Lots of love for Unmarked Bills. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
Unmarked Bills is a horse that took to eventing like a fish in water.
After a moderately successful career on the racetrack, where he raced 24 times and earned about $64,000, “Billy” was connected to Chris Talley, who quickly took a liking to the Thoroughbred gelding in a plain bay wrapper. A few months after he joined Chris’ program, he emerged as an event horse — and he never looked back.
“I said all along that I thought he was a five-star horse, but a lot of people didn’t see it,” Chris told EN. “He just stepped up to the plate and tried his heart out for me.”
Unmarked Bills would eventually become Chris’ first CCI5* horse, debuting at Kentucky in 2019 and finishing in the top 30. He and Chris would also travel to England and jump around the formidable cross country track at Burghley that fall, but cut their weekend short with a minor setback and withdrew ahead of show jumping.
Just as Chris was legging Billy back up for a return after some time off, COVID hit. “On the way home from Red Hills that year was COVID, and so the world kind of shut down,” he said. “And I was a little unsure of what to do with him. So I gave him a vacation, which was probably what I shouldn’t have done with him because Billy does not like to be on vacation! So he wound himself up in trouble and kind of had a couple of different injuries just from being away in the field and carrying on with his friends. And you know, that took time.”
Chris Talley and Unmarked Bills at Kentucky (2019). Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
In that time, Chris lost his CCI5* qualification, meaning he would have to go back and re-qualify through 4* competition with Billy. He tried several times and failed to obtain a qualifying score, either in the dressage or in the show jumping. Through that, Chris came to a realization. “And at that point, it was kind of more for my dreams of going back to the five-star rather than the horse,” he explained. “And he’s always kind of found the show jumping a little bit hard with the tension and stuff. And I just felt like he was getting older; he’s not that old, but he did just struggle with the tension. He did enough for me. You know, he kind of made my dreams come true. So I kind of wanted to step him down and let him make somebody else’s dreams come true.”
That someone else at first came in the form of Jessica Chappell, a former student of Chris’ whose horse was unable to compete in what would be her first CCI2*-L at Virginia Horse Center in 2022. Jessica “catch rode” Billy in two events, including that first 2*, where they finished in the top 25.
Anna Rose Erickson and Unmarked Bills. Photo by Sally Spickard.
Then in 2024, along came Anna Rose Erickson, a young rider who at first came to Chris’ farm to lease a different horse. When that least wound not up meant to be, Chris felt terrible — and he’d been impressed by the riding skills Anna Rose had shown. “She really impressed me, you know. She’s a good kid, she works hard,” Chris said. “And she was just so sweet when she came out to try that horse. She had dreams of doing Modified this year and Billy was just kind of in the field. I had been a little bit thinking of what to do with him.”
So out Billy came — unclipped, not quite 5* fit, and raring to go. “I promised her he really is beautiful!” Chris laughed. “But I had talked to [Anna Rose’s] mother before and I had said ‘I think I have a really special horse for you’.”
For her part, Anna Rose had competed up to Novice with her previous horse and through Training with another horse, but was looking for something to step up with. “Billy has been a life-changer for me,” she told me. She’d just finished her first Modified at VHC Eventing in Lexington, VA, and both she and her family were on a high. “I never even thought I would have been able to been able to do Training level this year. And it’s just crazy to be able to complete my first Modified now.”
Anna Rose and Billy finished inside the top 10 of that first Modified, and Chris was proud to be an onlooker for the event. “It’s rewarding for me because I’ve done my job for him to be able to be ridden by somebody else, but you always worry when you hand the reins over to somebody else. It’s like, did I do my job right? But she rides beautifully. It’s that kind of fine line with Billy — he’s but he tells you ‘let go of me, I know what I’m doing.’ And she does a perfect job, so it’s really special. She’s in such a short time kind of been able to really figure him out.”
Anna Rose Erickson and Unmarked Bills. Photo by Sally Spickard.
Anna Rose lives in North Carolina and trains with Michelle Hargreaves. She says she’d like to aim for Pony Club Championships in July, but beyond that, she’s mostly enjoying the ride with her very popular partner.
And she appreciates the innate challenge that is taking on a horse, especially one that is, as 5* horses go, on the quirkier side. “It is a little relieving that he didn’t always go perfectly for Chris,” she laughed. “Not in a bad way, but [Billy] is a little bit tricky, so it’s not like I’m being handed this horse that’s just so perfect that you just sit there. He makes me work for it a little, and that makes me feel good.”
“I couldn’t stop smiling afterwards,” Anna Rose said of her first Modified cross country — surely the phase anyone who’d get the lucky chance to take a spin on Billy would look forward to the most. “I was just like, beaming the whole way, and all of the support was so nice.”
Here’s to the horses who teach us along the way. Unmarked Bills has certainly made his mark on the sport of eventing, and on more than one person’s journey through life — and we’re sure this won’t be the last we’ll see of him! Go Eventing.
