Mary Bess Davis and Imperio Magic. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
Mary Bess Davis is one of several riders making a splashing CCI5* debut at the Defender Kentucky Three Day Event this month. She’ll be partnered with her own 11-year-old Anglo European gelding Imperio Magic to take on their biggest challenge yet.
Considering Mary Bess’ early life, it’s no surprise she’s ended up a professional rider. Daughter of FEI veterinarian Dr. Mike Sigman, she grew up on the family farm in Covington, GA, where she was around horses since she was a little girl.
“I’ve been around horses my whole life, but I really started learning about all the disciplines through Pony Club,” she said. “I started doing Pony Club and did a little bit of three day eventing, a little hunting, and then actually started vaulting. I stopped eventing after I was 14, and didn’t really ride that much after that—I just vaulted competitively until I was 19. My brother had evented growing up. That’s part of why I initially chose vaulting—I didn’t want to do what my brother did.”
She put horses on the back burner when she went to college at the University of Georgia, but got pulled back in by those family ties.
“My dad actually got me back into eventing because when my brother went to college, he quit riding. My dad started riding his horses to keep them in shape, and then he started eventing when he was 52,” she said. “My dad was like, ‘Hey, you should come go eventing with me,’ so we got a lower level horse and I just did it for fun with my dad.”
Mary Bess Davis and Imperio Magic at Boekelo. Photo by Tilly Berendt.
“My mom and dad bought me a Thoroughbred at the Novice level, and that little horse took me from Novice to Advanced,” she continued. “By that point, I think I was a senior in college. I started running a barn and just took off from there. I’ve never looked back. It all just kind of fell into place the way it was supposed to.”
Mary Bess’ business continued to boom, and she eventually relocated her program to the family farm in Covington. By 2008, Mary Bess had brought three other horses to the Advanced level and had been named to the USEF Developing Rider List. While she continued training horses and teaching students, the next decade of her life was focused on her family as she welcomed two sons with husband Mark Davis. Once the boys were school age, Mary Bess’ competitive aspirations reignited. She turned to her former coach, Canadian Mike Winter, for a horse shopping trip with the goal of bringing home two horses: one to sell and one to keep.
Mary Bess Davis and Imperio Magic. Photo by Shannon Brinkman.
“Mike found McColl and said, ‘This is the horse.’ I hadn’t even sat on him, but Mike knew me and my type really well. He told me, ‘Just don’t sell him too quickly—I think this is the one you’re going to want to keep,’ she recalled. “We laugh about that now because after I saw him jump, I pretty much knew he wasn’t going anywhere. My husband is very understanding, so I actually kept both horses I bought—one for myself and McColl, who was meant to be an investment. The other went up to the three-star level, and McColl just kept going.”
It was that trip that gave the striking bay gelding his barn name, McColl, after the name of a pub where over a few drinks, Mary Bess was able to convince her husband to buy both horses. Once stateside, McColl (Cassander C x Khadijah Des Layettes, by Banboula du Thot) and Mary Bess clicked together like a puzzle, and he quickly brought her back to the four-star level after a ten hear hiatus.
“He’s always understood things—if I present it in a way he can understand, he’s in. He’s so brave. It was just easy. We had to be careful not to move him up too quickly. I got him when he was just turning six, and then he went to the Fair Hill three-star as a seven-year-old—he hadn’t done anything before that. So he basically went from Beginner Novice to the three-star at Fair Hill in a year. That just shows how incredible he is—how smart, how much he gets it, and how much he loves it. He kind of plays with it—he really thinks it’s fun,” she said.
McColl with his groom Courtney Lucas. Photo courtesy of Mary Bess Davis.
While he can be quirky in the warmup, in the barn he’s a complete “pet,” especially to Mary Bess’ groom Courtney Lucas.
“He’s so precious. He is a pet, through and through. He just loves everyone. He wants to be in everybody’s pocket in the barn—he’s just a love. So sensible, sweet, and kind,” she said. “[McColl and Courtney] are inseparable. I can’t say enough. She stares at him all the time, spends so much time making sure he’s just right. I’m very, very thankful. She loves him just as much as I do, which is so special. I always know she loves him just as much as I do, so it’s easy to have her take care of him.”
For most upper level competitors, getting to the five-star level is the ultimate goal, but Mary Bess is exceedingly realistic, so she turned her attention away from her highest aspirations, and instead focused on the experience of bringing along a talented horse. McColl blossomed in the sport with this mindset, quickly bounding from his first event to the Advanced level in just two years. In the last two seasons they’ve picked up two top-ten CCI4*-L finishes stateside and were 19th in their overseas debut at Military Boekelo CCIO4*-L last autumn.
“You know, getting a five-star horse is so hard—finding one, especially without a lot of funding. The goal was just to go back to the upper levels, be out there, enjoy it, have goals to work toward, and be competitive. That was pretty much it. This is just the icing on the cake. I’ve had three other horses qualified for [Kentucky] but I never got to go. That was never really the goal, even though it was always the dream. I never gave up on the dream, but I’m also, sadly, very realistic. So [with McColl], I really just took it easy and enjoyed the journey. It’s been such a gift—I didn’t expect it. Then with him, I started to think it might all be possible. But I never let myself get too excited, because you just never know.”
The Kentucky start box looms nearer and nearer, but life on the farm continues at its usual chaotic pace as she balances horses and family. Mary Bess sat down to talk with EN in a short window of time between getting home from Stable View–where she and McColl finished 7th in the 4*– traveling across the state for her son’s soccer game, and organizing an 8th birthday party two weeks before cross country day. All this made possible by her invauable support system.
Mary Bess with her sons, Grayson and Austin, and Karen O’Connor at the Kentucky 4*-S in 2024. Photo courtesy of Mary Bess.
“It’s wild. It’s all in every direction but thankfully, I have the best team ever so that I can be in different places and you know that [the horses] are all taken care of. Natalie Barnes and Felipe Patiño take care of the barn when I’m away and Courtney travels with me. My mom lives right next-door and then my mother-in-law is right around the corner so anytime I leave she comes to help which is amazing. Everything is taken care of for me because I just have such great people in my life, which is just lucky,” she said.
The competition and riding goals are squared away, thanks to invaluable expertise she’s gotten from longtime coaches Karen O’Connor and Mike Winter, and now it’s time to put pen to paper, so to say, and get the weekend started.
“It’s all the emotions daily. He looks great, but of course, I want to check on him all the time. You go through every emotion—one minute you feel ready, the next you’re second-guessing everything. But I am excited. I’m trying to remember to be excited with everything else going on. Everything looks really good. He’s so confident and so fit right now, so I feel confident—at least as confident as I can, going into something I’ve never done.”
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