BARN DOGS

MEET BEN AND TATUM

The bossy corgi and laid-back rescue of ASHMEADOW FARM.

BY AMANDA STEEGE AND TIM DELOVICH

Amanda Steege, the leading show hunter rider and trainer, based at Ashmeadow Farm in Califon, New Jersey, and Ocala, Florida, has accrued an impressive list of hunter wins throughout her career. Most recently, in 2021, she and Lafitte de Muze, the Belgian Warmblood gelding owned by Cheryl Olsten, won the $50,000 World Champion Hunter Rider in Wellington, Florida. Tim Delovich is Amanda’s boyfriend of 17 years and Ashmeadow’s barn manager, responsible for keeping their champion derby horses fit and happy and strategizing their programs for competition. Their two special dogs are typically at their sides—at home and at the barn.

AMANDA: My corgi’s name is Benjamin; we call him Ben. My first dog as an adult was a corgi named Charlie that I had for 13 years. I purchased him on a whim one day at a horse show in Ocala, and when he passed away, I wasn’t sure that I wanted to get another corgi right away. But Tim and I were watching the movie Benjamin Button one night shortly after, and I remember thinking, “When I get a new dog, I’m going to name him Benjamin.” My first dog had been a tri-colored male corgi— black, brown, and white—and I knew that I wanted to get another tri-color and name him Benjamin. Then, a few weeks later, I got a message from a fellow horse person that they had had a litter of corgi puppies.

They sent me pictures of all of the puppies. Their kids had already named them, and they had the names with the pictures. There was only one tri-color male in the litter, and he was named... Benjamin! It was fate. I had to get that puppy.

Now Benjamin is 11 years old, and he is a great farm dog, traveling up and down the East Coast with Tim and me to all the various horse shows.

TIM: My first dog was a rescue puppy I got at the Devon Horse Show.

He became kind of like my right-hand man for years, and he was very protective. When he passed away from cancer, it was hard on me. For four years, I wasn’t even sure if I wanted another dog. But I went to Danny and Ron’s Rescue, and we kept in correspondence with Kim Tudor. I looked on their website for years, and Amanda joked because I knew the bios of all the dogs. In 2017 Danny and Ron brought dogs to Middleburg, Virginia, and there were two specific dogs that I was interested in—two females that I had seen online and read their bios. The dogs were all divvied up in stalls, and I went in and sat down, and one dog came right over and said, “This is my guy.” She sat on my lap and just started licking me and wouldn’t stop. She goes, “I’m your dog.” Amanda said that Tatum, with her cattywampus ears, made the choice easy. KIM TUDOR

My first dog was very serious and protective, and I was looking for something more lighthearted. And that is truly Tatum; she’s a lover. Tatum and Ben travel to all the horse shows together. Ben has the bossy corgi mentality, and Tatum just loves him so much that even when he tries to boss her around, she just licks his face and says, “I love you.”

Tatum came to Danny and Ron from the Houston, Texas, floods from Hurricane Harvey. Last year in Ocala, we had two dog houses, one for each dog, that had nice beds and everything. But when it would rain, Tatum would get on top of her dog house instead of inside. Memories of the flood? We’d say, “Oh, she’s going high!”

They do a really great job at Danny and Ron’s. They know horse people and the lifestyle, and it’s not for all dogs. They’re really good at placing dogs in the right forever homes.

Tim Delovich, Tatum, Amanda Steege, and Benjamin