Show jumper Kyle King has long thought of Spruce Meadows, where the native Californian first competed as a 14-year-old, as a second home. That decades-long connection to the venue made his clear round and jump-off aboard Kayenne Z in the $5 million ($3.62 million USD) CPKC ‘International’ CSI5 Grand Prix on Sept. 7 an especially meaningful career milestone. King stood second on the podium beside winner Scott Brash, collecting $735,300 USD of the biggest purse in the show’s 50-year history.

King’s 10-year-old partner “Kaya” (Kannan—Alexsandria, Canezaro) had previously competed up to the four-star level in Europe before King took on the mare as a sale project in early 2025. It took only a few months of working with the Zangersheide before he realized that with every increasing challenge, Kaya got better. He made a plan to secure the mare, knowing he’d never had a horse quite like her, and moved her up to the five-star level in June.

“She’s impressive,” said King, 50, who now lives in Langley, British Columbia. “When you’re around her, you feel it. She’s got the ‘it factor.’ ” 

In Sunday’s grand prix, King felt the mare rise to the occasion once again, tackling one of the sport’s most demanding courses with her signature sense of ease.

“Honestly it felt like I was jumping a 1.20-meter course the other day,” he said. “You’re not looking at the jump cantering down to them thinking, ‘Oh, they’re big,’ when you’re on her. You really feel like you have this tremendous power underneath you—tons of ability, careful, smart. She’s got it all.”

We caught up with King to learn more about Kaya, whom his team lovingly calls “Big Momma,” and to learn more about his plans for the talented mare following their near-win at Spruce Meadows. 

Congratulations on your weekend. Can you tell me about the first round and the feeling of making the jump-off?

You know, when I walked the first round, everybody’s always so excited to see what’s going to be set out there in a class like that. We knew there would be something special. The first thing we kind of all noticed was the water jump with a pole in the middle of it. So, you know, it’s a 10- or 11-foot water jump and then, like, a 1.50-meter vertical in the middle of it. It was very intimidating looking. We don’t get to see that kind of stuff very often. So that was the first thing that got everybody’s attention, and it turned out to be a pretty good jump to jump. 

Then there was the skinny [before the open water]. It was a little bit of a question; some people were getting seven or eight to the water. When I walked it, my first instinct was to get the seven, which I thought would make the six, and then the five [to the next two fences] ride better for my mare. That’s what I ended up doing, and that worked out pretty good. That was about the time I kind of settled down. 

Kaya tried really hard. I got some really lucky rubs through the triple combination [which led into the last fence]. It was a great feeling, jumping the last jump, looking up and realizing you’re clean in a class like that. Those are the little moments you dream about. For sure, it was one of those moments—all these years and training build up to a moment like that. Then to be able to pull it off was pretty cool.

[Watch their second-round performance, which earned them a jump-off spot as just one of two riders with a single rail down.]

What did you think when you’re suddenly in a two rider jump-off with Scott Brash, the only person who’s ever won the Rolex Grand Slam?

Again, it’s one of those dream scenarios. That’s exactly what you dream up. I was pretty happy with myself—the way I conducted my head, anyway—through the whole thing. I was in a good zone. I was in there to compete, and I was going to win it. 

It was just down to us two. So I got on and they said [Brash] was heading up to the ring. I got ready and jumped; I just wanted to jump in the paddock, because I had just come out of the ring. They said he pulled a shoe. So then it was kind of like icing the kicker; I had to sit there for about five or six minutes—the longest five or six minutes of my life. But I kept it together. 

My wife [Emily King] was there, and I had Tiffany Foster on the ground. She’s been in that situation a lot, and it was really nice to have her kind of there on the ground just kind of helping me through. 

I stood in the in-gate and watched [Brash] go and saw what I needed to do. And, oh man, I thought I did it! I knew I was pretty quick on the rollback to the wall. That showed up just beautiful. And then I just caught a really good one coming around the end of the double. I knew I was ahead on time. I slowed down, got on her hocks to the planks to make the rollback [on the third to last fence] and just rubbed it behind. 

Watch King’s jump-off round, courtesy of ClipMyHorse.tv:

Honestly, I haven’t really had time to watch it. Obviously I ended up second, but like I said, it’s a career moment—what you dreamed about your whole life and to be lined up and have a seat at the table and walk in there, I was very proud of my mare’s performance and my performance.

I read that you do like to watch videos of your riding. What do you think it will feel like to watch this one?

Oh, it’ll be super exciting. I’m sure I’ll analyze it. Nick Skelton told me after that if I would have left that step out, I probably had a better chance of leaving that plank up. I’m kind of dying to watch that, because in my head, I was thinking about making the turn on the backside of it. You don’t want to go run at the planks either, but he’s obviously the master, and I’m kind of curious to watch that back and see.

Tell me about this mare. Where did she come from, and how did that partnership come together for you two?

I got super lucky. She was [ridden] by Ann Carton-Grootjans. Very good friends of mine for many years, Michael Korompis and Kirsten Rombouts, they’re partners in Europe, and they’re who I trust finding horses for me over there. I had gone over looking for a horse this time last, and they had taken me to Ann’s stables to try another horse.

I wasn’t in any position to try that mare; I was trying some younger horses. And then when I came back this winter, Michael called me and asked me if I’d be interested in taking Kayenne, and getting her sold in America.

I think she got there kind of the middle of February. She’d been in quarantine for a month, so I put her in a couple 1.30-meter rounds. Didn’t think all that much. I’d seen some videos of her jumping some 1.50-meter classes, but the rideability was a little different, and I wasn’t totally sold on her. Then I moved her up to the 1.40 meters, and she was a lot better. Then I put her in a 1.45-meter class, and she was even better. 

Then I put her in a 1.50-meter class one night in really weird conditions: a windstorm, very spooky. I almost scratched, but I’m glad I didn’t because I learned a lot about her that night. She went clear and ended up really good in the jump-off. And then at that moment, I knew that I had something pretty cool. I was sitting on a really cool horse, and was trying to figure out how to secure her for my future for myself. 

One of my very good friends, Greg Tomb, stepped up and backed me on securing her for the future, and that was just done right before we went to Spruce Meadows. We went to Spruce, and she just kind of grew and grew and grew. We got second the Queen Elizabeth Cup, and then got ourselves invited to the [Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’]. We fought hard all week and got qualified, which it was not an easy task to even qualify for the grand prix this year. She then fought her way all the way into second place in the biggest grand prix in the world. That’s pretty cool. 

It seems like you have spent a lot of time at Spruce Meadows over the years. I’m wondering if there’s a familiarity with the venue that you think kind of helped you with this recent success.

Oh, one hundred percent. Spruce Meadows, I know very, very well. I’ve been coming up here since I rode in that ring when I was 14 for the first time, which, you do the math! That’s a long time ago. I know that ring very well, and I’m very comfortable in it. 

I’ve lived in Calgary for a lot of time, a lot of summers, and it does feel like home. I feel like I have a home-field advantage, and then I also show up there all summer. So I couldn’t have had a better training grounds to get ready for what we just did.

It’s so interesting to hear you say that the higher you raise the fences, and the tougher the conditions, the more the horse rises to the occasion. What in her personality do you attribute that to?

She’s just one of those special mares. I used to always get the mares and stallions that were difficult back in the day, but I haven’t had a really good mare in a while—and maybe never quite like this one. She’s very intelligent. She’s like a bull, very strong in her body, but very willing. 

What’s next? What are your goals with Kaya?

What’s next up is pretty cool. I caught a spot on one of the Major League Show Jumping teams, the Northern Lights. So I’m going to join up with the Major League five-star tour here starting in two weeks. I go back and do Connecticut, New York and then Tryon. 

So she gets a few weeks to recover, we go back, and we do one big five-star, and then a week off, and then two more big five-stars. She’s got a lot of work ahead of her, but she does need the miles at this level and some different venues. 

We’re going to be busy the rest of the season. I gave her a really big break after the summer series of Spruce, anticipating this big push. She had six weeks of downtime after Spruce Meadows in the summer, so she should be just right for this push.

The post Ringside Chat: Kayenne Z Is Spicing Up Kyle King’s Career appeared first on The Chronicle of the Horse.

