Hey, Elisa Wallace fans — there’s a new mustang moving up the ranks in her string! Come along for “Baby Mustang” aka Emit’s first cross-country trip of his career.
Emit, affectionately known around Wallace Eventing as “Baby Mustang,” was rounded up in Oregon as a two-year-old and selected by Elisa Wallace. His palomino coloring and build aren’t necessarily standard for what most people imagine when they think of the American Mustang, so he serves as a great ambassador for his breed and shows people just what a mustang can look like — and more importantly, what a mustang can do.
Emit tackled his first cross country course in the Novice Horse division at Rocking Horse Winter II H.T. in Altoona, Florida. Watch his adorable golden ears prick forward for each new challenge and flick back to listen to Elisa’s encouragement all the way around.
Good job, Emit! Congratulations to the Wallace Eventing Team. We can’t wait to see where Emit will go next, both as a competitive eventer and as a mustang ambassador. As Elisa Wallace has showed us with her multi-talented string of mustangs, anything is possible.
It’s a storyline that will ring familiar to horse-crazy girls of all ages. “During high school she had no interest in boys whatsoever,” Rodney Remley recalls of his daughter, Courtney. “It was all about the horses. She didn’t have time for boys.”
Courtney owned an OTTB and was into anything and everything horsey, especially eventing. For the Remleys equestrian life is a family affair, and their calendar includes an annual trek from their home in Elm Center, Ohio, to volunteer at Richland Park H.T.
“She loves her eventing, that’s for sure,” Rodney says.
Photo courtesy of the Remley family.
The Remley family attends the annual University of Findlay equine swap meet to shop for new tack. Three years ago at the swap they befriended another family, the Pattersons. They went out to dinner and the Pattersons invited the Remleys to ride a bus with their 4H group to the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event.
“It was something Courtney always wanted to go and we’d never gotten around to doing it,” Rodney says.
The catch: It was the weekend of her senior prom.
“We said, ‘It’s totally up to you. It’s your senior prom, do what you want to do,’ Rodney says. “And she said, ‘I’m going to Rolex.'”
They went, and the Remleys bumped into the Pattersons a few times during the event. But it wasn’t until they were on the bus home that Courtney and the Pattersons’ son John hit it off.
“John came up and sat with Courney and was helping her with some homework she had to do for school the next day,” Rodney says.
Courtney and John at a Starbucks on the way home from their Rolex trip. “We joke that this is their prom photo,” Rodney says. Photo courtesy of the Remley family.
The two kept in touch, and it wasn’t long before they were dating. Meanwhile the families continued their tradition of meeting up at the Findlay swap meet each year, including the 2017 meet on Feb. 19 — which had a surprise ending.
“This year at the swap meet we met up and went to the same restaurant we’d gone to the year we met, and he proposed to her,” Rodney says. “He planned it that way — he wanted to make it something that was special to them.”
Here’s wishing John and Courtney all the best. Thankfully John grew up with horses as well — he showed Arabians — and the couple is already looking for a farm on which to start their married lives together. Rodney chuckles: “So he knows what he’s getting into!”
Photo courtesy of the Remley family.
Rolex 2017 takes place at the Kentucky Horse Park April 27-30. Entries opened last week, and you can check out a list of horses and riders qualified for the event here. Go Eventing!
It’s time to vote for the winner in EN’s Show Us Your Colors Contest, presented by World Equestrian Brands! We asked readers to tell us how they chose their cross country colors. Now it’s your turn to read through the stories and vote for your favorite in the poll at the bottom of the post.
The winner will take home an Equetech Custom Cross Country Shirt, can be customized in a seemingly endless array of colors and patterns. Click here to learn more about the shirts and order one for yourself. Voting closes at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, March 9. Go Eventing!
Pink, pink and more pink! Photo courtesy of Chloe Abbajay.
