Way to Experience Florida ®

Golden Ocala is absolutely the perfect place to spend my day off after a hectic week of horse showing.

AMANDA STEEGE, GOLDEN OCALA EQUESTRIAN LIFESTYLE AMBASSADOR, PROFESSIONAL HUNTER RIDER AND TRAINER

WINTERS IN OCALA HAVE NEVER BEEN BETTER W O R L D E Q U E S T R I A N C E N T E R AT G O L D E N O C A L A Now is the time to take advantage of an exclusive opportunity to become a National Member of Golden Ocala where boots and breeches are always welcome. Enjoy world class amenities such as the 18-hole championship golf course, six Har-Tru Hydro Grid tennis courts, state-of-the-art itness center, three exclusive restaurants, an Equestrian Center and six miles of private riding trails. Golden Ocala has a limited number of National Memberships available! Join now to be a part of the future of equestrian sport in Central Florida. Contact Golden Ocala today at 888.551.0983.

J O I N T O D AY ! M E M B E R S H I P. G O L D E N O C A L A . C O M • 8 8 8 . 5 5 1 . 0 9 8 3

Homes and Lots Available from Townhomes to Equestrian Estates

JANUARY 12TH - MARCH 26TH, 2017 AGDF 1 BROOKE USA CDI-W / National - Lloyd Landkamer Memorial Jan 12-15 AGDF 2 CPEDI 3* (Para) Jan 20-22 AGDF 3 UNITED STATES P.R.E. ASSOCIATION CDI-W / National Jan 26-29 AGDF 4 Wellington Eventing Showcase Feb 3-5 AGDF 5 DIAMANTE FARMS CDI 5* / National Feb 9-12 AGDF 6 National Feb 17-18 AGDF 7 AXEL JOHNSON GROUP CDI-W / National Feb 23-26 AGDF 8 EVERGLADES DRESSAGE CDI-W (Palm Beach Derby) / National March 2-5 AGDF 9 CPEDI 3* (Para)/ National March 10-12 AGDF 10 HAVENSAFE FARM CDI 4* / National March 16-19 AGDF 11 STILLPOINT FARM CDIO 3* / National March 22-26

Summer in winter With 825 miles of beaches and average temperatures in the 70s, get to know the warmer side of winter.

Horse Show Overseas? The ARK is ideally suited to import and export your precious cargo, first class and worldwide. Introducing The ARK at JFK. The world’s first privately owned 24/7 animal airport terminal, quarantine (pending USDA approval) and full-service transportation center for the import and export of horses, livestock, pets and birds.

Proud sponsor of the

Rolex Central Park Horse Show

Located at JFK International Airport in Cargo Area D, the Equine Import and Export Center features:

• Individual 12’ x 12’ mesh-front, climate-controlled stalls for pre-export rest and inspection

• Natural lighting, non-slip flooring and high quality hay and shavings • Ability to accommodate multiple shipments, with all animal handling occurring indoors

• Direct “airside” access for safe and efficient loading into or out of jet stalls or trailers

• Trailer drop-off and pickup available at any hour, with accessible loading ramps

• A pre-departure grooms lounge and 24/7 observation and care by experienced ARK grooms and veterinary staff

The ARK at JFK is committed to the safe and humane treatment of all animals traveling by air and setting the gold standard in animal handling and transportation.

Make your reservation today! ARKJFK.com | (212) 328-9132

WESTERN

APRIL 18–22, 2017 NIGHT of the HORSE Saturday, April 22 • 7pm

HUNTER/JUMPER

DRESSAGE

APRIL 27–30, 2017 EVENING of MUSICAL FREESTYLES Saturday, April 29 • 7pm

MAY 2–7, 2017

$100,000 GRAND PRIX of DEL MAR Saturday, May 6 • 6:45pm

For tickets call 858-792-4252 D e l M a r, C A | f a c e b o o k . c o m / d e l m a r n a t i o n a l

| delmarnational.com

s t n e t n Co

Untacked The C hronicle of the Horse

VOL. 5, NO. 2

M A R C H / A P R I L 2 017

42 Defining Moments:

Elma Garcia

52 Untamed And Untrammeled Iceland

62 Donna Barton

Brothers: All Or Nothing, Every Day

80 Spectacular Sicily 88 A Fascination With The Equine Form: Nic Fiddian-Green

94 Get Away From It ADELE REDING PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO

All At Camp

88 18 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

PAULA DA SILVA PHOTO

RICHARD FOSTER PHOTO

ON THE COVER: Elma Garcia Photo

I N N OVAT I O N R E D E F I N E D

A r i a t Vor tex i s a n e qu e strian in n ovatio n , ex p er tly c ra f ted . T h e revo lu tio n ary Ariat Pe bax f ra m e p rov i d es sta b i lity an d flex ibility, Sh o c k Sh i eld tech n olog y d el i vers th e sh o c k-abso rbe n c y of a n a th leti c s h oe, a n d ride r-te ste d Trac tio n Zon es of fer g r i p ju st wh e re yo u n e e d it. ®

™

PEBAX is a registered trademark of the Arkema Group. ®

s t n e t n Co Departments 22 Editor’s Letter 24 Contributors

28 Around The Arena 30 Editor’s Picks: Schockemöhle Sports Silent Ear Bonnet 32 Tech Spotlight: Pixio 34 The Clothes Horse: Spring Fashion 74 Seeing The World With “Life Between The Ears” C

102 City Guide: Omaha

108 Feed Room: Meal Preparation Kits

114 Charity Spotlight: The Standardbred Retirement Foundation

118 Best Of Web & Print 120

CMY

Parting Ways

ENNIE HILL/@JENNIE_HILL PHOTO

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREEN CHEF

108

20 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

MOVES AS ONE Ariat Show Collection – designed to follow your every move.

More information at Ariat.com

EDITOR’S LETTER

A Meeting To Remember Years ago, traveling through an airport, I watched a little girl leave her mother behind and toddle toward the image of a horse on a poster—an advertisement for an airline. With both arms stretched in front of her, the little girl planted her palms firmly on the picture of the horse, staring up at him for a long moment, before her mother reappeared and scooped her up.

22 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

lesson, first eye-to-eye contact with a horse. It’s a spark that stays with you, maybe for a few years, more often for a lifetime. It’s at the root of all horse sports; it’s what inspires photographers to traverse the globe, capturing the stunning images we display in these pages. It’s what led director, photographer and cinematographer Elma Garcia to string a rope around a cherry tree, inventing her own horse before she could have a real one (p. 42). I think it’s why so much art centers around the horse. And the feeling never really goes away. I’m still drawn, magnetized, to horses everywhere—my own after work, police horses in cities, draft horses in random fields, paintings of horses in art galleries. It’s a connection we horse people can’t dismiss, long after the first meeting.

—Lisa Slade

ANDREW HOCK PHOTO

I thought of that day again recently when I was interviewing artist Nic Fiddian-Green for a profile on him and his larger-than-life sculptures (p. 88). He recalled seeing a Greek sculpture from across the hallway of an art gallery in London, and that form, the head of a horse, became his life’s work and obsession. I imagined a young Nic standing in the sparse gallery, staring at the marble horse head, of course not yet understanding how it would impact his entire life but feeling a strong something—a bit of electricity, an instant connection. Now the same feeling is in the work Nic does. “When you see, especially on the larger scales, these heads he has done—Still Water, for instance—they just move you. It moves everybody. It’s a very compelling thing. You just want to touch it. You’re attracted to it. It magnetizes you,” said F. Turner Reuter Jr., an art connoisseur, about Nic’s sculptures. Nic’s story and artwork made me think of my own first contact with a horse, even though I was probably only a little older than the girl in the airport. I don’t remember the particular horse’s face from that day at a local lesson barn, just the feeling of standing next to a long foreleg, looking up at the massive shoulder and neck. I was hooked. What is it about the horse? What does it mean that so many of us have had an experience like that with an equine, even if said equine was just a poster in an airport, or a Greek sculpture? I’m not sure it’s definable. But if you’re reading this magazine, you can likely remember your own first pat, first

Over 20 years of expertise, discretion and exceptional results representing premier Manhattan properties.

Lisa Tarnopol Deslauriers L I C EN SED R EAL ESTATE B ROKER

212.439.5182 | ldeslauriers@warburgrealty.com

Linda Reiner

L IC EN SED R EAL ESTATE B ROKER

212.439.4538 | lreiner@warburgrealty.com 654 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10065 | warburgrealty.com Real estate brokers and salespeople affiliated with Warburg Realty Partnership Ltd are independent contractors and are not employees of Warburg Realty. Equal housing opportunity.

CONTRIBUTORS

MAARTEN DINGS PHOTO

JUERGEN GROSSERHODE PHOTO

In This Issue

Amber Heintzberger

Ann Jamieson

Christina Keim

Paula Da Silva

Kat Netzler

An award-winning author and freelance journalist, Amber grew up in California and then the Carolinas, and she has traveled the world as a student and journalist. She has competed in eventing and is a graduate H-A Pony Clubber. After graduating from Wofford College (S.C.), Amber combined riding with writing about all things equine, and her writing and photography have been published extensively in a variety of equine publications. Amber is the co-author, with Anna Morgan Ford, of Beyond the Track: Retraining The Thoroughbred From Racehorse To Riding Horse and Modern Eventing With Phillip Dutton. She lives in the New York City metro area with her husband and two children and often spends time with her family on their farm near Tryon, N.C.

Ann has written numerous articles for magazines and newspapers, including a column for the award-winning regional paper The Litchfield County Times, and she created the popular series For The Love Of The Horse. In addition, Ann is a U.S. Equestrian Federationlicensed judge in hunters, equitation and jumpers. She has traveled to, and written about, Iceland, Turkey, Tuscany, Malta and Alaska, and she has a bucket list that just keeps growing! An avid competitor, Ann has shown her own off-track Thoroughbred Fred Astaire to year-end awards in hunters and first level dressage and plans on competing in hunter derbies this year. Ann lives in Kent, Conn., and shares her home with two entertaining Ocicats, Oliver and Chester. She also keeps and breeds tropical fish. One of the fish she bred won “Best of Show” at her first tropical fish show.

Christina is a self-diagnosed equine addict who has been around or on top of horses for a nearly uninterrupted span of over 30 years, when she was first given riding lessons “just for the summer.” She has enjoyed many disciplines including hunters, equitation, jumpers, dressage, eventing, Pony Club and most recently competitive trail riding. Christina is based at her Cold Moon Farm in Rochester, N.H., and is currently a lecturer at the University of New Hampshire Equine Program, where she coaches their intercollegiate hunt seat team.

Born in Angola, Africa, to Portuguese parents, Paula has been based in Italy for the past 35 years. She’s been an equine photographer for 30 years, with a focus on travel, behavior and veterinary issues. She’s traveled to many countries to shoot— with a camera, of course— endangered breeds of horses and to capture the cultural background in which they exist. Her work’s been featured in magazines worldwide, and she also hosts traveling photography workshops.

After growing up eventing in the Midwest and attending journalism school at the University of Georgia, Kat spent nine years serving on The Chronicle of the Horse’s editorial staff, first in its Middleburg, Va., main office and then in Chicago. She’s now the director of communications at a youth-focused social change non-profit in Memphis, where she lives with her husband Brett, Fitz the corgi and Burger the pit bull.

CONTACT US: SUBSCRIPTIONS & RENEWALS: Mail: The Chronicle of the Horse, P. O. Box 433288 Palm Coast, FL 32143-3288 Phone: 800.877.5467 Email: subscriptions@coth.com

Manuscripts and photographs, accompanied by return postage, will be handled with care. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Copyright© 2017 by The Chronicle of the Horse, LLC. Reproduction of any material (including photographs and drawings) without written permission is prohibited. All rights reserved. The Chronicle of the Horse® and the distinctive masthead that appear on the cover of the magazine are all registered trademarks of The Chronicle of the Horse, LLC. and may not be used in any manner without prior written permission.

24 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

THE CHRONICLE OF THE HORSE (ISSN 0009-5990) is published January 16, January 23, February 6, February 20, February 27, March 6, March 20, March 27, April 3, April 17, April 24, May 1, May 15, May 29, June 5, June 19, July 3, July 10, July 24, August 7, August 14, August 21, September 4, September 18, September 25, October 9, October 16, October 23, November 6, November 13, November 27, December 11, December 18 and December 25 in 2017 by The Chronicle of the Horse, LLC, 108 The Plains Road, Middleburg, Virginia. Periodicals postage paid at Middleburg, VA and additional mailing offices. THE CHRONICLE OF THE HORSE UNTACKED is published bimonthly. It is part of your subscription to The Chronicle of the Horse. To order single copies, call 800-877-5467 or e-mail subscriptions@coth.com.

SUBSCRIPTION RATES United States and possessions $59.95/yr. Canada $79.95/yr. Foreign (other than Canada) $159.95/yr. For all subscription options see www.coth.com. POSTMASTER SUBMIT ADDRESS CHANGES TO P.O. Box 433288, Palm Coast, Florida 32143-3288 CANADA POST Publications Mail Agreement #40612608 Canada Returns to be sent to Bleuchip International, P.O. Box 25542, London, ON, N6C6B2

The C hronicle of the Horse

Untacked Volume 5 • Number 2 • March/April 2017

produced and published by The Chronicle of the Horse publisher

KATHERINE BELLISSIMO

president/executive editor

BETH RASIN, brasin@coth.com

Editorial editor

LISA SLADE, lslade@coth.com managing editor

SARA LIESER , slieser@coth.com

Your Top Source for properties in Tryon, NC and beyond....

W W E R E A LT Y. CO M

associate editor

MOLLY SORGE, msorge@coth.com senior reporter & marketing coordinator

MOLLIE BAILEY, mbailey@coth.com editorial staff

SHARON ROSE, srose@coth.com LINDSAY BERRETH, lberreth@coth.com JENNIFER CALDER, jcalder@coth.com KIMBERLY LOUSHIN, kloushin@coth.com ANN GLAVAN, aglavan@coth.com LAURA LEMON, llemon@coth.com editorial production manager

LAUREN FOLEY, lfoley@coth.com

We Know

Design & Production art director

These Hills

JOSH WALKER, jwalker@coth.com

Better Than

SONYA MENDEKE, smendeke@coth.com ADRIENNE MARTINEZ, amartinez@coth.com

Anyone

senior designers

Advertising

advertising director

ALISON THAYER, athayer@coth.com senior account manager

LINDA ANDERSEN, landersen@coth.com ad production manager

BETH HONCHARSKI, bhoncharski@coth.com account manager

LAURA HONOHAN, lhonohan@coth.com

Business Office

financial controller

CAITLIN DADE, cdade@coth.com administrative assistant

400 E. Rutherford Street Landrum, SC 29356

864-457-2448

KRISTIN SCRUGGS, kscruggs@coth.com

108 The Plains Road, Middleburg, Virginia 20117 Telephone: 540.687.6341

chronofhorse.com 26 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

CORESHIELD TECHNOLOGY

THE INNOVATIVE INJECTION SYSTEM

A REVOLUTION IN SADDLETREE TECHNOLOGY

CORESHIELD TECHNOLOGY: An innovative injection molding production process creating a tree that is: - Highly tolerant - Thinner and streamlined to sync with horse’s anatomy - Strong and steady, yet ﬂexible - Preventative, captures vibrations protecting horse and rider - Adaptable, can modify sizing for ﬁt Equilineamerica.com

SADDLE DIVISION

tidbits from across the industry

Aroundthe Arena hea My Faves: Mackenna S

Growing up in Tacoma, Wash., Mackenna Shea started riding at age 6. When she was 14, Shea crossed paths with Bavarian Warmblood Landioso (Legendaer— Aspen, Pilotek), then just a 5-year-old. That young pairing has morphed into a long-term partnership at the upper levels. The pair completed the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** in 2016, when Shea was 23. Now 24, the California-based professional is still competing Landioso at the upper levels while also working to bring Gambling Jack and Cheval de Tonnerre to the intermediate level. With the help of trainer Tamra Smith, in 2016, Shea also earned the top prize in a Twin Rivers Horse Trials advanced division (Calif.), second place in the Galway Downs CIC*** (Calif.), first place at the Rebecca Farm CIC*** (Mont.), and then fifth at the Adequan Advanced Gold Cup Finals at the Nutrena USEA American Eventing Championships (N.C.)—all with Landioso. Looking ahead, Shea hopes to represent the United States on a team, as well as develop a string of younger horses she can train up the levels. She’s on her way, as she was recently awarded the $10,000 Rebecca Broussard National Developing Rider Grant and named to the USEF Emerging Athlete Eventing 25 list. Breeches: Kerrits Footwear: Ariat

Drink: Ginger ale

LISA SLADE PHOTO

Food: “Probably anything with carbs—like bread or pasta or pizza. Anything bad for you.” Movie: The Guardian Book: The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling Guilty pleasure: Ice cream. “But I don’t really feel guilty about it though.”

28 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

On Deck

Memory in the saddle: “I think completing my first CCI*** at Bromont [Quebec]. It was 2014—I think it was my fourth attempt at the CCI*** level, and I had never completed. And finally at Bromont, I completed. It wasn’t the best result, but I was just happy to get that behind me. I think after that happened, I kind of started to believe in it again.” Competition venue: Rebecca Farm

Mark your calendar with these upcoming important dates.

“Any place where it looks like you spent a lot of money, but you didn’t actually have to.” App: Instagram or Snapchat. “I’m really not tech savvy at all. I’m probably on the same level as my parents.” Quality in a person: Honesty Family activity: Shea enjoys the quiet times with her family, drinking wine and eating cheese. Season: Fall Emoji: Thumbs up and the big grinning face Picture in your home: “My absolute favorite picture is the one of my mom and me after I finished cross-country at Rolex, and my mom’s hysterically crying and hugging me, and it’s sweet. It’s kind of funny because my mom’s crying so much, but she’s just really happy.” TV Show: Fixer Upper Most embarrassing horsey experience: A mishap on a cross-

country course walk during her first time at Rolex Kentucky. “Tamie [Smith] and I were walking crosscountry, and she stepped into the Head of the Lake, off of the bank, really gracefully. And I went to step off the bank as well, and face-planted in the water. Everybody was around and doing course walks—like famous people—and I just face-planted in the water in all my white clothes because I had just done dressage.”

MOLLY SORGE PHOTO

Place to shop for non-horsey items: Nordstrom Rack or T.J. Maxx.

LINDSAY BERRETH PHOTO

u March 2-5 Where can you see Jimmy Wofford, Yvonne Barteau, Nick Karazissis and a whole host of natural horsemanship trainers teach over the course of a few days? At the Horse World Expo in Harrisburg, Pa.! There are dozens of clinicians scheduled for the Expo, which will be held inside the (heated) Farm Show Complex for the four days. Don’t miss fan favorite Guy McLean or Steuart Pittman Jr., the ultimate off-track Thoroughbred advocate. And of course, it’s not only about the educational opportunities; there’s plenty of shopping to be done, too. Visit horseworldexpo.com for more information. u April 13-15 Take a dip in the Atlantic Ocean, and then watch some top-class show jumping at the Longines Global Champions Tour Miami Beach event in Florida. There aren’t many venues with a backdrop like this one. The horses jump against the ocean setting, just feet from the water, as cruise ships pass in the background and bikini-clad beachgoers wander up for a peek. Not to mention the competition always draws a star-studded start list, especially for its feature class, the $500,000 LGCT Grand Prix of Miami Beach. General admission is free, but the piña coladas are on you. See globalchampionstour.com for additional information. u April 24-28 Are you a budding equine artist? The American Academy of Equestrian Art is offering a five-day oil painting workshop with Booth Malone at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. Malone, best known for his equestrian works, was the official artist at the 2006 Breeders’ Cup (Ky.) and his art has been featured in numerous issues of The Chronicle Inside: of the Horse. He is the current president of the board of directors and dean of painting for the American Academy of Equine Art. The workshop will focus on oil painting techniques for drawing horses and secondary figures, how to use photographs for reference and sketching skills. Tuition is $500. For more information, email booth@aaea.net or visit aaea.net/workshops. Junior & Pony Issue: Surviving The Parent-As-Trainer Relationship

Vol. 75, No. 17

Monday, June 4 & June 11, 2012

 SCENE



C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

$4.99

FROM A SPAGHETTI WESTERN BY BOOTH MALONE

Cardiff Mardi Gras Captured Many Hearts  Get To Know Three Junior Superstars  McLain Ward Says A Hello And Goodbye

MARCH /APRIL 2017

EDITOR’S PICKS

The Sound Of Silence By LISA SLADE Photo courtesy of SCHOCKEMÖHLE SPORTS

here’s nothing like being in the middle of a stellar dressage test or show jumping round when the tractor in the ring next to yours backfires, sending your horse into hysterics—and turning that 8 into a 4, or causing a bad distance into the triple combination. No matter how much training you do, a sensitive horse’s fight-or-flight—and, let’s be honest, it’s always flight—response can rear its head at the most inopportune moments. While hunters and jumpers have been using U.S. Equestrian Federation-approved earplugs in the show ring for years, either under ear bonnets or solo, for those of us in the dressage world, such soundproofing implements have been illegal. But last year, the Fédération Equestre Internationale approved ear bonnets that “may also provide noise reduction” for dressage, and the USEF permits bonnets for dressage whether a horse is competing inside or outside. (But beware: The USEF rules for eventing dressage state: “Protective fly hoods made of thin material are permitted. However, these are subject to inspection by the officials at the end of the test to ensure that nothing prohibited has been added [i.e. special material] or is covered by the fly hoods to protect from sound.”) Now there are bonnets on the market that include a noise-cancelling material 30 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

over the ears themselves, and the Schockemöhle Sports Silent Ear Bonnet is one of those. The bonnets eliminate the need for ear plugs even in some disciplines where they’re legal—proving a handy accessory if your horse hates having his ears stuffed, or if you just keep misplacing the little balls—and giving dressage riders an extra tool that wasn’t available before. Not to mention, they can keep flies away too. I tested the crocheted bonnet at home with my noise-sensitive off-track Thoroughbred. She seemed more focused, with the bonnet drowning out some of the low-key sounds in our ring, such as horses galloping in the distant paddocks, or someone lightly cracking a longe whip nearby. But when the manure spreader clattered behind her, she definitely heard that, so the bonnet doesn’t render your horse deaf by any means. It was also a godsend as she started rehabbing from an injury, making those first few important—and nerve-wracking—rides go a little more smoothly. The bonnet looks classy, with a braided cord and scalloped edge for decoration. There’s a small Schockemöhle Sports logo on one of the ears, and it’s available in four colors (black, brown, gray and

navy) but in only one size. The ears were too big for my diminutive mare, who wears a cob bridle on the highest holes, but they fit most of the normal-sized equines in my barn. This ear bonnet doesn’t have a string that goes around the horse’s throatlatch; you simply tuck the extra fabric underneath the crownpiece and behind the browband of your bridle. And even though it was too big for her, the bonnet stayed on my mare fine; she just looked a little donkey-esque with her extended ears. The material over the ears is thick neoprene—it does feel a little like a wetsuit—and so it might not be the best choice for your horse if it’s 100 degrees outside. But on winter days, I didn’t notice any extra sweat. No ear bonnet will ever replace actual training, but it did allow us to get more of that necessary training done with fewer distractions, and it would be a useful tool in the show ring as well. The Schockemöhle Sports Silent Ear Bonnet is available at numerous online retailers for $55. Learn more at schockemohle-sports.com/en. Editor’s Note: Schockemöhle Sports provided the fly bonnet to Untacked for unbiased testing and review free of charge. After testing, the product was donated to an equine charity.