“I just always went in for practice—no pressure, no expectation, no nothing—and he always delivered,” she said. “So I was like, ‘Havens, just because it’s a big class, you cannot ride him more. You cannot try to get a rub [in warm-up]—don’t do any of that stuff. Just ride him the way you’ve always ridden him.’ So that was a little bit hard for me. I had to keep telling myself, ‘Easy, easy.’ ”

As they walked into the ring, “CB” certainly took notice of the bigger atmosphere. His head came up, and he eyed his surroundings, so Schatt took her time before picking up the canter, making a bigger courtesy circle than she normally would for a class of this caliber, but her primary goal was giving him a good experience.

“The first probably four jumps, I felt like I kind of needed to hold his hand a little bit and just be a little bit not as brilliant as sometimes you would want for a class like that,” she said. “But I think his jumping style was covered up a lot, and by the in-and-out to the last two lines, he was just in the groove then, and I could let go of his head a little bit and just kind of get to the jump and let him explode over the jump.”

Schatt was first in the class and had to wait for remainder of the competitors to go to see whether their scores could hold up. Initially she figured they’d get pushed down the leaderboard given the quality of horses in the field, but one by one they failed to catch her, and her hopes soared. By the end of the 15-horse class, Schatt was thrilled to find herself atop the final standings.

“That class, on that day, at that time of the month or the year, suited that type of horse perfectly,” she said.

Schatt first purchased CB last September off a video with the idea that he could be an equitation horse. Though he had a beautiful jump, he didn’t have the daisy-cutter movement of the complete package for a junior or amateur hunter.

“He’s just like a big puppy dog,” she said. “He’s really, really tall, so he’s always got to put his head down for you to pet him or whatever, and he’s always more than willing for you to pet him and feed him treats. For the most part, he’s quiet and he’s super, super willing, like he didn’t even think twice about going in there and doing exactly what I told him to do.”

Watch their winning round, courtesy of ClipMyHorse.TV:

Since he was still green, and it’s so expensive to keep horses in her winter base in Wellington, Florida, Schatt decided to send him to fellow hunter rider Tim Maddrix in Ocala, Florida, to get his initial show miles. When it was time to head back north to Lexington, Kentucky, Schatt took him back and later sold part-ownership to Caroline Oliver with the idea of making him Oliver’s equitation horse. Schatt showed him sparingly, but she found that judges were often scoring him in the 90s.

Nonetheless, at the beginning of last week, CB wasn’t her intended mount for the classic. Initially she thought she’d ride Julia McNerney’s Cascartini, who she’s ridden in USHJA international hunter derbies and on whom she’d qualified for the ClipMyHorse.TV Hunter Classic earlier in the year.

Though Schatt competes in Wellington at the Winter Equestrian Festival over the winter, she made a pair of trips up to HITS Ocala in order to qualify for the classic to support her friend, HITS Chief Customer Officer Joe Norick, who asked if she’d consider participating. HITS hosts six qualifiers across the Ocala and Saugerties series, and riders must place first through third in one of those classes to qualify for the classic, where they are limited to one horse.

On her first trip to Ocala, Schatt entered three of her green hunters, but the conditions weren’t favorable for their education level, with the class taking place in the early evening on a rainy, windy day. While they went well, mistakes kept them out of podium placings. On her second trip north, she tacked up the reliable Cascartini with the goal of putting in a solid round. They finished third, cementing Schatt’s spot in the final.

“It was a little bit more nerve-wracking to know if you wanted to go for that big money [in the final], you had to make this happen,” she said. “And like I said, we spend our winters in Wellington, so it’s a lot to ask the clients to go up there to qualify for the class.”

But “Marty” made the trips to Ocala worth it, and Schatt’s team arrived in Saugerties planning to enter him in the classic.

CB had come to Saugerties primarily to go in equitation classes with Oliver, who is a working student for Schatt. But when the 7-year-old Oldenburg (Chacoon Blue—Coquista PS, Balou Du Reventon) won a 3’3″ performance hunter class with Schatt, they started considering entering him instead. After Marty took second in the $40,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby, which was intended to be his warm-up, they all sat down to make a plan, ultimately deciding McNerney’s horse had done enough for the week, and that the classic could be a good experience for CB.

Schatt thinks CB’s relative inexperience benefited him in the ClipMyHorse.TV Hunter Classic. The one-round class featured more classic hunter fences, and she felt that, while more experienced horses might not find the jumps interesting, CB still did and would maintain his expressive jump.

“I think you need a fresh horse that hadn’t been everywhere, seen everything, to think OK it’s another round, but you need one brave enough and solid enough to go in there and deliver,” she said.

The post Last-Minute Horse Swap Pays Off For Schatt In Saugerties appeared first on The Chronicle of the Horse.

Leaving home to follow horses runs in the family: Jeannie moved at 16 to work at a pony breeding farm on the other side of New Zealand. When Jeannie met Cook’s father, they moved to his family’s sheep farm where they raised three daughters and a handful of ponies alongside their wooly flocks.

Nicky was the only one of the children who truly caught the riding bug, though. She grew up showing, participating in Pony Club, and hunting in the winter.

“Real hunting, not American hunting,” Nicky said. “Our ponies did everything.”

After graduating from high school and spending some time in Canada, she completed a teacher education program, hoping for a job in a country school so she could stay on the family farm and continue riding for fun. When she couldn’t find a job locally, and she didn’t want to teach in South Auckland, she said, “I ran away to Ireland.”

“The family was super nice,” she said of working at Ballymacoll Stud in County Meath. “Their kids were our age, and there were a lot of Kiwis, and it was like a big family. We went on holidays and traveled around the country. I think I’ve been to every stud in Ireland.”

But life at a Thoroughbred breeding farm lacked the excitement that young Nicky craved. The job largely entailed turning out the mares and young horses and doing stalls before bringing them in, and it grew boring.

She interviewed for a teaching job at a school in Ireland but wasn’t offered the position. If she wanted to teach, she was told, she should try London, where there were more available jobs.

“I’m not really a city girl,” she said. “That just wasn’t going to happen.”

So she bummed about Ireland for a few more years, milking cows in Tipperary, nannying a bit, and working at a boutique with a friend, until an ad in Horse & Hound for an eventing groom caught her eye.

The ad sparked a memory she hadn’t thought of in years: Seeing Mark Todd and Charisma after the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when his team toured around his home country of New Zealand, celebrating his individual gold medal and team bronze. Nicky remembered talking to Todd’s groom, Helen Gifford, intrigued by her tales of the team’s travels around the globe.

“I’m a Kiwi,” she said, laughing. “We’re on the bottom of the world and so far away from everything. All we want to do is travel!”

She was offered that first grooming job, kicking off an unexpected career. For four seasons she was an eventing groom at various barns in Ireland, learning the trade in real time.

“At one of the first events I went to, I had to put in a fake tail for the dressage. I’d never done that before, and it fell out in the warm-up,” she recalled. “I heard a nearby big-league rider say, ‘Sack the groom.’ ”

But thankfully, she found a veteran groom at her barn who was willing to show her the ropes.

“I had an older, experienced groom who became my mentor,” she said, “and I picked up so much from her, and from watching others at all different barns.”

Sometimes Cook’s only responsibility was to groom. But other times, she hacked horses out and even had opportunities to compete. 

“Looking back, I don’t know how I did it,” she said of the competitions where she was both groom and competitor. “I’d have half a dozen horses to groom, and I was eventing myself. It was a lot.”

Then tragedy struck. Nicky was working for 28-year-old Beijing Olympic hopeful Sherelle Duke of Ireland when Duke suffered a fatal fall on the cross-country course at the 2006 Brockenhurst Park Horse Trials (England). It shook Nicky to the core.

“It took me a long time to watch cross-country again,” she said.

Nicky thought she needed a break from the eventing world. She answered another ad for a show jumping position with Malaysian rider Syed Omar Almohdzar, who was living in Belgium and needed a groom for the Southeast Asian Games. Nicky was up for the adventure and traveled with the team for a month to Thailand.

Shortly after the SEA Games and the team’s return to Belgium, Nicky was hand-walking an injured horse in the indoor. It was Christmas Day, and she was chatting with her mom as she circled the ring. But suddenly the horse bolted, leapt forward then kicked back, breaking Nicky’s arm.