Chloe Abbajay: “My cross country colors are hot pink and black. They started out as neon green and hot pink, and my horse was known as the ‘watermelon’ with the color combo, but after moving to an event barn and maturing a bit, we’ve become classy with hot pink and black. (I still use my faded green crop as a reminder of my “watermelon” days though!) My gelding and I will be galloping in hot pink and black for years to come, and I’d love a custom shirt to match!
Sophia Kager and Ruby Slippers in their toned-down Dorothy look. Photo by Stephanie Kager.
Sophia Kager: “When I was 7, Ruby Slippers (barn name Dorothy) joined our family and we started eventing together. We wore a sparkly red helmet cover, red bell boots, shiny red crop, white and blue gingham saddle pad, and a light blue jumping vest. As we moved from Elementary to Beginner Novice, my jazzed up cross country outfit became more subtle without losing the original influences. These days, you will see us in white and light blue as my Ruby Slippers flies around the cross country course.”
A sea of purple! Photo by I{mpack}t Studios.
Megan Kiessling: “Everything I own for my horse — and I mean everything — is purple. I was known as a kid as ‘purple Megan.’ My crowning horse achievement so far has been getting purple rubber reins. My hair is even purple. Recently a clinician noted that my helmet cover actually ‘wasn’t bright enough’ to match my hair. If I can’t get an item in purple I get it in white or black. Because, you know, I don’t want to detract from the purple. I really challenge you to find someone more committed to any color than I am to purple. I dare you.”
Nadia Novik rocking purple. Photo by Greg Lindstrom.
Nadia Novik: “I’ve loved purple since I was a child. I’d never evented as a child, but that didn’t keep me from wearing everything purple in every aspect of my life, including every equine activity. When I began competing in eventing in my 30s, I thought about whether purple should make a comeback. Or should I pick a more demure color; navy or dark green, something that would help people take me more seriously.
“But, when I think of purple, I think of all those amazing childhood memories. Galloping ponies across fields without a care in the world, jumping logs in the woods and riding in any temperature because you couldn’t keep me off a horse. The color purple has made me happy since childhood. Clearly it had to be my cross country color, and I’ll be having too much fun to care if anyone takes me seriously.”
You can’t miss this neon green! Photo by Brittany Bates Photography.
Ange Plaisted: “I chose my cross country colours because of my family’s apparent inability to identity their own relative/wife. My first time out I was riding my dark bay gelding with just a simple red saddlecloth and a black t-shirt. It seems that so was everyone else. My husband filmed the wrong rider during cross country. My Show Dad couldn’t even spot me, citing the need for binoculars.
“I realised I had to take action so that my poor pony would not be lost in a sea of bays. And voila! No chance of my family missing any of my ‘amazing’ feats of horsemanship when we are lit up like a Christmas tree. Show Dad bought the t-shirt I’m wearing in this photo. It’s big enough for two of me. I would love to have a specially made Equetech custom cross country shirt that fits! And, of course, be as stylish as my green fairy gelding!”
Indra Rapinchuk-Souccar in purple and gold. Photo by Kamal Souccar.
Indra Rapinchuk-Souccar: “I chose my cross country colors when I began eventing at 12 years old. I loved purple, and my family had a joke that when you could choose silver or gold, why pick silver when I could pick gold? They were the colors of royalty and success, not what I imagined myself as, but perhaps what I dreamed of achieving. Purple and gold now signify my relationship with my horse that started it all, my best friend that I would eventually lose while proudly sporting our purple and gold. These colors now represent the strength and passion that my little horse gave me through the sport.”
Shark bonnet! Photo by Kathleen Bryan.
Mary Kate Valentine: “When I first got Fletcher off the track three years ago he was recently gelded, angry and very body sore. He would try to bite and kick and earned the nickname Sharkface. After that everything became shark related. His pen was called the shark tank. His grain was called chum. Thus my cross country colors were born … grey, white and red like a shark mouth. Please notice the shark bonnet!”
Crayon-hued ribbons were fluttering in the breeze at events around the country this weekend. This week we’re rounding up your proudest post-event pics!