TECH SPOTLIGHT

Your Personal Cameraman Pixio tracks and videos your rides to provide valuable training footage. By K I M BER LY L OUSH I N Photos Courtesy of PI X IO

Pixio provides valuable video of your rides without a cameraman.

Pixio uses three beacons set around the arena to triangulate your position, which is transmitted through a device worn on a watch or armband.

32 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

n a perfect world, we’d all have a dutiful videographer available for every schooling session, lesson and show so that we could look back at the footage and learn. Since that’s not a reality for most of us, Eric Willemenot created Pixio, a robotic cameraman. Ten years of parachuting and a subsequent foray into surfing taught Willemenot the importance of video for quickening skill progression. The Frenchman’s background is in working with instruments used on satellites, so in 2011 he put together a team whose specialty was robotics to create his company Move ‘N See. After years of research and development Pixio hit the market at the beginning of 2016. “We’ve had a lot of success, especially for horse riding—probably half of the market is horse riding,” said Willemenot. “Horses were one of the four markets for us to investigate and understand. I was not involved myself in horse riding. I didn’t know anybody at the beginning, and two or three years ago we started to have contacts with

horse riding people, and we discovered this kind of product had a huge potential for this market.” In addition to equestrian and a wide variety of other sports, Pixio has been used to film concerts and ceremonies. The robotic cameraman coordinates your position via a position indicator, which can be worn on a watch or armband, and three beacons set along the perimeter of your arena. The beacon labeled with the Number 1 should be placed directly across the arena from the camera, with 2 and 3 placed to the left and right, respectively. By focusing the camera on the center beacon before turning on the system, Pixio can calculate the area and triangulate a location for the rider’s watch. “The watch is measuring the distance between the watch and each beacon 10 times per second. With the distances, the watch computes its position with regard to the system,” said Willemenot. “It’s quite the same as the GPS systems in your car—it receives the signal from the satellites, and it computes your position. It’s all the same principles.” Pixio’s range is 100 square meters and works well inside or out.

While not waterproof, the system is water resistant and hardy. It’s important to note that Pixio is the robotic cameraman, not the camera, which is purchased separately and mounted on top of Pixio. For the robot to properly talk to the camera and provide automatic zoom and remote control, the camera needs to have one of three types of plugs: multi-plug, LANC plug or A/V-R plugs often found in Sony and Canon video cameras. Other types of video cameras can still be used, but it won’t feature automatic zoom, and the recording must be started manually. “The frame is quite tight,” said Willemenot. “For example, you can have your horse half the size of the frame, which is very useful for horse people—to have a tight zoom.” Pixio offers one model, but you can purchase an accessory pack that makes it compatible with live coaching. A cable connects Pixio to a high-speed internet connected computer, and there is a headset to be attached to your phone that transmits to your trainer with less than a second of delay to allow for accurate coaching without the longer delay associated with live streaming.

Authentic Bank Barns Old World Skill & Craftsmanship

Quality isn’t a goal; it’s a way of life. The success of an authentic bank barn project rests on expert engineering, quality materials and craftsmen who are skilled in timber frame construction. At B&D Builders, we are committed to bringing you all this in addition to our well-known eye for design, giving you a building that performs well and looks good for many years. You can depend on B&D Builders for professional planning, scheduling and management of your project.

Request a quote at 717.687.0292 or by visiting our website.

Discover More at CustomBarnBuilding.com C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

THE CLOTHES HORSE

WELCOME TO YOUR WARMER WEATHER WARDROBE

Wondering what’s new for spring and summer 2017 from all your favorite brands? We’ve got your semi-annual fashion preview right here. By K AT N E T Z LER

ALESSANDRO ALBANESE MOTIONLITE COMPETITION JACKET, ELLA COMPETITION SHIRT & SARAH SUMMER SWEATER The “ultimate artisan atelier for equestrian athletes” doesn’t disappoint this season, blending traditional Italian tailoring with modern fabrics and technology. The men’s MotionLite jacket (which comes in a women’s model, too) is stretchy, water resistant, breathable and machine washable. Available in black (shown), navy and aviation blue; sizes XXS-XL; $260. Made of machine-washable viscose, the ultra-lightweight Sarah Summer Sweater comes in sandstone (shown), sea pine and ombre blue; sizes XS-XXL; $110. The zippered Ella top is available in white/timber (shown), white/black and chateau grey/white; sizes XS-XXL; $125. shop.alessandroalbanese.com. 34 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

ONE K DEFENDER CHROME STRIPE HELMET The mixed texture trend isn’t going anywhere soon, so if you’re ready to invest in a new helmet, take a closer look at the One K Defender Chrome Strip, which blends discreet air vents and a mostly matte finish with eye-catching silver details. Available in black, grey or navy (shown); regular or long oval fit, sizes S-XL; $239.95. onekhelmets.com.

TARA KIWI KIDS SOCAL RIDING CLUB SHIRT This lightweight raglan pullover made of tri-blend knit features a motif collaboration inspired by foxhunting and Pacific Coast beaches by artist Danielle Demers and Tara Kiwi designer Tara Leu. Order one size up for a comfy oversized fit. Available in green or blue (shown); sizes 2-12; $35. tarakiwi.com.

ROMFH ISABELLA BREECHES The Isabella is designed to fit like a glove, particularly on curvier riders, nipped in at its high waist and cut fuller through the seat and thigh. Its three-button high-rise waist pairs perfectly with shadbellies, and stretch calf panels reduce bulk and pressure points under tall boots. Available in silicone full grip (in periwinkle or lake blue [shown], sizes 24-32 regular and 26-30 long; $189.95), or in suede full seat (in white, sizes 24-36 regular and 26-34 long; $189.95). romfh.com.

FIOR DA LISO PAULA BLOUSE With a beautifully tailored cut, a hint of elasticity, and close-set buttons virtually guaranteed not to gap, the Paula blouse from Lotte Schockemöhle’s Fior Da Liso is the button-up you want to wear every day. Available in stirrup print rose quartz (shown), horse print rose quartz/taupe, stirrup print regatta blue (shown) and horse print regatta blue/taupe; sizes 2-18; $107.50. fior-da-liso.de/en.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

THE CLOTHES HORSE HORSEWARE IRELAND COMPETITION JACKET, TIGHTS, CHILDREN’S EMMA TOP & SOCKS Horseware’s bestselling show coat comes out in zesty new colors this spring—hydro (shown) and hunter green (shown)—in addition to the original black, navy and dark navy. Sizes XS-XXL; $115.00. But the standout new item is the Riding Tight, on the leading edge of athletic wear that lets you go straight from barre class to the barn. Features a high, widebanded waist, chic semi-sheer panels, and a phone pocket on thigh. Available only in black; sizes XXS-XXL; $90.00. The Emma Pique Competition Top with wicking mesh panels comes in ladies’ and girls’ sizes, but only the latter has the charming pink contrast zipper. Sizes 7-12 years; $55.00. Pick up a twopack of children’s knee socks (one size fits all) for $16. horseware.com.

ZAFIRI EMILIA TOTE The Emilia canvas and leather tote is definitely a splurge item, but it’s a decidedly delicious one you’ll enjoy for years to come. Simple, elegant and unique, it features round-braided handles of black and chestnut leather and 24-karat gold plated feet in the shape of horseshoes. Handmade in Florence, Italy, it measures 17.5" long, 10.5" high and 5.25" wide at the base. $1,200. ridemastermind.com. 36 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

ASMAR LONDON SHOW JACKET & NOIR SHOW SHIRT The brand that’s become a Canadian classic introduces a new machinewashable show coat this season with bold white piping, chrome buttons and a hidden zipper that ensures a smooth, svelte silhouette. Available in navy/white (shown) and black/white; sizes XXS-XXL; $348. The short-sleeved rendition of Asmar’s popular Noir Show Shirt features chic color-blocking and plaid collar detailing. Comes in black/ white; sizes XXS-XXL; $138. Also available in long sleeve; $148. asmarequestrian.com.

DUBARRY SANTORINI MOCCASINS & EGLINGTON REVERSIBLE VEST

CARHARTT STORM DEFENDER WOMEN’S BOOT April showers bring May mud, so be ready for stall mucking and bale bucking all through the rainy season with a new pair of waterproof Storm Defender Romeos from Carhartt. Available in dark brown oil-tanned bison leather with cushioned insoles, neoprene stretch ankles, and medium or wide widths. Sizes 6-11; $129.99. carhartt.com.

Dubarry is blurring the boundaries between their equestrian line and their sailing side this spring with simple, high-quality classics that can stand up to dirty and damp environments après ride. The fully lined leather Santorini shoe is treated with DryFast-DrySoft™ protection and comes in coral (shown above), tan, cobalt, mustard and aqua; Euro sizes 36-42; $179. On chillier days, the lightly insulated Eglington vest will keep you cozy warm and comes in two color schemes: navy/white and cobalt/navy (shown); Euro sizes 34-44; $139. dubarry.us.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

THE CLOTHES HORSE

EQUILINE AVILA SHOW COAT, ALMA JACKET & PANDA AND AURA SHIRTS This collection is brimming with ultra-feminine items featuring lace, rhinestone and ruffled details, but they’re balanced by boyish pieces like the Alma bomber jacket, available in navy (shown above) or desert dust; sizes XS-XXL; $350. The new stretchy, breathable Avila show coat boasts beautiful pleated details. Available in black or navy (shown top right); Italian sizes 36-48; $1,140. Panda show top comes in white/ coral red (shown below), blue/white, coral red/ white, white/silver; Italian sizes 38-48; $239. The lacy Aura shirt is available in black/white (shown right), blue/white or fire red/white; Italian sizes 38-48; $220. equilineamerica.com.

OVATION AEROWICK TIGHTS The new ultra-lightweight schooling tight by Ovation is professional enough for your lesson with a BNT (aka Big-Name Trainer), but pull off your boots afterward to show a pop of personality. These tights feature various prints on the Spandex stretch ankle panels, and the material is twice as soft, thrice as strong, and wicks eight times faster than cotton. Mid-rise, available in full seat or knee patch silicone grip. Comes in black (shown), olive and neutral beige; sizes XS-XL; full seat $49.95, knee patch $44.95. ovationriding.com.

ESSEX DANNY & RON’S RESCUE LINE For every shirt and tie sold, Essex will donate $15 and $7, respectively, to Danny & Ron’s Rescue, the canine charity run by horsemen Danny Robertshaw and Ron Danta that’s saved and rehomed thousands of pets since its inception in 2005 following Hurricane Katrina. The ladies Talent Yarn Wrap Collar Show Shirt comes in sizes XS-XL; $130. It’s also available in short sleeve or in girls’ sizes. Men’s necktie available in regular length (57.5") or long (62.5"); $60. essexclassics.com.

ARIAT FREJA COOLING TIGHTS & SUNSTOPPER TOP Already managing a large collection of UV-protective tops? You’re going to want to add one more: Ariat’s adorable new navy fox print Sunstopper ¼ Zip with breathable mesh underarm panels. Available in sizes XS-XL; $54.95. It goes great with the versatile new Freja Cooling Knee Patch Tight, a mid-rise, slimming fit with a flattering wide waistband and body contouring seaming. Available in navy heather; sizes XS-XL; $89.95. ariat.com.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

THE CLOTHES HORSE WELSH WEAR HOODIES & BELT Corgi lovers, unite! This West Virginiabased apparel line featuring Wales’ sassiest canine breed is acquiring a cult following, and they also donate a portion of their sales to canine- and equine-related nonprofits, varying on a bimonthly basis. Super soft hoodies come in “pass the rum punch” pink and “under the sea” green, sizes S-XXL; $58. The Welsh Wear corgi-print unisex C4 belt is available in navy/ white (shown) or mint/navy; $40. welshwear.com.

MOUNTAIN HORSE BRILLIANT EVENT TOP Focus on your performance, not wardrobe changes, at your next one-day event with this perfect three-phase top. The long length ensures you’ll stay tucked, and mesh panels down the sides promise cool comfort on the hottest days. Available in white or navy; sizes S-XL; $85.00. mountainhorseusa.com.

CALLIDAE PRACTICE SHIRT & C2 BELT This spring Callidae’s unveiling new colors and prints for their popular long-sleeved Practice Shirt— which combines a cotton collar and neck opening and a tech fabric body—like cinder base with flowering vine, coconut print, and charcoal/white stripe (all shown above). Sizes XS-XL; $110. The C2 Belt is made of girth elastic and black leather and comes with either a black or cream removable buckle. Sizes XS-XL; $140. Additional black or cream buckles are $30, and limited edition French blue or cobalt buckles are $35. callidae.com. 40 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

“I’m so lucky to have these two incredible passions, and I always joke I make money with one, and I spend money with the other,” said Elma Garcia, who competes in dressage with Wenesa in addition to maintaining a full-time career as a director and cinematographer.

42 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

TERRI MILLER PHOTO

PROFILE

By ANN GLAVAN

ELMA GARCIA PHOTO

Defining Moments

Elma Garcia, a cinematographer, director, photographer, amateur rider and high performance owner, feels most at home behind a camera or on a horse.

t’s no surprise that Elma Garcia’s first horse wasn’t a horse at all. It was a cherry tree—and her imagination. “On the first farm where we grew up, we had this huge, massive old cherry tree, a pie cherry tree, and it had these thick lower trunks,” said Diana Garcia, Elma’s oldest sister. “She would mount this big trunk, and that was her horse. She put a little rope on it. She was maybe 4 or 5 years old.” Elma’s first imagined rides happened on a modest plot of land in Cowiche, Wash., an unincorporated town almost three hours southeast of Seattle. There were no horses, but an abundance of other animals kept Elma company. Her father, Merced Garcia, raised chickens, pigs and about 50 head of cattle to supplement his income as an apple orchardist. Elma’s mother, Christina, packed apples in the plant. Even with her penchant for the abstract, it would have been hard for young Elma, sitting in the branches of her tree in a very small town, to imagine just where her enterprising mind and love for horses would take her.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

After a childhood spent in the saddle, Elma walked away from her equestrian life to pursue a different passion: photography and film. Her eye for composing thoughtful and powerful images and films has taken her all over the world—from New York City to the Alaskan wilderness, and from the Italian coastline to Mexico. She started as a young woman moving to the big city to make a name and a career for herself, and then she became a well-established businesswoman and owner of a film company—able to pursue her own equestrian goals as well as support the aspirations of some of the greatest talents in U.S. dressage. And it all started with a cherry tree.

ELMA GARCIA PHOTO

A WESTERN WILD CHILD

Elma Garcia photographed event rider Kim Severson and her famous mount Winsome Adante for her USET poster series. “At first she got on the horse bareback, and he started to rear up, and she came off. It was so scary!” Garcia said. “And she was on her way to the [FEI] World Equestrian Games, so I said, ‘OK, we won’t do that anymore.’ But I love that picture of Kim.”

44 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

Cowiche is not dressage country, and dressage was not Elma’s first discipline. The youngest of five children, Elma’s first real horseback rides were aboard equines used for working cattle. “My babysitters, they were cattle ranchers, and so when I was a little girl they would take me and throw me on the front of the saddle and pack me around,” Elma said. When Elma was 9, her parents decided it was time to get their horsecrazy girl a ride of her own. Her father went to an auction and traded one of his cows for a chestnut horse named Savage. “My dad brought him home in a pickup truck with plywood sides,” Elma said. Even though he had a fierce name, Savage was a softie at heart. Elma said she had trouble coaxing the horse to canter. But when she got more serious about her riding, her father traded another cow and a bit of money for Naches, a Quarter Horse for Elma to compete in gymkhana events. “She was just a firecracker, and I

PHOTO COURTESY OF RIVER GROVE FARM

ELMA GARCIA PHOTO

think she taught me more life lessons than anybody ever,” Elma said. “She was little; I’m little. She’s really fast. She was a Quarter Horse, and she was only good in the arena; otherwise she just jigged. She had a lot of heart, and she taught me a lot of great life lessons about never giving up and not worrying about who you’re competing against.” As a teen, Elma competed Naches in just about every race the local gymkhana offered—including barrel racing, pole bending, the keyhole race and the four-man relay, for which Elma was always the lead rider. “They used to call us the cheaters because we were always midair when they blew the whistle,” she said. Elma kept her horse at her family’s farm. After working as an orchardist for many years, her father eventually bought additional acreage from his employer to start his own orchard. “All of us worked in the orchards pretty much whenever we weren’t in school,” Diana said. “We picked apples, we helped irrigate, we all learned how to pack apples, we all picked cherries when it was cherry season. We did all the orchard work as kids, and I think Elma probably did the least because she was the youngest!” Elma’s eldest sibling, her brother René, took over the family business after their father passed away. Today he runs an 800-acre fruit farm, G&G Orchards. The sisters’ interests, on the other hand, strayed from the family apple business. “I was the yearbook editor in high school, and it was a very small high school, so as editor I introduced my sisters to our yearbook adviser,” Diana said. “Elma was more of a photographer.” After high school, three of the four Garcia girls ended up working for the local newspaper in Yakima, Wash., the Yakima Herald.

Elma Garcia does much of her training and riding on her own, meeting up with trainer Button Baker at horse shows. Her dogs Luke and Baby are her eyes on the ground most days.

Owning a team horse is a bucket list item for Elma Garcia, and as a member of the Salvino Syndicate (from left: Bruce and Jen Hlavacek, rider Adrienne Lyle and Salvino, Betsy Juliano, Akiko Yamazaki, Garcia and Jim Cannavino), she may have a chance to cross it off.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

PROFILE

When she’s not riding or shooting a commercial, you’re likely to find Elma Garcia and her husband Jim Cannavino on a golf course.

46 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

“And that’s what she did. She packed up her little Honda Civic and drove there. “It was pretty crazy, but she’s pretty driven,” Diana continued. “And I think she knew if you want to really get into that industry, you go to where the work is, and that’s New York. You learn to do the grunt work and carry the equipment until it’s time for you to have your lucky break.”

ART IN MOTION

Elma started her career in New York, working as a photo assistant for a top advertising photographer for about three years. Then she moved to San Francisco and started her own commercial photography studio, staying true to the same instincts she followed when shooting for the Yakima newspaper. “I’m a real champion of the underdog. Everybody I photographed, they were real people, they weren’t actors or models. They were normal people,” Elma said. Elma loved her work behind the camera, and she still does.