Casting the arm for six weeks was the prescribed treatment, but the bone didn’t heal as hoped. Two months later her arm was still giving her trouble, so she returned to New Zealand where she underwent surgery to put in supportive plate, followed by two months of rehab. 

While recovering, Cook searched for the next interesting position. She was itching to return to Canada, where she’d spent some time between high school and university.

“I applied for every single job in Canada,” she said. “But didn’t hear from anyone.”

That is, until she heard from Millar Brooke Farm, the home facility of Olympian Ian Millar and his daughter Amy Millar, now an Olympian too. Nicky took a position as Amy’s groom. When Ian’s former groom left after the 2008 Olympics, Nicky took over his horses.

“I did two [Florida seasons] with Ian,” Nicky said, “then ended up working for some other riders who needed grooming help at competitions.”

Those riders included Germany-based Irish rider Denis Lynch and his mount All Star 5, whom Nicky called “really special,” and whom she’d known and worked with as a young horse. But the travel and showing was getting to her, and she was starting to feel burnt out.

“So I took a home job at Mark Armstrong’s in England,” she said. “I refused to go to horse shows, but I kept everything fit and going at home.”

Nicky was also struggling with her old arm injury, as the plate was acting up. She returned to New Zealand to have the plate removed, and while she was stir-crazy in recovery from her second surgery, she interviewed to be a jet boat driver in Kawarau Gorge between Queenstown and Cromwell.

“I made it to the last two candidates” she said, “but they gave it to the other guy because he had more mechanical knowledge.”

Once the arm had healed, jet-boat-captain dreams aside, Nicky returned to North America and bounced around for a while, freelancing and grooming for different riders.

While in Wellington in early 2024, Nicky learned that Aaron Vale was looking for a show groom. Vale was excited about the possibility of bringing such an experienced and knowledgeable groom into his program.

“I knew that she had worked for lots of top people,” he said. “She’s been there and done it. From the beginning I just felt like I could trust her completely, and I have never felt like I had to be checking to see if she’d done this or that. I know that when I’m not there, she’s still doing things 100% how we want it, or sometimes even better than you’d actually do it yourself.”

Vale was making a run for the Olympics, so Nicky spent that summer in Europe with his team. Just recently, she returned from another overseas tour with Vale that included Rotterdam (the Netherlands), Aachen (Germany), Dublin and Dinard (France), where he and Carissimo 25 won the $582,280 Rolex Grand Prix Ville de Dinard CSI5*.

Nicky loves the adventure that comes with show grooming and doesn’t plan to stop anytime soon.

She’s learned something new about caring for horses at each of her stops around the globe, and she’s added those methods and tips to her ever-growing tool box to help her equine charges.

“I have seen so many different levels of turnout around the world,” she said. “And I truly believe that it’s best for horses to have as much as possible. When we travel now, I try really hard to make sure that the horses are out every day and look for places with turnout paddocks.”

“And I believe so strongly in getting horses out of the ring for their fitness work,” she continued. “We are close to some woods, and I love to take horses in there and do fitness, trotting around in there. When I ride them for fitness, I avoid the ring.”

Her final, and most important takeaway: “Anything you can do to keep them happy, you should,” she said. “You’re going to get a better performance in the ring from a happier horse.”

The post Nicola Cook Has Traveled The World With Horses appeared first on The Chronicle of the Horse.

A life with horses means a life outdoors, hours spent in shadeless arenas and caring for horses under the glare of the sun. For many equestrians, excessive exposure to ultraviolet rays is a fact of life—and for those equestrians who spend much of their life on the road, getting to a dermatologist for regular skin screenings to detect sun damage and potential skin cancer can be a challenge.

That’s why a horse show family from Louisiana has created SunSafe Equestrian, a nonprofit organization that brings skin care to the horse show, offering free skin cancer screenings, skin protection tips and free sunscreen samples at horse shows.

Sisters Stella and Vivian Prather-Silva, ages 14 and 12, respectively, have been riding ever since Stella took her first lesson at age 6. The girls have grown up knowing the importance of sun safety thanks to their father, Dr. Chad Prather, a dermatologist with a practice based in their hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Prather has been a dermatologist for the past 20 years and specializes in detecting and treating skin cancer, cosmetic reconstruction, and cosmetic work. 

“I see patients from all walks of life,” he said. “There are certain fields that we see people with lots of skin damage [from the sun], and we see that in such a big degree within our equestrian community. Many of my days are spent removing skin cancer and fighting the effects of long-term sun exposure.”

Late last year, the family created SunSafe Equestrian to offers free skin cancer screenings at horse shows to grooms, trainers, horse show staff, riders and others. Their mission is to “promote sun safety in equestrian riders through education, prevention, and early detection of skin cancer.” 

“Vivian and I observed how many of our fellow equestrians were out in the sun without proper sun shirts, sunscreen, or visors,” Stella said. “We decided to come up with a way to help people educate themselves on sun safety and also provide a way for people to do skin checks in a convenient way.”

“Over the years, our national dermatology organizations have done programs like this in Major League Soccer and baseball,” Prather said. “We thought it would be a great opportunity to bring it to the horse show world, whether that was partnering with [U.S. Equestrian Federation] or [U.S. Hunter Jumper Association] or another national organization within the horse world, to help bring this type of program to equestrians, where I think it’s really needed.” 

SunSafe Equestrian has had a booth at two horse shows this year: one at the Gulf Coast Classic at the Gulfport Horse Show Circuit (Mississippi). and another at USEF Pony Finals (Kentucky). They offered free cancer screenings to anyone present at the horse show, and they also handed out educational pamphlets and free sunscreen to anyone who stopped by their booth. 

“We know trainers and folks involved in the horse show world have trouble getting to the doctor while they’re on the road,” Prather said. “We can do a complete skin cancer screening at our booth to say, ‘That looks completely fine,’ or, ‘We should be concerned about that.’ ”

While competing on the road, the girls train with Mississippi-based hunter/jumper trainer Meghan Felts. Stella competes By Starlight in the children’s hunters and Nightcall in the 1.0-meter jumpers. This year, Vivian qualified her medium pony, Shenandoah Moonspinner, for Pony Finals, and the whole Prather-Silva family traveled to Kentucky to watch her compete.

With the help of USEF’s Marketing Events Manager Olivia Woodruff and Kentucky Horse Shows’ Cindy Bozan, SunSafe Equestrian was able to secure a vacated vendor’s booth outside the Rolex Stadium during the final Friday and Saturday of Pony Finals. They offered skin cancer screenings from 10 a.m. to noon both days, and Prather did more than 30 skin cancer screenings in that time. Many exhibitors stopped by the booth for free information and free sunscreen samples. Woodruff also added free SunSafe Equestrian SPF 15 lip balms to all the Pony Finals welcome bags for riders.

Prather’s skin cancer screening in the SunSafe tent is not done with machines. He uses magnification loupes to tell if a spot on someone’s body is concerning or not. Each patient is required to sign a consent form prior to each cancer screening. 

“Once the paperwork is filled out, we can step into the tent where there is privacy,” he said. “Many people just want to show me a spot on their face or arms or other exposed areas so they don’t have to get undressed. Some people want to show me a spot on their back—we do have gowns available if patients want that.” 

The screening itself only takes a couple of minutes to complete. Prather assesses the spot and recommends whether it needs further workup by a dermatologist, like a treatment or biopsy. Then Prather fills out an American Academy of Dermatology form, which states his clinical observations. 

“If the spot I screened is anything concerning, I’ll refer that person back to a dermatologist in their home zip code,” he said. “Patients are usually happy to get either the reassurance or confirmation that it is something that they need to get check out. They are appreciative that we are there, and they can stop by for a minute on the way back to their barn. I’m glad to screen as much or as little as you would like to show me.”

Prather also shares with the horse people who stop by his best advice for preventing sun damage to their skin, like reapplying 1 ounce (a shot glass’s worth) of sunscreen every two hours to exposed skin. He stresses not brand names but the need to pay attention to the SPF number of the sunscreen—he recommends SPF 30 or higher—and remembering to reapply often.

