Based in Temecula, Calif., out of her Next Level Eventing barn, Tamie became the first American rider in 15 years to win the Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI 5* when she claimed victory aboard Mai Baum in 2023. Held the last weekend in April every year, the Kentucky 5* represents the highest level of eventing, with only seven 5* competitions held per year in the entire world.

She accomplished this feat aboard her long-time partner, a then-18-year-old German Sport Horse gelding named Mai Baum, owned by Ellen Ahearn, Eric Markell, and their daughter, Alex Ahearn. Tamie was also the first woman since 2011 to win this internationally prestigious event.

The eventing world has had a keen eye on Tamie and Mai Baum for years as their eye-popping dressage scores and top finishes at major events gained notice. The pair won eventing team gold at the 2019 PanAm games in Lima, Peru, team silver at the 2022 FEI World Championships, and they were selected as reserves for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (held in 2021).

We sat down with Tamie to learn more about what keeps her motivated, the perks of being a mother in the horse world, and the horse that made the big win possible.

On Mai Baum

Mai Baum, or “Lexus” as he’s known around the barn, started off as Alex Ahearn’s ride when she took a post as one of Tamie’s working students. Alex had imported Lexus from Munich, Germany.

“I’m not certain if everybody thought that he would be what he is today,” says Tamie.

Alex competed Lexus through his first Intermediate (3’9″) before coming to ride with Tamie.

“She’d had trouble at Lexus’s first Intermediate, and we worked her through that,” says Tamie. “We got her competing well at [that] level. She was winning.”

After competing Lexus at the 3* event at Fair Hill in Maryland and making the U25 list (a selective list of upcoming young American riders aged 25 and under), Alex decided she wanted to pursue further academic education instead of continuing her riding career.

“After a training session that winter, I remember her coming to me and saying, ‘I want to meet you for dinner and talk,’” Tamie recalls. “She said, ‘I want you to take the ride on Lexus.’ I remember being a little surprised. I said, ‘No, you don’t. You don’t know what you’re saying. You have to do this.’”

Despite Tamie trying to talk Alex out of it, she insisted that Tamie was the right rider for Lexus.

“I remember her saying, ‘America needs a good horse. And you need a good horse,’” Tamie says. “And it was quite emotional, because I knew what she was saying.”

For a while, Tamie thought that Alex might decide to take Lexus back and start riding him again herself.

“I thought I would start riding him, and a few months later she would say, ‘I’m just kidding, I want to ride him,’” Tamie remembers. “But here we are eight years later, and it’s been so incredible to see her vision and what she wanted for me and Lexus actually come to fruition.”

At 20, Lexus is still going strong. Tamie isn’t sure if or when he will be ready to slow down, but thinks he will tell her when that time comes.

“I am really careful every time I get on,” she says. “I feel like I have a good gut instinct and know my horses. It’s a possibility that he could just drop down a level. He absolutely loves the crowd. After he’s done at the top level, maybe Alex could take him and compete him again. It would be an icing-on-the-cake kind of thing.”

Of course, if Lexus tells Tamie that he needs to stop competing, she will happily retire him.

“If he needs to be fully retired, he will be,” she says. “But I don’t know that he’ll want to just stand in a field.”

On Being a Mother

In addition to raising sport horses, Tamie has also raised two children, son Tyler, 21, and daughter Kaylawna, 29.

“[Being a mother] definitely has its struggles,” she says. “You go through guilt because you’re spending time doing something [not family-related] that you have a goal towards. When I travel, it’s been hard to cope with being away and missing a water polo or basketball game for my kids. That was not always easy.”

However, Tamie feels the guilt she and other riders might experience as mothers isn’t specific to her sport.

“Any woman or man in high level careers—doctors, lawyers, and elite athletes—all battle the same struggles,” she says.

To help with any guilt, Tamie tries to look at her time away from her family as a way of setting an example to her kids to go after what they want and to have big goals and expectations of themselves, even if it gets in the way of what tradition might want them to focus on.

In addition to being a mother, Tamie is now a grandmother. When her daughter, Kaylawna, married several years ago and then had a daughter of her own, Tamie says Kaylawna also struggled with her confidence and guilt. Of course, mom was there to help coach her through it. Other professional riders who became mothers have also turned to Tamie for advice on how to keep a healthy balance.

When it comes to coaching her clients and training the horses, Tamie says that she views being a parent as an advantage.

“I feel like being a mother helps with your level of compassion and your level of empathy,” she says.