“It’s a moment in time that lasts forever, that’s what I love about photography,” Elma said. But she would soon discover art beyond still photography. “I think really what happened was in photography, especially the way I did it, I did a lot of very beautiful portraiture with very interesting people, and it was like sculpture,” Elma said. “I liked doing stuff in the studio, and I liked doing stuff in the environment. “Then in 1991 I got a print job that the advertising agency said, ‘You know what, we want you to do a commercial,’ ” Elma continued. “I had never done a commercial, but I said, ‘OK, I would love to do a commercial,’ and that was it. I did one, and I said, ‘Oh my God, I love this. I love having huge crews. I love production. I love the whole bit. So I quickly pulled my photography studio down and joined a production company in Los Angeles.” If that sounds like a jarring, huge life change, it was—and that’s just Elma. “Elma thinks big. She plans big. PHOTO COURTESY OF ELMA GARCIA

“I thought I was going to be a photojournalist, but what ended up happening is I had really great mentors at the paper, so I got to go shoot pictures as well as print the photographs that they were doing,” Elma said. “I got to do my own picture stories, and if they were good enough they would run them.” Elma found she had an eye for framing unassuming subjects in unique ways. “Because I grew up in a very small town, I would always go photograph the people who never made the paper,” Elma said. “I would go out and do feature stories on [people] like my farrier.” After working for the paper, Elma sold Naches and enrolled at the Brooks Institute in Ventura, Calif., to study still photography. Her interests evolved from straight news to commercial photography. “We all went down there for her graduation, and then soon afterwards my mom called me, and she said, ‘Elma called, and she’s not coming back. She’s going to pack up her car and move to New York,’ ” Diana recalled with a laugh.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELMA GARCIA

She’s very ambitious and is a real gogetter,” said U.S. Olympic dressage rider Adrienne Lyle. “Anything she takes on, she tackles to the fullest.” In Elma’s mind, film was the medium she’d always been looking for to express herself. “When I got my first set of dailies back from the film—and this was back before digital, this was real film—I remember looking at that footage, and I just felt like my spirit had been freed,” Elma said. “Because all of a sudden, there was movement, and there was this breath to it. It was so different from a still photograph. And I loved it. It felt more like me.” Elma took her time learning the new business. She starting working for MJZ, short for Morton Jankel Zander, a production company based out of Los Angeles, New York and London. “For six years I worked as a director, and I was so fortunate that I worked with all these incredible Academy Awardwinning directors, Bob Richardson, Conrad Hall, Haskell Wexler, everybody, they were like my film school,” Elma said. “I’ve always been one who says surround yourself with the very best and go the path, go straight to the path, so I was really lucky. It was like going to USC film school.” Eventually, Elma started her own production company, Elma Garcia Films. Under that name, she’s directed and shot film for companies like Nike, Visa, Jack Daniels, Levi’s Jeans and the Make A Wish Foundation. Elma continues to draw on her love of extraordinary stories about ordinary people to craft her commercials. For example, in a commercial for Jack Daniels, Elma shot from a remote corner of the Alaskan wilderness. Slow panning shots show a small plane cut-

ting through the air above a stark and beautiful land. Skimming over the soft snow banks, the landscape drops off beneath the plane, as it flies over a cliff. The plane seems to slow as it’s no longer whizzing a few feet over untouched snow but flying hundreds of feet over jagged icy rocks. The shot is powerful, punctuated by the soundtrack of a lone fiddler and a crackling fire at the end. But producing the film? It wasn’t quite so picturesque a process.

Elma Garcia is no ring rat; she enjoys riding Wenesa on trails around her farm in Sun Valley, Idaho.

“Getting that shot, we’re in a helicopter, right? We’re in a helicopter, and we really can’t hover at 10,000 feet,” Elma said. “I remember the helicopter pilot goes, ‘You know, this is kind of iffy. I don’t know if we’re going to be able to get this shot. I might just have to go drop you off because we can’t have any more weight in the helicopter,’ and C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

Elma Garcia’s husband of nine I’m going, ‘Oh my God, years, Jim Cannavino, snapped please don’t drop me off. this shot of her on one of their travels together in Washington, D.C. I’m sucking all the air out of myself. Whatever you do, please don’t drop me out here in the middle of nowhere up in Alaska.’ “But that was just a fantastic commercial,” Elma concluded, demonstrating her determination to capture the story. “I love casting, and I love casting real people. I love creating stories around people,” Elma said. “Like the Alaskan bush pilot, I was reading Outside magazine, and I was like, ‘Oh my God, let’s build a story around him.’ ” Listening to Elma talk about her work, you can’t help but get excited about it. She’s dedicated to pouring her entire self into her pursuits—which is why she waited so long to get back into her childhood passion for equestrian sport. Once her career was established, she could support flinging herself back into the horse world wholeheartedly.

JIM CANNAVINO PHOTO

PROFILE

After Elma established herself as a successful businesswoman, she was finally in a position to afford the hobby she left in Washington as a teen. “I got back into it in my 40s,” Elma said. “I had a beautiful old farmhouse. It was in this beautiful park-like setting, so I was surrounded by horses. That got me back into horses. “I bought a horse from my neighbor, and it was a Thoroughbred, and she bucked like crazy,” Elma continued, laughing. “I said, ‘Oh, I don’t care; I can ride this horse,’ and what I really found out was her back was pretty messed up. I had to rehab her, so when I started to rehab her I started to use more dressage techniques, and that’s how I got exposed to dressage.” She started riding the Thoroughbred mare, Mishka, in lessons with a dressage instructor next door. But Elma’s true introduction to the world of upper-level dressage started when she bought her next horse. “I went to Brazil with a friend of mine and got to go to this incredible house,” said Elma. “He was a French developer in Brazil, and he has this incredible farm, a French chateau in Brazil. You go up the stairs, and one way you go into the house, and the other way you went to his office. In his office, there was a grand piano and art and sculpture, a library of books. And then you go over to the rail and look down, and there’s the riding arena. 48 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

LISA SLADE PHOTO

RECONNECTING WITH FOUR-LEGGED FRIENDS

Aboard Wenesa, Elma has competed through Intermediaire I, winning the 2016 California Dressage Society Championships adult amateur Intermediaire I and qualifying for the U.S. Dressage Finals in Kentucky.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELMA GARCIA

“That was my introduction to dresChampionships in Burbank. Her perand showed her at the FEI levels. sage, and I was like, ‘OK, I get it. I like formances in the regional champion“I still have her. She’s 23 now, and I this,’ ” Elma added. “He had a French ship classes were enough to stamp her still ride her. She’s the granddam of the team rider there, and I ended up going ticket to the U.S. Dressage Finals in barn—a little firecracker—and I love home with a beautiful horse.” Kentucky last November. that mare,” Elma said. “She taught me so That horse was Fidelio, or “Fifi,” and Thomas died in August 2016 at the much; she’s just been so fabulous.” through him Elma met U.S. dressage age of 95, and Elma dedicated her winOn the hunt for her next big horse, legend Debbie McDonald. In a fundning CDS ride to Wenesa’s old owner Elma didn’t have to look far. There was raiser before the 2004 Athens Olympic and her dear friend. one in McDonald’s barn who caught her Games, the U.S. Equestrian Federation “If Parry was still alive today, I think he eye. It was Wenesa, a Hanoverian mare sold a month’s worth of lessons with would be incredibly happy and impressed Thomas had purchased from the Verden McDonald at Parry Thomas’ River with how far those two have come auction in Germany. Grove Farm in Hailey, together,” McDonald said. Idaho. Elma now keeps her “She basically bought horses at her own farms me in an auction,” in Sun Valley, Idaho, McDonald said with a and Thermal, Calif. laugh. “And to be very No trainer runs either honest, she came with property though. Elma a horse that was not the mostly rides on her own, best suited for her, but you taking regular lessons could sense even then that and meeting trainer Butshe had a great feel for a ton Baker at shows. horse. She had great tim“For really a true ing and was brave. There amateur, someone who definitely was no intimidoesn’t have eyes on the dation there, and it was ground all the time, she just one of those situations does an amazing job,” where she moved along McDonald said. “She Elma Garcia doesn’t just direct her own films, she also gets behind the camera. quite well and quickly.” rides with good feel and Here she shoots on location at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park near the Arizona-Utah Elma would agree timing, and it’s fun for us border. with McDonald’s astute to see a horse that we sold analysis of Fifi’s dressage go on and do as well as proclivity. she’s been doing in the amateur world.” “She just fell in love with the mare,” “How many times do dressage people Elma isn’t just interested in competMcDonald said. “Parry didn’t sell too get started and buy the wrong horse right ing older seasoned horses, though—she many, and he only sold them to people off the bat? That’s just par for the course,” recently purchased a 5-year-old she’s he knew would take good care of them, Elma joked. “But he was my first dresbringing along under Baker’s tutelage, but he liked Elma. And he decided he sage horse that I had imported, and I and she plans to train the 14-year-old couldn’t deny her anymore after she took him to Debbie’s, and Debbie pretty Wenesa (Westernhagen—Dancing Girl, heckled him a few times.” much said, ‘OK, you need to get yourself Davignon) up to the Grand Prix level. Aboard Wenesa, Elma has coma real dressage horse.’ ” “Button is a really great coach. She’s very peted through Intermediaire I, winEnter Intermezzo, or “Uma,” a dark much about trying to teach me to train my ning the 2016 California Dressage bay Danish Warmblood mare (Inouc— own horse, which is what I love about [her],” Society Championships adult amateur Oxenholm Pardieu). Elma imported her Elma said. “I love not having someone conIntermediaire I on a 68.02 percent from Denmark with McDonald’s help stantly talking in my ear every day.” during the GAIG/USDF Region 7 C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

PROFILE AN INSTANT MATCH

says to me, ‘Do you mind sitting in 3, so my wife can sit with me?’ ” said Elma. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, no worries,’ and Jim heard me say that, and he got up and put my bag up on top, and he had the flight attendant bring me some water. And he put his hand

“We remember the day she came back bubbling, going, ‘I met someone on the plane!’ ” said Baker. “It was so cute. And from that day on, she’s been madly in love with Jim. I think they suit each other to a T. They’re great together.” “That [flight] was Feb. 9, and we got

PHOTO COURTESY OF ELMA GARCIA

As Elma’s connections to the upper levels of the dressage sport world grew, she wanted to give back. In 2007, before the Rolex FEI World Cup Dressage Final was hosted in Las Vegas, Elma offered to take portraits

“I love casting, and I love casting real people. I love creating stories around people,” said director and cinematographer Elma Garcia.

of some top U.S. riders in all different disciplines for the U.S Equestrian Team to use for marketing. While traveling to Florida to take some of the photos, Elma met Jim Cannavino, her husband of the past nine years. “We were both on a plane from Dallas to West Palm Beach [Fla.], and I was about to sit down, and this man 50 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

out and said, ‘Hi, I’m Jim,’ and in two and a half hours we found each other. “I thought, seriously?” Elma continued, laughing at her own romantic comedy moment, but she discovered a real connection with Cannavino—he was an equestrian too, a foxhunter, and he was also a successful businessperson, working as an executive for IBM.

married Oct. 15 in the main rotunda of the Pantheon in Rome,” Elma said. “On that airplane trip, we were both talking about places we like to travel—we both loved to travel—and I said, ‘Oh, I love Rome. Rome is my favorite city,’ and he said, ‘Oh, I love Rome too.’ I love architecture, and he said, ‘I love architecture,’ and I said, ‘I love the Pantheon,’ and he

Yamazaki, a longtime owner and supporter of U.S. Olympic dressage rider Steffen Peters, is also one of the founding members of the U.S. Dressage Owner’s Task Force. To promote the idea of syndicate-owned horses in dressage, she decided to lead by example.

board as syndicate owners. “When we thought about, ‘OK, who would we want to be partners with? Who is like-minded and would get along?’ we immediately thought of Elma,” Yamazaki said. “Especially given how close she was with Adrienne and Debbie.” Lyle and “Vinny” made their debut performance together at a national show in Wellington, Fla., in December of 2016, scoring a 72.76 percent at Intermediaire II and earning a 76.71 percent in an FEI test of choice. “It’s just fun to see how the two of them are really coming together, and Vinny is really becoming her horse,” Elma said. “That’s a bucket list concept for me. It was Christmas a couple years ago, and we were all going around the table talking about bucket list ideas, and I said on my bucket list was to have a team horse. “So I’m hoping, you never know, but that’s the goal with Vinny,” Elma continued. “That would be a dream come true if he could make a team.” But team or no team, Elma is happy to be part of the syndicate because it’s a part of her passion—the same passion she applies to her own riding goals and career. “You know, I think the first words that come to mind when I see Elma [are] always joy and positivity,” Yamazaki said. “I think she approaches everything with a lot of joy, and as a result you just feel so good working with her.” “I’m so lucky to have these two incredible passions, and I always joke I make money with one, and I spend money with the other,” Elma said with a laugh. “I have a lot of joy in my heart, over both of my passions.” PHOTO COURTESY OF ELMA GARCIA

goes, ‘I love the Pantheon,’ and that’s why we got married there.” Now Elma and Cannavino are planning to sell their farms out west and move to Tryon, N.C., to be closer to clients in New York and major competition centers. It was through her connections

Elma Garcia and Jim Cannavino met on a flight to Florida, and after discovering they shared a love of horses and architecture, they chose the main rotunda of the Pantheon in Rome as their wedding location.

with McDonald, Thomas and Baker that Elma met McDonald’s protégé Lyle. Lyle competed at the 2012 London Olympic Games and the 2014 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games (France) aboard the Thomas-owned horse Wizard, who retired from competition in 2015. Lyle was on the lookout for her next top horse, and that’s where high performance dressage owner and amateur competitor Akiko Yamazaki stepped in.

She put up the initial money for purchasing a horse for Lyle and then sold shares of him. “I got a call one day that Akiko had been working on this idea. I had no idea they had been working on it,” Lyle said. After a long search for the right horse, Lyle settled on the Hanoverian stallion Salvino (Sandro Hit— Dynastie, Donnerhall), and Yamazaki brought Betsy Juliano, Jen and Bruce Hlavacek, and Elma and Cannavino on

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

GLOBAL CULTURE

Untamed And

Untrammeled

52 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

In their native country, Icelandic horses live free from predators, dotting the picturesque hillsides in coats of many colors. Story and Photos By PAULA DA SILVA

rctic terns dive-bombed our small group of photographers, as we

arrived close to the herd of feral Icelandic

horses

somewhere

near the northwestern coast of the island. Laughing, we took cover. The brave little birds are very protective of their nests.

••• Undisturbed by the birds and our antics, the horses continued quietly grazing nearby, though a mare with a newborn foal kept an eye on us while gently poking at her baby. These tough, wise horses look bigger than

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

In many parts of Iceland, the small but sturdy native horses are as much a part of the landscape as the green hills and rock cliffs.

their measured heights, usually between 12.2 and 14.2 hands. Built with lots of substance, strong bodies and short limbs, Icelandic horses can carry substantial weight for their size. Their compact builds are an advantage in the country’s rocky footing; the horses seem to innately know how to choose the best path, even while picking through the most treacherous of lava rocks. Their extra gaits—the tölt, a smooth four-beat gait, and the skeið, a flying pace—give them an extra foot or two on the ground to further improve stability. Icelandic horses have no natural predators in their Nordic island country in the North Atlantic, which enables them to be friendly, good tempered and patient—desirable traits for family54 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

Jón Gíslason of Hof í Vatnsdal rides þjónn frá Hofi across a rocky area. Icelandic horses are surefooted on rough terrain.

GLOBAL CULTURE friendly horses of any breed. Their temperament is partially due to a lack of fight-or-flight instinct, which our group tested more than a few times to “call their ears” for photos. They couldn’t care less. They would briefly look at us, probably worried about our mental soundness, and then carry on grazing or resting. They would approach us to investigate, but even a group of colts never showed any aggressive or pushy behavior. Breeders in the country select horses that way, too, to maintain the breed’s wonderful nature. During the summer months, Icelandic horses graze and raise their

56 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

Elina Manon Schrijver, Icelandic horse breeder and rider, takes a frigid dip underneath a waterfall.

The first Icelanders worshipped Norse gods, who were often depicted on horseback. Horses were the protagonists of the myths, seen as a bridge between the world of the living and the dead.

In the colder seasons, Icelandic horses grow thick coats to protect them from the bitter winds common in their Nordic climate.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

GLOBAL CULTURE Icelandic horse coat colors come in many variations, and some of the horses have blue eyes as well.

foals against a backdrop of beautiful landscapes—lava fields, black beaches, glaciers and waterfalls. Once a year, in the fall, the farmers round up their herds, and there is a big event, treasured by locals but also appreciated by tourists. Throughout September, both Icelanders and a fair number of tourists head off to the countryside to take part in réttir, the annual sheep and horse roundup. The activity is one of the country’s oldest cultural traditions, and Icelandic sheep farmers invite family, friends and anyone else who’s interested to help round up the sheep from their summer grazing period in the mountains and valleys. Iceland’s Althing, the world’s oldest legislature, passed laws in 982 prohibiting the importation of 58 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

Riders Ásdís Brynja Jónsdóttir (leading) and Elina Manon Schrijver demonstrate the tölt.

Iceland’s status as a volcanic island means that water, dramatic rock cliffs and mountains serve as the backgrounds for many of the horses.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

GLOBAL CULTURE There are few trees in the Icelandic landscape, as they were heavily harvested for timber and firewood when the island was settled, but reforestation began in the early 1900s.

foreign horses to prevent diseases. Since then, not a single horse has been imported into the country. If an Icelandic horse leaves the island, he is never allowed back. Without outside influence, it’s not surprising that the Icelandic horses are thriving. There are now around 80,000 horses in the country of about 320,000 people—about one horse for every four people. People are also interested in the breed outside of Iceland. There are more than 4,500 Icelandic horses registered in the United States. Some are imported, but many were born there. If you’re interested in your own trip, riding can be arranged by booking online, and while traveling you will often see horses, either while they’re being ridden or grazing in the fields. We stayed at Hof í Vatnsdal in Blönduós, a farm that’s a small hotel, and the family members who own it are also riders. I hope to visit again in September 2017 with a small group of photographers to attend the annual roundup of horses and sheep. Then I’ll see the fall in Iceland through my lens—and with some luck also the aurora borealis, or northern lights. 60 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

“They would approach us to investigate, but even a group of colts never showed any aggressive or pushy behavior,” says photographer Paula da Silva.

Lavender lupine plants, introduced to the country decades ago to assist with slowing erosion and speeding land reclamation, are a common sight in Iceland during the warmer months.

Thanks to their lack of natural predators, even untamed Icelandic horses with foals are friendly and fearless around humans.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

DONNA

PROFILE

ADELE REDING PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO

BA RTON BROTHERS:

62 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

ALL OR NOTHING, EVERY DAY

Arguably the most famous female jockey of all time and now a renowned NBC Sports analyst and author, she’s had a voracious appetite for victory since the day she was born. By JENNIFER B. CALDER

MATTHEW STOCKMAN/GETTY IMAGES PHOTO

t’s been almost 30 years, but Donna Barton Brothers still vividly remembers watching her first Kentucky Derby in person. The emotional experience hasn’t been diminished by the years, and she can’t discuss that day, that race, that horse, without her eyes welling up. Winning Colors, the third—and last—filly in Derby history to win this prestigious race, was a massive gray horse, bigger and more athletically built than many of the colts in the 1988 field. She and jockey Gary Stevens took the lead out of the gate and held it to the wire, earning her the respect of virtually everyone involved in horse racing. And when Brothers thinks back, calling that day’s events a pure display of “girl power,” it’s easy to see that part of what makes the memory so emotional are the parallels to her own life. Triumphing in a sport dominated by males, Brothers holds the distinct honor of retiring as the second-winningest female jockey by money earned in history, second only to her best friend Julie Krone. Her fearlessness, moxie and self-determination earned her the respect of her peers and helped her parlay an incredibly successful riding career into an equally impressive correspondent

job with NBC Sports. Viewers of the Derby, Preakness or Belmont Stakes will recognize Brothers as the inquisitive, dynamic, petite blonde navigating on horseback following each race to speak with the winning jockeys still astride their victorious mounts. She possesses an apparently natural gift for bridging the divide between those “in the know” and the average viewer. Her love for the sport is obvious in her coverage of the races, yet nowhere is her inclusive approach more evident than in her conversational and chummy first book, Inside Track: Insider’s Guide To Horse Racing. In it, Brothers pulls back the curtain on the rarefied and often intimidating world of horse racing, leaving novices better educated on everything from what to wear on race day to how, and when, to bet. Speaking with Brothers it quickly becomes clear why she’s achieved such a level of success—she’s focused and confident with a mischievous and quick sense of humor. The trajectories of her career paths are eclectic, but her desire to fully understand— to examine and dissect—is her intellectual fingerprint and marks all of her endeavors.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONNA BROTHERS

PROFILE

GOD, I HATE THIS

Brothers, now 50, grew up in a family of jockeys. Her mother, Patti Barton Browne, with whom she is still close, began riding in 1969 and was one of the first licensed female jockeys. Brothers’ two siblings followed suit, but she was never that horse-crazy girl who was dying to ride—she had no desire to follow in her family’s footsteps. In fact, she had every intention of not becoming a jockey. “I think I just took the horses for granted,” Brothers admits. “It was quite easy and very mundane for me.” Brothers’ parents divorced when she was a year old, and she was never close to her father, a farrier and rough stock rider on the rodeo circuit. She’s unsentimental as she recalls being forced to visit him one summer when she was 10. It did little to change her mind about horses or her father. “He was an alcoholic and a horse shoer, which meant we had to go to the barn in the morning. I’m not very big now; you can imagine how I was at 10. But I would have to hold the horses for him. ‘Stand in front of that son-of-a-bitch,’ was code for, ‘I’m about to hit him up under his belly with my rasp, and he’s going to run you over,’ ” she says with a laugh. “And you wonder why I wasn’t romantic about horses? I was thinking, ‘God, I hate this.’ ” The middle child of three, Brothers was an excellent student.