“Sunscreen can actually break down,” he said. “There are two components to most sunscreens: a chemical component and a physical component. The physical component is a zinc [oxide] or titanium dioxide. That stays on the skin and will come off with sweat. The chemical component absorbs the sun’s rays and protects your skin from the sun. 

“The chemical part can be broken down over time,” he continued. “After a couple of hours of riding, the chemical component has been broken down by the sun, and the physical component has been wiped away from sweat. When you’re doing equestrian sports, it’s going to be a matter of sweating and physical wiping away and the chemical breakdown. Reapplying every two hours is a great rule of thumb.” 

Prather also recommends a lip balm with an SPF of 15 or higher, riding before 10 a.m. and after 4 p.m. to avoid the day’s strongest UV rays, wearing sleeves and sunglasses, and always wearing a hat or visor when outside. 

“One of the things equestrians are known for are their fashionable hats,” Prather added. “Wide brim hats with a lot of coverage are the most helpful.”

Vivian and Stella created the educational pamphlets that are distributed at their booth, and their hope is to spread as much knowledge about sun safety as possible. 

“Our pamphlets talk about the ABCDEs of skin cancer,” Stella said. “That’s an acronym for asymmetry, border, color, diameter, and evolution of a spot or a mole. We tell our patients that if you notice this, you should probably go get it checked out. We also can do that for them at the SunSafe show booth.”

The girls have also created a social media page for SunSafe Equestrian on both Facebook and Instagram, where they post educational content related to sun safety. SunSafe booth visitors can also scan a QR code, which takes them right to the SunSafe Equestrian social media pages.

“The posts are the same tips we give at the horse shows: how to protect yourself, from the sun, what to wear, when to reapply sunscreen, etc.,” Stella said. “When they scanned the QR code at Pony Finals, they were automatically entered into winning our giveaway basket, which consisted of the hat, the sunscreen, sunglasses, the sleeves, and the neck gator.” 

The girls have now set their sights on creating a website for SunSafe Equestrian, which they hope will be completed soon. 

SunSafe Equestrian has one more show on their calendar for this year: the 26^th Annual Halloween Horse Show, Oct. 24-26 in Folsom, Louisiana. Their hope is that in the future, SunSafe Equestrian will be invited to more shows, either across different disciplines or shows that the girls do not normally compete at themselves. They have already been asked to return to Gulfport in 2026. 

“Our booth has been really well-received by the equestrian community,” said their mother, Camile Silva. “I think it’s fun to see people’s positive response to it—it energizes you. It’s nice when you put effort into something, and people are excited about it and grateful to you.”

Prather is grateful for the ability to help educate horse people on the importance of sun safety. 

“For me, this is my job and calling as a professional,” he said. “To be able to do that on the side that has become our family’s hobby is really rewarding as well. I can see that the need for education and early detection is there, and it’s nice to be able to do that for the horse community as well.” 

Although SunSafe Equestrian has not officially partnered with any organizations yet, the Prather-Silva family see this as an option in the future. 

“The girls want to expand SunSafe through future partnerships, other trainers, and sponsors, to try to make the sun safety and prevention a part of the national equestrian community,” Prather said. “The safety from the sun is just part of responsible riding.”

“It’s important to take care of your skin,” Stella said. “Our long-term goal is to make sun care a normal part of every equestrian’s daily routine: You put on your helmet, you put on your sunscreen, and then you go ride.”

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Brash topped a two-horse jump-off against U.S. combination Kyle King and Kayenne Z with Lady Pauline Harris and Lady Pauline Kirkham’s 16-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding (Cooper Van De Heffinck—Hovis, Irco Mena). The British rider, who was also celebrating the 10-year anniversary of his groundbreaking 2015 Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping win, took one-third of the total prize pot with the win.

The tracks for the CPKC ‘International’ were designed by Leopoldo Palacios of Venezuela. The first-round course featured 13 obstacles and 17 jumping efforts, including two open water elements. Athletes had to clear all the efforts and cross the finish line in a time allowed of 80 seconds.

The top 12 pairs of the first round returned for a second round in reverse order of merit. King and his 10-year-old Zangersheide mare (Kannan—Alexsandria, Canezaro) were the only pair from the U.S. to contest the second round; Aaron Vale and Carissimo 25 missed the cut by mere tenths of a second after being the slower of two, 1-fault performances in the opening round.

The second-round course featured another 12 obstacles and 15 efforts that challenged the contenders. No one jumped clear, so determining a winner came down to a jump-off between the only 4-fault rounds, Brash and King. 

Watch Brash’s winning round, courtesy of ClipMyHorse.tv:

Watch King’s second-placed round, courtesy of ClipMyHorse.tv:

Brash was first and posted a clear, quick round in the jump off with a time of 46.97 seconds, putting the pressure on King. King was up on the clock when a rail at the penultimate fence cost him the top spot.

Switzerland’s Steve Guerdat and Venard De Cerisy, who won this class at the 2021 ‘Masters,’ had to settle for third place thanks to a rail and 1 time fault in the second round.

“Me winning 10 years ago, it was just incredible; you can’t really write it,” Brash said. “And, the venue seems to get better every year. And, what a fantastic place to be able to showcase the top end of the sport.”

King took to social media to thank his mare, “Kaya,” and his team for their impressive second-place performance.

“No words for today. Kaya, you are one in a million,” he wrote on Instagram. “Couldn’t ask for a better partner to help me achieve my dreams. Your heart and try is second to none.”

Guerdat recalled how, years ago, he complained to Palacios that his Spruce Meadows courses were too difficult.

“It was a probably 13, 14, 15 years ago, and I complained in the press conference … about Leopoldo and what he was doing, and that it was too tough, and you had to change something, and the show had to change something,” Guerdat recalled. “And thank God, Leopoldo didn’t listen to me. Because the truth is, you know, as, athlete or as people, sometimes we don’t like to be challenged. And we like [our] comfort zone. And this is not what we have here. And I would say that thanks to the team and thanks to Spruce [Meadows], I became a better rider.” 

As the new Rolex Grand Slam of Show Jumping live contender, Brash will have the opportunity to continue his journey at CHI Geneva in December.

See complete results here.

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I know I am not alone in my unending desire to learn more, see more and experience more with my horses. It’s a common theme that seems to speak to us all, proven to me in the hours we work to facilitate our relationships with our horses and friends in the equine world.

Most of us have the disease, if you will, and as life goes on, we constantly evolve in both our understanding of horses as well as our approach to them and the life around us, but we never seem to change the core force of what drives us.

We watch as the sport changes, even though our love for horses always stays the same, but I wonder if we truly realize how much we change in that same process, and if we are even aware of the sport’s evolution. Most of us in the industry start talking in terms of decades instead of years or seasons at a certain point, and it is without a doubt that over decades, things change. Within a season or a year or two, some of the changes don’t seem to be that noticeable, especially the small ones; they’re adapted to quickly, often passing by unnoticed, but sometimes insidiously becoming a new trend that everyone takes up, sometimes purposefully and sometimes completely unaware of that new adaptation.

A few weeks ago, I saw an advertisement with a rider in a top hat, and I was thinking how much uproar there was when the “look” was going to change as helmets became requirements. Fast-forward 10 years, and now a photo with a top hat-clad rider seems ancient, grainy and very outdated.

That was one of the noticeable changes, but there have been many small, seemingly insignificant ones that have also occurred. I wonder if we ever stop to think about how these changes have affected our sport and art, or are we just rolling with the punches, adapting and absorbing, dodging and swinging as needed, but nonetheless accepting them in the end for good or for bad?

A friend recently sent me an ad her trainer published of a young horse that she is selling, and I was taken aback at the photos used for the ad itself. The horse was clearly behind the vertical, low in the poll and high in the croup in all the photos, with a very poorly adjusted, low-fitting drop noseband. But at the same time, the horse looked gorgeous: muscled and shiny, with a nicely dressed rider who was decked out in sparkles and matching-colored show clothes.

It has become so incredibly commonplace to see horses in this condition, and the younger trainer, I am assuming, thinks the photos are great.