On Managing Goals

Tamie says that she initially planned to also take Dutch Warmblood gelding Elliot V to the 5* at Kentucky in 2023—the division that Mai Baum ended up winning. She felt he was on track to meet that goal, but in their last preparatory competition, she decided to rethink her game plan, since he didn’t feel quite ready.

“I’ve learned throughout the years that you can never keep a goal set in stone,” she says. “The slow way is always the fast way, and you only get one good shot at doing this at the top level. I’ve learned that if it doesn’t seem ideal—if I’m going into a 5* and don’t feel like I’ve done absolutely everything I possibly could to prepare for it, or any competition for that matter—I typically err on the side of caution.”

She moves her horses up the levels at the rate she feels is best by staying true to her morals and trusting her program.

“I have a pretty solid opinion about what I think horses are ready to do [and] when,” Tamie says. “I don’t feel like taking a 5-year-old Preliminary [3’7″] is appropriate. I have had 5-year-olds that are probably ready—they’re bored at Training level [3’3″]—but I don’t feel like it’s always in the best interest of their overall development and their minds, and to me it always ends up catching up [to you], so I try to keep things more on a conservative basis.”

On Being a West-Coaster

Tamie says that living in Southern California also helps her to not be influenced by others’ timelines.

“It’s a different atmosphere out here than it is on the East Coast, where everything is showcased in the public eye, whatever you do,” she says. “[Here] I leave the barn and never see anyone that I know, and I’ve found that I really like it that way. Once I leave the barn, I’m just Tamie, and not Tamie Smith-who-is-doing-this-or-that.”

However, sometimes Tamie’s competitive nature does make things a little tricky.

“It’s difficult sometimes to see what other people are doing and then not get caught up,” she says. “But it’s been nice to be focused on my program, believing in it, and then making sure that I’m doing the right thing by my horses.”

On Education

“I’m a big supporter of going to [college],” says Tamie. “I think it’s super important. I know that there are a lot of top riders that don’t believe it’s necessary, so my answer might be a bit controversial. Education is super important for learning how to communicate, navigate through life, and deal with conflict.”

She says that her formal education has helped her navigate relationships with her horses’ owners and all of the different personalities she meets.

“[My education has] enabled me to learn how to communicate and to understand what it’s like in the real world, and working in corporate America,” she says.

Before turning to horses as her full-time profession, Tamie worked in the intake department of a mental health facility.

“I have always been intrigued by mental health,” she shares. “My original plan was to get my degree in psychology.”

However, a mentor encouraged Tamie to pursue other avenues toward her goal of helping people when the flaws of the healthcare system began to wear on her.

Initially, she was a little “bummed about that, because I thought if I went down that avenue [I could] help people navigate through their trials and tribulations.”

Tamie decided that she would strive to help people in other ways, no matter what career path she went down. Now, as a professional rider and coach, Tamie says that her time working in mental health has given her a unique perspective.

“It gave me a different perspective as far as learning what works for different types of people when I’m coaching,” she says. “I bring in an old-school approach where I think it’s very important to be empathetic to your horses. I mean, they don’t choose to do what we ask them to do. They do it because they love us.  They love the sport as well, but they would be fine and happy to be eating grass in a field, too.”

Tamie doesn’t have a lot of tolerance for impatient riders.

“That’s something that all of us have to learn as we grow in the sport,” she says. “It can be frustrating, especially where we have to master three different disciplines. You have to treat your horse with respect, the way you would want to be treated.”

From a competitive standpoint, Tamie adds that the mental element is almost more important than physical talent, and that a lot of counseling goes into producing good riders and horses.

Clearly her background has been perfect preparation for reaching the top of her sport. It takes nerves of steel to put the pressure aside and perform at your best at a 5* event like Kentucky, but Tamie showed the world she is more than capable.

More Tamie Smith Content

• Our Webinar with Tamie Smith
• Our “Next Level” Series with Tamie Smith

This article about Tamie Smith was the cover story of the August 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Tamie Smith of Next Level Eventing in Temecula, Calif., winner of the 2023 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5*, has a strong focus on pole work in her program.

“Not only do they help your horse become stronger, but they get the horse to a place where he’s super rideable,” she says. “You can start off super simple, just trotting over one pole.”

Smith emphasizes that setting up pole exercises doesn’t need to be complicated.

“In my ring, I just have random poles out,” she says. “It’s a really good exercise for the horses to learn where their feet are and for them to let go of their bodies because they have to push over their back when they trot over them.”