64 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

Donna Brothers (née Barton, pictured aboard Colonial Winter after a 1996 race at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.) was a jockey for about 12 years, retiring in 1998.

“School was really easy for me, and my brother and sister weren’t very good at school. I grew up in this house, and I felt like, ‘There are two different choices. I can maximize the potential of my brain, or I can follow my stupid brother and sister,’ ” she jokes. Brothers decided she wanted to go to college, but the problem with being the first in your family to try something new is that there’s no one to show you the ropes. No one reminded her to take the SATs or tour college campuses. And though she was bright—she finished high school in three years, despite having attended seven schools in 11 years, as she and her siblings followed their peripatetic mother to different racetracks—Brothers soon faced the dilemma of how to make enough money to pay for college. “Mom’s rules were pretty clear. As long as we were going to school, we could live for free, but once we stopped, we had to pay rent or move out. And by that time, Mom had married her fifth husband, and I thought, ‘I am so out of here!’ ” Brothers recalls, laughing. It was then that Brothers decided to turn to the thing she knew best: the racetrack. She started as a groom but quickly came to understand it would never pay enough to cover the cost of college, much less provide the adequate time needed to attend.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONNA BROTHERS

So she learned to stupid as I’d thought,” gallop horses. And her she says, chuckling. world expanded. Brothers soon turned “Once I started to her suddenly muchgalloping horses for wiser brother, Jerry a living, one, it was a Barton, for help in her pretty decent living, quest to understand and two, it gave me the mechanics of the freedom to go racing. She remembers anywhere!” she says. hearing him and other “Now I could travel!” jockeys discussing After all those years the ins and outs of a spent at the track with particular race and her mother, Brothers’ confessing to him “Because I grew up in Patti Browne’s household, I didn’t feel like a pioneer by any stretch of the imagination,” says Donna Brothers (left) of her mother Patti Barton Browne (center). Brothers, nostalgia kicked in. that she just didn’t Browne and sister Leah Bruin were all jockeys. She wanted to ride at understand how he these venues the other could see all that at 40 jockeys talked about. miles per hour, flying So she toured the United States for more than four years, until she through the mud on the back of precocious Thoroughbreds, with eventually grew tired of the travel and “longed for a career rather decisions needing to be made in fractions of seconds. than a job,” she says. “I was 21. It was time to grow up.” “Jerry just said, ‘You will. After you fall, after you go down, you’ll start to notice all that stuff,’ ” Brothers says. “So I thought, ‘Wow, THE INEVITABLE LURE OK. I can figure this stuff out now, or I can wait until I fall.’ And Brothers wasn’t sure what this new career would look like, but she after that I just started noticing everything. Self preservation, that’s was adamant that it wouldn’t involve racing. why they do it. It’s not so you can be the person who comes back “An agent I knew had been trying to get me to ride races for a with the most dramatically detailed description of the race. It’s so while, and I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t think so. It’s too easy; I want you don’t go down behind the horse that breaks down on the lead.” something challenging.’ That was my idea,” she says. Riding smart is as important as riding well. It also helps that In an attempt to quiet him and finally eliminate jockeying as a Brothers has a fierce competitive spirit. career option, she agreed to give it a shot. And everything changed. “The difference between a competitive person and being “I rode my first race, and I was like, ‘Holy shit! Was that ever the competitive as a top jockey is that, in most cases [outside the racing most exciting thing I have ever done!’ And, by the way, it’s a lot world], it’s enough to have a competitive desire that says, ‘I want to harder than I thought,” she says. win.’ But when you’re out there riding at the top level, you have to Brothers’ mother, Browne, had known her daughter was born also be willing to say, ‘And I want you to lose. None of you are my to race all along. friends once that gate opens,’ ” she says. “I always said, ‘As a jockey, do you know what part of my body I This is what differentiated Brothers from some of the other female use the most?’ And people would answer, ‘Your arms, your back …’ jockeys, including her sister, Leah Barton Bruin. No. My brain,” Browne says. “There are far more races won and lost “If I can’t win, I hope you do …” Brothers says, mimicking her with your head than are with a whip. And I’m inclined to believe sister in a singsong voice, then laughing. “Not me—if I can’t win, I that after Donna rode a few races, she came to realize how much of don’t want any of you to win!” a mental game it was.” Ask Brothers what the most thrilling part of racing is (other than It was this mental aspect of racing, combined with the exhilaration, the obvious: winning), and a huge smile spreads across her face. that appealed to Brothers. “When you have the best horse in the race, and the moment you “It was really, really exciting. And challenging! I realized become aware of it,” she says. “It doesn’t matter if you’re 3-5, and when I rode that first race that my brother and sister weren’t as everyone else is a long shot in the post parade. It doesn’t matter in

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

the starting gate, and it doesn’t matter in the first quarter mile, really, because anything can happen. But when you get to the quarter pole, and you realize that you are on the best horse in the bunch, and you just squeeze them a little bit, and they go.”

HER MOTHER’S DAUGHTER

By the time Brothers started riding races in the late 1980s, attitudes towards female jockeys had evolved since her mother stood in the irons. “Because I grew up in Patti Browne’s household, I didn’t feel like a pioneer by any stretch of the imagination. I mean, my mother was one of the first half dozen women to be licensed as a jockey in the United States. She was the leading female jockey in the United States all the years she rode, and then for four years after she retired. When she came up, she really had to fight. And I mean physical altercations were a regularity for her with the other jockeys,”

66 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

Donna Brothers, an NBC Sports correspondent for racing and other equestrian sports, is as well known in the racing world as many of the jockeys she interviews.

Brothers says with a laugh. “She demanded respect and made sure she received it,” she adds. Browne often had to take matters into her own hands—literally— as cameras along the track were not as plentiful, and disagreements, as you could call them, that happened during a race were difficult for stewards to enforce. “If a jockey came back in my mother’s day and said, ‘You did this or that,’ she would just hit them. She didn’t feel like dealing with them and would just take them out,” Brothers says and chuckles again. But Brothers employed a different tactic. “By the time I came around, there were more camera angles, and the stewards were able to tell what happened,” she says. “If another jockey was upset with something I did, I would just ask if they

“Being able to cover the Triple Crown and be there after every single one of American Pharoah’s races from the Kentucky Derby on, it was just such an honor and an experience I will never forget,” says Donna Brothers, pictured with “AP” and his jockey Victor Espinoza.

ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

A TRIPLE CROWN YEAR TO REMEMBER

minded meeting me to go over the films the next day. If they were just bullying me, it stopped there, and if I had done something wrong, they were appreciative of the fact that I wanted to learn.” In addition to on-the-track shenanigans, Browne fought other gender stereotype battles off it. “When my mother was riding, the predominant theory was it was impossible for a woman to be as strong as a man. By the time I came along, all that had been established—women could do it. There had been some female jockeys who had already earned respect, not only from their peers, but also from trainers and some owners. It was possible for a female to be as good as a male, but you still had to prove it,” Brothers says.

MENTORS AND MINDSETS

While having her mother as an inspiring example, it was only after Brothers had been riding for half a dozen years that she came to understand how much she was missing by being a female jockey. She was accepted and respected as an athlete, but she was also isolated from the majority of the other jockeys due to her gender, putting on and taking off her silks in a separate locker room. The

post-race analysis wasn’t something Brothers knew she was missing until she shared a jock’s room with other female jockeys at Churchill Downs (Ky.). “When I started sharing a jock’s room with people like Patti Cooksey and Julie Krone— day in and day out with other jockeys who were really, really good—I learned so much,” Brothers says. “I moved up leaps and bounds because I had somebody I could talk things over with and ask their opinions of races I rode. “So I think there is a little bit of a disadvantage in that manner,” she admits. As far as overt sexism, she felt it to be rare among her peers and even the trainers. Where it revealed itself was with some of the owners. “I think, even still to this day, I think it’s hard for owners who aren’t in it day in and day out and don’t witness what one person does with a horse versus another. For a lot of owners, it’s hard for them to imagine a female could be as good as a male. But simple math will tell you otherwise because we have weight limits. When we all have to be 110 pounds or less, that kind of levels the playing field,” she says with a laugh.

While a Triple Crown win was thrilling for every horseloving spectator in 2015, it held perhaps a bit of extra meaning for those who have made the track their home and workplace. Donna Barton Brothers eloquently described her emotions in a New York Times piece published not long after American Pharoah was anointed with the honor following his win at Belmont Park (N.Y.). “I went to bed at 2 a.m. and awoke at 6 a.m.,” she wrote. “When I stepped out of the shower, it hit me: the Triple Crown. It happened. Then I cried tears that had been waiting a lifetime to flow. Or at least it seemed like it.” But even now, a few years later, the delight hasn’t diminished. “Looking back, it’s still just as magical as it was at the time. Being able to cover the Triple Crown and be there after every single one of American Pharoah’s races from the Kentucky Derby on, it was just such an honor and an experience I will never forget and will always be grateful for,” she says. “And because there was that 37-year gap, I don’t think any of us will ever forget how hard it is to do!” she adds.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONNA BROTHERS

“The jockeys get that, and the trainers get that, but the owners don’t always get it. So sometimes I felt frustration from certain owners who wouldn’t ride me because I was a girl,” she says. This presented itself most blatantly in the 1996 Kentucky Derby. Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas wanted Brothers to ride Honour And Glory, a horse he was training in the Run for the Roses, but the owner said no. He, unequivocally, was not going to ride a female jockey. Brothers was, and still is, philosophical about it. “The press tried to make a big deal out of it, and I said, ‘Look, the guy spent millions of dollars on horses and horse racing. If that is his decision, that is his decision.’ I’m not going to tell the guy who has spent millions of dollars who can ride his horses, but yes it was frustrating because I knew I was every bit as good as the rider he was getting. In fact, I felt like I was better, and so did Wayne Lukas, and so did a lot of the other jockeys in the jock’s room, but there was that frustration that I would never be able to convince him of that, so it is what it is,” she says. “But guess what?” she adds. “I think sometimes Latinos deal with that. ‘Nah, I don’t want to ride him because he doesn’t speak good English,’ or, ‘No, I don’t want to ride him because he’s black,’ or, ‘He’s 5'7", how could he possibly be strong?’ I think a lot of riders deal with some sort of discrimination, and so I never was of the mind that I would 68 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

Donna Brothers (left) accompanied friend and former jockey Patti Cooksey, a breast cancer survivor, in leading the 2009 Kentucky Oaks Survivors Parade at Churchill Downs.

hang my hat on [the fact] that I’d been discriminated against as a woman because I knew that other people dealt with discrimination from other things.”

A 110 PERCENT KIND OF WOMAN

After nearly 12 years of race riding and more than 1,100 wins, Brothers decided to step away from the track in 1998. “As a jockey, you have two emotions coursing through your veins at all times. The first one is that thrill, the excitement. The other one, to a much lesser extent, is the knowledge of the danger,” she says. “I rode for 11 ½ years. For 11 of those years, the thrill and the excitement of it towered over the knowledge of the danger. But for the last six months, the knowledge of the danger began to become about equal with the thrill and excitement. “As I became more and more aware of the dangers, it became less fun, and I knew it was time to quit riding,” she continues. “Scared riders put everyone in a bad position. And I never rode scared, but I could feel the knowledge of it creeping up, and I was just done. I didn’t want to do it anymore.” Brothers’ retirement from racing that September coincided with her marriage, two months later, to horse trainer Frank Brothers.

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONNA BROTHERS

Donna Brothers (left) , brother Jerry Barton and sister Leah Bruin were all jockeys, following in their mother’s footsteps.

The two had been dating for several years, but there’s an archaic rule in racing that if a jockey and trainer marry, and a trainer has a horse in a race, the jockey must ride that horse or sit the race out. Since neither Frank nor Donna was willing to put her in that position, their marriage waited until her exit from the jockey pool. Following her retirement, feeling ready for a new challenge, Donna accepted an offer in 2000 from NBC Sports to be their racing correspondent on the ground—or on the horse, as the case may be. Calling it “baptism by fire” she recalls, “At first I was such a fish out of water. I was lucky enough to be successful as a jockey, so I was interviewed a lot, but when you’re on the other side of that, and there’s a camera watching, the hardest part is figuring out what questions to ask of people, because I already knew the answer to them. But the questions are for the viewers, not for me.” “I got a little bit lost with [retiring], and I am in total awe of the energy she put into recreating herself,” says friend and former jockey Krone. “I think she is flippin’ amazing. She’s phenomenal.” In 2002, Donna finally realized her dream of attending college, where she once again found success. Majoring in psychology, she received not only the highest semester score out of her 600 fellow

students in Psychology 101, but also the highest score in the history of the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Just as with racing, Donna became enthralled by her studies and was determined to wholly pursue them. “I just loved psychology. I just absorbed it, and if I didn’t understand something, I had to sort it out to understand it, to get the answer right,” she says. College and her gig for NBC Sports overlapped, and what started as four shows a year for NBC exploded to 20 by 2005. “It got to the point where I couldn’t do both well. My grades were still great, my work appeared to be good, but the last Breeders’ Cup I did while going to college was at Lone Star [Park (Texas)] in 2005. I realized that it wasn’t my best show,” Donna says. “Nobody knows what I couldn’t ask because I didn’t know the follow up to it, but I knew.” Unwilling to give less than her best to either work or school, practicality won out. She went with the one that paid. That was 11 years ago, and her role at NBC is still expanding, increasingly into the sport horse world. She has covered the Rolex Grand Prix CHI in Geneva for several years, as well as the Rolex Central Park Horse Show (N.Y.) since its inception. “It’s such a unique event and venue,” says Donna of Central Park. “It’s a real test of horse and rider and their communication, to get them to go at a decent speed and be accurate when they are having C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

ANDREA KAUS PHOTO

“It’s not easy to get in this game. It’s something that takes a long time to earn, and I’m proud of the name I’ve made for myself,” says Donna Brothers.

70 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONNA BROTHERS

to do such quick turns. In the SHE’S EARNED meantime, to have the backdrop IT of New York City behind you is That curiosity, combined just really surreal.” with a passion for sharing Additionally, she’s been information with others, a fixture at the Rolex culminated in Donna’s Kentucky CCI**** for the first book, Inside Track, past decade. While she had published in 2011. little knowledge of eventing to “For so many years, I just begin with, Donna dove right kept thinking, ‘Somebody in, dissecting the sport. needs to write a book “I really needed to understand [explaining the ins and outs it,” she says. “I walked the of horse racing],’ ” she says. courses. I wanted to be able to “I was at the bookstore one speak their language.” day and saw this Girls’ Guide With her immersion came To NASCAR Racing, and it an incredible appreciation for was written by a woman the sport. who did the television “I really admire the riders coverage and whose family and horses that make it to was in NASCAR. And I that level,” she says. “For thought, ‘Wait, that sounds every rider [there], there are strangely familiar. Maybe I hundreds of riders and horses would be equipped to write who will never make it to this book.’ ” that level. And then for the “I really needed to understand it. I walked the courses. I wanted to be able Inside Track is riders who come back year to speak their language,” says Donna Brothers about stepping into her role as NBC Sports correspondent at the Rolex Kentucky CCI****. written in a friendly, after year, like Phillip Dutton conversational tone with and Boyd Martin, sometimes each chapter covering a with horses we’ve seen before, topic that gets more specific and detailed as you go. sometimes new horses, it also gives me a whole new appreciation “I just wanted [the reader] to think, ‘Do I care about this?’ and if for how hard they work and how good they are at what they do so, read more. If they read the first page on jockeys and think, ‘Oh, to continue to develop horses. I never did care where those little people came from,’ then done!” “It is phenomenal when you know horses that you can get a horse Donna says, laughing. “Done with this! And you move on.” that fit, that geared up, that at a peak of their mental and physical True to form, Donna is moving on herself. She just finished her training, and start the event by doing dressage,” she adds. “It’s pretty highly personal second book, tentatively titled Inside Out, which remarkable.” provides a window through which the reader can view the world of Donna’s desire for education into every aspect of her job surprises racing, told by someone who lived it. no one who knows her. “I wanted the new book to be inspirational,” Donna says. “I can’t “Anything she [does], she becomes fully devoted,” explains minimize what I went through and what I overcame, and inspire Browne. “She doesn’t allow other things to sideline her. That’s other people. I have to tell the full story. It’s not an autobiography, Donna—she’s a 110 percent kid.” and it’s not a memoir, but I can’t tell about my life on the track Krone echoes that sentiment. without telling the story of who I am.” “I think there’s hardly anything she has been just slightly interested She is currently meeting with publishers and hopes to have a by,” she says. “Donna finds out about something and devours it. She release date soon. has this ability to be so thorough and so complete.” C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

PHOTO COURTESY OF DONNA BROTHERS

In addition to that and Maryhurst, I wanted to her work with NBC, find a way to be involved Donna is also the COO of with the girls. the Starlight Racing team, “I am not a math tutor; I handling partnership am not an art teacher. I do development and client yoga, but I am not a yoga relations. Her role is to instructor, and I couldn’t bring new partners into find a way to regularly be the group and see to the a part of the programs needs of current members. there,” she continues. “This It’s a higher level of play teacher training thing than most racing teams, came up, and so I did it so I with a limited number of could teach there.” investors each owning a “[Donna] invests great share of all of the horses amounts of energies into in that year’s crop. human beings,” Krone Donna joins her adds. “I know one thing, as husband, Frank, who her friend and as a person serves as the group’s she loves, it is a wonderful bloodstock agent and is in position to be in, because charge of purchases and she is incredibly loyal and consulting. Todd Pletcher dedicated. Spending time is Starlight’s head trainer. with her is rich, quality life The Brotherses live time. She makes everything in a condo in Louisville more colorful and more fun.” with their dog, Molly. Like that winning Donna Brothers (née Barton) married race horse trainer Frank Brothers shortly after her retirement from racing in 1998. They elected not to filly all those years ago have children. While at the Kentucky Derby, “delighting” in their nieces and nephews, they never felt their Donna continues to exuberantly approach each new challenge. lifestyle was conducive to raising a family—a decision consistent When asked what gives her the most joy, looking back over a with Donna’s all-or-nothing personality. fascinating and varied career that’s still far from over, she pauses “It was something they agreed upon before they married,” says before answering. Browne. “They couldn’t be the kind of parents they would want [to “I guess having the respect of my peers. It’s not easy to get in be], and they didn’t want to be half-assed parents.” this game. It’s something that takes a long time to earn, and I’m Despite not having her own children, Brothers is drawn towards proud of the name I’ve made for myself. And by that I mean helping young people and recently completed her yoga teacher credibility,” she says. “I never won a Kentucky Derby, and maybe training to meet this end. if I had that would have been it. But I think most things that “I started it because of Maryhurst,” she says, referring to a facility people are the most proud of take a long time to get—to earn.” in Louisville for girls 11-18. And with one more laugh, she adds, “Some guy yelled at me one The girls at Maryhurst are among the most traumatized in day when I was doing the handicapping on television for Churchill Kentucky, each having been through at least five failed foster Downs, and he said, ‘You have an easy job!’ I said, ‘I do have an easy homes and holding an average education level, even for the older job, but it’s not an easy job to get!’ ” girls, of fourth grade. “They’ve all been abused; they’ve all been neglected,” says Editor’s Note: A version of this article previously ran in the Donna. “Most of them have also been sexually abused and October 2012 issue of The Chronicle Connection. traumatized in countless ways. From the time I first heard about 72 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

GREEN PRIVATE SANCTUARY 4591 South Road WELLINGTON, FLORIDA $6,490,000

BEAUTIFUL COURTYARD BARN LOCATED IN PALM BEACH POINT EAST

MARIA MENDELSOHN, SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT EQUESTRIAN REAL ESTATE

10680 W. Forest Hill Boulevard, Wellington, FL 33414 C: 561.758.1605 maria@mariamendelsohn.com © 2015 Douglas Elliman Real Estate. All material presented herein is intended for information purposes only. While, this information is believed to be correct, it is represented subject to errors, omissions, changes or withdrawal without notice. All property information, including, but not limited to square footage, room count, number of bedrooms and the school district in property listings are deemed reliable, but should be veriﬁed by your own attorney, architect or zoning expert. Equal Housing Opportunity.

LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS Seeing The World With

“Life Between The Ears”

SALLY WALKER PHOTO

Contributors to the “Life Between The Ears” social media accounts transport us to the world’s most interesting and beautiful places—all viewed from the saddle. Each issue, we share a few of their images.

