We hear all the time about horses at the top of the sport, but what about the next generation of equine talent? EN’s Got Talent introduces the future superstars of the sport, interviewing riders about how they’re tackling training with these youngsters. Have you spotted a spectacular young horse at an event you think should be highlighted in this column? Tip me at [email protected].
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Jen Carter and Sayyida. Photo by Sylvia Palmer/Palmer Photos.
Since EN’s Got Talent launched back in September, I realized we’ve only featured one mare — Jennifer Wooten’s Holsteiner mare Anika. It’s about time we brought some estrogen back to this series, so I’m very excited to introduce Sayyida, a 6-year-old Trakehner mare owned by Sean Tennant and Kyle and Jen Carter. “I originally bought Xena to have her compete and then to add her to my string of broodmares,” Sean said. ”I began having some major medical problems soon after and decided I needed to sell off the others and try to keep my real future star any way that I could. I approached Jen and Kyle in October of 2010 and we agreed to become partners on Xena. They took her into their program after she had just a couple of weeks under saddle.” Jen, who was pregnant at the time, was looking for her next upper-level horse, so the plan was for Kyle to take the ride on Xena until she had the baby.
“She was very green when we got her as a 4-year-old, but for her age she always had a pretty good brain about her,” Jen said. “Kyle always said that for a young, green horse she seemed like she was a lot farther along than she actually was. When she started jumping, Kyle said she was the most natural horse to ride down to a fence and by far the best young horse he’d ever sat on. It was just the way she went to a jump; she had all the right instincts from the very beginning.” Jen had her baby in April 2011 and hopped back in the saddle soon after. She rode in her first event with Xena in July, running novice at Chattahoochie Hills, where the two placed second.
Kyle Carter and Sayyida. Photo by Pearl Macgregor.
“She was going fine at novice, so we decided to go training that fall,”Jen said. “But I wasn’t as fit as I needed to be after having the baby. When I took her to an event at training level, it just didn’t go how I wanted. So Kyle took the ride back, with the idea that I would take over when I was more in shape.” Kyle and Xena ran a full season of training level last year, with Xena ultimately qualifying for the American Eventing Championships. Even though Jen was ready to take the ride back before the AECs, she and Kyle struck a deal that he would keep the ride through the AECs, with Jen finally taking over for good afterward.
Kyle and Xena placed fifth at the AECs, and Jen officially started competing Xena again later in September at Poplar Place. The two placed eighth at Poplar and eighth again at Rocking Horse in November, which was Xena’s final event at training before moving up to preliminary. That event signified a turning point in Jen and Xena’s relationship, which Jen said had been rocky throughout certain points of their partnership together. “To be honest, she and I took awhile to click. It was going fine, but it wasn’t like we were perfect together,” Jen said. “She’s a typical mare — a real relationship horse. She and I have finally started to form a pretty good partnership. It just took awhile, mainly because she and I had different opinions on things. Now I think we’re pretty good together.”
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwIwh3y1VR0
Kyle Carter and Sayyida at Ocala in April 2012
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Next week on EN’s Got Talent: We’ll hear more about Jen and Xena’s first preliminary trip at Ocala, as well as one of the reasons Jen thinks owning mares can be so much fun. “I usually don’t get terribly nervous for cross country, but I was definitely nervous the night before,” Jen said of her first preliminary event with Xena. “I thought it was a big enough course with good technical questions. She handled it great; there was not a single thing she questioned. Between what Kyle had done with her and I had done with her, she’d schooled all the exercises and she’d seen everything she was going to see out there. When you’re at home schooling, you have to put young horses in the right situations so they understand the questions.”