Relaxation & Rideability

Additionally, Smith uses poles as a check-in for riders to see if their horses are adjustable and listening. Instead of passively riding over the poles, Smith encourages her riders to think about how their horse is completing the exercises and what holes in their training the poles bring into focus.

Smith says to ask yourself the following: “Do the trot poles create more tension and make your horse stiffen? Do they create anxiety?”

The more trot pole work the horses do, the more comfortable they get and the more rideable they become.

“I always err on the side of making sure that the horse isn’t feeling overwhelmed by the trot poles,” says Smith. “If he’s struggling, I’ll take away multiple poles and only use one until he gets really confident with it.”

Fresh Footwork with Ground Poles

Catherine Donworth has spent most of her riding career focusing on fox hunting. When her long-time partner, Skippy, was ready to retire, she got a ranch horse named Doolin Banjos. She began prepping Doolin to be her next fox hunting mount, but quickly discovered that he might be destined for a dual career, so Donworth began her dressage journey.

She uses ground pole exercises to keep things fresh for both herself and her horse in training.

“When you have a dressage horse that doesn’t jump, or doesn’t jump very often, poles are a huge way to introduce variety into your schooling,” says Donworth.

She regularly sets up different pole exercises in the ring year-round and finds new creative ways to use the smaller space of the indoor arena in the winter to keep training going, especially in colder weather when hacking and hill work aren’t an option. When Donworth sets up an exercise, she tries to leave it up for others at the barn to benefit from.

“You can tailor the exercises to whatever level your horse needs very easily, depending on his level of collection or how quickly he can do transitions or how much he can lift his hocks,” she says. “You can easily lay out a pole exercise, and with tiny alterations, work several horses at different levels without needing to set the whole thing up differently again.”

For Doolin, Donworth has found that the main benefit has been that poles keep him thinking.

“It’s helped sharpen up his feet,” she says. “It sharpened his reflexes, and he has to think for himself about where he puts his feet.”

In addition to the mental benefits, Donworth has also seen physical perks.

“It’s good from a physiological standpoint,” she says. “It keeps their hocks and back moving in a way that plain flatwork might not. It strengthens their bodies and can increase range of motion without putting extra pressure on their joints.

“Even walking over small, raised poles gets them to lift their hocks. If a horse has hock problems or arthritis in his hocks, just even walking over poles can loosen, flex, and extend his hocks. It’s like us stretching as part of our warmup.”

Ground Pole Set Up

How to Set Up Distances

• Walking poles: Set 2.5 feet apart for most horses.
• Trot poles: Set around 4 to 4.5 feet apart. Smaller-strided horses may need closer-set poles, while horses with a longer stride may need poles a little farther apart. Adjusting the distance between the poles can help your horse learn to collect or lengthen his stride. Try to avoid having only two trot poles in a row; your horse might think he is supposed to jump both in one go.
• Canter poles: Set around 9 to 11 feet. Like trot poles, the length of your horse’s stride can influence your placement.

Simple Eight-Pole Set Up

Place four trot poles and four canter poles on either end of a circle. Begin by trotting the whole loop.

Then ask your horse to canter through the canter poles and come back to a trot before the trot poles, and then canter again before the canter poles. See how accurate you can get your transitions.

Once your horse gets comfortable, try raising some of the trot poles to add difficulty.

Benefits of a Single Pole

Whether you jump or not, finding a distance to a single pole will help you learn your horse’s canter stride length and increase his adjustability. Sometimes it feels easier to find a distance to a larger jump, so breaking it back down to a single pole makes you check in on the details.

For greener horses, trotting a single pole helps build confidence and get them trusting their footwork.

Key Takeaway

Integrating ground poles into your horse’s training program can increase strength and flexibility, add variety, and sharpen response time. A useful tool for riders and trainers at level, pole work is worth adding to your routine.

This article about using ground poles in training appeared in the November/December 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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“I think they hoped it would just be a phase that I would grow out of,” Anderson says.

But as these things so often go, horses soon became a big part of her lifestyle. After years of riding hunter ponies, she moved to horses, which led her to the jumper ring. Then she found the sport of eventing, and she was officially hooked.

Anderson bought Nelson, a Thoroughbred who already knew the ropes of eventing, to help her learn the sport. When he was ready to retire in 2021, her parents bought her next partner as her clinical psychology Ph.D. graduation present. Global Jedi is a big, gray Irish Sport Horse, known around the barn as Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Anderson started dreaming big, but Obi fractured a splint bone in September of 2021. With the help of the veterinarians at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., just three months later, she and Obi were back on track to have a full 2022 competition season.