74 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

RACHEL KAUFMAN/@MINNESOTA.JONES PHOTO

BROUGHTON, SCOTLAND This picturesque view is Sally Walker’s backyard in Scotland. “The photo is taken from the hill opposite my home,” she said. “I do ride it often as long as I’m not disturbing the livestock. You can see the green track I’m on is actually part of an Iron Age fort of which there are many in our area. Home is an old farmhouse that we are renovating, located directly over Oliver’s left ear.” Walker lives in Broughton, a small village steeped in Scottish history. Broughton was the home of John Murray, the secretary to Prince Charles Edward Stuart at the time of the Jacobite Rising of 1745. Murray testified against Stuart, an action that forced Stuart to forfeit his lands and properties. “The tower house that stood here was burned down, and our house and steading was built using the stone in the early 1800s,” Walker said. Walker, 45, took some time off from riding due to joint problems, but after two hip replacements she’s back in the saddle. “I’m mostly a happy hacker but have bought a second younger horse to start doing a bit more on,” she said. “I’ve been having some flatwork lessons and hope to have some cross-country lessons, too.” Walker is the mother of two teenagers and spends time managing the renovations to the property where they’ve lived for 2 ½ years. “I do a lot of the stripping down of the woodwork, painting and decorating, design, curtain-making and spending!” she said. “I do administration for my husband’s company and spend a lot of time with my two horses, two dogs and cat. I’m truly, madly deeply crackers over my ponies. My poor husband is very tolerant.” The ears belong to Oliver, Walker’s 21-year-old Irish Sport Horse. Oliver is a retired event horse on permanent loan from his former rider. “He used to challenge me quite a lot, but now he’s so settled and happy I feel totally safe on him,” Walker said. “He has a very quirky character; he’s the grumpiest horse on the planet but quite likes to pretend he’s more grumpy than he actually is. He gets jealous of me fussing over other horses and will grunt and paw the ground quite like a sudden colic attack until his human comes to check on him. “I ride him bitless, as he came to me like that,” she continued. “He also has an incredible compass in his head—no matter where we go, he knows as soon as we turn towards home, and his speed increases. Oli loves pears; well, he likes food, so pears just slightly more than any other kind of food on offer or stealable. He’s quite stubborn with people he doesn’t know well or if thinks he can get away with it but is almost lamblike at times with me.”

AVENUE OF THE VOLCANOES, ECUADOR Rachel Kaufman lives in New Hope, Minn., and used to be a professional trainer, riding and competing in dressage and eventing. But she’s now left that life behind and works in the medical field. “Though I’ve had the opportunity to ride and work with many wonderful horses, it’s been over a decade since I said goodbye to ‘my’ horse—the truly special Quarter Horse mare I had as a teen. Zoe was my best friend, my light in dark places, and I’m so lucky she was a part of my life,” she said. “I still hop on friends’ horses for trail riding whenever possible,” Kaufman continued. “Every spare dollar is saved for travel, and I recently met my goal of solo travel on at least six continents before I turned 30. My favorite way to see the world has always been from the saddle.” This photo was taken through the ears of a hired horse for the trek, looking down the Avenue of the Volcanoes. This 200mile section of terrain runs between two mountain ranges in the Andes that have seven peaks more than 17,000 feet high. German explorer Alexander von Humboldt gave the area its name in the early 1800s when he was climbing there.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS

JONO ARNOTT/@FARANDRIDE PHOTO

EASTERN CAPE, SOUTH AFRICA This shot of a pair of giraffes galloping away was taken in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa by tour guide Jono Arnott. Arnott has his own trip business, Beachcomber Horse Trails, but posted this photo in the Instagram feed for the Far And Ride riding holiday company (farandride.com). Arnott leads groups on multi-day adventures out of the coastal town Kenton-on-Sea for his own business as well as for Far And Ride. The trips take riders along the beaches and into the bush. An experienced endurance rider, Arnott has been leading guided rides for 17 years, has extensive knowledge of the flora and fauna of the area, and also breeds many of the horses used for the rides. “To give you a bit of info on the picture, the horse’s name is Razmataz, and he is a full Arabian,” Arnott said. “The photo was taken at Kaba Farm in the Eastern Cape, Alexandria, district in South Africa, a really amazing place,” he added. “It was taken on one of my seven-day trails.”

76 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

ALIX CRITTENDEN/@ALIXCRITT PHOTO

BONDURANT, WYOMING Alix Crittenden and her husband, Sam, run Sleeping Indian Outfitters (sleepingindianoutfitters.com) out of Bondurant, Wyo. “We are nestled between the Gros Ventre and Wyoming mountain ranges, right in the heart of BridgerTeton National Forest,” Alix said. “We offer guided trail rides, overnight pack trips, fishing excursions and guided hunts for many species of wild game. In the winter we both take other jobs. I currently train and race a group of about 25 sled dogs.” The cute chestnut ears in the photo belong to Alix’s horse, Tuff. “He is a Haflinger cross, which is a best guess, as he’s the bastard child of an island pony mare and who knows what,” Alix said. “His mother was a guest horse on a ranch I used to work at. They bought her at auction and put her to work. That winter, while counting the herd on pasture one day in February’s icy temperatures, there was an extra little nugget. He made it, and they dubbed him Tuff, because he was. “I broke him to ride while I worked there, and at the end of the season he was given to me as my end-of-season bonus,” Alix continued. “He is more than a horse to me. We are best pals. Every morning he helps me wrangle the rest of the herd, about 20 head, into the corrals, and we pretty much do everything together in the summer. What I love about Tuff is his super strong personality (everyone else that’s ever ridden him hates riding him—his mom’s name was Sassy, so he comes by it honestly), and his very round, squishy figure, which is perfect for bareback riding. It’s like riding a La-Z-Boy couch.” The photo was taken in the Wind River Range mountains. Massive wildfires in the summer of 2016 ravaged the area, with more than 40,000 acres lost to the fire. “Not only were they disturbingly close to our home, but they destroyed many of the places that we do business, out in the backcountry,” said Alix. “Luckily we were able to move the summer’s backcountry trips into the Wind River Range a little further south of us. [Tuff and I] traveled over 100 miles together the week that photo was taken, packing the camp in and out and taking the clients in and out. It was some of the roughest terrain I have ever led a string on. It was glorious country though. Its beauty was astounding— the photo doesn’t do it justice.”

JENNIE HILL/@JENNIE_HILL PHOTO

SNOWSHILL, ENGLAND Jennie Hill took this photo through the ears of Mr. T, a horse in the string at Cotswolds Riding at Jill Carenza Equestrian. Hill works at the facility, which offers lessons and guided sightseeing rides around the Cotswolds. “Mr. T is currently quite young but enjoys leading the rides,” said Hill. “I work at the yard on weekends, but during the week I am currently in my third and final year of an equine science degree. I graduate in the summer, and I plan to travel and work for a while, hopefully in America for some of it—I’d particularly love to visit Wyoming and Montana!” The church in the photo dates to the 19th century, but the Snowshill manor house goes back the 16th century. The 2011 census listed the population of Snowshill as 164 residents. Snowshill has been used as a location for multiple period movie shoots.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS

DIANA JENSEN/@POLOPEOPLEPLACES PHOTO

FANØ, DENMARK During a visit to her father on the island of Fanø, Diana Jensen discovered a pony trekking company there (fanoridning.dk) and decided to hit the beach with them. She was assigned a pinto, Leia, and went for a ride full of mad gallops down the beach and wading in the sea. “It really was a great experience and taught me quite a few things: 1.) Don’t overestimate what you can do on a horse. 2.) If you have overestimated, well then just go with the flow and try to hang on,” she said. Jensen’s true equine passion is polo, however. She started riding two years ago in Bahrain, which was her base at the time for her job as a flight attendant on a private jet. “I started at a local riding school, which mostly taught show jumping, and I flew around the world on my days off to take polo lessons in Florida, London, Dubai, Copenhagen and Spain, to name a few. And whenever I could get a chance to get on a horse— any horse, in any style—I took it. I did beach rides in the Caribbean and Bali when on work flights,” she said. Now Jensen lives in Dubai and works as the social media and marketing executive at the new Al Habtoor Polo Resort and Club. “I started here three months ago and did quite a bit of dressage riding, as the horses needed to get used to the place before we put clients on them,” she said. “Now I am back to stick and ball and learning polo; actually, the dressage has helped me improve a great deal. I have played a few chukkers but mostly just instructionals. I am not yet confident for actual matches. Hopefully soon though!” Jensen blogs about her adventures at polopeopleplaces.com.

RICK DAHMS PHOTO

Sharing Life Between The Ears

Since 2008, Life Between The Ears founder Kristine Dahms has posted stunning photos shot by riders in all corners of the world with one hand on the reins and the other on the shutter. Dahms mines photos with the hashtag #lifebetweentheears, contacts the original poster of the image, then features the photo, complete with educational details about the place that’s portrayed. Life Between The Ears photos appear on a LBTE Facebook page, an Instagram feed, a dedicated website (lifebetweentheears.com), a Twitter feed and a Pinterest account, all under lifebetweentheears account names. Dahms—who lives in Vashon, Wash., with her Welsh Cob, mini horse, pygmy goats, two dogs and two cats—rides dressage and takes quite a few photos herself on the picturesque Vashon-Maury Island. Dahms has taken some of the Life Between The Ears images from cyberspace to print, creating three lines of greeting cards with selected photos from her social media pages. A portion of the proceeds from the card sales goes to the Equine Land Conservation Resource (elcr.org). Cards are available at lifebetweentheears.com/retail.

78 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

TRAVEL

SPECTACULAR

Sicily

The author explores the volcanic island on horseback, nearly summiting Mount Etna and sampling plenty of Italian food along the way. By ANN JA MIESON

80 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

FRANCO BARBAGALLO PHOTO

t first it’s far away in the background, seemingly unreachable. Mount Etna, at 10,922 feet above sea level, dominates the eastern coast of Sicily. Europe’s tallest and most active volcano, it erupts roughly every other year. Yet despite its many eruptions, it is warmly regarded by Sicilians. The inferno within those eruptions produces volcanic soil, forming the base of rich agricultural lands. Thriving at Mount Etna’s base are orchards of olives, apples and peaches, grapevines, and almond, pistachio and hazelnut trees. In addition, Mount Etna’s eruptions seldom affect those living near it. Although lava flows wipe out trees and an occasional ski area, only 77 fatalities have been recorded over thousands of years, with the most recent occurring in 1989 when two tourists were killed by an explosion near the summit. Most eruptions do occur at the summit, and, although spectacular, rarely threaten the surrounding inhabitants. This tumultuous peak is our goal. Mount Etna. Starting from Castelbuono, the Transiciliana ride takes us across Sicily, crossing two nature reserves—Sambuchetti Campanito and Lake Gurrida—and three regional natural parks, Madonie, Nebrodi and Etna, a UNESCO World Heritage site. The goal, weather permitting, is nearly summiting the volcano at a height of 9,340 feet. With an ever-changing landscape, we will experience each of the many faces of Sicily. Ten of us embark on this journey: a French couple from Marseille, six Brits who keep us in stitches with their wit, and my friend Alice Fisher and me from the United States.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

FRANCO BARBAGALLO PHOTOS

TRAVEL

Sicily On Horseback’s Transiciliana tour leads riders across smaller mountain ranges, all with unique foliage and landscapes, and through woods before approaching, and usually summiting, Mount Etna on the final day.

Normally led by Franco Barbagallo, founder of Sicily On Horseback, our ride is instead led by his partner Paolo Cricchio. Franco injured his ankle and isn’t up to hours in the saddle. As one who knows “like his pockets” Nebrodi mountain range and Mount Etna, Franco partnered with Paolo, who contributed his extensive knowledge of the Madonie mountains, enabling the two to perform the prodigious feat of putting 82 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

ALICE FISHER PHOTO

“This trip is not just about the riding, but, as it should be in Italy, is about the food as well,” says Ann Jamieson.

together a route across Sicily to Mount Etna. Having hiked, mountain biked and snowshoed Etna, Franco is intimately familiar with the volcano. The trek takes place on horseback alone, a tour of the natural features and tastes of Sicily. To see the man-made delights of this island, I recommend you schedule some time before or after the ride to visit Palermo, as its Palatine Chapel is often named the most beautiful in the world; Agrigento, for its remarkably preserved Greek temples; or Syracuse. Be forewarned though, as the description notes, this is a ride suitable only for strong riders in good shape. Not only are you in the saddle for six hours a day, but the

ALICE FISHER PHOTO

Though some of the terrain across Sicily limits the horses to walking, dirt roads allow for lengthy canters.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

PAOLO CRICCHIO PHOTOS

TRAVEL riding is often over difficult terrain and can involve long trots and canters. The tour begins in Castelbuono, where we stay in a restored hermitage, and I enjoy one of the best meals of my life. This trip is not just about the riding, but, as it should be in Italy, is about the food as well. Each meal on the trek consists of four courses: appetizers, pasta, meat entrée and dessert, all based on traditional Sicilian food. Local wines are served. Chef Vincenzo Antista, who has cooked in major restaurants throughout Europe, begins our meal with a tortino di patate. A potato cake. It sounds a bit pedestrian, yet it is anything but. Mashed potatoes are blended with and topped by provola and pecorino cheeses and herbs—from local ingredients, as are all the meals on the trip. The result is nothing short of heavenly. I’m a big fan of risotto, and I have to say, the risotto here is hands down the best I’ve ever eaten. Creamy and delicate, yet intense in its flavor and perfectly cooked with no descent into starchiness. It is followed by a lightly breaded, tender pork chop that is, as well, off the scales in terms of flavor and texture. The meal alone was worth the trip to Sicily.

SUREFOOTED AND KEEN

Of course, the most important part of a riding tour is the horses, and we couldn’t wait to meet ours. What kind of horse would we ride? And how were these horses uniquely suited to the terrain we would be negotiating? Three types of horses are commonly found in Sicily: the Sanfratellano, the Sicilian indigenous and the Sicilian pure oriental. Sicily is inordinately proud of its foot-sure native horses, and most of the horses on this ride are Sicilian indigenous. Our first morning arrives, a clear, 84 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

ALICE FISHER PHOTO ALICE FISHER PHOTO

Author Ann Jamieson and borrowed mount Tatarella cross a creek on the trail.

“Truly they have mountain goat stock bred into them; they pick their way carefully through and get us safely down to the lake,” says Ann Jamieson.

lovely Sicilian day. At the stables, we meet our horses. I ride Tatarella, an Appaloosa-Sicilian indigenous cross mare. The saddles, specially designed for trekking, are quite comfortable— although seat savers are still highly recommended considering the long hours of saddle time. Soon we are riding on an ancient Roman trail through Madonie Regional Natural Park. Madonie is home to Sicily’s highest mountain range. Although I know that Sicily is mountainous, the stark and wild beauty of Madonie’s jagged peaks takes me by surprise. It seems odd to find cars parked high in the mountains on roads that can’t possibly be navigable. Porcini mushroom season, it turns out, is in full swing, and mushroom gatherers are seeking their prey. While we spot plenty of porcini, they aren’t the only fungi we encounter. Vivid yellow-spotted scarlet mushrooms stand out in the muted woods, and we quickly learn the most important rule of mushroom collecting: Eat no red mushrooms. High in the mountains we pause for a photo opportunity. There it is: Etna. We’re covering about 25 miles a day, and we’ve

gained on it. It still doesn’t seem possible that in a few days we will actually ride on it, summiting this massive mountain. Each night’s accommodation varies, ranging from cots in a shared forest preserve shelter to a modern hotel overlooking Mount Etna. A lovingly restored villa features the beauty and history of ancient hardware, furniture and fixtures, blended with modern comforts for the best of both worlds. All are clean and comfortable, with extremely welcoming hosts, and good food is a given. As we enter the Sambuchetti Campanito Nature Reserve, we move from mountainous open land to forests, which get thicker as we enter Nebrodi National Park. Small cyclamen and crocuses bloom on most of the trails and roads, providing pink and purple patches of color in the darkness of a forest or a muddy stretch of trail. Our horses aren’t the only equines in this wild area. Sicily is home to many free roaming herds of horses and cattle. The horses, beautiful black Sanfratellano, graze along the trails or stand like statues monitoring our approach. We are now two days from Etna; the mountain looms large and clear. The lake area is beautiful, flatter—hilly rather than mountainous. Four lakes, Maulazzo, Biviere, Cartolari and Trearie, comprise a completely different landscape than the mountainsides and forests of the past days. At one point we have to make our way down a steep hill littered with rocks large and small. A landmine, it would seem, for the horses. But truly they have mountain goat stock bred into them; they pick their way carefully through and get us safely down to the lake. C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

PAOLO CRICCHIO PHOTOS

TRAVEL

As horses and riders near the summit of Mount Etna, the landscape grows more volcanic—almost alien.

86 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

THE FINAL DAY

After five days of clear, sunny weather, there are clouds surrounding Etna’s summit. Any rain would render the top too slippery and dangerous. Yet after glimpsing the mountain in the distance for nearly a week, it feels exhilarating to be riding on it. Volcanic soil provides great footing for spirited gallops, and tall pines shade narrow trails— another amazing Sicilian landscape. Stopping at a forest cabin, we eat our lunch out of the saddlebags. But the wind gusts, and clouds cover the small clearing and grove of

beech trees to which our horses are tied. As it gets worse, we don our squall gear and face facts. There will be no ride to the top of Mount Etna. We’ve reached a height of about 6,600 feet; that’s as far as it is safe to go in this weather. Hammered by hail and surrounded by an eerie mist, we ride into lava fields, as the scenery takes on an otherworldly character. Craters line our path; we clamber down four-foot lava drops to get to the next section of trail. It’s surreal, yet beautiful. Passing trees and a ski resort that Mount Etna felled in a 2002 eruption, we ride down, not up, and arrive at a tourist area parking lot. Here we spy the van that will take our horses away. Despite our general disappointment that we will not experience the epic views from the top, it has been a fascinating trip. The feedback is overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Alice, who was been on countless rides throughout the world, states, “It was certainly one of my best treks: perfectly matched horse, diversified and historic country, scenic lodging, fabulous food and interesting riders. I had asked for a forward-moving, flatwalking horse, and Renaldo certainly was. Also he was very surefooted and had a lovely canter.” Julia Frankcom from Great Britain adds, “Probably one of the best riding holidays I have been on, and I’ve been on a few. Stunning and very wild terrain—we only went through one village in six days. Foot-sure and willing horses and delicious food. It was all fabulous.” For information on Sicilian horseback treks, you can contact: Sicily On Horseback at info@sicilyonhorseback.com.

PAOLO CRICCHIO PHOTO

Our gaits vary according to the terrain. Sometimes we walk for lengthy periods on roads or down long hills. Other times we trot for extended periods. A brisk gallop along a ridge populated by wind turbines proves an adrenaline rush for horses and humans alike. As we go through Lake Gurrida Reserve, we have the opportunity for a long canter through springy green pastureland. Despite the long hours, the horses are always keen to go. Horseshoes suffer short life spans on these rides due to the pavement, rocks and hard Roman roads. As Franco says, “The trails eat their shoes.” Paolo, in addition to guide duties, serves as our farrier and sometimes spends lunch hours hunched over horses’ hooves. Now it’s right in front of us. Sitting by the fountain at the Fucina di Vulcano hotel, Mount Etna is up close and personal. What a view! With Prosecco in our hands, relaxing after long days of riding, we admire the volcano, breathtaking against an azure blue sky. Life is good. Tomorrow, we will climb it.

Poor weather conditions, including high winds and rain, on the day intended for summiting Mount Etna stops the group before reaching the top. C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

ARTIST PROFILE

Equine Form A Fascination With The

Artist Nic Fiddian-Green’s 30-year obsession with the shape of a horse’s head has led him to personal fulfillment and commercial success—and he’s still captivated by the work. By LISA SLADE

Photos by R ICHAR D FOSTER

hen Nic Fiddianoccupied my consciousness, I suppose.” Green was attending Now Fiddian-Green, 53, is a housea course at the Chelhold name in the art world. Or, at the sea College of Arts in very least, if you don’t know his name, London, professors at the school sent you’ve likely seen his sculptures, which the students to the British Museum for range from the miniscule to the masa day with a simple instruction: Find sive. One of the best known, Still Water, something that inspires you. stands 33' tall and rests in London’s As Fiddian-Green wandered the halls, Marble Arch. There’s a Fiddian-Green a Greek marble carving caught his eye. It sculpture at the Ascot Racecourse, and was a statue of a horse’s head—the horse of another that stood at Goodwood Racegoddess Selene—from the east pediment course for several years. Still others are of the Parthenon, with an estimated origin scattered across England, the United of 438 to 432 B.C. The horse’s ears are flatStates, Australia, Russia, Hong Kong tened backwards; the mouth is open, nosand the Middle East. trils flared and his eyes bulge. He doesn’t “You’re only as good as your last work, really. It’s an “I’m just sort of traveling with it ongoing journey,” said artist Nic Fiddian-Green. exactly look welcoming by any modern and seeing what it means,” said Fidhorseman’s standards. But, pinned ears dian-Green. “People do seem to conand all, the artwork drew in Fiddian-Green immediately. nect with the form, even though they don’t have any relationship That one horse’s head set the young artist, who’d been primarwith it. Collectors will buy it, but they don’t need to be regarded ily focused on drawing up until that point, on an entirely new track. as horse people.” “It kind of obsessed me—caught my attention,” said FiddianIn contrast to Selene’s horse, Fiddian-Green’s sculptures possess Green. “From then on, I worked on various images and transcripsoft eyes and half-mast ears. They’re often depicted with the nose tions from it, over and over again, for years. For 30 years, it’s sort of facing down, so that the horse appears to be drinking. Across the 88 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

world, they inspire people to approach them. “I’m not an art critic, ipso facto; I’m just moved by art in the sense it touches your spirit or your soul,” said F. Turner Reuter Jr., owner of the Red Fox Fine Art gallery in Middleburg, Va., who helped bring a Fiddian-Green piece to the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg several years ago. “When you see, especially on the larger scales, these heads he has done—Still Water, for instance—they just move you. It moves everybody. It’s a very compelling thing. You just want to touch it. You’re attracted to it. It magnetizes you.”