The “r” B&C/CD Training Program for prospective officials took place this weekend at Sporting Days HT in Aiken. Such a training session is a requirement for individuals seeking to become a USEF Technical Delegate, Judge or Course Designer, but auditors are also welcome. If you ever have a chance to observe a training session, it is an incredible learning opportunity especially if you are an organizer, venue owner or coach. By the end of it you will have much better understanding (and appreciation) for the work done by officials, it will change the way you walk and evaluate courses, and you’ll be more educated about the sport in general. If you’re interested in becoming an official, click here.
Think you can guess the top finishers at tomorrow’s $15,000 Ocala Horse Properties Eventing Prix Invitational? As part of a fundraiser, the Canadian Young Riders are offering you the chance to pick your favorites at the competition at Southern Cross Equestrian in Reddick, Florida. Tickets to play are available at the event, which is free and open to the public. Click here for more information and a look at the entry list.
The second annual USEA Intercollegiate Championships returns to the Virginia Horse Trials in May. Colleges and universities from around the country are expected to field teams of collegiate riders to compete for top honors and the coveted Spirit Award. School pride, camaraderie and friendship runs strong at this team event, not to mention the competition is fierce, with last year’s victors winning by just a fraction of a point. There are no qualifications to compete, but your school must be a registered affiliate with the USEA. Don’t miss out! [USEA Intercollegiate Championship Returns to VHT]
Show jumper Laura Kraut retired her beloved partner Cedric at the Winter Equestrian Festival on March 3. Together they took the show jumping world by storm and brought home a team gold medal from the 2008 Hong Kong Olympic Games, among many other accolades throughout their career together. Laura looks back on some of her favorite memories. [Laura Kraut Relives Fondest Memories of Superstar Horse]
Young Thoroughbred racehorses are likely to have multiple sets of x-rays done by the time they are two years old. This affords scientists the opportunity to track radiographic abnormalities over time, and one common find it an abnormality in the stifle. Click the link to review the results of one researchers case study. [Stifle Abnormalities in Young Thoroughbreds]
Monday Video: Lainey Ashker and Flagmount’s Spartan rocking the Intermediate course at Rocking Horse.
Spartan’s (redeeming) intermediate xc GoPro from rocking horse HT
Tamie Smith and Glock Pullman. Photo by Ellie Leonard Photography.
Tamie Smith and Lucida LLC’s Glock Pullman were the only pair in the Advanced division at Twin Rivers to finish the weekend on their dressage score, putting together a flawless weekend in their Advanced debut to take home the win.
Show jumping proved to be quite influential today, with just two pairs turning in fault-free rounds: Tamie and Glock Pullman and Andrea Baxter with Indy 500. Rails and time penalties were prevalent for the remaining pairs, which resulted in one last shuffle for the top spots on the final leaderboard.
Leaders after two phases, Frankie Thieriot Stutes and Chatwin rode a clear round with five time penalties to drop into second place on a finishing score of 30.4, a very solid weekend for this pair in their fourth start at the Advanced or three-star level. Fun fact: Chatwin has yet to finish outside of the top three in two Advanced and two CIC3* events. Talk about consistency!
Moving up a spot with just one rail down are Hawley Bennett-Awad and Jollybo. Hawley and the 12-year-old British Sport Horse mare have been getting along quite well since beginning their partnership last summer, and this weekend will give them the final qualification needed per Canadian rules for their CCI4* debut in Kentucky. Hawley next heads east to finish her prep for the Big R with coach Buck Davidson.
“It was a super course, it was just a true jumper course, you have to be able to jump and turn and it rewarded the people who could,” Hawley said. “Jollybo was awesome on the flat, I was really happy with her. I thought she did a better test than two weekends ago (at Fresno). I had a good chat with the judge after to get some pointers for Rolex; she’s so obedient and quiet and I need to make her more flashy — I hope the atmosphere will help her in the ring in Kentucky. I want to be competitive when I go there, that’s the goal.”