A Diagnosis

However, merely a month later, everything changed again. Anderson was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer.

She’d found a lump a few months earlier, and while she thought and hoped it was just a cyst, she scheduled an appointment with her doctor to get it checked. Her OB-GYN reassured her that it was probably a cyst, but referred Anderson for imaging to be certain.

Imaging led to biopsies, which ultimately to a cancer diagnosis. A swift series of appointments ensued, and Anderson barely had enough time to accept what was happening and what this meant for her—and Obi’s—future.

Chemotherapy began by the end of February 2022, and Anderson got to work trying to figure out how she could keep riding and making horses part of her life through the upcoming months of treatment.

“I managed to push through the nausea, aches, fevers, exhaustion, sensitivity to heat, and other side effects of chemotherapy to have a pretty full show season,” she says. Anderson was exceptionally thankful to have Obi as her partner.

“He’s a steady horse. He is bold, brave, and extremely chill.”

Together, they competed in six recognized U.S. Eventing Association (USEA) events, finishing in the top 10 each time.

A Support System

Anderson’s barn family at Lucky Dog Eventing played a vital role in keeping her and Obi out and about during the show season.

“Our barn family is incredibly special,” she says. “We celebrate and mourn together. We are always there for one another. Everyone rallied behind me and Obi.”

Her trainer, Jenn O’Neill, or her friends rode Obi when she had chemotherapy on Mondays and when she was too sick or tired to make it to the barn.

“At shows, my friends made sure Obi was bathed, braided, tacked, untacked, watered, cold-hosed, and whatever else he needed,” says Anderson. “They made sure I rested, ate, and stayed hydrated. There were times I wanted to quit, but the support from my barn family encouraged and inspired me to keep going.”

In June, when she completed the long format Novice three-day event at the Indiana Eventing Association Horse Trials, she was exhausted. She knew it was in her best interest to save her energy for the next two months of chemotherapy, but she wanted Obi to continue in his competition season. Luckily, O’Neill was able to take the reins and keep competing Obi for the remainder of June and into July.

Strength and Courage

While Anderson was thankful that having O’Neill compete Obi was an option, she had mixed feelings about the situation.

“The ‘owner’ role was bittersweet,” she says. “I loved watching Jenn pilot my horse around his first Training [level event], but I felt resentment that the cancer had taken that experience away from me.”

While it was easy for Anderson to focus on what the cancer had stolen from her, she tried to focus on what her barn family had given her: support, encouragement, and inspiration that sustained her strength and courage.

“I learned how to be strong, brave, persistent, and gritty throughout my years with horses, and my barn family never let me forget that I was, and am, all of those things,” she says.

Getting to Cancer-Free

Anderson concluded chemotherapy in August, but her hemoglobin was near emergency levels, so her oncologist ordered a blood transfusion. After that, her energy surged back, and she started moving at full speed toward the USEA Area VIII Championships in September.

“The Lucky Dog Eventing barn family never faltered in their support and came to cheer us on at championships decked out in pink ‘Badass Gear’ from Mare Modern Goods,” she says. “I’m not sure how to describe what I felt when I galloped through the finish flags on cross-country to cheers echoing from a sea of friends all in pink—gratitude, joy, and relief. But we were back.”

Anderson finished her season with two successful runs at Training level, and she and Obi blazed through their final cross-country run of the season—decked out in pink—two days before her double mastectomy.

She has been cancer free since October 3, 2022. For those nine months, cancer dictated her life. Now, she no longer has to schedule her life around appointments and focus solely on surviving. Anderson can start living again and spend as much time as she wants at the barn and competing with her favorite horse and people, and she’s looking forward to a strong 2023 season aboard Global Jedi.

This article about an equestrian who overcame cancer appeared in the June 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Cantering Through Cancer appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Dressage is halfway complete at the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day event CCI5*-L.

Currently in first is Yasmin Ingham of Great Britain and 2011 Selle Français gelding Banzai Du Loir set the bar high with a 26.1, securing her a 5-point lead.

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“His test overall had some really nice highlights overall. We’ve been working on getting more expression in the trot… he has so much presence,” Ingham said.

She added, “His first centerline could have been a little straighter, I think. That’s something I’ll go home and work on.”

Kirsty Chabert, also from Great Britain, sits in second on a 30 riding Classic IV, a 2009 Anglo European mare.