SLOW AND STEADY SUCCESS

Fiddian-Green grew up around horses, learning to ride as a child. He attended Eton College in Great Britain, and then he took courses at the Chelsea College of Arts, where he discovered his main artistic passion was sculpture, before obtaining a bachelor’s degree in sculpture from the Wimbledon College of Art in London. He also earned a master’s degree from Saint Martin’s School of Art (Great Britain). “I picked up clay when I was about 20, so I was quite late to work in three dimensions,” he said. “I was primarily a draftsman, and then once I handled clay, I was off. I still draw. I love drawing; still drawing is an observation of life, but it’s secondary really to my clay work.” Around the same time, Fiddian-Green met his wife, Henrietta Fiddian-Green. They’ve been married for 25 years now. Though it was only 1983 when Nic came across his horse head muse, he hosted his own exhibition in 1986, at the Vanessa Devereux Gallery in London, and his commercial popularity grew slowly but steadily from that point. But for his first many years as an artist, Henrietta, who has an artistic background herself, did the exhibition planning and coordinating. “After our third child, he was picked up at Sladmore [Contemporary] gallery, and that was just perfect timing,” said Henrietta. “We didn’t really want to do it anymore. Having four children is pure mania!” Nic is still represented by the Sladmore gallery in London, and it’s where many of his pieces are displayed as well. His works didn’t start out so massive in scale— and they’re not all that way as Nic also does miniature versions of his equines—but over time, Nic found the C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

PROFILE

Nic Fiddian-Green’s horse head sculptures grace city parks and open pastoral landscapes, in addition to resting in art galleries across the world.

value inherent in size. “It gently grew. I started off with a 10-kilo casting,” he said. “As the years went by, it gained in size. It fell over a few times, and then I propped it up, and then it fell over again. It got bigger, not because big is everything, but just because I started to realize it could affect landscape and urban situations; it could be more powerful. It wasn’t just limited to gardens and mantelpieces and indoors. It started to have effect on the land, which became very interesting.” Now his sculptures are placed in myriad locations and settings. Some, like the one at the National Sporting Library and Museum and like many at Sladmore, are in galleries. Reuter first saw one of Nic’s works in person during The Armory Show art fair in New York City. “I walked around the corner, and I saw Still Water. I think it was 10', and I just said, ‘Jesus.’ I’d never seen it before,” he said. “I’d see the 10" version, which is OK, but when I saw that, I said, ‘That’s awesome.’ “I’ve reached that level of appreciation because I look at hundreds of thousands of objects a year,” he continued. “I’ve developed an eye for things that are special—and it’s something very special.” Some of Nic’s sculptures occupy busy city parks or squares; others are on open pieces of farmland. When he begins a new sculpture, Nic rarely knows where it’ll land as its final resting place. “I tend to work in my studio, so they’re not necessarily specific to a place,” he said. “I’m always moving them around at home. They’re a little unsettled. When people say, ‘I’d like to put one there,’ in all honesty, sometimes they get it right, and sometimes they don’t. 90 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

The massive Still Water in London’s Marble Arch is one of Nic Fiddian-Green’s best known works, and he doesn’t mind if people wander up and give the horse a pat.

The most interesting thing is when someone says, ‘Here’s a place. Can you make one for this place?’ That’s quite rare. I can only think of one commission specific to a place, so the size was important, and I kind of wanted to bring something of the spirit and the field and that landscape [to the piece], so it was quite integral. “They’re often seen on these cliffs, almost sort of elevated or separated from the land,” he added. “In that sense, they’re almost like museum pieces that aren’t necessarily placed in context. But they get there.” Now that they’re so popular, Nic said some owners have started building pools of water for them, a natural background since some of the sculptures appear to be drinking. “That can be quite beautiful and serene and quite fitting, but not many have done that,” he said. “There’s one coming out to Florida, to Miami, which they’re building a pool of water for it. That will be quite a good example of someone who’s thought about it in advance.” But wherever the statues exist, Nic doesn’t believe they’re precious works of art no one can touch. He doesn’t mind if children climb on the larger pieces in parks, or if people decide to give the nose a quick stroke. Nic believes there’s something intrinsic to the form of a horse head that attracts people, even those who aren’t riders. They’re drawn to the expression of the animal, which is an expression of the artist’s own feelings. “The horse head became an object through which I could express myself,” he said. “It was the mask, almost the façade, or the face through which I could ultimately begin to express my feelings

of my experience in life. Our relationship with the horse, being one of the most important animals in terms of our evolution, it’s the most important.”

The Process

IT’S STILL A JOB

But Nic’s life isn’t just about his relationships to his horse pieces. He stays grounded thanks to his large family. Together Nic and Henrietta have four children, Samuel, 23, Annie Rose, 21, Marigold, 19, and Moses, 17. “The children, they’re quite creative in their own ways,” he said. “We’re a fairly free-spirited bunch; we go with the wind.” Samuel started as a ceramist, and then he decided on a career swap. “He’s a very sort of perfectionist, and he’s an amazing chef,” said Henrietta. “So he’s into that art form, which is really interesting.” Annie Rose is in college for painting, and Marigold is studying nutrition, while Moses is more interested in drama. And while they’ve all grown up watching their father’s success, they also know it wasn’t an easy road. “If you said to them, ‘What is the life of an artist?’ They wouldn’t say, ‘Oh, you just airy fairy around, and it all comes pouring in,’ ” said Henrietta. “They know it’s work; they know it’s stressful. It can be 24/7, but then nothing for months, and you go where the work is. That’s what Nic’s always done, and he will always put work first. You never know what’s going to happen, so you never rest on your laurels.” At their farm in Surrey, England, the couple keeps a variety of horses—some polo ponies, Thoroughbreds, Connemara ponies and an Irish-cross. Nic and Henrietta foxhunt occasionally, and Henrietta rides nearly every day. All four of their children ride, with the oldest playing polo. “We ride out,” said Nic. “We have a beautiful property here that we live on. We’re surrounded by it; we’re country folk. It’s pretty part of us.” But the horses serve another purpose, too. Nic uses them as models when he needs a little real-life equine inspiration, even bringing them into his studio on occasion. “I tend to stylize the horses while I’m working on them,” he said. “I’ll use them up to a point for reference, and then I’ll work over them and alter the proportions to suit the composition—what I’m trying to achieve in the expression of the eyes and position of ears, in the mouth. They’re the parts that will give the expression for me.” Nic’s days usually begin in his studio before 6 a.m. “I like an early start—quiet, silent sunrise, time for sort of reflection and observation,” he said. “Breakfast is at 9, my own marmalade, the finest in the land.”

hen Nic Fiddian-Green begins a sculpture, he starts working with clay or plaster. “That’s made on a frame in studio, or within the stable yard in front of a horse,” he said. Once he’s satisfied with the piece, he makes a mold of the clay or plaster, keeping the mold and discarding the original clay. Next the piece of art undergoes a lost-wax casing process, an ancient method that’s existed for thousands of years. The inside of the mold is lined with wax, and then a ceramic shell with the wax goes into a furnace. The wax is melted out, leaving a hollow. The bronze is melted separately, and the liquid metal is poured into the hollow part of the mold. “The ceramic shell is then smashed off pretty instantly after the pouring, and then you have your bronze,” he said. “It’s beautiful. It’s an amazing medium, and then the coloring is the most amazing thing. Then finishing the piece is an art itself.” Fiddian-Green works with foundries across Great Britain to obtain the right metal casings, usually bronze or lead. He’s always seeking a particular finish and coloring for his pieces. “It’s critical, so I’m quite involved in that part,” he said. “It’s not just sort of shipped out and just them run away with it and do what they want. I’m very much in control of that because I think it’s an important part. I still love, and I’m still learning about, what we can achieve with the material of bronze—color and finish. It’s an amazing medium once you start looking into the detail available with it, the amount one can push it to different levels.” Once the entire work is complete, the next step is transport, involving massive trucks and cranes. “You just lift them up with the right slings and blankets,” said Nic’s wife, Henrietta Fiddian-Green. “It’s actually quite easy to transport them across the world as well.”

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

“For 30 years, it’s sort of occupied my consciousness, I suppose,” said Nic Fiddian-Green of his long-term fascination with sculpting horse heads.

Horse Heads And… Christ Heads?

A few years after Nic Fiddian-Green developed his fascination with horse heads, he got a commission for a piece of art depicting the Stations of the Cross. That launched him into an entirely new interest—sculpting the head of Christ. It’s now his second most-featured subject. “I think it’s because he’s good friends with him,” joked his wife, Henrietta Fiddian-Green. “It’s just something he’s felt drawn to. He’s a Christian man. But he’s a very openminded one.”

Then it’s back out to the studio from about 10 a.m. through the afternoon. “It’s not always to program, but it’s quite structured—it has to be really,” said Nic. “You can’t go on and on and on all day, which sometimes it does if I get obsessed with something. I try not to do that because it can get a little out of hand.” The Sladmore gallery keeps many of Nic’s pieces in stock, ranging from smaller works to the massive ones. He also has a waitlist for commissions, and he does an occasional painting in addition to his sculptures. “I’m working on a portrait for an amazing horse who won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe [France], called Treve, for a client,” he said. “I went out and worked directly in front of the horse, and I’m now finishing it in the studio. That’s quite an unusual commission, but it’s great. It’s interesting to try and be as accurate as the client wants, really, without going ridiculous. It’s just the head, which is unusual. Most clients like the legs and all that, which I’m not very good at.” Nic also still carves in marble, including some miniature versions of his massive horses. When he was hospitalized for leukemia treatment in 2006, Henrietta brought plaster into his room, and he worked on the smaller horse heads. It was also from his hospital bed that he did the first models for the Still Water that now resides in Marble Arch. “I love using my hands,” he said. “I love working in many, many different mediums. As long as my hands are moving then I’m quite happy.” After weathering the life-threatening illness, which required more than six months of serious treatments and then a lengthy recovery period, Nic returned to work in earnest, and it’s been since 92 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

the tough time that he’s found even more success. “I think it makes everything more important,” said Henrietta. “I think it’s definitely changed the way he looks at life.” But as his popularity’s grown over the years, Nic’s had to learn to balance his own desire for quiet work with what the public wants from him. “It’s hard to balance between family and the world’s expectations and life on the farm and all that,” he said. “That’s quite a difficult part. I normally regard it as just a job. There’s quite a lot of time alone. I have one assistant, but other than that it’s fairly solo and quiet—just getting on with it really. “It can be overwhelming,” he added. “But I try to keep away as much as I can. I’m just an artist, no better, no worse, and it’s important to sort of keep that in its place. I’ve done some good things, and I’ve been acknowledged for that, which has taken a number of years. It comes and goes. It doesn’t happen every day or every year. You’re only as good as your last work, really. It’s an ongoing journey.” And as the journey continues, Nic draws more and more fans of his giant, kind horses. Even Henrietta, who spends every day with heads scattered about the family’s property, admitted she’s sometimes taken aback by them. “The other day I was walking, and there’s been a 16' lead piece just above our house for about six months, in a field,” said Henrietta. “It’s almost normalized and become part of our view, but I was out there, and it was dawn. There were starlings and sheep all over it, and I just found myself thinking, ‘Wow,’ all over again. And I thought, ‘Yeah, he is extremely gifted. This is a very beautiful thing and a very spiritual thing, a very moving, seminal thing.’ I’m rather amazed he makes them sometimes.”

The Florida Horse Park

Educate - Inspire - Excel

The 500-acre Florida Horse Park in Ocala-Marion County provides a beautiful, world-class setting for equestrian events throughout the year. With a 79,500-square-foot all-weather arena, seven regulation dressage arenas, over 100 obstacles and stabling, the park is quickly becoming a hub for the state’s equine activities. From beginners to Olympians, the Florida Horse Park has something for everyone. Its expanding array of educational programs provides clinics for horse owners and caretakers and inspires new generations of horse enthusiasts. Experience the Florida Horse Park during your next visit to the Sunshine State.

11008 South Highway 475

•

Ocala, Florida 34480

•

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

www.FLHorsePark.com

MARCH /APRIL 2017

•

(352) 307-6699

CAMP Get Away From It All At

Whether you missed the chance as a child or just want to relive the experience, adults can be summer campers too! By A MBER HEINTZBERGER

ime in the saddle, goofing around

with

friends,

learning about horsemanship and everything horsey. Sound like a great place to send your kids for the summer? Well, riding camp isn’t just for kids anymore. ••••

TRICIA BOOKER PHOTO

Whether you want to “rough it” at a ranch or luxuriate in spa-like facilities, adult riding camps offer a chance to get away from it all and spend a week in a beautiful location immersed in all things equine.

94 MARCH /APRIL 2017

Many adult camps, like the one offered at Maplewood Stables in Nevada, offer a chance to get out of the ring and relax on the trail.

U N TAC K E D

TRICIA BOOKER PHOTOS

Campers at Maplewood’s Adult “Ride And Whine” camps enjoy shopping outings and dinners at Lake Tahoe and in Virginia City.

The Adult Ride And Whine camps offered at Maplewood Stables in Pleasant Valley, Nev., approximately 10 miles south of Reno, are for hunter/jumper enthusiasts of all ages and riding abilities. The 150-acre property features ponds, hills and creeks, with much of the acreage devoted to trails, as well as top-notch stabling, an expansive indoor arena, a grass jumping field, two outdoor arenas, multiple round pens and a state-of-the-art equine treadmill. Owner Julie Winkel is one of the country’s foremost judges, clinicians and educators. She also serves on numerous committees and task forces with the U.S. Equestrian Federation and U.S. Hunter Jumper Association, and her son Kevin is

an accomplished grand prix show jumper. As well as three days of riding instruction, lots of extras are included, such as a fashion show, wine tasting, shopping outings and dinners in Lake Tahoe or Virginia City, Nev., as well as presentations on topics like conformation, fitness and nutrition for riders. “It’s geared to having fun, but [it’s] also very educational,” said Winkel. “The benefit is that they get to relax, hobnob with other adults who have their same interest, and get to talk about horses. It’s a mixture of having a great time with horses and a learning experience for women and men who enjoy the horses for what they are. It’s not a competitive environment; it’s

a chance to share fun times and ideas with people who enjoy the same thing they do.” While campers can bring their own horses, many people fly in from all over the country and use the farm’s horses. Limited accommodations are available on-site, while nearby accommodations range from Airbnb rentals to upscale resorts with spa amenities. Professional rider and trainer Carol Hinckley, from Brick Road Farm in Snohomish, Wash., attended the camp in 2016 with a group of her students and had so much fun that she plans to go back. “Two of my students were fairly advanced, and one of them was somewhat of a beginner,” said Hinckley. “Being a

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

FEATURE

professional I know everyone thinks it’s silly to go to riding camp, but it was a nice break. I rode one of Julie’s young horses, and it was nice to have Kevin’s eyes on me and Julie’s eyes on me. The reinforcement is that you’re doing it for the right things, the things you love. We did a poker ride, and it was really different and really fun. It takes the pressure off. As a professional we love what we do, but at the camp there were no expectations. One of my students already went back for the fall session.” Hinckley also enjoyed the “extracurricular” sessions. “They brought in a lady to work on stretching exercises you can do at a horse show using your tack box and water bucket, and I’ve really used them since then,” she said. “We’re athletes, and we should take care of ourselves. I used to just stretch when I got sore, but now I prep to ride with stretching. Julie’s lectures were really good too; when you’re teaching at home things can get a little stagnant, and I took a lot of her information back and applied it to teaching at home. It was very refreshing, and I would encourage other professionals to do it.” Hinckley and her students stayed at an Airbnb rental. “It was about 10 minutes away, very affordable—especially split four ways—and after camp we played cards and drank wine and had a great time. It really lightened up the whole trip,” she said. “It was a great experience.” Winkel also enjoys the opportunity to take a break from the usual schedule at her farm. “It’s one of the most fun things I put on every year,” she said. “I enjoy teaching people about horses and enjoy the other parts of it, the shopping, wine tasting, lectures and preparing all the other parts of making horse camp fun for adults.” 96 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

JOAN DAVIS/FLATLANDS PHOTO

“I’m a big fan of adult riding camps!” said Claudia Winter, shown here at GMHA aboard Freia. “I’ve met so many great people.”

Time To Focus

Paula Halesky Siry had attended pony camp as a child and spent a semester riding in college, but she became more involved with horses at age 40, when her husband Marc gifted her a package of riding lessons for her birthday. She jumped at the chance to spend a week at the Vershire Riding School camp, immersed in horses with like-minded adults. Located on over 400 acres in scenic central Vermont, the Vershire Riding School, founded in 1970, offers an eventing camp for adults every summer. The facilities include five sand dressage arenas, a 72' x 150' indoor riding arena, cross-country courses, two stadium jumping fields and miles of trails. They

also host a horse trials in the summer. The camp is open to beginners, and riders may bring their own horse at no extra charge, or use one of the camp’s horses. Along with four hours of daily mounted lessons, campers can enjoy yoga, tennis, lectures, meals and wine. The website says, “Prior experience is not necessary—just motivation to learn, the sense of adventure in doing something different, the willingness to work hard, and the stamina and wit to put it all together.” Siry, who lives in Philadelphia, will be spending her sixth summer at the Vershire camp. “Not only is it a relaxing getaway, the phone connection is very limited. I called home once a night to say hi, but otherwise you’re focusing on the horses and learning.

TRICIA BOOKER PHOTO

Eating well is an essential part of the experience at Maplewood camps.

Where your horse’s

safety comfort & are our number one priority!

JOHNSON HORSE TRANSPORTATION, INC. HAS OVER 25 YEARS EXPERIENCE. We provide top notch, state of the art equipment, and experienced horsemen who take great pride in giving your horse the same love and care they get at home. Our knowledgeable drivers and friendly staff help to set Johnson Horse Transportation, Inc. apart to be simply one of the best carriers in the business. Johnson Horse Transportation, Inc. has built a valued, lasting reputation within the horse community as well as being a respected member of the National Horse Carriers Association.

BASED OUT OF SHARTLESVILLE, PA WITH OFFICES IN WELLINGTON, FL, we offer daily trips throughout PA, NJ, MD and VA as well as weekly trips to FL, TX and the mid-west. Put your mind at ease and let Johnson Horse Transportation, Inc. be your first call. •Competitive Pricing

•Custom designed, air-ride equipped trailers

•Video monitoring

•Servicing 48 contiguous United States and Canada

610-488-7220 • 888-331-9961 • www.johnsonhorsetransportation.com • PO Box 527, Shartlesville, PA 19554 C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

TRICIA BOOKER PHOTOS

FEATURE

You ride two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon and take care of your horse and your horse’s stall. You really bond with the horse during the week. “They break you up into groups by ability, and I always like to be in a group where I’m the worst rider in the group, so I feel like I’m pushed to succeed,” she added. “You get a lot of focus and one-onone attention from the instructors. The groups are four to six adults, and it’s not competitive. You’re only competing against yourself. There’s a show at the end of the week, but everyone is very encouraging.” She described the accommodations as rustic but comfortable. “I always take a foam bedroll, but you each have your own room and groups of rooms share showers. You get a lot of downtime between the lessons, and there’s always happy hour with wine and beer and hors d’oeuvres, and they serve delicious home-cooked 98 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

Even professional trainers were able to learn from presentations at Julie Winkel’s Maplewood “Adult Ride And Whine” camps, taking new information home to share with their own students.

food with a vegetarian option,” she said. “I usually have a nap in the afternoon, and after dinner I’m in bed reading by 8:00, because I’m tired! There are always talks on different horse-related topics like saddle fitting, and once a guy showed us how to drive his logging horses.” One of her favorite parts of the week is on the last day, when the campers turn their horses out into a big field. “On the very last day after the event, we all take our horses out and release them into the field and watch them run off bucking and rolling,” she said. “After they’ve been in the stall all week it’s like a reward for a job well done.”

But after 45 years, 2017 will be the last year that Vershire offers a riding camp. Denny and May Emerson also used to host camps at their Tamarack Hill Farm in South Strafford, Vt., and Southern Pines, N.C., and while they no longer do so, Denny believes camp is a worthwhile destination for most adult amateurs. “These are probably people, many of whom didn’t get to go to horse camp when they were kids, and now at 40, 50, 60, whatever, they’re able to do it, and it’s a fun experience for them,” he said. “They sort of like having a peer group rather than a bunch of hotshots their kids’ ages; they can moan together about how hard the sitting trot

JOAN DAVIS/FLATLANDS PHOTO

(From left) Kathrin Midgely, Claudia Winter and Jennifer Ferree focus on instruction from Bobby Costello at a GMHA camp.

is. That said, we tried to be pretty serious and open people’s eyes to things they could pursue once they go home.” He said that adults also tend to enjoy the feeling of being “in it together” with their peers. “They can go home and say, ‘That was fun,’ and some of them form friendships that last for years,” he said.