“For cross country, my plan was to go and have a positive run, and she didn’t put a foot wrong. Today in show jumping, I was really pleased, we just had an unlucky rail. But we’re looking forward to three days with Silvio (Mazzoni) and a day with Susie (Hutchison) before heading out to Buck Davidson’s.”
James Alliston and RevitaVet Elijah. Photo by Ellie Leonard Photography.
Sitting in second overnight, James Alliston and RevitaVet Elijah unfortunately picked up eight jump penalties and some time to finish their weekend in fourth place. A final finishing score of 37.2 and another newly minted Advanced horse for the Alliston camp — and a win in the Intermediate for James with Happenstance — still makes for a very successful weekend for this pair.
Heather Morris and Charlie Tango. Photo by Ellie Leonard Photography.
Completing the top five in the Advanced are Heather Morris and Charlie Tango, who moved up one spot with two time penalties to finish on a 40.4. Heather moved The Team Express Group LLC’s Charlie Tango up to Advanced last spring and will be looking to build on his solid results as we look ahead to the rest of the spring season here on the West coast.
James Alliston and Happenstance. Photo by Ellie Leonard Photography.
And in the Intermediate division, as mentioned earlier it was James Alliston and Happenstance who took home the blue on a final score of 27.6. Mary McKee’s Holsteiner gelding laid down a fault-free round to move up to take the win after holding second place overnight. Overnight leaders Derek di Grazia and Ringwood Justice added a single rail to their score for second place overall on a score of 28.8.
Emilee Libby capped off a great weekend with Linda Libby’s Jakobi, an 8-year-old Belgian Warmblood who just stepped up to this level last fall. Jakobi has been solid since moving up, finishing in the top five in three out of four starts at the level.
The season out here continues in full swing and we look ahead to Copper Meadows and Galway Downs coming up later this month. Keep refreshing this post for photos from today, and stay tuned for a Twin Rivers edition of Who Jumped It Best?
When the winter circuits are rolling full steam ahead, not every great ride gets a ribbon, and not even every winning ride gets proper credit. This week we’ve curated a gallery of lovely and educational rides you might have missed from the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida.
To kick off the show, we’re bringing you this soft, encouraging jump-off ride from Adam Prudent aboard Volcan d’Ivraie, an eight-year-old Selle Francais/Anglo Arabian gelding owned by Plain Bay Sales. They would go on to finish third in this 1.30 m class at WEF 7:
Our second ride is this scrappy jump-off round from David Blake and Zafira, a 10-year-old mare by Cassini I, who scored the victory in the $2,000 1.30 m class at WEF 2. Zafira is owned by Pine Hollow Farm.
Our final ride comes from the hunter ring: Gavin Moylan and String of Pearls took the win in the 3’6″ young horse championship at WEF 2 with this lovely ride. String of Pearls is a seven-year-old Hanoverian mare owned by Priscilla Denegre, who also happens to be Gavin’s mother-in-law.
Moylan gushed over the mare following their win, saying “She’s a mare that I found in Germany as a four-year-old with super breeding. I think it took us about two and a half seconds to decide to buy her when we first saw her. She’s the whole package; a good mover, a really great jumper, and has such a quality mind.”
We’ll continue to bring you great rides from around the country, so keep it locked on JN!
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It’s time for another montage compilation from RNS Video, who was stationed at the water complex at Rocking Horse this weekend while the Intermediate pairs came through. We love watching these videos to really see how each pair approaches the question and how the horses answer.
Which pair do you think rode this question the best? Post your vote in the comments!
We are delighted to host Sally Cousins as an EN guest blogger, as she shares her wealth of knowledge with us in the form of training tips. We hope these nuggets of information can be integrated directly into your program at home and can influence the way you ride and train your horses. Be sure to check out both the Sally Cousins Eventing website and keep up with her on Facebook.
Sally Cousins and Abecca GS. Photo by Jenni Autry.