“At 15 years old, she’s improving. Hopefully she’s a really nice bottle of red wine and just keeps maturing with age,” Chabert said of Classic IV.

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When asked about how she feels about the remainder of the weekend and her competition, she added that no matter how the final results settle, “I’ve got my own goals that I’d like to achieve.”

Only 0.1 point behind is German rider Malin Hansen-Hotopp and 2012 Holsteiner gelding Carlitos Quidditch K. A 30.1 puts her in third.

“I got him from a friend as a 5-year-old and she asked me to ride him for a young horse competition,” Hansen-Hotopp said.

After some hesitation with having other horses to ride and young kids, she agreed to give it a go. “He was really grumpy, bucking all the time… but he did a great job when he was jumping.”

With her husband’s support she bought him and since then their partnership has gone “up and up and up.”

In the Cosequin Lexington CCI4*-S, Boyd Martin and Commando 3 sit in first on a 28.9. William Coleman holds both second and third with a 29.9 on Diabolo and a 30.1 with Off the Record.

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Find all of our coverage on our 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day event landing page.

Thanks to CareCredit for our spring and summer equestrian coverage.

This article about the first day of dressage at the 2024 Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Work on Your Own Fitness

It’s not fair to ask hour horses to get into summer riding shape if we have been slacking ourselves, too. It’s a partnership, after all!

Now is the perfect time to start a fitness program for yourself before you hit full-tilt summer show season. If going to the gym isn’t convenient, consider an online program. There are lots of YouTube videos to help guide you through basic working routines, and several subscription services targeted directly for building rider strength out of the saddle.

If prefer to get your exercise outdoors, the barn property can become a gym. Map out a path around the perimeter of the fields, or even just up and down the driveway, to go for a walk or a jog. Hills are ideal because they maximize the cardio challenge, build muscles and burn more calories.

There’s also plenty you can do in the barn to build fitness. If you board, ask your barn manager if you can pitch in to make their day go a little quicker. Carrying and scrubbing water buckets, mucking out some extra stalls, or even just helping bring the horses in and out from the fields will help you build up stamina.

Think about your summer riding plans, too. Is trail riding on your list? You can’t go trail riding if the trails are full of branches and trees that fell over the winter. Get in a full-body workout walking the trails on foot and helping remove anything in your way.

If you board at a facility, team up with some other riders to keep each other accountable. Getting a group to ride together after work or on the weekends can make it more fun. Workout classes are better with a friend, so you may want to join a gym with your barn buddies.

Peer support is trickier if your horses are at home or if you board at a smaller facility. There are plenty of Facebook groups with other riders in the same isolated position also craving support. Groups exist for different breeds, sports, and riding goals. An online community can be just as positive as in-person support to keep you motivated.

Get Your Horse Fit

If you return your horse to full work after two months (or more) of down time, he will have lost significant fitness and be more prone to injury. Although cardiovascualar fitness is relatively easy for horses to achieve, tendons and ligaments take months to strengthen when starting from scratch.

If you have space on your farm to go for low-intensity hacks, that is the perfect place to start, but walking in the ring works, too. You can walk even an unfit horse under saddle for up to 60 minutes per day, four to six days a week. Ride your horse forward and keep him pushing from behind, even at the walk. (Going around in an inverted frame with his back down and head in the air will strengthen the wrong muscles.)

Stick to walking for at least the first two weeks of your program. You can gradually increase the time and/or add hill work to keep things challenging, but always keep a feel for when your horse starts to get tired, and wrap up your ride at the first signs of fatigue.

After two weeks, you can gradually add in a few minutes of trotting. Take walk breaks after 2 or 3 minutes of trotting when you start, then work up to 5 to 10 minutes of trot over the next week as your horse is able. Don’t let your horse fall apart in his downward transitions, and think about him lifting his back and stretching down into your hand during breaks from higher-intensity work.

In week four, you can add 1 to 2 minutes of cantering, building up from there. After 30 days, you can introduce a few small jumps or very short bursts of more intense work as your discipline requires. It’s better to ask for successful smaller amounts of higher-intensity work than less-successful—and potentially detrimental—longer workouts.

After six weeks of consistent work, your horse should be much closer to optimum fitness. Throughout his conditioning period and beyond, continue walking as much as possible each day; this can be done before and after the more intense portion of your ride.

Also pay attention to how you feel during this process. It’s hard to ask your horse to carry you if you are starting to fatigue. If after trotting a couple circles you feel your leg slip and your hands start to bounce, it’s time to go back to the walk.