Home Away From Home

While Vershire is in its final year, a camp is once again running at Vermont’s Green Mountain Horse Association in South Woodstock. The USEA Adult Eventing Camp organized by Barbara Marks came to an end when she passed away, but it’s now back in business, this time as a three-day clinic. Organizer Amber Braun said that the GMHA Eventing Clinic on June 6-8 is open to 30 participants and offers

Riders like Tom Davis benefit from training with eventers like Bonnie Mosser at a GMHA camp.

instructors like John Zopatti, Kim Severson and Jane Hamlin. There will also be a USEA Festival Of Eventing Clinic at GMHA, held Aug. 7-9, with instructors Sharon White, Allison Springer, Bobby Costello and Rebecca Vick, followed by a horse trials through the one-star level on Aug. 11-13. Claudia Winter participated in the clinic when it was the Adult Camp, and she’s continued to return as GMHA has taken over, going every summer for 12 years. “I’m a big fan of adult riding camps!” she said. “I’ve met so many great people, and we end up touching base in the winter too. Vermont is beautiful—it’s kind of my home away from home.” Winter’s four-hour drive from Germantown, N.Y., is just long enough to feel like she’s away. “I use that as my vacation,” she said. “It’s nice to be with my horse, with nothing else going on. They

always have great clinicians, and we have dinner together, and it’s so much fun.” Winter and her husband, who own a large textile screen printing facility in Kingston, N.Y., hope to organize a camp at their own CSW Farms, which has a crosscountry schooling course up to preliminary level, including sunken roads, banks and water, built by ETB Equine Construction. “I have had a lot of clinicians coming here over the years—Allison Springer, Boyd Martin—and we’re working on putting together a recognized event,” she said. “Eventers are down to earth and fun.”

From Longeing To Roping

For dressage aficionados, the mountains of Virginia offer a four-day Southwest Virginia Dressage Association Camp, operated under the guidelines of the USDF Adult Camp Program each September.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

FEATURE

Want To Find Out More About One Of These Camps?

PHOTO COURTESY OF VERSHIRE RIDING SCHOOL

SWVADA Dressage Camp 2017 Dates: Sept. 21-24 Cost: $720, including accommodations for horse and rider Discipline: Dressage Location: Penmerryl Farm, Greenville, Va. Website: swvada.org/Education.html

Judy Ofchus rides Boomer during one of the Vershire camp’s summer sessions in Vermont.

“This camp has been going for about 20 years; I moved to the area 10 years ago, and in that time I’ve been an instructor for three years, and in the past couple years I’ve been an organizer with two other people,” said Tracey Smith-Oliver. The camp receives an annual grant from the U.S. Dressage Foundation, which helps keep the cost low for participants. “Our goal is to break even; we don’t make any money off the camp,” said Smith-Oliver. The camp includes meals Thursday night through lunch on Sunday, lodging for the camper and horses, and it also includes instruction on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. “We typically get two instructors, one who is a USDF-Certified instructor,” said Smith-Oliver. “Last year the cost was $720, but we offered an ‘early bird’ discount.” Smith-Oliver said that the camp offers a fun, casual atmosphere, with mostly 100 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

adult amateurs participating, though they occasionally get professional riders and FEI-level riders. “For the most part they’re training/ first level riders,” she said. “The last couple years we had a popular format where each camper rode twice Friday and Saturday, with a private in the morning, a semiprivate in the afternoon, and the next day switched instructors. Sunday you could have a longe lesson, cavaletti or hill work, to keep things interesting. People can also arrive early on Thursday and trail ride for a small facilities fee.” Like other camps, they have extra lectures and demonstrations; last year a roping lesson was a big hit. Whether you want to learn the basics or hone your competitive skills, relax with friends or make new ones, adult riding camp could be the chance to get out of your usual routine and spend some quality time on the back of a horse.

Adult Ride And Whine Camp At Maplewood Stables 2017 Dates: May 25-28; Oct. 19-22 Cost: $1,500, including board for your horse or lease of camp horse and three dinners, including Lake Tahoe, Virginia City and a welcome dinner Discipline: Hunter/Jumper Location: Maplewood Stables, Reno, Nev. Website: mwstables.com/adult-rideand-whine-0 GMHA Eventing Clinics 2017 Dates: June 6-8, GMHA Eventing Clinic; Aug. 7-9, USEA Festival of Eventing Clinic at GMHA Cost: TBD Discipline: Eventing Location: South Woodstock, Vt. Website: gmhainc.org/event/juneeventing-clinic/ Vershire Riding School Adult Camp 2017 Dates: Five weeks, June through August, and five shortened weekend options Cost: $1,800/week or $900/ weekend Location: Vershire, Vt. Discipline: Eventing Website: vershireridingschool.com/ RidingCamps/AdultCamp/adultcamp.htm

Come Show with Us!

2017

TRYON SPRING SERIES

SPRING I

SPRING IV

MARCH 23-26 B Regional/Level 3

APRIL 12-16 AA National/Level 5

SPRING II

SPRING V

MARCH 20-APRIL 2 B Regional/Level 3

APRIL 20-23 B Regional/Level 3

SPRING III

SPRING VI

APRIL 6-9 B Regional/Level 4

TRYON MAY SERIES

MAY I

MAY III

MAY II

MAY IV

MAY 4-8 MAY 17-21 AA National/Level 6 AA National/Level 4 MAY 10-14 MAY 24-28 A National/Level 4 AA National/Level 5

APRIL 23-30 B Regional/Level 3

4066 Pea Ridge Road, Mill Spring, NC 28756

| (828) 863-1000

| www.tryon.com

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

101

CITY GUIDE

THE WORLD’S COMING TO OMAHA By MOLLIE BAILEY When the Fédération Equestre Internationale

But those who’ve visited Omaha for the Inter-

announced Omaha, Neb., would host this year’s

national, hosted at the downtown CenturyLink

combined dressage and show jumping FEI World

Center, have left raving about the city—stuffed

Cup Finals, the horse world’s response resounded

with culture, great restaurants and friendly people.

across in-gates and the internet: “Wait, Omaha?”

Visitors who head to Omaha March 29-April 2

Sure, the biggest city in Nebraska has hosted

will love the approachable vibe and big city ame-

international show jumping since 2012, adding

nities without the accompanying hassles.

dressage last year, but the area isn’t traditionally known as a hotbed of elite equestrian sport.

102 MARCH /APRIL 2017

OTO

T ES

1935 Triple Crown winner Omaha is memorialized in Stinson Park in downtown Omaha, Neb., near the former Ak-Sar-Ben Race Track.

U N TAC K E D

No trip to Omaha would be complete without heading to the zoo. This world-class facility frequently earns a spot on various top-10 lists, and in 2014 TripAdvisor named it the No. 1 zoo in the world in its annual Travelers’ Choice awards. You can check out the world’s largest indoor desert and the animals who live there, the biggest indoor rainforest in the country, the orangutan forest and an amazing aquarium complete with shark tunnel. Admission prices range from $17.95 to $19.95, with discounts for children, seniors and members of the military. 3701 S. 10th St. Omaha, NE 68107 (402) 733-8400 omahazoo.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HENRY DOORLY ZOO AND AQUARIUM

OMAHA’S HENRY DOORLY ZOO AND AQUARIUM

DEHNER BOOT COMPANY

PHOTO COURTESY OF LOCAL

Carlton Dehner started the Dehner Boot Company in Junction City, Kan., in the late 1800s, and now his great-grandson Jeff Ketzler carries on the tradition of extraordinary craftsmanship. Stop by the showroom in downtown Omaha to see how the boots are handcrafted and get measured for your own pair, or check out deep discounts on seconds. Call ahead, but the family-run company will have extended hours with an open house and snacks in honor of the big event. 3614 Martha St. Omaha, NE 68105 (402) 342-7788 dehner.com

During my trip to cover the 2016 International Omaha, I found my way to Local Beer, Patio And Kitchen multiple times, and I’ll be heading back this year. The pub/restaurant has a great patio, happy hour and friendly service, and it’s situated right around the corner from the CenturyLink Center, stumbling distance from many downtown hotels. The restaurant serves tasty homestyle food—think tater tots and open-faced meatloaf sandwiches—but the 100 beers on tap are the stars of the show. There’s a special emphasis on local brews, with a wide range of choices from local beermakers. 902 Dodge St. Omaha, NE 68102 (402) 315-4301 localbeer.co

PHOTO COURTESY OF DEHNER BOOT COMPANY

LOCAL BEER, PATIO AND KITCHEN

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

103

CITY GUIDE

PHOTO COURTESY OF MATT JONES

Cocktail aficionados relax: The Berry & Rye has you covered. This bar takes its drinks very seriously, with a menu sorted by main ingredient and lots of pre-Prohibition-style libations on the menu. All bitters, sodas and syrups are made in-house. Even the ice is craft, using a reverse osmosis system to get the purest water possible. The decadent drinks are served with panache, like the Trinidad Smoke, which is delivered smoking in a carafe. Reservations are highly recommended for this speakeasy-style space. 1105 Howard St. Omaha, NE 68102 (402) 613-1331 Theberryandrye.com

Another Old Market favorite, Ted And Wally’s sells delicious scratch-made ice cream that’s 18 percent butterfat thanks to plenty of cream and eggs. There are regularly changing flavors like Quit Yer Job And Eat Chocolate and Sarsaparilla, plus less indulgent homemade options like sorbet, sherbet and even coconut milk ice creams for customers sticking to paleo diets. In addition to ice cream, you can enjoy treats from a big menu of malts, shakes, popcorn and a slew of other products in a stylish shop. If the mercury’s high you may have to queue up, but it’s worth the wait. 1120 Jackson St. Omaha, NE 68102 (402) 341-5827 tedandwallys.com

104 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE JOSLYN ART MUSEUM

TED AND WALLY’S PREMIUM HOMEMADE ICE CREAM

PHOTO COURTESY OF BRYCE BRIDGES

THE BERRY & RYE

JOSLYN ART MUSEUM

Omaha’s premier visual art institution has more than 11,000 works by artists like El Greco, Degas, Renoir, Monet and Cassatt. The museum’s permanent collections focus on 19th and 20th century European and American art, as well as art of the American West. Highlights of the American Indian collection include ledger books by Howling Wolf and White Horse, and a beaded jacket belonging to Logan Fontenelle, grandson of the renowned Omaha chief Big Elk. Wander around the museum’s three sculpture gardens and stop by the café in the museum’s atrium for a lunch with a serious view. The museum is free, though temporary exhibits— contemporary American artist Virginia Beahan will be featured during the FEI World Cup Finals, and there will also be an exhibit on hunting and fishing in American art—may have a fee. 2200 Dodge St. (402) 342-2376 Omaha, NE 68102 joslyn.org

GORAT’S

PHOTO COURTESY OF GORAT’S

If you ask Omaha’s most famous resident, Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett, where to grab a steak in town, he’ll send you to Gorat’s. Luckily the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders annual meeting takes place the weekend after the FEI World Cup Finals (it’s also at the CenturyLink Center), because the place will doubtlessly be booked the whole time. Thanks in no small part to Buffett’s influence, the steakhouse has been written up in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, among others, and it’s as unassuming as he famously is. Locals recommend the onion rings, but if you want to eat like Buffett, order the 22 oz. Omaha T-bone ($39) with a double side of hash browns and a cherry Coke. 4917 Center St. (402) 551-3733 Omaha, NE 68106 goratsomaha.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF BOILER ROOM

If you’re up for a special night out, head to this restaurant located just outside of the Old Market district. Sure, it’s unassuming on the outside, but head in and it’s a hip locale where the dining tables overlook the bar and kitchen. There’s just as much attention paid to the wine list and cocktail offerings as to the menu, which changes almost daily corresponding with the seasonal items available from 18 local purveyors. There’s not a huge selection—at last check there were six entrees available and about as many appetizers—but everything is painstakingly crafted. Chef Tim Nicholson’s personal favorites include the charcuterie ($15), as everything is cured in-house, and the pastas, also homemade, and he recommends the whole fish for two ($65). Reservations recommended. 1110 Jones St. (402) 916-9274 Omaha, NE 68102 boilerroomomaha.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF CRESCENT MOON

BOILER ROOM

CRESCENT MOON ALEHOUSE

Crescent Moon Alehouse is part of Beer Corner USA, a consortium of three pubs and a retail beer store next to each other in Midtown Crossing. Crescent Moon is serious about craft beer and has garnered national accolades and a local following for its extensive selection. But Crescent Moon has a bigger claim to fame, namely that it regularly tops local reader’s choice lists for making the best Rueben in Omaha—no small feat given that this town invented the sandwich. Crescent Moon’s is made from slow-cooked corned beef, sauerkraut, Swiss cheese and Thousand Island dressing on grilled marble rye. After you finish your sandwich at Crescent Moon, stick your head in Huber-Haus, an authentic German beer bar with Bavarian pub food, and Max & Joes, which focuses on Belgian brews. Or maybe just stop by the retail store, Beertopia, for a six-pack to take back to your hotel. 3578 Farnam St. (402) 345-1708 Omaha, NE 68131 beercornerusa.com/CrescentMoon

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

105

CITY GUIDE BEANSMITH COFFEE ROASTERS

PHOTO COURTESY OF DROVER

Serious caffeine addicts should head over to Beansmith in the Old Market district. The coffeeloving owners are obsessed with their craft and offer espresso drinks as well as pour over and cold brew options. The mochas have a serious fan club—made with dark chocolate, so they’re not too sweet—and the baristas will help you pick the roast that’s right for you. The owners have partnered with local bakery Sweet Magnolia to provide mouthwatering sweets (think pop tarts, hand pies and scones) so you can have the best of both worlds. 1213 Harney St. (402) 614-1805 Omaha, NE 68102 beansmith.com

DROVER RESTAURANT AND LOUNGE

ARIEL FRIED PHOTO

It’s a little hard to find The Drover, which is tucked away near some office buildings, but if you’re a beef fan make sure you do track it down. The Drover has been serving signature whiskey-marinade steaks for over 40 years and has gathered legions of followers and local awards. Don’t be put off by the modest interior; the food is the real star here. Salad bar notwithstanding, this place is all about the meat, with a menu stuffed with steakhouse favorites like the whiskey filet ($39.95) and Drover prime rib ($27.95). 2121 S. 73rd St. Omaha, NE 68124 (402) 391-7440 droverrestaurant.com

BEERCADE

PHOTO COURTESY OF KEVIN FRANZ

Want to find the hippest neighborhood in Omaha? Check out historic Benson, whose residents boast that “creativity is our culture.” It’s where the yoga studios abut collaborative studios, with great dining and entertainment venues like the Waiting Room Lounge, which frequently attracts top music acts. Locals will point you toward the Beercade, which gets busy on Friday and Saturday nights. Choose a brew (or three) from the taps, which rotate daily, then play some pinball, skee-ball or a classic arcade game. The Beercade’s happy hour special includes four quarters with a beer. Kids are welcome with a parent until 7 p.m., but after that, it’s adults only. 6104 Maple St. (402) 932-3392 Omaha NE 68104 thebeercade.com

106 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

LAURITZEN GARDENS

PHOTOS COURTESY OF LAURITZEN GARDENS

This botanical garden is a living museum of unique fourseason plant displays, all maintained to the highest environmental and horticultural standards. Even though the FEI World Cup Finals will hit in early spring, there’s still lots to see at the urban oasis, including lush tropical displays in the Marjorie K. Daugherty Conservatory and azaleas and southern magnolias in the temperate house. Make sure you stop by the Nature Connects: Art With LEGO Bricks special exhibit, which features awesome LEGO sculptures inspired by the outdoors. 100 Bancroft St. Omaha, NE 68108 (402) 346-4002 lauritzengardens.org

UPSTREAM BREWING

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE DURHAM MUSEUM

Another Old Market staple, Upstream Brewing has a dozen or so of its own beers up for grabs, with some regulars and rotating seasonal creations. There’s tons of seating and a fantastic patio, perfect for people-watching or enjoying well-priced happy hour specials before the evening jumping session kicks off. The extensive menu offers plenty for carnivores and vegetarians alike, and locals will tell you not to skip the smoked gouda and beer soup. 514 S. 11th St. (402) 344-0200 Omaha, NE 68102 upstreambrewing.com

Situated in the spectacular art deco Omaha Union Station, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Durham Museum chronicles the history and development of the nation’s western region. The museum has a wide range of artifacts, including train cars that date back to 1890 and an extensive photo archive with more than 800,000 images going back 150 years. Don’t leave without stopping by the 1930s soda fountain or checking out the temporary exhibit “Searching For the Seventies, The DOCUMERICA Photography Project” which chronicles everyday American life during the disco era, a collaboration between the Smithsonian and the National Archives and Records Administration. 801 S. 10th St. (402) 444-5071 Omaha, NE 68108 durhammuseum.org

DAVID RADLER PHOTOGRAPHY PHOTO

DURHAM MUSEUM

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

107

PHOTO COURTESY GREEN CHEF

FEED ROOM

Making The Most Of The Time Between Barn And Bed Tired of getting strange looks from other shoppers as you pick up a last-minute ingredient for dinner in your breeches? Try a meal preparation kit to simplify your weeknights. BY MOLLIE BAILEY

or the last few months, I’ve had the best leftovers in the office. While co-workers have waited for chefs d’equipe to call them back, huddling over take-out food or reheated soup, I’ve sauntered up from the kitchen boasting “kale tahini flatbread with poached pear and beet salad,” or some other delicious creation, all in the name of testing a 108 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

variety of meal delivery services. The services are a great fit for busy equestrians who get home from the barn late but still like to make and eat a homecooked meal on a regular basis. The general concept: Once a week a company overnights a box with pre-measured ingredients and recipe cards to your house, office or barn with

everything you need to make two, three or four meals. Depending on your plan and the company, each box serves two, three or four. My boxes came to the office, and occasionally didn’t get into my fridge until as late as midnight, but I never had a problem with food arriving less than perfectly fresh. Overall, the services had many more similarities than differences. All the ones I tested allowed you to manage your account online, and if you’re organized ahead of time, it’s easy to skip a week, or three, in case of a horse show. The account management systems make it easy to select which of the meals offered each week you’d like to make. They’re accommodating toward those with allergies, food sensitivities and preferences, though those with no food restrictions will obviously have more options. The meals tend to use seasonal,

PHOTO COURTESY OF PLATED

fresh ingredients, often incorporating an unfamiliar veggie or preparation, and the recipes are easy enough for any novice to follow. Most importantly, the food tends to be really tasty. My personal experience and informal polling of others says that four out of five of the meals are good to amazing. For me, cooking is a relaxing endeavor that usually involves a glass of wine and an occasional interruption to change the laundry, but even when I prepped for dinner single-mindedly, it generally took me a little longer than the 30 to 45 minutes each recipe card claimed. To be clear: These kits aren’t for everyone. If cooking is something you hate, this won’t change your mind. If you’re counting your pennies to save up for a new Devoucoux saddle, the $9 to $12.50 per serving the services generally cost isn’t your most cost-effective dinner option. While I enjoy the creative recipes, if you’re not an adventurous eater, you may, as my sister did, deem some of the meals “too weird.” The meals tend to be nutritionally balanced, with generous portions, but as my now too-snug breeches will attest, they’re not specifically geared toward those focused first and foremost on slimming down. And there’s no getting around the ecological impact of mailing a large box, complete with ice packs and insulation—though each has instructions for recycling or composting most or all of the packaging materials. Many of the kits have regular promotions for discounted or free boxes for new subscribers and easy cancellation policies, so see which could be a fit for you and give it a try.

FOR THE NOVICE CHEF: PLATED Plated offers a great variety of meals—you can choose from as many as 11 options each week—and they couldn’t be more foolproof. All of the ingredients for each recipe are pre-measured, individually wrapped and included in a plastic bag with the name of the recipe on it. When one recipe called for a small baking dish, they included a foil one. The food is thoughtfully sourced, with sustainable seafood, pork and poultry raised without antibiotics, and beef without added hormones. Plus there’s an option to order dessert as well. Much of the prep work for the veggies is already done—the butternut squash for one meal was peeled and coarsely chopped—which makes this an especially approachable choice. The recipes could not have been clearer, and I’ve seen a kitchen klutz friend manage just fine. While pre-prepped ingredients shortened cooking time and greens-heavy recipes tasted delicious, the short shelf life of

prepped food meant that the meals really did have to be made within a week, or else things would start to go bad. One note: All of the meal companies require that you have oil and salt and pepper on hand, and they provide you with the other ingredients. Plated also requires you provide your own eggs, if needed. There are instructions on how to recycle and reuse most of the extensive packaging, and compost (read: throw in the manure pile) the jute insulation, and their customer service team was fantastic when I experienced a delivery snafu. Ease of preparation: 5/5 Yum factor: 4/5 Environmental friendliness: 3/5 Price point: $12/serving Special diets supported: vegetarian, pescetarian

Plated.com

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

109

FEED ROOM

PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUE APRON

FOR COOKS WHO NEED A LITTLE INSPIRATION: BLUE APRON

Blue Apron is probably the most familiar of the subscription services, and they’ve earned their reputation as a great dinner option. In addition to fresh food, you can also sign up for wine deliveries—paired with individual meals, of course—and, more recently, cooking accouterments from their site. Of all the options, Blue Apron seemed the most “advanced,” not because it required specialized knowledge of techniques, but

PHOTO COURTESY OF GREEN CHEF

FOR THOSE WITH RESTRICTED DIETS: GREEN CHEF

110 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

because it held your hand the least of any of the kits. The recipe for a sweet potato gratin, for example, didn’t specify what size baking dish to use, so my mother, ever the rules follower, spent a good five minutes trying to divine the size of the pan from the photo on the recipe card before we downed our wine glasses and grabbed the top baking pan from a drawer, which worked fine. I found Blue Apron’s prep times to be the most optimistic; I always went significantly over the time allowed. But as a regular cook who gets stuck in a rut from time to time, I especially enjoyed their creative recipes and interesting flavor combinations. Most meal kits gathered the ingredients for each recipe together, so preparing each meal requires pulling a bag out of the fridge. With the exception of the “knickknacks,” the spices, herbs and little extras that are bagged and labeled for each meal, most of Blue Apron’s ingredients are all separate and not designated in any way as belonging to a particular recipe. That

means they easily get mixed up with regular groceries, necessitating a minor scavenger hunt when it came time to cook—no worse than normal cooking. While two of my favorite meals came from Blue Apron, my two least favorite came from here as well. One of the losers, a butternut squash risotto with brussels sprouts and chestnuts, was a victim of a common pitfall I found in testing these recipes: trying to shorten a lengthy cooking technique to make it a weeknight meal. In addition to providing instructions on how to recycle the packaging, Blue Apron also lets you mail the packaging—for free— back to them.