It is important to have a plan for a jump school before you get on to ride. This may involve moving jumps before you start or arranging to have someone there to set jumps while you ride.
Except for cross country schooling, I have two different types of schools that I do: one focuses on the horse’s technique, and the other focuses on exercises designed to help with the horses education.
Most of my horses jump at least once a week. It keeps them from being silly when I do jump them; it also helps them crack their backs. I also try to keep the number of jumps per school to a minimum.
In some schools, I work on angled jumps, bending lines or related distances. The last school before an event I prefer to be about technique. If the last phase your horse did at his last event was cross country, chances are you will need to have a quieter school to get the horse round and settled again.
Sometimes if I have had a problem at an event, the following school will work on fixing whatever went wrong. If the horse had stopped on cross country or struggled through the triple in show jumping, I would school that specifically, hopefully within the week following the event. That gives me an idea of how big a problem I have and an idea of how long it will take to fix it.
Unless you get to jump a lot or compete regularly, most schools will be a combination of both of these types. If I have introduced something new, I will try to finish the school on something the horse finds relatively easy so he goes back to the barn in a good frame of mind.
The younger horses will need more educational type work, and the experienced upper-level horses may just need light schools to keep them sharp. Each horse is different, and our jobs as riders and trainers is to find what works best for our horse.
Welcome to EN's West Coast Wonders! We'll be spotlighting horses and riders who are making a splash on the West Coast. We continue our series with Canadian up-and-comer Leah Breakey, who is currently competing at the Advanced level with Master King II. Do you have a horse and/or rider that you'd like to see on West Coast Wonders? Tip me at [email protected].
Leah Breakey and Master King II at Galway Downs. Photo by Rachel Waters.
Eventing has become a lifestyle for the Breakey family. It hasn’t always been this way; sisters Leah and Megann started doing Pony Club, which eventually led to a complete lifestyle overhaul for mom and dad, who are former schoolteachers turned horse enthusiasts in their hometown in Alberta. Now, it’s 24-year-old Leah who has taken the reins on some talented horses to put herself on the map as a Canadian name who frequents the West Coast throughout the season.
Both Leah and her older sister Megann evented extensively when they were younger, and eventually Megann chose to go to school to be a vet tech rather than continue her competition career. The sisters now share responsibilities running the family horse business that consists of breeding, breaking, training and competing horses, with Megann focusing more on the breeding and starting stages and Leah concentrating on training and competition.
Competing at the upper levels wasn’t the initial goal for Leah, who initially began eventing because it seemed like a sport she would enjoy. “I wasn’t really planning on doing anything upper level,” Leah recalled. “In Alberta, the big thing then was to go Prelim. I think growing up there were two people going Prelim, so that was a big deal.”
Leah Breakey and Master Plan. Photo by Sherry Stewart.
The Master Plan
From the goal of going Prelim came the idea to purchase a horse for Leah to gain experience on, and thus an Oldenburg gelding named Master Plan came into the picture.
“He was just the horse that you wish you had gotten earlier,” Leah said. “He was such a packer, and he was the type who would just carry me around if I froze or made a mistake. I was always told he wouldn’t move up the levels, and he was a bit older when he started, but we just decided to try Intermediate, and then a two-star and then Advanced, and he just never said no.”
Master Plan, or “Mickey”, became the horse who really launched Leah’s eventing career, giving her miles through her first FEI events and eventually reaching the CIC3* level — he finished in the top 15 at Rebecca Farm and the top three at Copper Meadows in 2014 at the age of 17. “We always wonder, if we had gotten him earlier, if he’d been able to go four-star,” Leah mused.
Mickey went on to compete at the Preliminary level with Cynthia Wright and Jordan Good before retiring to Northern California.
Leah and Master King II. Photo by Jessica Kerschbaumer.
Many the miles
Basing in Alberta is not easy for an aspiring upper level eventer. Without many options above the Preliminary level, Leah knew she needed to follow her dreams south to pursue other opportunities. She started out working for Canadian Olympian Sandra Donnelly and followed that up with some time with James Atkinson and Taren Hoffos.
