If you read this blog with any regularity, you deserve a medal may be familiar with the name Chris Barry. I’m happy to report that I’m fast becoming friends with the entire Barry family, having met his sister Lisa at The Fork, and their dad at the competitor’s party there. Lisa and I started talking, as you do, and I told her how impressed I’d been with her cross country round earlier, which I was, but I didn’t even know the half of it…
“Kenzo is the best horse I’ve had thus far, he’s pretty amazing, I got very lucky.”
So says Lisa, but little did she know when she imported him from France that she was about to embark on a journey that perhaps few others would have the patience or fortitude for…
Lisa has ridden with Karen O’Connor since she was a young girl, and has been “in the programme” for the last 8 years. She is currently campaigning a number of young horses – 2 four year-olds, a three year-old, and an intermediate as well as Kenzo, but when she found him just over four years ago, he was her only horse.
“I had been looking for a while, and just couldn’t find anything in the States, so I asked Karen O’Connor, and she told me about Julie Ulrich, this lady over in France who’ll find you anything you need. I gave her a call and ended up going over there with a friend of mine, and with Karen, and we found him!”
“We probably looked at ten horses. When we went to see him he was actually competing at his third one star, and all I knew was that there were a couple of chestnut horses that we were supposed to be watching. I saw him across the ring, and I thought, ‘Oh, I hope that’s the horse I’m meant to be looking at’, and then we wandered around a bit, and after a while Julie told me that “the one with all the white, that’s the one we’re supposed to be looking at” and I was just thrilled, I was like, ‘YES!’ It was so exciting, because he’s such a beautiful mover, and just a lovely type, and I knew right away that I liked him.”
“We ended up trying him after he ran cross country. They did the show jumping and then went straight to cross-country, and I ended up getting on him the next day–the day after he had run cross country, in the pouring rain. We had one set of standards and three rails! There were a couple of French men, myself and Karen and Julie; I got on him and I loved him instantly, it was amazing.”
Unfortunately that’s not where the fairytale ends. Shortly after arriving in the States, Kenzo tied up; an attack that Lisa thinks was probably triggered by the plane flight over from France, and now that it’s happened once, and since then several more times, he will always be more susceptible to attacks,
“The general consensus of the vets is that when they haven’t had an episode occur yet, then it’s a major stress that causes the first one. Probably two or three weeks after he arrived here, I was working out in the field one day, and he didn’t feel quite right, so I hacked him back to the barn and called the vet. I told him he felt weird, that I thought perhaps he might be tying up, but I’d never had a horse tie up with me before so I really had no idea what was going on. The vet came out and did a blood test, and sure enough he’d had an episode. Then it happened a few more times, and I called around and got in touch with the breeder, the rider, the owner, the vet, anyone who’d been in touch with the horse in France, but he’d never had any issue before.”
Lisa and her vets surmised that the plane journey must have brought on the attack, but that Kenzo does not suffer from classic azoturia,
“It’s been a long process these last four years learning how to manage it, because it’s not actually azoturia although it has similar symptoms; it’s a genetic disease, it’s within his cells. It’s a build up of glycogen in his muscles, not lactic acid which is what happens in azoturia. He’s like a diabetic, basically.”
Lisa has learned how to manage him,
“He’s turned out all the time, and he’s muzzled because the grass has too much sugar. He can’t eat hay because it has too much sugar, although it’s not that his body can’t process the sugar, it’s that he produces excess glycogen which is why he needs to keep moving, because the more he moves, the more he burns the sugar and excess glycogen he naturally produces, plus the suger in all the stuff he ends up eating, just in general there’s a bit of sugar in almost everything. I do the best I can with the products I use, but basically he’s just got to keep moving as much as possible.”
Obviously, taking care of his needs while at shows is more difficult,
“I get up every four or five hours and walk him for ten to fifteen minutes. During the day I try and get him out of the stall, including a ride, about five or six times. It is pretty seriously high maintenace but he’s a pretty amazing horse. I’ve been told by tons and tons of people hundreds and hundreds of times to give up with him, but I never will. I love him so much, and he’s given me so much already, I just couldn’t give up on him, I’ve tried everything and anything I could think of to make him healthy. As far as I’m concerned he’s the best horse I’ve ever had, and I owe it to him to try and figure it out, so that people can know how wonderful he is. Also so that I can show the world, apart from anything else, that you can really manage a difficult case like this. I know that there are other horses with this disease, and generally it’s like a curse. Once they’re diagnosed, they stop competing because most people feel like there’s nothing you can do. I know for sure that Kenzo’s case, blood work and records are being used by by the top specialists in the country to research, study, and teach about the disease, because they have literally never seen a horse compete at this level with this disease as severe as his is. “
Lisa has not only managed Kenzo and his disease, but been pretty successful in her own right; her record speaks for itself. After finishing 7th in the Intermediate Championships last year, Kenzo and her have yet to have a cross-country penalty or a rail down show-jumping this year, and have finished 5th in the Advanced at Rocking Horse in February, 3rd in the Advanced at Red Hills, and most recently 14th in the CIC 3* at The Fork. It’s been over a year now since Kenzo’s last attack.
“He’s done several 2*’s, but because we’ve been managing his disease he’s probably several years behind his talent level. We’re headed to Jersey Fresh, and then hopefully Fair Hill in the fall, but we’ll have to see how that goes.”
Would Lisa ever contemplate flying Kenzo again?
“Well, that has crossed my mind recently, after we did so well at Red Hills and then this weekend at The Fork. He’s going quite well, and I really feel like he has the potential to one day be a team horse. It’s definitely a thought in my head. I don’t know – because I’ve managed him, and I’ve competed him, and he’s healthy and he seems to be doing really well, it might not be an issue, but there’s really just no way to tell.”
In the meantime, Lisa herself will be flying to England on Friday morning, to join Steph Rhodes-Bosch at Badminton, where she’ll be looking after Port Authority as a groom,
“That’s a very big compliment. I’m honoured to be a part of the whole thing, and that she asked me to go, and I can’t wait. I think Steph is going to rock around like a champion: she’s got her head on her shoulders, she is probably the most composed 23 year old I have ever met, and she is a serious competitor with an incredible horse. I think the world has to watch out because she’s coming for them! She’s on it – she was 5th at Kentucky last spring, 9th at the Worlds in the fall, and would have been 4th if she hadn’t rolled that rail, and she just barely touched it. I’m not going to put any bets on anything, but I just think she’s going to have a really good weekend, and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
It’s Lisa’s first visit to Badminton, and on her return she comes straight to Rolex to groom for Jessica Phoenix,
before heading back home to prepare her own horse for Jersey Fresh. While she’s away, guess who keeps everything running smoothly….?!
“I am so incredibly proud. I can’t thank my mom enough. She has helped me so much with this horse; it’s been a long road but an extremely rewarding one. He’s pretty special. The healthier he feels, the more he wants to do it; he loves the sport, he loves it, he just eats it up.”
Wishing Lisa, Steph and Jessie the very best of luck in their three day events in the coming weeks. Many thanks to Lisa for talking to us so openly about her beloved horse, and the struggles she’s had to overcome. Thank you for reading, and Go Eventing!