Getting both you and your horse back into shape in the spring takes time, and rushing only gets you to the wrong place faster. It’s better to take it slow while rebuilding stamina in order to reduce the risk of injury and to keep riding fun for both of you.

This article about horse and rider fitness for spring appeared in the April 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Horse and Rider Fitness for Spring appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

Painter began her career with leather in London, England, where she became a Master Saddler. After an apprenticeship in Perthshire, Scotland, at which time she began Clever with Leather, Claire relocated to the United States in 1992.

Leather Goods on the Racetrack to Horse Shows

In Kentucky, Painter began selling handmade halters, focusing on the bustling Thoroughbred racing industry. She discovered that the business was very seasonal, and her customers disappeared in the winter.

To make Clever with Leather a year-round business without leaving Kentucky—she had a young son at the time so she couldn’t travel much—she needed to expand. Painter expanded her business to include English saddlery. She didn’t want it to be too broad in order to make sure she had time to produce quality work that kept her customers happy.

Her focus then began shifting towards sport horses instead of racing, and Painter started producing padded halters. She then made it her goal to create things that made people happy in addition to being practical, and began to find joy in her work again.

“If you repair something and you make it look nice again, it makes people happy,” she says. “If you create something for a person’s horse, or for them, they are happy. It’s a happy purchase.”

A Leather Niche in the Equine World

Painter then began to use the quiet season in winter to build up her inventory and website so people knew what she had to offer. She says that slowly but surely, it began paying off.

She relies on her clients to help figure out the details on her items to make them the ideal product.

“I’ve got a lot of great customers who know their stuff,” says Painter. When developing one of her most popular items, a neck strap, she had sponsored eventing rider Jenn O’Neill test out the prototype.

Painter says that working with people who know what they’re doing and listening to what the customers want helps ensure she is producing functional products and learning from the riders who use them.

The eventing community has been the cornerstone of Clever With Leather for many years. Painter sets up a booth at Defender Kentucky Three-Day Event every year to showcase and sell her products, and in all her years of being a vendor, she says she has never noticed anything being stolen. She believes this is due to her customers truly valuing the work she puts into her products.

“They like the fact that I’m a small business and I enjoy the business now that I’ve found my niche,” Painter says. “I’ve found my people. They see the value in a handmade purse. They don’t bring me another purse to copy. They want my version. They see the value in what I do. I feel really lucky.”

She says that the Kentucky Three-Day Event always “feels like doing business with old friends. It doesn’t feel like business.” People come back to her booth year after year. Often, people come back just to say hello and tell her that their previously purchased products are still going strong.

Focusing on the Goal

In college, Painter studied leather goods manufacturing and design before beginning the saddlery program. This, in addition to her artistic eye and listening to what her customers want, has allowed her to expand her business further, making wearable items such as chaps and purses.

With the growth of her company, Painter had to learn how to streamline her business.

“I used to do everything,” she says. “I never said no to a job. Now if someone wants something I don’t focus on, I send them to someone else. I’ve narrowed down what I do.”

Painter sees herself staying in Kentucky long-term. Her son is in his second year of college and once he graduates, she likes the idea of possibly starting to ride again.

“I love living here,” she says. “I love the community in Lexington. Everyone sort of knows everyone. It’s quite a safety net.”

Currently the neck straps, made to provide a grab strap for riders, are Painter’s best-selling products. While other companies have produced similar products since she came out with her version, she says that since her customers are loyal and she offers a variety of color options and a quality product, her neck straps keep selling.

“Eventers are loyal,” she says. “They always tell each other they need to get a Clever with Leather neck strap.”

Reputation for a Reason

Painter’s halters are still a huge hit, as are the dog collars. Her products have a reputation for lasting a long time and being functional for years.

“That’s the good and bad side,” she says. “The products last for years, but thankfully people are always getting another horse, and they are always getting another dog.”

For other women looking to go out and start their own business, Painter advises not to be afraid.

“People told me not to go out on my own and start a business here, but it’s worked,” she says. “If you believe in what you do, and you love what you do, don’t be afraid to give it a go.”

Check out Clever with Leather at www.cleverwithleather.com.

This article about Clever with Leather’s leather goods for horses appeared in the March 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Clever with Leather: Fashionable and Functional Leather Goods appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

The North American registry originated in 1983, and it’s now one of the largest studbooks for warmblood sport horses.