“I think that’s the biggest thing you can do if you’re able,” Leah said. “To be able to be immersed in it and learn the ins and outs of managing the horses and competing has really given me a lot to work with.”
Leah also traveled to the East coast in 2015, working for Clayton Fredericks for the 2016 season with her younger horse, Master King II, who was purchased from Daisy Trayford in 2014.
“The intent was to have a horse coming up behind Mickey,” Leah said. “We bought Master King from Daisy Trayford sight unseen; my sister had worked for Daisy when she was in England and so we knew her and trusted her. I took him to his first event out here at Training level and have just been steadily moving up with him since then.”
During Leah’s time with Clayton, she moved Master King up to the Advanced level, coining her second horse at the level and gaining experience along the way.
Master King II at Galway Downs. Photo by Megann Breakey Photography.
Master King II
Now 11, the Irish Sport Horse gelding has completed two Advanced events, most recently coming second at Fresno County Horse Park last month. Leah and “Beau” also picked up a top-15 finish in the CCI2* at Galway Downs last fall to cap off a successful season primarily at the Intermediate and two-star level.
This year, Leah has her eye on the CIC3* at Rebecca Farm, which is only an eight hour drive from her home base in Alberta. “It’s always a goal to go and watch or go and compete at Rebecca because it’s one of the closer events to us,” Leah said.
Leah has spent the beginning of the 2017 season based in Ramona, Ca. at Copper Meadows, working with Taren Hoffos, Hawley Bennett-Awad and Robin Garrett. She’ll head back north to Alberta once her early California season completes at Twin Rivers in April.
What about long term plans for her latest Advanced horse? “I do have my eye a little bit on the World Equestrian Games next year,” Leah said. “But it’s not the end all, be all thing for me. If I have the horse at the time, then I’ll give it a shot. But I’ve pushed too hard for certain things before and I’ve had to go back and fix confidence in myself and my horses and fix problems because I pushed too fast. So if I never make a team, that’s okay but if I have the horse then I’d like to go for it.”
Leah Breakley and Master Plan. Photo by Chesna Klimek.
Master Key Eventing
Building a competition career based around the three “Master” horses: Master Plan, Master King II and an up and coming talent Master Class, a big 8-year-old Canadian Warmblood gelding competing at the Preliminary level this year, Leah has created the moniker Master Key Eventing with which to brand herself and her family’s business.
It’s a well thought out plan, with Megann handling the breeding, mom and dad managing the acreage and day to day routine and Leah riding and competing the horses as they come out of the farm.
“I think we’d all like to see the business grow to the point where we’re breeding horses and bringing them up through the levels with the intent to sell them,” Leah said. “Sort of a self-sustaining model. We’re lucky enough to have a place to do everything, and having Spruce Meadows and Anderson Ranch close is great for working on those parts of the sport.”
Photo via Master Key Eventing on Instagram.
Leaving the comfort zone
Leah is no stranger to working hard and making her way using the tools she’s been given, and the work has paid off in spades with talented horses and a blossoming career at a young age. But she’s quick to acknowledge the support of her family and all of the coaches she has worked with through the years.
“It’s great to see Alberta and British Columbia producing some really good young riders now,” she said. “You really have to be willing to push outside of where you’re comfortable to reach your goals. The events in Alberta are great, but you have to travel to go to the upper levels, so you just have to have a good plan for how you’re going to reach those goals.”
“For me, I stay about six months at a time in California before heading back home where I need to continue to work and earn money,” she continued. “But I’m very fortunate to have a place to go when I’m home, and I’m able to structure my season so that I can make the most of both seasons.”
Looking back on her career, Leah still credits Master Plan for really giving her the push she needed to pursue her dreams. “He really ended up being my horse o a lifetime,” she said. “He just loved it and never stopped, and he gave me a place where I wanted to go further than I ever thought.”