Green Chef is a U.S. Department of Agriculture-certified organic service that places a premium on working with sustainable providers. The service accommodates a variety of diets—including paleo and gluten-free—and ranked among the tastiest of all the dinners. Green Chef relies regularly on delicious pre-made sauces, which makes for some complex meals without much work, but also means it’s pretty much impossible to duplicate the recipes again on your own. Relative to other meal kits, there’s a medium amount of prep involved with these recipes—for instance, the butternut squash came halved but not peeled or seeded—and the recipes are well organized and easy to follow. The ingredients are individually wrapped, and each is colorcoded by recipe, which seems like a decent way to minimize packaging while making it

easy to pair each ingredient with its recipe. The only miss with the six Green Chef meals I prepared was probably user error, as the cannellini bean patties didn’t hold together as well in the pan—but still tasted delicious. And the prep time on each recipe card was pretty accurate, which I appreciated. Recycling the packaging, much of which is paper, is pretty straightforward, and their customer service team is especially responsive.

Ease of preparation: 2/5 Yum factor: 3/5 Environmental friendliness: 4/5 Price point: $8.74 to $9.99/serving Special diets supported: vegetarian, pescatarian

Blueapron.com

Ease of preparation: 4/5 Yum factor: 5/5 Environmental friendliness: 4/5 Price point: $10.49 to $14.99/serving Special diets supported: vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, paleo, gluten-free

Greenchef.com

FOR THE ETHICAL EATER: SUN BASKET food to look as lovely as the photos, but my notes from the recipes include “tasty!” and “exceeded expectations.” One downside is that Sun Basket does charge a $5.99 delivery fee after the first week. Each Sun Basket box is especially easy to recycle, and I liked that the insulation can be recycled in a curbside bin. Ease of preparation: 4/5 Yum factor: 4/5 Environmental friendliness: 5/5 Price point: $11.49/meal, not including shipping Special diets supported: vegetarian, pescatarian, gluten-free, paleo

PHOTO COURTESY OF SUN BASKET

Sun Basket is another choice that puts extra emphasis on where food comes from. Much of the produce is organic, and the company sends hormone-free meats and sustainably sourced seafood. They’re transparent about nutrition, putting the calorie count right next to the delicious-looking photo on the front of the recipe card, and additional nutritional information on the back. It took me a little longer to make the recipes than the cards claimed, but Chronicle managing editor Sara Lieser and her husband, Eric, consider the timing pretty accurate. The ingredients for each meal come in a labeled, no-frills brown paper bag, and the recipe cards aren’t as fancy as most of the others. The biggest complaint any of us had was that we couldn’t quite get the

Sunbasket.com

It sounds silly, but Peach Dish feels like it’s run by a couple that lives around the corner, not like it’s a growing company in Atlanta. Each Peach Dish box comes with a sheet outlining which local Atlanta farms provided which ingredients for the week, and each recipe has a photo and bio of the chef who created it. They also include full nutritional information right on the recipe card. The ingredients for each meal are tucked into an endearing organza bag that makes finding ingredients a breeze, and they’re shipped in the smallest of all the boxes that I received, along with a little bonus dessert. The customer service team is responsive to emails and requests, and even the occasional typos in the recipe seem to reinforce the fact that the

company isn’t a huge conglomerate— compare their 200,000 meals a year to Blue Apron’s 8 million a month. Peach Dish’s recipes are “southern inspired,” but there’s plenty of variety in their menu, which features four new meals a week as well as four seasonal favorites. About two of the meals each week are part of their “SuperFood Series” which focuses on especially healthful meals. I was surprised to mark “A+” on the front of one of the SuperFood meals (a tofu bowl with carrots, greens and Sriracha nuts) and put all the recipe cards in the re-make pile. If you’re local to their Atlanta headquarters, you can leave your shipping materials with Peach Dish at a local farmers’ market to recycle, and most of the packaging materials are recyclable and compostable. While Peach Dish offers free

PHOTO COURTESY OF PEACH DISH

FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO FEEL CONNECTED TO THEIR FOOD: PEACH DISH

shipping to most states, there are 20 or so mostly western states for which they tack on an extra $15/box for shipping. Ease of preparation: 4/5 Yum factor: 5/5 Environmental friendliness: 5/5 Price point: $11.25 to $12.50/ serving, not including shipping Special diets supported: vegetarian, pescatarian

Peachdish.com

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

111

FEED ROOM

PHOTO COURTESY OF HELLO FRESH

FOR THE SIMPLE EATER: HELLO FRESH

Hello Fresh has a lot of fans, and it’s easy to see why. The meals are tasty, there’s a good variety of food, and the recipes are simple. Compared with the other options, most of the dishes will be familiar, and, picky eaters take note, there are fewer unusual ingredients than the other products.

Hello Fresh includes the difficulty level for each recipe, and it’s helpful to see what you’re getting yourself into before you actually put on an apron. And while the enclosed ingredients are portioned for each meal, the exact amounts are printed on the recipe card, detailing how to make the dish for two or four, so it’s easy to re-make. I also liked that the nutritional information is printed on the recipe cards. Subscribers can choose from six to eight recipes each week, and each meal is in its own self-contained box, so it’s easy to grab and cook. Chronicle advertising account manager Laura Honohan is a longtime Hello Fresh subscriber who swears the proteins are the best she’s ever had, and she raves over their customer service.

This probably isn’t the first choice for food purists—Hello Fresh was the only service tested that used a stock concentrate, for example—but it’s straightforward and reliable. The packaging is mostly but not entirely recyclable, making Hello Fresh a little less environmentally conscious than some other services. Ease of preparation: 5/5 Yum factor: 3/5 Environmental friendliness: 2/5 Price point: $8.75-$9.90/meal Special diets supported: vegetarian, pescatarian

Hellofresh.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF PURPLE CARROT

FOR THE VEGGIEHOLIC: PURPLE CARROT

You won’t find the word “vegan” or even “vegetarian” on the Purple Carrot website. The service, once partially owned by food guru Mark Bittman, instead markets itself as providing “plant-based” meals for those who want to incorporate more veggies into their lives. But to be clear, there’s no meat, fish, dairy or animal products in any of the meals. I really wanted to love Purple Carrot, but I ended up just liking it. The recipes were a little uneven, though one, the sweet potato and chickpea salad, was a 112 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

surprising favorite. The website offers exactly three meals a week, so there’s no wiggle room to select a different option if one of the meals isn’t to your taste. The style of the meals struck me, for lack of a better word, as “vegan restaurant food.” I often like vegan restaurants and their food, but the recipes don’t always have the subtlest flavors. Purple Carrot, like all the plans I tried, prides itself on sourcing seasonal ingredients, and I found myself wishing I were getting the boxes in the spring or summer for a bit more variety. Purple Carrot earned the dubious honor of being the only service to provide a recipe that requires a food processor. (I’m looking at you, kale pesto cavatelli.) Even though I own a food processor, I wasn’t especially keen to dig it out from underneath the sink on a Tuesday night before I’d even taken off my paddock boots. Though to be fair, all the other

Purple Carrot recipes were easy to make, with minimal equipment requirements. Having tried it, I’m inclined to agree with the Purple Carrot marketers that this choice could be a winner if you’re looking to add some healthy balance to your life. Basic nutritional information is right on the recipe cards, and they have creative ideas. Purple Carrot’s packaging is all made from post-consumer waste. You can recycle most of their packaging, with only the box liner being non-recyclable but biodegradable. Ease of preparation: 2/5 Yum factor: 3/5 Environmental friendliness: 4/5 Price point: $9.25-$11.33/meal Special diets supported: vegetarian, vegan

Purplecarrot.com

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

113

CHARITY SPOTLIGHT

A Closer Look At: The Standardbred Retirement Foundation This New Jersey-based nonprofit retrains and rehomes non-competitive Standardbred race horses while also upsetting stereotypes about the breed and providing help for atrisk youths. By CHRISTINA KEIM

VICKI WRIGHT PHOTO

Shades Of Cara entered the Standardbred Retirement Foundation at 3. She’s now 16, and she’s competed with Stephanie Jacobs in hunters, competitive trail riding, team penning, western pleasure, barrel racing, driving and in-hand classes.

114 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

he question of what to do with a horse no longer earning his keep is one plaguing nearly all branches of the racing industry. While hundreds of Standardbreds leave the track each year, needing retraining for new careers, the breed is sometimes overshadowed by its more popular cousin, the Thoroughbred. Judith Bokman, wife of a track veterinarian, and Paula Campbell, whose husband is a prominent driver, founded the Standardbred Retirement Foundation in 1989 after they noticed a disturbing pattern of events. Non-competitive Standardbreds were purchased from training centers with promises of rest and rehabilitation. Instead, the animals were frequently worked hard, even if they had injuries, and they often ended up at the New Holland auction in Pennsylvania. Bokman and Campbell believed the horses needed better promotion and more careful placement options after their racing careers ended. Now the SRF’s mission is twofold: first, to rehabilitate and secure lifetime adoption of non-competitive Standardbred race horses; and second, to bring at-risk youths in contact with these horses, to the benefit of both groups.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE STANDARDBRED RETIREMENT FOUNDATION

“Compassion is key to what we do,” said Bokman, who added that the adoptable horses live at the boarding stable in Cream Ridge, N.J. A dedicated core of about 15 volunteers work with the horses regularly under the watchful eye of a professional trainer, Mari Norbye, whose experience spans both competitive riding and the Standardbred industry. Since most Standardbreds are levelheaded horses, when a rideable horse arrives at the SRF’s main farm, he or she is often saddled and taken out on the trail that same day. Bokman said SRF alumni have gone on to careers in everything from dressage to show jumping to 4-H. “The most popular home is for trail riding,” said Bokman. “We don’t have many requests for driving, which is sort of funny since they are already trained.” Bokman said a common misconception about Standardbreds is that they only pace. In fact, race horses do most of their training at the trot, jogging nearly 25 miles per week. “For the Standardbred, the natural gait is the trot,” said Bokman. “It is only when a horse wears hopples that they pace. Pacers will usually only wear them for an hour or so per week. I can count on one hand how many freelegged pacers have come through the program in 26 years.” Volunteers teach SRF horses to organize and collect their gait. “They usually just need to be told that it is OK,” said Bokman. “They are so willing to learn and to try. A lot of our horses are adopted for kids to ride.” In fact, the breed’s tractable temperament has made the horses an ideal match for programs geared towards at-risk youth. For more than a decade, the SRF has partnered with the New Jersey Juvenile Justice System, bringing some of the state’s most challenging young

Falcon’s Fire Fly entered the Standardbred Retirement Foundation as a 3-year-old and has since competed in jumping and dressage with her first adopter, and she also worked in a therapeutic riding program. Now 23, she’s retired with Amber Nickerson.

people—more than 110 each year—in contact with the gentle horses. Students are taught everything from how to be safe around horses, to removing the horses from their stalls, to grooming, mucking and eventually even getting on board. “We do a lot of teaching,” said Bokman. “Through the horse, they learn important life lessons. They learn that the horse is counting on them, and they have to learn to think ahead. If they are a super active kid, they have to learn how to calm down. They have to learn how to handle the horse fairly but not let the horse take advantage.”

Bokman said combining the retired Standardbreds with young people needing direction was a logical extension of their mission of compassion. “These are the kids who get into trouble after school because they don’t want to go home, or because they need something to do,” explained Bokman. “One little boy actually begged the owner of the farm to let him come and work for free.” With the help of volunteers, the SRF also runs programs in the spring and fall for local students at their main facility. One of the most touching stories involved a fifth-grade girl who had

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

115

CHARITY SPOTLIGHT

suffered a severe trauma; she had not spoken for more than a year. “After working with our horses, that all changed,” said Bokman. The SRF follows up on each animal they have placed for the remainder of their lives. If an owner’s circumstances change, SRF horses are welcomed back into the fold. “People have lifestyle changes, and sometimes the horse has to go,” said Bokman. “Their value to be sold for a riding horse is not there yet. They are less valuable [than a Thoroughbred] and are at much greater risk without an advocate like SRF if a new home is needed.” Twice a year, adopters must submit a report, signed by a veterinarian, verifying that the horse remains in good health and in a safe environment. Standardbreds placed through SRF are not allowed to be rehomed or sold. If an owner cannot keep the horse, they are to be returned to the program. Currently the organization is supporting 218 Standardbreds, which is an all-time high, with about 130 of those animals suitable for companion homes only. Bokman said horses who are difficult to rehome, due to age, unsoundness or other issues, remain permanently under the care of the organization. Many of the horses are boarded at facilities in less expensive areas of the country, like Kentucky, Virginia and New York. Others live in foster homes, with some caregivers assuming full expenses for the animal. Despite adopting out more than 120 horses per year—nearly 3,000 total since 116 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE STANDARDBRED RETIREMENT FOUNDATION

Standardbred Zonka, 13, served on the Massachusetts National Guard Ceremonial Unit from 1997 until 2002, when the group reduced its number of horses. He now lives with adopter Jennifer Janulewicz and enjoys leisurely trail rides.

its inception—the program maintains a waitlist of about 100 more horses needing placement. Most of the budget is met through individual donations, supplemented by fundraising events. The program can support its current herd, but without additional funds they are unable to take more. “There is a limit to how much more we can grow,” said Bokman. “There isn’t a limit when funds are available.” Potential adopters are carefully screened, with references required from a veterinarian, a farrier, a neighbor and a personal, nonrelated friend. Trainer references are also expected if one is available. “If the adopter is going to board, then we need to speak with the facility owner,” said Bokman. Adoption fees start at $350, with no fee charged in the case of a horse suitable for companionship only. “We are so grateful for companionship

adoptions,” said Bokman. At the end of the day, the SRF remains committed to its vision of finding and providing lifetime homes for retired Standardbred race horses. “Our biggest concern is we don’t want to help a horse once and then put them back out there at risk,” said Bokman. “Follow-ups are so important to what we do. Otherwise, we are not serving the horse the right way, or our donors.”

LEARN MORE: Visit www.adoptahorse.org.

GET IN TOUCH: Contact the program administrator at admin@srfmail.com or 732-446-4422.

GET INVOLVED: The SRF offers many opportunities to support its work, including fostering or adopting horses, volunteering at the New Jersey farm to groom or train, shipping horses, and coordinating or assisting with fundraising events. Donations are always gratefully accepted via adoptahorse.org/donate.

t s e ‘T H E B ’ ! r a e Y All 7 1 0 2 , 0 7-3

2 l i r p A

TICKETS ARE GOING FAST! 859.254.8123 WWW.RK3DE.ORG/ TICKETS

kentucky horse park | lexington, ky

BEST OF WEB & PRINT

What’s Hot On The Web

VERONIQUE PATERNOSTER PHOTO

u Where Did HH Azur Come From? She burst onto the scene in 2015 as a bright new star, but the roots of HH Azur’s success start in Belgium. The mare’s breeder, Nathalie Beaufort, and her husband, Pedro Nolasco, spent years carefully developing their homebred until she was ready to take on the world on a bigger stage. “When she was a 3-year-old, we made the decision to break her in. What a phenomenon! Her capacity to understand what Pedro was asking her to do was completely incredible. That was when Pedro realized what an exceptional mare he had in front of him.” We got the full story from Beaufort herself: coth.com/article/ ahis-hh-azur-breeder

u COTH Horse

This blog from COTH’s resident horse show dad, Chad Oldfather, resonated with readers. Oldfather wrote of the loss of his daughter’s horse and the repercussions of that for his daughter’s future goals. “But there’s more,” he writes. “Her passing also represents the death of a dream. It was a dream that wasn’t going to come true without good luck and the taking of some substantial risks, but luck’s not always good, and the thing about risks is that they often don’t pay off. There were lots of eggs in that basket, and it crashed to the ground.” It’s a poignant message: coth.com/article/coth-horse-show-dadghosts-dreams-and-way-it-goes

118 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

FALLAW PHOTO

CHAD OLDFATHER PHOTO

Show Dad: Ghosts, Dreams, And The Way It Goes

u Throwback Thursday: Joe Hill

Made Chrissy Bushkin’s Dreams Come True On Both Coasts

Chrissy Bushkin was just 12 and Joe Hill a mere 6 years old when the pair earned their first grand junior hunter championship at the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Marianne Taylor tells the tale of how this precocious young rider found her horse of a lifetime, making her mark in California and on the East Coast. Take a trip back in time: coth.com/article/tbt-joehill-chrissy-bushkin-both-coasts

Don’t Miss In The Magazine u Horseman (And Messiah) Of The Year

Phillip Dutton

LINDSAY BERRETH PHOTO

Why does Boyd Martin call Phillip Dutton the “unofficial (and unintentional) Messiah”? How does Dutton manage to get the most out of the people and horses around him? How did decades of eventing and a few twists of fate lead him to an individual Olympic medal in 2016? We looked back at where he’s been, the choices he’s made, and the mindset that’s made him a champion in our profile honoring him in the Feb. 6 & 13 American Horses In Sport Issue.

UE: Two EQUITATION ISS

oint p. 50 & p. 52 Takes On Two-P

u A Riding Lesson

u Living Legend:

From Steinkraus

One of the world’s all-time leading show jumping specialists looks back at the evolution of the modern forward seat: Who, how, why and from where did U.S. riders develop the jumping position? Find out in the Dec. 19 Equitation WILLIAM C. Issue and learn how RAUSon STEINK luti Explores The EvoSeat rd wa For Steinkraus cultivated a Of The Inside: wealth of knowledge on the subject through extensive reading. “American horsemen tend to think of Caprilli’s Forward Seat as having been totally and radically revolutionary and quite sudden, but I don’t doubt that a lot of evolution was mixed in with it as well,” he says.

Denny Emerson

• $4.99 December 19, 2016

p. 36

ly Traditions p. 54 Eq Trends & Fami Robin Fairclough On r, Eq Judge p. 48 icle Fan, Steak Love Jimmy Torano: Chron Four-Star p. 72 Finding Our Next

FLATLANDSFOTO PHOTO

Vol. 79, No. 33

His determination and integrity have earned him a team gold medal, induction into the Hall of Fame, and a reputation as the conscience of the sport. Whether he’s training the next generation of horses or riders, tackling (and excelling in) a second sport of endurance, working in the sport’s governance, or opining in a Chronicle column, Denny Emerson is driven to protect the wellbeing of the horse and sport and share his passion for learning. After finishing last in his first three-day event in 1962, he recalls, “I was 21. I knew nothing about anything. I told myself I had to get better at this.” Find out more about one of the sport’s most well-known characters in the Jan. 30 Master Class Issue.

C H RO N O F H O R S E .CO M

MARCH /APRIL 2017

119

PARTING WAYS

Do A Little Dance Photo by ASHLEY NEUHOF After a miscommunication at the wall, Swiss rider Werner Muff did a dramatic dismount off Daimler during the Credit Suisse Geneva Classic CSI last December in Switzerland. Post fall, Muff gave his horse a pat, and the pair walked out together.

120 MARCH /APRIL 2017

U N TAC K E D

Experience one of the most prestigious

EVENTING COMPETITIONS ON THE NORTH AMERICAN CALENDAR!

APRIL 5TH-9TH, 2017

FEI CIC 3*/ 2*/ 1* • USEA Levels-A, I, P, M, T, N, BN Entries Open February 21st Hosted at Tryon International Equestrian Center 4066 Pea Ridge Road, Mill Spring, NC 28756 Learn more at www.tryon.com or contact thefork@tryon.com

Untacked march-april-2017

Articles inside

Get Away From It All At Camp

A Fascination With The Equine Form: Nic Fiddian-Green

Spectacular Sicily

Donna Barton Brothers: All Or Nothing, Every Day

Untamed And Untrammeled Iceland

Defining Moments Elma Garcia