When did that evolution happen—the one where we look at a bad photo and think it’s great because it’s pretty? I know the age-old argument of, “One photo is just a moment in time,” but in this case it was multiple photos. It always seems to be the same group of people who hide behind that statement, and they’re the same people that always want to say that our new technology is so much better than the old: The breeding is better; the saddles are better, and the clothing is better. But I would be remiss if I didn’t point out: The cameras and the photographers are also better.

I have book after book in my library with extensive photos, some newer, some older, some dating back to the 1920s, all with absolutely stunning images of correct work and movement. We could still use them today as how-to images of what is correct. Back in those days, shutter speed and film development were very limiting factors in the amount of pictures a photographer could take at home or at a show. Why is it so easy to go back to the days of old and find such beautiful photos and classic examples of what is correct, and today they are few and far between?

How can we say it is a bad moment when that is the best moment the photographer can get with a rapid-fire shutter?

Or is it that the rider just keeps producing those bad moments—telling themselves it was just a moment in time and trying to get us to believe that as well? I don’t think any photographer is out to snap a bad photo of a horse. Those don’t sell, and no one wants them, so it is never in a photographer’s interest to keep catching the bad moment. Those bad moments are just extremely commonplace, so they are very easy to catch.

These days there is a lot of outcry on photos like that, with people saying the rider is abusive based on a photo, which is a fallacy but can be a truth at the same time. If we look at it as a way of life and a style of riding and see photo after photo, show after show, of similar images of a particular rider reproducing the same image on horseback, that argument can in fact stand. Not to mention, if that is the best they can produce in public, what are they producing and how are they riding at home?

Horse welfare is on everyone’s mind these days; it is unavoidable and everywhere. Using photos like the ones in this sale ad do not do our sport any justice or give us a leg to stand on in defense of our practices. Our sport is in turmoil right now, and there is a shift taking place, whether welcomed or objected to from those in the sport. The problem is the evolution has shifted, skewed and adjusted our ways of thinking and viewing the sport and the horses to such an extent we don’t always see, or want to see, the endemic problems that are here at our doorstep.

One recent example is that a very well-known bridle company from Germany started making a crank version of a drop noseband. Much like the old, studded cavesson nosebands that one can still purchase, they really have no place in our industry. If the bridle maker had horse welfare in mind, they wouldn’t make a crank drop noseband, since they would understand the purpose of that kind of noseband, and the pain that a tight drop noseband can produce, and they’d understand the damage that can be done when misused. This company is adding to the welfare issues seen by the public in production of a noseband like this. Shame on them for making one, and shame on us for buying them, and in turn letting them become part of this insidious evolutionary change.

Welfare And Art

These changes are again going on right under our noses, no pun intended, while we just keep talking about how great the sport is, how much we love our horses, and all the while, trying to silence the critics. We keep getting told by the royalty of the sport that they know better than the novice riders, and they love their horses. The public keeps hearing from the stars of the horse sports that these things are being blown out of proportion, and the public just isn’t educated. I very much beg to differ.

It has become so commonplace to have extremely tight nosebands as a way of life and training that these star riders, who are supposed to be the best and biggest advocates in our sport for equine welfare, are up in arms over having a device that can measure the tightness with a standardized gauge to tell us what common sense should really be telling us. I don’t understand the objection to the idea of a measuring device, and why people can’t get behind standardization, especially when they love the horses so much.

But just to be clear, tight nosebands are not actually the enemy here; not understanding that the tight noseband, blue tongue or strong contact isn’t fair to the horse is. This is a rider accountability issue. If welfare was a foremost concern to these riders, why aren’t they coming up with ways to better work with the higher-ups to be compliant and transparent with their practices? Why don’t they desire to better the sport with kindness toward their steeds and common sense to their approach? Where has the empathy gone, if it ever did exist, and how can some of these riders look at their own horses, or the horses of some of the other riders, and think, as the Fédération Equestre Internationale so daftly puts it, that those are “happy athletes”? 

I am reminded of the fable, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” with the basic moral being it’s important to speak the truth and not be afraid to challenge authority, even when it’s uncomfortable or unpopular. The story shows how people are often afraid to speak the truth, even when they see something is clearly wrong, because they fear being judged or ostracized. It demonstrates how vanity and a desire to maintain appearances can lead to deception and blind people to the truth. The little boy’s honest declaration that the emperor is wearing no clothes exposes the charade and reveals the emperor’s true state, demonstrating the power of truth. In the end, it is a cautionary tale about blindly following the authority or group thinking, and the importance of independent thinking and critical evaluation. The story sums up the way gaslighting works, which is a modern-day word used to basically describe the entire fable.

When lines of welfare start becoming blurred, the art gets lost, and in that loss, the correctness of form goes with it. Welfare and art go hand in hand, so if we lose the welfare, we lose the art, and we seem to be losing the welfare to the evolution that is taking place right in front of us. 

Somewhere in the performance and in the work, there has to be a willingness on a horse’s part to be our partner. The art of the sport is both in bettering the horse’s natural way of going and preserving and showcasing their character. Dressage that doesn’t do this simply isn’t dressage on a level that we should be striving for, agreeing with or believing in.

Every few years someone seems to have a new revolutionary idea on how to blend art and sport together, but unfortunately those ideas always seem to lean heavily on gaslighting, crowd approval, TV ratings, excitement or dilution to make the sport more appealing to a larger audience. This also ends up feeding the bad and incorrect evolutionary change.

As one simple example: The Grand Prix test lengths have been shortened over the years, so the audience doesn’t get bored, and we can fit more riders into a day. We make the tests easier and lean more heavily on the excitement and drama far more than the harmony and training, which can now be added to the list of welfare issues for the horse.

It isn’t a new argument or a new problem. But there does seem to be a battle that is creating polarization all the way down to the grassroot levels. This battle is raging, and each team and side keeps pushing their beliefs and defending their own way of life. Some are more science-based and fact-driven, others speak purely from the heart, and then there are some from the side of human stubbornness—just not wanting change. The judges believe they are right in what they are scoring; the riders believe they are right in how they are training, and the people at home have yet another core value of beliefs that they hold strongly. No one wants to give in, since that either means a change in your sport, or a change in your art, and either way in the end, a change in our way of life with horses.

We often point a finger at the people at home or on the internet and say they don’t know since they are not out there doing, but they are not always wrong, and their opinion cannot always be invalidated because they haven’t cantered into a stadium at an Olympic Games. It is extremely naïve of us riders, trainers and judges to think we are the only ones with eyes, and sadly for that argument, we as a group often wear rose-colored glasses talking of the queens and kings of the sport, unwilling to see the big picture and go against the popular crowd.

We’ve all seen an uptick in the amount of comments and posts online, on both social media accounts and various websites, speaking out about welfare-related issues.

Everyone is fast to condemn someone speaking up or speaking out as crazy or vindictive, uneducated or stupid, often saying, “We haven’t seen you ride or compete at that level,” and in turn trying to invalidate what the commenters are saying. If the argument of, “You must have competed at a level to judge,” holds value, why do we have some upper-level judges that have not competed at the Olympics or World Equestrian Games? I don’t understand the hypocrisy there.

I am in the minority in the belief that you do not have to have ridden to that level to see what is correct and what isn’t—or at least I can respect someone’s educated opinion on why they think something is right or wrong.

To me, the only caveat to having an opinion on a subject is having an education on that subject, and I have to say, I am hearing a lot of educated opinions on the internet these days that we just can’t keep ignoring or blowing off because we haven’t seen these people ride horses. Not all these people are wrong.

Being in the sport for a long time, you see these changes taking place, and they will continue to do so. Much like the tide at the beach, it ebbs and flows, and with each wave, you see the landscape changing before your eyes. Slowly, steadily, it changes. We can get on board with these changes, or we can leave it up to the current and the weather to make these changes for us, later trying in vain to redirect the erosion.

It will be interesting to see where the future of our sport heads with welfare on the forefront. There’s a vocal majority acting like the changes are egregiously pushed upon them, and then what seems like a minority feeling they’re a welcomed relief, since we all want to see horse sports stay relevant and included in a world where we can all continue to ride, love and hedonistically enjoy our equine partners.