The goal of the KWPN is simple. According to their website, they seek to breed “modern sport horses that perform at the top level of international equestrian sports.” KWPN horses are known for their athleticism, versatility, and good brain, which makes them the top choice for many disciplines.

The KWPN strives to breed healthy horses with good conformation. Additionally, they have a strong focus on temperament so that their horses can be enjoyed by both professional riders and amateurs alike.

“The KWPN is both breeder and owner/rider focused,” says Drew Kemerling, registrar for KWPN-NA. “We’ve really tried to listen to our members and create a program that honors both the people who breed the horses but also buy and compete the horses. We have greatly expanded our awards programs to reflect our goals for this. As an open studbook, KWPN horses come in all shapes and sizes, making it possible for them to excel at many disciplines.”

History of the Breed

Originally, the horses lived in the Netherlands. They were called Groningen and Gelderlander horses, and were used primarily for farm work. They pulled carriages and farm equipment, but the agricultural machinery industry switched the breed’s focus.

When the breed began to be used more for sport than for work, more German influence was introduced into the bloodlines, such as Hanoverians and Holsteiners. Thoroughbreds, Oldenburgs, Selle Français, Hackneys, Cleveland Bays, and other sport horse blood was also incorporated.

Types Within KWPN Horses

Two types of KWPN horses are typically seen; riding horses make up around 85-90 percent of them. Generally, these are purpose-bred to be top competitors in a specific sport.

The second group is the Dutch Harness Horse. They typically have more knee action than their riding-bred counterparts, and also feature a flatter back.

A smaller number belong to a third subset, the Gelder horse. Gelder-type horses can be ridden or driven. They have significant knee action and a powerful hind end. Harness-type KWPN horses show self-carriage, suspension, and high knee action.

Dressage-bred KWPN horses are light on their feet, powerful, supple, and have good self-carriage. Jumper-bred horses have a focus on scope, proper technique, bravery, and quick reflexes to make them careful jumpers.

Hunter-bred horses should be comfortable to ride with flatter movement than some of the other types. Their stride covers significant ground and does not have the higher knee or hock movement of the dressage, Gelder, or harness horses. While there is no category for eventing horses in the KWPN registry, many also excel at this sport.

“Some of the top horses in the world are a combination of these breeding types,” says Kemerling. “Verdades has a harness-type mother.” Dressage star Verdades and his rider Laura Graves (USA) took home team bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics as well as team and individual silver at the 2018 FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, N.C.

Inspections

Inspections, or keurings, are held to judge horses wishing to gain access to the KWPN registry. This helps to ensure that quality horses are being bred and that the breed’s representation is up to a high standard.

The KWPN is an “open” studbook, meaning that stallions of different breed can be accepted with the goal of improving the breed. In the United States, an average of 420 foals are registered yearly, although the annual numbers are much higher in The Netherlands.

The KWPN is one of the few warmblood registries that accepts all colors. Stallions must be 15.3 hands or taller to be considered for the registry, and mares must be a minimum of 15.2 hands. Most KWPN horses are 17 hands or less, although larger horses are permitted.

KWPN Horses Make for Happy Owners

M. Freya Evenstad is a KWPN-NA breeder, and owns Sweet Beginnings Farm in Virginia. She runs a small breeding program that typically produces one foal every other year, with the goal of producing the best of the best qualities of the breed: work ethic, a good heart, correct uphill conformation for dressage, and versatility.

She got hooked on the breed after meeting the horse who ended up being her breeding program’s foundation mare.

“She was perfection from head to toe,” says Evenstad. “She was the best looking horse anywhere she went, and she had fans everywhere because she was so kind and obviously loved her job so much.”

She wishes everyone could know just how big the KWPN’s heart is.

“They’ll achieve anything you desire, if you show them how,” says Evenstad. “Plus they are always a barn favorite for due to their temperaments.”

Laura Mollrich, an FEI Grade IV para dressage rider in California, bought her horse, Pabatsa, when he had just turned 8 years old. He’s now 25.

“[Pabatsa is] so cool,” says Mollrich. “Wherever I’ve had him boarded, he has been the pet of the barn. Everyone needs a big clown.”

During their time together, Mollrich and Pabatsa have helped each other through a plethora of significant life events, such as the passing of Mollrich’s mother, lupus, scleroderma systemic sclerosis, epilepsy, and more.

Amanda Lorick is an amateur jumper rider who owns a boarding, training, and KWPN breeding facility in Nashville, Tenn. She is also a pediatric anesthesiologist to help support her KWPN hobby. She stands two stallions. Lorick says she had always wanted a warmblood, and began researching to narrow down the field.

