Somehow in the middle of organising a weekend of both national and international events, a long format three day event and future event horse classes all of which added up to some six hundred horses converging on Rebecca Farm, Sarah Broussard-Kelly managed to sit down for a brief chat with me. I’d like to thank her for taking the time to talk to Eventing Nation, and for showing us such wonderful hospitality all weekend.
Not only was 2011 a milestone for the The Event at Rebecca Farm because it was the tenth anniversary of the competition, but it was also of course the first year without Sarah’s mother, Becky Broussard at the helm. Sarah, a keen rider and eventer herself, knows she has big shoes to fill, but has been groomed for the job by the very best, and has had plenty of time to hone her skills,
“I’ve been involved organising the event here at Rebecca Farm with Mom, since the inception, since 2002. Before that I helped with being the secretary at Herron Park Horse Trials which was a local horse trial that we had here in the Kalispell area. That had just grown too big, and that was what drove my mother and father to find this property and create this course. So I’ve been the Secretary here since the beginning; four or five years ago we hired Christina Gray ( now also of Rolex fame!) to help with that, and theoretically my mom kept saying she was going to retire as Organiser and I was going to take over, and we even called her Organiser Emeritus, but it was her baby, she just wouldn’t let go! Last year she was supposed to be out of it as far as the organisational side went, but she still pretty much did everything, and was continuing to do a lot of stuff for this year. Since January I’ve had to figure out what I’m supposed to be doing as an Organiser because she never let me do any of it before, and then, once I had that figured out, figure out what she’d already done, because she had done quite a bit for this year! It’s been an interesting six months, my learning curve has been quite steep, and so at least now having one year under my belt as the “only” organiser, I’ll do better next year.”
Sarah sells herself short; the event ran like clockwork all weekend. Five dressage arenas, three show-jumping rings, a long and packed day of cross country action, and everyone absolutely thrilled to be in Montana,
“My mother had a great group of people here that are very good at their portion of the puzzle, that are still here, and without having those people here I’d be lost. We all work well together, we all know that everyone is going to do what they’re supposed to do, everyone knows what their job is, so that makes it very much easier on me.”
Sarah last competed a couple of summers ago on the former Ralph Hill ride, My Boy Billy, a match made by Karen O’Connor, and an extremely successful one, “we had an absolute blast”. Sarah also just acquired another horse after a chance ride at a Leslie Law clinic at her farm on a mare “that made me look good after not being in the saddle for eight months and was so much fun”, and course builder Bert Wood actually competed her in the Training Division at Rebeca Farm. The sculpture of Sarah and Guinness, see picture at top, is her on her young rider horse who she sadly lost on course in 1994, and there is a wonderful award in his name – The Guinness Award Perpetual Trophy is awarded to the Highest Placed Young Rider each year at Rebecca Farm, along with a cheque for $1,000. It’s just one of a long list of extra awards that make The Event feel so special and like one of the premier three days of the world. (Of course my favourite is the TS Maxwell award given to the highest placed OTTB in the preliminary division – it’s the little touches!)
The amazing new show-jump standards for 2011
Sarah lives on site with her two young children and she tells me there’s usually an assortment of older horses and ponies in the paddocks for them to ride, and play around on. She laughs and tells me that even though her daughter is barely trotting, all she wants to do is jump, and so she’s picked out a future eventer for her already, perhaps the nice Irish horse that she had going in the YR prelim this weekend!
“IF eventing is what she likes to do. At this point she likes to ride, they both like to ride (Sarah’s daughter is 7 years old, her son is 5 and a half) but I’m not going to force them one way or another, although I will say she’s barely off the lead line, can’t control her pony to go anywhere, and every time we go up to the arena all she wants to do is jump!”
Sarah says that Montana is a wonderful place to raise her children, and of course a fantastic venue for The Event at Rebecca Farm, and usually the most difficult hurdle is persuading people to come for the first time; after they’ve visited once, generally they’re hooked,
“For all those first time competitors that have never been to Rebecca Farm that I try to convince to come, I tell them it’s a vacation. This valley has so much to offer. I tell them to bring the whole family, plan the vacation with your husband/wife/kids; whoever isn’t competing can go hiking, fishing, zip-lining, whitewater-rafting…. There’s just so much to do here, not to mention the beauty of the valley, and the graciousness of the community and once I get people here then they’re addicted!”
On the wednesday evening of this year’s competition there was a special ceremony to commemorate Becky’s life, and after pictures, speeches, food, drinks, laughter and a few tears, everyone laid a flower at the water’s edge in her memory. What is astounding is how many people Becky touched throughout her life, and how wonderful that her legacy will carry on in such tremendous style, just as she would have wished.
“My mother really wanted to have a showcase event for the riders in the West so they didn’t have to travel East in order to qualify to go international or anything like that, so we created The Event here at Rebecca Farm. She wanted it to be a true international event, with true international flavour. With having the horses from the East, obviously that’s the first step; the next step would be having the Europeans come over. I don’t think they really travel internationally for a three star competition so there is that speed bump, but having the East Coast horses come really made her happy last year. I don’t think happy even encompasses it, she was proud, she was excited, she was honoured, there are so many adjectives I could use to describe how my mother felt last year when that plane (Air Horse One) landed in Kalispell, it was amazing.”
Sarah is a lot like her mother, with big heart and big dreams, so it didn’t feel completely out of the realm of all possibility when I asked her if she’d ever considered having a four star event at Rebecca Farm?
“I have thought about it, I’m not going to say that I haven’t. I’ve also been very interested in hosting Young Rider Championships; there is always that possibility if we could pull it away from the Kentucky Horse Park that I would put a bid in. I know that at one point they were trying to find a permanent home for Young Riders, and as much as I’d like it be somewhere else, I know that Kentucky is a good place for it – it’s a wonderful facility, it’s fairly centrally located and they have good courses. I have wanted to run a CCI 3*, we only have the CIC 3*, but Robert Kellerhouse has the CCI 3* at Galway, and my mother very graciously said to let Robert have it, and we were curious if the West would be able to support two? As far as a four star – I’m not going to say no, but I’m not going to say that I have any plans at this point in time.”
“I feel confident that we are carrying on in the way that she would want us to.”
Again, many thanks to Sarah for her time. Thank you for reading and Go Eventing!