Grand Prix trainer and competitor Jeremy Steinberg was the U.S. Equestrian Federation national dressage youth coach from 2010 to 2014. A 1996 FEI North American Young Rider Championships individual dressage medalist, he is a former U.S. Dressage Federation Junior/Young Rider Clinic Series clinician. He credits much of his dressage education to the late Dietrich von Hopffgarten, his longtime friend and mentor. Today Steinberg runs a boutique-style training business in Aiken, South Carolina, and travels the country giving clinics. Learn more at steinbergdressage.com.

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Fylicia Barr may be a five-star eventer now, but she got her start in the sport aboard the most unlikely of mounts. Her first event horse was a gray Arabian gelding named Zanzibar, with whom she did a bit of everything: 4-H, barrel racing, English and western pleasure, and even a little reining. A painting of him—dished nose, delicate ears and kind eyes, standing in a field of flowers—graces the cover of this month’s issue of the Chronicle. 

When Barr, 30, first met “Z,” he was an emaciated, rough-looking youngster at a low-end auction in western New York. Barr was just 10 years old, and she had a total of three riding lessons under her belt. Barr’s mother, Shannon Barr, bought Z on an impulse, despite the fact that neither she nor her young daughter had the requisite skills or experience at that time to manage an unknown horse from auction.

However, in the years to come, Z (named by Fylicia in honor of the main equine character in the “Phantom Stallion” series) would pay back his rescuers in dividends. Not only did Fylicia ultimately event him through training level, he carried multiple young riders to 4-H competitions, and later came out of retirement to become the first event horse for Chronicle cover artist Josie Buller, who took him all the way to the 2021 USEA American Eventing Championships.

“It felt like he just wanted to do right by us,” Fylicia, of Unionville, Pennsylvania, said. “We saved him, and I think he knew that, and he always tried to do everything he could for us. There were definitely moments where he could have said no, but he gave us everything he had. We both did a lot for each other.”

We Meant To Buy A Saddle…

On the day Shannon and Fylicia met Z, they had gone to the auction with a friend, intending to buy a saddle. Instead, they bought a horse with an unknown past, paying just $800 for the gelding—one dollar a pound.

“We saw him, and he was so sad, and so thin—he just looked at us, and we knew we had to try to make something happen,” Fylicia said. “It was truly the blind leading the blind. At auction, you don’t get much info on them, and we saw him with a saddle on and assumed he was saddle broke.”

But when they got him home—to a facility Fylicia describes as a “backyard barn sort of set up,” they found out Z was perhaps only 2 or 3 years old.

“He was young, and not really broke at all,” Fylicia said. “It was a bit of a set up for disaster. I didn’t know what I was doing, he didn’t know what he was doing, but we found our way, together.”

Nursing Z back to health required nothing more than correct, basic care. Over the next several years, Fylicia slowly got him started under saddle. Although she took occasional lessons on other horses, she didn’t have much help with Z; looking back, Fylicia admits she made many mistakes.

“Now, as an equestrian professional, I’m horrified at some of the things he put up with,” Fylicia said. “But he never complained. He used to buck me off for sport, but he gave me a really good seat that I still have to this day, and it was always with a smile on his face. It was a game for him, more than him wanting to hurt me. He’d just sit and wait for me to get back on.

“He made me fearless,” she continued. “He made me feel like I could ride anything. He was always a really, really good boy.”

When Fylicia learned about eventing, she was instantly hooked. She and Z debuted in U.S. Eventing Association competition in August 2011 at the Erie Hunt and Saddle Club Horse Trials (Pennsylvania), where they ran beginner novice. At the same competition a year later, they competed at training level. By then, Fylicia was 17 years old and had acquired a mare named Galloway Sunrise, whom she purchased off Craigslist as a semi-feral 2-year-old. Fylicia began thinking it might be time for Z to step down a level as she continued her own progress forward.

“At training level, the jumps got a little big for him,” Fylicia said. “So we leased him to a couple of young riders that did 4-H shows with him. He was the perfect babysitter.”

Although he was sound and in good health, when his final 4-H lease ended, the Barrs took advantage of an opportunity to retire Z to a farm in western New York. For several years, he lived “his best horsey life” there, while Fylicia continued her own eventing journey with “Sunny,” eventually making it all the way to the five-star level. She attributes her tenacity in working with the quirky mare, and other challenging mounts, to the lessons she initially learned from Z.

“He taught me not to give up on the difficult ones,” Fylicia said. “If you put enough time and effort into trying to understand the tricky horses, you can come out the other side with a really quality partner—if you’re patient, and take the time to understand where they’re coming from.”

It was after Fylicia relocated to Unionville and established her business that she met 12-year-old Buller, who wanted to get started in eventing—but who didn’t have a horse. Fylicia immediately thought of Z.

“When Josie came into my program and needed something to ride, I thought, ‘Let me see if the old man has got a little bit left in the tank,’” Fylicia said. “And he absolutely gave her everything.”

From Starter To The Bluegrass

Buller is now an 18-year-old freshman at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, but she still vividly remembers the day six years ago when Z and his friends moved into the new home of Fylicia Barr Eventing.

“People were putting up white boards by the stalls with the horse’s and owner’s names, and Z’s little white board had my name listed below his, even though I was not the owner,” Buller, of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, remembered. “Fylicia very generously let me do a free lease on him, and act like he was my own horse. The stars kind of aligned, and Fylicia knew Z would be the best teacher for me—and he really was.”

Buller had gotten her start taking lessons a local hunter/jumper program, but when she learned about eventing, decided to shift her focus. Working with Fylicia and Z, she went from being a “rusty” crossrail rider to competing at novice. After gaining mileage at the starter level in schooling horse trials and learning the basics of dressage, the pair moved up fairly quickly. In June 2020, after eight years away from sanctioned competition, Z returned to the sport at the Plantation Field Horse Trials (Pennsylvania) at beginner novice —with Buller in the irons.

“I made a lot of mistakes—I got left behind plenty of times—but he was so, so tolerant,” Buller said. “I always felt untouchable on Z. He’s just the best partner, and we had lots of fun. I’d never really shown, so I did all my ‘firsts’ on Z.”

When Buller was 15, she decided to set a big goal: to qualify for and compete at the 2021 AEC.

“It can get pretty competitive in Area II, and Z, being an Arabian, would stick his head up in dressage, and I didn’t always quite know what to do,” Buller said with a laugh. “But we got a second place at Bucks County [Pennsylvania], and we got to go to AEC.”

Buller describes the experience of competing Z at the AEC, held that year in Lexington, Kentucky, as “magical.” She admits he even was “a little wild” on cross-country after being stalled for so many days. The pair finished 31^st of 38 in the junior novice, 15 and under, championship—and earned the best-scoring Arabian award.

“He was the only Arabian in the class,” Buller laughed. “Some people would say, ‘Oh, you ride an Arabian?’ Well, he’s the best cross-country horse you’ll ever find. A horse you truly care about will always give 110% to you.”

Watching her first horse gallop over the Kentucky bluegrass with Buller made Fylicia feel as if Z’s story had come full circle.

“Obviously, Z and I did not make it to the Kentucky five-star,” Fylicia said with a laugh. “That was my dream growing up, even though I was a 10-year-old kid on an Arabian pony we’d bought for nothing. But watching him and Josie go down the ramp into Rolex stadium, and gallop through the Head of the Lake—that was so special. He made her dreams come true, and my childhood dreams came to life through them at that moment, too.”

Although Buller and Z competed one more time that season, the AEC proved to be their swan song together. 

“We don’t know his exact age, but he is 20-ish, and he had held himself together,” Buller said. “It felt like he was trying really hard, and he didn’t need to keep competing, where I wanted to keep moving up.”

Inspired by her trainer’s work in producing her own horses, Buller moved on to a former Thoroughbred race horse named Lee, whom she competed through training level. But Z remained in Fylicia’s barn, and Buller would still trail ride him once in a while just for fun.

“Most of the time, I didn’t even bother putting a saddle on him,” Buller said. “I’d just hop on, and we’d get going.”

Behind The Cover Painting

As Buller neared high school graduation, she knew that her time with Z was drawing to a close. Fylicia had made the decision to send him to enjoy a final, official retirement with her mother in western New York, and Buller was preparing to head to college. When she painted a watercolor and gouache portrait of him standing in a field of flowers, which she included in her senior gallery, it was intended as a dedication to the horse who changed her life. 

