Alex Ahearn and Mai Baum at AEC in 2014. Photo by Sally Spickard.
It was 2014, and I was just starting my fledgling career in eventing media. Thanks to guidance of some of the first friends I made on the grounds, I positioned myself, digital “camera” in hand, at the dressage ring in the Texas heat, ready to absolutely dazzle the EN readership with my reports from the American Eventing Championships.
The entry list was a literal who’s who of sport: Buck Davidson, Jon Holling, Laine Ashker, Tamie Smith (who I was still formally calling “Tamra” at that point). But as the next Intermediate pair cantered around the outside of the dressage letters, I was struck by the horse in front of me. A quick glance at the entries didn’t reveal much; I didn’t know the rider, but I did notice that she was Asian — and as I’ve written about multiple times here on EN, I knew I’d be diving down the rabbit hole as far as I could to learn more about this rider.
That horse and rider were Alex Ahearn and Mai Baum, who were on their way to being talent-spotted to the USEF Eventing 25 list the following year after a successful campaign at the then-2* level (now 3*).
Everyone loves a funny face! Alex Ahearn and Mai Baum. Photo by Jenni Autry.
The horse was nothing short of incredible. He was beautiful. He moved like a pure dressage horse, but then when it came time to jump, he tackled every question with the same amount of enthusiasm and grace.
It wasn’t too long after this first glimpse that the ride on “Lexus” was handed to Tamie, who had coached Alex after she and her parents, Ellen Ahearn and Eric Markell, acquired him from Germany, having been sourced by Michelle Pestl. The family had moved down to southern California to support Alex’s riding, but Alex had had another thought brewing in the back of her mind: what could this wonderful horse do with a top rider?
Tamie needed a good horse. She’d made a name for herself with a handful of others, but she hadn’t quite gotten ahold of THE horse yet. She had the talent, drive, ambition — traits any good rider has in their possession — but often it’s the search for the horse that’s got the ingredients, the soundness and the staying power to really compete at the top of the sport, that prevents riders from achieving their top goals. And the sport was getting harder. The removal of the dressage coefficient loomed large, meaning the jumping phases would become increasingly valuable and one couldn’t rely on a good mover alone to compete. The cross country courses and the show jumping tracks were getting increasingly technical by the year.
Tamie Smith and Mai Baum compete at Rebecca Farm in 2015. Photo by Sally Spickard.
Truthfully, on paper, Mai Baum had plenty of question marks himself. Yes, he’d been competitive at the Intermediate and Advanced levels, but he only carried about 30% Thoroughbred blood (indeed, you’d have to go back five generations in his pedigree to find the first evidence of a “blood horse,” in this case stemming from a French Arabian on the dam side. Thanks to Amanda Chance for that fun fact!) — a bit of anomaly, as event horses go. Would he have the stamina required to carry on in Long format events or the 5* level?
Here at EN, the team was fully onboard the Mai Baum train from day one. He had the full package, in our eyes: he could flash on the flat, he was rideable enough on cross country (for a rider like Alex or Tamie, at least!), and he was careful enough in the show jumping that you didn’t worry about errant rails. But it would take longer than anyone anticipated to see the black gelding realize his full potential.
Tamie Smith hugs Mai Baum after her beautiful test at Fair Hill in 2015. Photo by Jenni Autry.
Injury sidelined Mai Baum from stepping up to the 5* level or targeting the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He and Tamie were selected to represent the U.S. at the 2019 Pan American Games, but some mistakes on cross country held them back from being more individually competitive. We’d have to wait until 2021 for Mai Baum to make his long-awaited 5* debut, and he didn’t disappoint, finishing ninth at Kentucky that year. He went on to go to Tokyo as the traveling reserve for the U.S. later on in 2021 and CHIO Aachen and Badminton the following year, finishing tenth and ninth, respectively. To cap off 2022, he helped the U.S. to a silver medal finish in the FEI Eventing World Championships in Italy.
Photo by Tilly Berendt.
And then came 2023. During his last trip to Kentucky, Mai Baum had an ill-timed activated pin on cross country, costing 11 penalties that kept the pair from winning. 2023 was the year to exact revenge on that cross country course — which they did, full stop. Tamie and Mai Baum went on to finish on their dressage score of 24.2 to take home just the second U.S. 5* victory since 2008 and firmly stamp their names in the history books.
But this article is not just a list of accolades and accomplishments. This horse is more than his long list of accomplishments and record scores.
On his back, he carried the hopes and dreams of a whole family, whose daughter sought a place to belong in the world. He carried the heartbreak of Tamie herself after her best friend, Heather’s, brother passed away after a hard-fought battle of cancer during the biggest competition she’d gone to with the horse at the time. He carried the pressures that come with immense talent: the meticulous vet checks, the rehab from injury, the long travels, the swimming and trot sets and gallop sets and cross country schoolings and practice shows.
Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Horses ask nothing from us, except the meeting of their basic needs. Food, shelter, safety. Provide these to them, and they give back to us, ten-fold. They give us their hearts, their bodies, and it falls to us, their stewards, to call time on a career, as successful as it can be, at the appropriate time.
The Ahearn/Markell family and Tamie have always been adamant that the horse comes first. The question of retiring Mai Baum loomed large as he began to get older — in years, at least, if not in body. It’s a difficult — and, at the same time, easy — decision to retire a horse that’s still sound and competitive.
It may have been Mai Baum’s swan song at Rebecca Farm — an event that had helped shape his career and garnered him several wins — this past weekend, but it’s far from goodbye. He’s got a home forever with his family, and while we don’t know yet how he’ll pass the time from here on out, we’ve got droves of photos, videos and articles to keep him current in our mind.
Alex Ahearn and Tamie Smith with Mai Baum. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
And so it feels appropriate to say thank you here as I close this out. Thank you, Mai Baum, for the memories, for catching our eyes all those years ago, for your quirks like not liking spray bottles near you, for always giving us something to rally around and cheer for. You’ve changed more lives than you’ll ever know, and you’ve made our sport better just by being a part of it.
Go Eventing.
