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A Memorable Horse, And a Movie to Remember
A Memorable Horse, And a Movie to Remember
By Louisa Woodville
What’s it like to ride an Olympic ThreeDay Event horse?
“It’s like sitting on top of sheer, raw power,” said Olympic eventer Kim Walnes, reminiscing about her Hall of Fame horse, Gray Goose. “I’ve never sat on another horse with that much life force.”
This temperamental equine did present his owner with some challenges and was not everyone’s cup of tea 40 years ago.
“Despite many bucks and spooks and just plain naughtiness, Kim persevered and succeeded in producing the superstar event horse of the 1980s,” reads the U.S. Equestrian Association website. “Kim had the faith, the love, and the ability to see this horse’s innate talent, develop it, and take him to the very top of the sport, making a legend out of him along the way.”
And now, is history repeating itself?
Eventer Skyeler Voss, head trainer at Morningside Farm in The Plains, appears to be following in Kim’s footsteps. Argyle, her off-the-track, 15-year-old Thoroughbred also called Gyles, is performing the way Gray Goose did four decades ago, galloping over eventing’s most challenging cross-country obstacles and doing it in front of a documentary film crew.
Argyle’s eventing accolades include top honors at the Horse Park of New Jersey’s Advance Horse Trials in June, 2023. And now, that film, The Gray: The Kim Walnes Story, is set to open in early 2025. Skyeler and Argyle play Kim and Gray Goose respectively. The focus is on their legendary ascent to the upper echelons of eventing, leading up to their zenith when they ranked third in the world.
Shanyn Fiske, an English professor at Rutgers University and an ex-eventer, wrote, directed, and produced the film. “It’s a passion project on all our parts,” she said.
The movie also touches upon Kim’s heartbreaking tragedy. Andrea “Andy” Walnes, Kim’s daughter, was abducted and murdered in 1991. Horses have helped sustain Kim, now 75, through that loss, she said.
“The years that followed were full of challenges, and it took three of those years for me to begin to truly come back to a life with feeling,” Kim wrote on her Facebook page, The Way of the Horse. “It took many more long years before I was able to stop identifying myself as the mother of a murdered child, and it wasn’t until 2005 that I realized I needed to make a conscious decision to fully live again.”
Fast forward to early 2023, when Kim and Skyeler’s paths crossed through a notice in Eventing Nation, the sport’s popular website.”
“I had multiple clients tell me about this ad, so I applied,” said Skyeler, referring to a listing seeking an upper-level rider who competed intermediate or advanced — on a gray horse.
Despite hundreds of responses, Kim honed in on Skyeler and Gyles after watching a video of their 2022 Land Rover Kentucky Four* performance. The two reminded her of herself and Gray Goose, a rider on top of a keg of dynamite that, if ridden quietly and empathically, could outperform the best of them. She also liked the fact that Skyeler trained with the late, great Olympian Jimmy Wofford, a long-time Middleburg resident. Kim rode with him in the ‘80s.
Last August 14, Skyeler and Argyle found themselves galloping over the same tracks that Kim galloped Gray Goose forty years earlier in Dublin, Virginia. The film crew adjusted their cameras to focus on Skyeler, who wore Kim’s fire-engine red cross-country shirt pulled out of storage for the occasion.
“The most special moment was when I did the first gallop up the big hill towards the film crew,” said Skyeler. “When I reached the top, Kim was in tears. She had not been back to the property in 40 years, and watching us gallop the familiar track brought back all the memories. She said she felt like Gray was there with us.”
Kim was equally effusive.
“After that first gallop, I started sobbing, overwhelmed with emotion,” she said. “I felt connected to Skyeler from the get-go; I was containing all the excitement and joy and doing fine until the two of them galloped up the rise and went past us the first time wearing my cross country shirt, and suddenly it was like I was back on the Gray, overcome by the enormity of all that joy, unity, and the magic of it all. I broke down in happy sobs.”
The next shoot was at Morningside Farm a few days later, when the film crew had Skyeler and Argyle re-enact Gray’s dressage, show-jumping and crosscountry phases. The duo finished by jumping up and down banks into the water.
What furthered the strong tie between Kim and Skyeler is that both women are mothers, drawn to a dangerous sport that takes no prisoners. Skyeler has two girls, 8-year-old Brinley and 15-month-old Ayla, and Kim’s two children were also young when she was competing.
Kim and Skyeler also had talented yet notoriously fractious horses
“No one in their right mind would have ever bought Gyles,” Skyeler said. “It was obvious he had had a rough life on the race tracks….He would rear in the dressage ring, in the start box, in between show jumps on course, and stop from a dead gallop on cross-country rearing in the middle of fields. He would bite, kick, buck, and [to this day] is not the most welcoming face in the barn.”
GrayGoose also had his moments.
“I came off of Gray a lot,” said Kim. “He was not a coordinated horse.”
These days, Skyeler’s future looks bright, not only with Argyle but campaigning other horses as well.
“Argyle will aim for another four-star this year, and I have an exciting young prospect, Nautical 54, who is just beginning his evening career,” she said, referring to Anna Gibson’s Dutch 6-year-old Noah. “I am also hoping to campaign my Grand Prix musical freestyle on Sallie Spenard’s Balance.”
The commonalities that both women share—their resilience and finesse—were best articulated by Kim herself during a speech she made in 2012 during Gray Goose’s USEA Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
“Never give up,” she said that day. “Your dreams are real. Believe in them, and believe in yourself. You can do this; you can make it happen. No matter how many obstacles there are out there, listen to your horses. They have a lot to say.”