“He absolutely is my heart horse,” Buller said. “Middle school was a pretty rough time for me, and having Z … I went to the barn every day after school, and I felt like I had him in my corner all the time. If I had a really bad day, and I got off the bus in tears, we’d just go out for hours and hours on the great hacking trails around the barn. I kind of felt like every time I stepped into the saddle with him, I got to leave everything on the ground.”

Buller loves floriography, a tradition which looks at the symbolism of flowers and colors. In her tribute to Z, each flower she painted in the field he’s standing in was chosen specifically to convey Buller’s appreciation for all that he means to her—the sweet peas at the front mean “thank you for a lovely time,” the zinnias symbolize everlasting friendship, the heather is for protection, and the Queen Anne’s lace for sanctuary.

When the Chronicle put out a call for submission to its annual Junior Art Gallery (see more submissions from young artists here), she sent it in. Chronicle staff chose the piece to grace the cover of the 2025 Young Rider issue. 

“I’m so happy it got on the cover, because if any horse deserves to be on the cover of the Chronicle, it’s Z,” Buller said. “He has given so much, to so many people. He was Fylicia’s first horse, and now she’s a five-star rider. He helped me through so much in middle school and made me into the rider I am today.

“I think it is so important, on so many levels, for all people to know that every single horse deserves a second chance,” she continued. “Horses always seem to give back, especially those who get into a really good situation after having been in a not so great one. They give you their whole heart, and there is a lot of value in having a horse you’re just really close with. With the right people, no matter what their breed, a horse can do anything.”

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This article originally appeared in the August 2025 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse. You can subscribe and get online access to a digital version and then enjoy a year of The Chronicle of the Horse. If you’re just following COTH online, you’re missing so much great unique content. Each print issue of the Chronicle is full of in-depth competition news, fascinating features, probing looks at issues within the sports of hunter/jumper, eventing and dressage, and stunning photography.

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In recognition of the 50th edition of the Spruce Meadows ‘Masters’ tournament, taking place this week in Calgary, Alberta, and culminating with the record prize-money $5 Million CPKC ‘International’ Grand Prix (approximately $3.62 million USD), this Throwback Thursday we’re looking back at 2005, when Judgement, ridden by Beezie Madden, became the first North American-bred horse to win the event. This article was first published Oct. 27, 2005.

When Beezie Madden galloped into the ring as the second competitor in the two-horse jump-off of the $843,844 CN International, she knew what she needed to do. Nick Skelton and Arko III had jumped clear, but he left a window of opportunity.

With cool confidence, she shoved the window open and guided Judgement to perfect, forward distances that shaved more than 2 seconds off Skelton’s time with Arko.

After she crossed the finish line and looked up at the clock tower scoreboard, a huge grin ensued and she pumped the air with her fist before enthusiastically patting her black stallion while she cantered to the out-gate.

Their perfect performance over three demanding rounds left the pair as victors in the world’s richest grand prix, held as the culminating event of the Spruce Meadows Masters, Sept. 7-11 in Calgary, Alberta.

Madden, 41, of Cazenovia, New York, joins an elite group—she’s the first woman and first American to win this prestigious class since 1997, when Leslie Howard and S’Blieft were victorious. George Morris, who won in 1988 with Rio, and Norman Dello Joio, the winner in 1983 riding I Love You, are the only other U.S. riders to have won the class.

Judgement (Consul—Faletta, Akteur), owned and bred by Iron Spring Farm of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, is also the first U.S.-bred horse to take the title. Of the 47 starters, Judgement was also the only U.S.-bred horse in the field.

“He felt better than ever,” said Madden of her 14-year-old Dutch Warmblood. “Right from the first jumps in the schooling area he felt fantastic. He did one class during the week and jumped great. He was just waiting for an opportunity.”

The Canadians had a lot to cheer for. Mario Deslauriers incurred 1 time fault over the two rounds to place third riding Paradigm, and Eric Lamaze had a heartbreaking rail at the last fence in round 2 to place fifth with Hickstead.

Germany’s Ludger Beerbaum, who won the CN International in 2002, placed fourth riding L’Espoir Z, a 9-year-old, Zangersheide gelding (by Landwind II). One time fault was all that kept Beerbaum from the jump-off.

A Rewarding Decision

After Saturday’s torrential rains, which resulted in the BMO Nations Cup being canceled following the first of two rounds (see sidebar), the footing in the International Ring was still soggy on Sunday. After four days of relentless rain and drizzle, the weather cleared on Sunday, and the sun peeked through the clouds by 11 a.m. The riders, coaches and chefs d’equipe spent lots of time walking the course and examining the footing, deciding whether or not to start their horses.

U.S. riders Dello Joio and Jeff Campf scratched Glasgow and Lady-D, respectively. Madden also made a last-minute substitution. She had originally nominated Authentic, her Athens Olympics gold-medal mount whom she’d ridden in the previous day’s Nations Cup, but changed her mind when the conditions hadn’t greatly improved.

Course designer Leopoldo Palacios carefully considered the circumstances and set his fences where the footing was firmest. Therefore, most of the jumps were set at the edges of the ring where the drainage was best.

“I made three courses since last night,” joked Palacios on Sunday afternoon.

The footing held up admirably, and the organizers took every effort to keep conditions as optimal as possible. After the 25th of 47 horses started, there was a 20-minute break to work the footing and adjust some fences.

Cayce Harrison, daughter of CN CEO Hunter Harrison, was the only rider to hit the wet ground during the class. Her horse, Coeur, threw a shoe after the first fence but jumped gamely until the triple combination. Then he tried to pat the ground at the A element, a triple bar, but slipped and swam through the fence. Cayce fell and slid underneath the B element, but the gray carefully jumped over her and the fence and continued through and over the C element.

She walked out of the ring with her father by her side, and it was announced that she suffered no serious injury.

Palacios’ first-round course received rave reviews as 13 competitors jumped clear rounds. The fastest 12 qualified for the second round, including three U.S. riders: Lauren Hough aboard Clasiko, McLain Ward on Sapphire, and Madden.

For the second round, Palacios said he raised the jumps to “as big as any CN International class,” and a tight time allowed added to the difficulty.

Beerbaum and Deslauriers each negotiated the second round clean, but 1 time fault kept them out of the jump-off.

Ward and Sapphire looked as though they were going to join the jump-off until a rail at the second-to-last fence dropped to the ground. He placed seventh. Hough and Clasiko had two rails, including one at the challenging triple combination of liverpools, to finish 11th.

In the end, it was a face-off between an American rider and a British rider. The best over the eight-effort jump-off would take home the winner’s share of $274,315. Skelton and Arko III, an 11-year-old Oldenburg stallion (Argentinus—Unika, Beach Boy), went first and jumped clean in 48.02 seconds over the winding course, putting some pressure on Madden.

“But in that situation, whatever I did, Beezie would do better,” said Skelton simply. “I went as quick as I could go without leaving anything in danger.”

Madden and Judgement left out strides here and there, and his long galloping stride carried them to a time of 46.04 seconds, good enough for all the spoils, including a $41,631 bonus for winning two CN Precision Series grand prix classes during the 2005 season.

“It was just a fantastic day,” said Madden, smiling. “I’m lucky to have the horses and owners I have. There are so many people involved, and it’s incredible what we have. This was quite a climax.”

For Deslauriers, third place was a huge accomplishment. His horse, an 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood (by Nabab de Reve), was competing in 1.40-meter classes this spring and only began the larger grand prix classes over the summer. This was Deslauriers’ fifth grand prix with the chestnut gelding, a former mount of Canadian grand prix rider Mark Laskin.

“This was a huge step up here,” said Deslauriers, 40, of Bromont, Quebec. “The course was difficult, but he handled it beautifully.”

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It’s not unusual for amateur dressage rider Erin Liedle to show up at The Pointe at Lifespring, an assisted living facility in Knoxville, Tennessee, where she works as a physical therapist, with one of her pets in tow. Her dogs are always welcome visitors, but it’s her Shetland pony Stewie who draws the biggest crowd.  

Her service work with her pets and her career as a physical therapist for geriatric patients are only some of the many ways that Liedle gives back. Outside her job and her passion for riding, she also helps run the East Tennessee nonprofit Down and Dirty Dogs, which provides training to shelter dogs, improving their well-being while sheltered and making them more adoptable pets. 

Bridging The Gap With Service Animals

Almost 15 years ago Liedle’s main riding horse was struggling with complex health issues and couldn’t be turned out with other horses. The mare grew depressed. When a vet suggested that a smaller, gentler companion might improve her mental health and physical recovery, Liedle jumped on the idea; she was open to anything that might help her horse.  

And as one does when they need a small pasture puff, Liedle immediately went to Craigslist.

“I found Stewie’s ad and asked to meet him,” she said. “When we got there, he was covered in mud. But he was the happiest little dude, and he had so much personality. He’s the best $300 I’ve ever spent!”

In the short-term, miniature horse Stewie was a definite boost to her mare’s quality of life, Liedle said. But when the mare eventually was diagnosed with a severe neurologic condition and had to be put down, there was no question that Stewie was staying put at Liedle’s farm in Knoxville, where he lives now with her retired eventer and her current dressage mount. 

While Liedle had purchased the mini as a cute companion, she thought Stewie had more to offer. 

Liedle had been a physical therapist at The Pointe at Lifespring for only a few years when she asked executive director Rebecca Mills if she could bring Stewie in to visit the residents. 

Bringing her animals to work was nothing new for Liedle: Her agility dogs, Border Collie Graham and Border Terriers Miley and Griffin, often accompany her, encouraging and motivating the residents during physical therapy sessions and visiting patients in their rooms.

Trips to The Pointe became another way for the dogs, who Liedle says “are fantastic but need direction,” beyond their regular agility training, to feel like they have a job. And the positive impact they have on Liedle’s patients was nothing short of extraordinary. 

“One of my patients was put into hospice care,” Liedle said, “and she specifically asked for Miley. So the next day I brought her in. The patient, bed-bound at that point, asked if I could put Miley on her bed. And I did, and Miley just gently crawled up and laid down on the patient’s chest and just sort of spread herself out and lay there for a long time. She just knew. I’ll never forget it.”

Knowing how much joy the dogs brought The Pointe’s seniors, when Liedle asked Mills about Stewie, the answer was a resounding yes. 

The Elevator Pony

“I was a little worried that he might, you know, do his business,” Mills said, laughing. “But then he showed up, and he was so beautifully groomed, and he smelled so good, and he had a better haircut than most of the men who work here…

“He’s so good that we can bring him inside,” she continued. “The fact that he’s so calm and accessible and approachable just allows him to reach everyone. He just brings so much joy. How can you be stressed or worried when you’re petting a miniature horse? Or is he a pony? I’m not a horse expert—I just know he’s cute!

“He’s become a celebrity here,” she added. “We have some residents who don’t attend a lot of activities and aren’t super social. They can be hard to reach, especially some of the residents in memory care. But then one of the dogs or Stewie comes for a visit, and it’s that animal who is able to bring that resident out of his or her shell. It’s just priceless.”

Liedle remembers a particular visit when a resident on the second floor wanted to meet Stewie but couldn’t come downstairs. 

“He grew up on a farm and really, really wanted to see the pony,” she recalled. “So my colleague asked if Stewie would ride on an elevator. I said, ‘We’re going to find out!’ and that little champion, he walked right on and went up to visit that patient. It was amazing.”

Liedle said that bringing her pets to work—especially Stewie—enables her to do her physical therapy work even better. 

“For so many of my harder-to-reach patients, he bridges the gap,” she said. “He has changed my relationship with so many patients because he opens something up in them that allows them to let us in. It’s just so special. I never could have imagined that my career would have turned out like this, that I could, in this incredible way, couple my love of animals with my love for the geriatric population and get to share one with the other.”

“Erin wears so many hats here,” Mills said. “She’s an incredible physical therapist, but she goes above and beyond that role daily in everything she does. What she does for everyone here goes so far beyond a job—it’s a passion and a calling.”

Equestrian Steward

While Stewie may be the biggest celebrity living in Liedle’s backyard, the company he keeps is rather impressive. Liedle’s mostly retired eventer, Fernhill Boodle, won the amateur training level championship at the 2019 USEA American Eventing Championships (Kentucky). When “Boodle” had some off-and-on lameness issues, Liedle decided to retire him to hacks around the farm while she shifted her focus solely to dressage. 

“Eventing is a really high-risk sport, she said. “And I’d found an incredible trainer and a great group of friends in Knoxville who were dressage riders. Making the switch from eventing, which I’d done since childhood, just made sense.

“I’d always loved dressage,” she continued. “But I didn’t understand the sport in its entirety because I’d never had a purpose-bred horse to do that specific job.”

She has been riding with dressage trainer Emily Brollier Curtis for almost a decade and said that Curtis’ guidance in the sport—and as a person—has been life-changing. Liedle also credits Curtis for finding her current dressage mount, a 7-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding named No Limit (Just For You—Heriti, Vitalis). 

“Emily saw his ad and said, ‘You need to go sit on this horse,’ ” Liedle recalled. “I’m pretty calculated in my decision making, but I really trust Emily, and so I bought a ticket to Texas. I told my mom when I was at the airport, ‘I’m not going to buy this horse.’ Then I walked into the barn and realized that I was in trouble.

“Three years later, it’s the best decision I ever made,” she continued.  

And while “Rocky” has taken her to the U.S. Dressage Finals for the past three years and is beginning Prix St. Georges work, Liedle isn’t talking about their successes in the show ring. She’s more interested in what she’s learned from Rocky and the relationship that they’ve formed since their partnership began. 

“He was not the easiest young horse,” she said. “He was cut late, and he has very, very high opinions of himself. He refused to give to pressure; he couldn’t handle it. So we started off doing a lot of groundwork, and I taught him that he could trust that there would always be a release if he just kept looking for it. When he came to realize that I was never going to trap him, and that he just needed to work to figure out what I was asking for, we really started to become a team. And he has really improved my horsemanship and my riding; I have so many more tools in my toolbox now because of him.”

Once the pair sorted out those early kinks, they took to the show ring, which Rocky really enjoys. 

“His extra bravado is really working for us now,” she said. “It’s an unknown variable when you buy a young horse; you don’t know if they’ll even enjoy showing. But Rocky loves the show ring, especially the big shows. Like, he goes to finals, and he steps up.”

But she tries hard to keep her showing goals in perspective.

“I try to look at horse shows as litmus tests,” she said. “I love competing, but at the end of the day, if my horse is happy and content at the show, we’ve won already. The mental and physical health of the horse is always most important, and feedback from a show just lets me know what we need to keep working on.”

“It’s about the personal journey for her,” Curtis said. “I cannot tell you how many times she checks in with me on an ethical standard, asking if something is fair to the horse. She’s constantly coming back to that, being a steward for her horse. Her horsemanship is outstanding. She’s always questioning: Is this right? Is this fair? Am I asking the right questions? Is this too much or not enough? She’s always circling back to what is right. And because of that, her horse is so generous with her. Erin is as good as they come. The real deal.”

Liedle says that having her horses at home fosters the special relationship she has with each one of them. 

“It helps to remind me of what’s really important,” Liedle said. “I’m the person who asks Rocky to work, but I’m also the food lady and the stall cleaner, and we’re always just hanging out. It’s the absolute best when I walk out of the garage, not even going to the barn, and the horses start talking to me.

“What gets me up in the morning is knowing that these animals, whether the dogs or the horses, put their trust in me even though they don’t have to. That’s most important,” she added. “Rocky is by far the nicest horse I’ve ever had, and probably ever will have, and I just feel so blessed to be his person. God entrusts us with these animals to be stewards to them, to do right by them and take care of them the best that we can.”

But while Liedle is grateful for the animals and people in her own life, so many in Knoxville would say that they feel blessed, too, by her presence in their lives, whether it’s her colleagues and residents at The Pointe, or her friends at the barn, or the horses and dogs she loves. 

“She’s an amazing physical therapist,” Miller said. “But more than that, she’s a phenomenal human. She’s so humble. She cares so much about the people here. Really, she cares about all living things. She’s just a phenomenal person.”

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