“[I] found that KWPN horses were well-represented and top-ranking horses in multiple disciplines,” she says. “In addition to being well-rounded athletes, they are bred for health and longevity. I breed for good-moving jumpers, but even if I don’t get a jumper, I will have an athlete that can excel in hunters, eventing or dressage. They also tend to have very good brains, which is great for us amateurs.”

Having a healthy horse that will have a long-term career is important to Lorick.

“The registry has high health standards to help predict long careers,” she says. One of the reasons she picked her foundation mare, Eclipse SCF, is because her “uncle,” Judgement ISF, competed successfully at the top levels into his late teens.

Evenstad summarizes the breed well:

“Any discipline, any barn, they’re an asset—if you really want something special, you want a Dutch Warmblood.”

This article about the KWPN appeared in the January/February 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Most domesticated horses have human interaction from the start. As foals, they are groomed, taught to lead, and learn early on that humans are their friends. But when bringing a Mustang from the wild home to be your new equine companion, the rules aren’t the same. These horses don’t know how to have their feet picked, wear a halter, or accept a pat.

Chelsea Gammon started her nonprofit, Folly & Friends Mustang Sanctuary, in Birdsboro, Pa., after adopting her first Mustang, Folly, and discovering how much the breed had to offer. She now provides a home for many permanent residents and holds programs to teach the public about the breed and their unique personalities and needs.

Gammon also facilitates in gentling Mustangs for potential adopters to help as many of the horses find homes as she can. When she isn’t busy with the herd, she fox hunts—on Mustangs, of course!

We sat down with her to learn more about how she got started with Mustangs and to get her tips if you are considering the breed for yourself.

What prompted you to start Folly & Friends Mustang Sanctuary?

CG: It was kind of an accident that I happened upon Mustangs. I previously worked with off-track Thoroughbreds, transitioning them from racehorses to sport horses. I sold some of my project horses and only had two living at my house, and they became very herd-bound, so I went looking for a little pony or something to keep them company.

I just happened to find the Bureau of Land Management’s adoption website, where they list a handful of Mustangs. I saw a little dappled palomino, who I named Folly—no video, just a handful of photos—and I instantly fell in love.

I then had less than two weeks to figure out how I was going to bring her home. You need 6-foot-tall fences to be able to adopt a Mustang (and for good reason—they do often try to jump out at first). I had experience with very green horses, but not untouched horses, so I found a Mustang trainer in Virginia and enlisted his help. He worked with Folly every Monday through Thursday, and then I went down every Friday through Sunday to learn what she was learning.

I was so impressed with how Folly came along that a couple years later, I started looking for a second Mustang. I found Luna on the same internet adoption that Folly came from. After winning Luna in the auction, a photographer sent me a photo of Luna in the wild, and I realized that a second buckskin in that photo was also at the same facility. She was emaciated and heavily pregnant. One of her legs was swollen and she was lame. I couldn’t leave her there, so I arranged hauling for her to ship home, too.

After working with another Mustang, Astra, who we trained to be a therapy horse for a friend, I realized this was something I was very passionate about. I loved it and I was fairly good at it. I began the process to start a charity—and adopted another Mustang during that process—and got our 501(c)(3) charity status.

Soon after, they rounded up Cedar Mountain horses again, and I came back with 14 of them. I kept four of them, and the rest went to other adopters.

It’s been a journey that I never really saw for myself, especially being from the East Coast, where Mustangs aren’t very common. But they are just so versatile with everything I’ve ever asked of them, and I want to promote the breed all over the United States and try to get more of them adopted.

There are more than 50,000 of them who are sitting in holding pens right now, and I want to do my part to provide permanent sanctuary for several and promote adoption and training of the breed.

Can you tell us a little about Folly, the namesake behind the organization?

CG: Folly was my first Mustang. She is from the Calico Mountains in Nevada, and is 14.1 on a tall day. For such a little horse, she has a bigger stride than anything I’ve ever ridden. She is sassy and gritty and the lead mare of our herd.

I named her Folly from a line in National Velvet: Velvet wants to enter the Grand National steeplechase race], and her mother gives her money that she won for being the first woman to swim the English Channel: “I too believe that everyone deserves one great piece of folly in their life.”

When I told my family and friends that I was going to be adopting an untouched wild Mustang, everyone thought I was crazy, and she was my one little bit of ‘folly.’ And it worked out.

I’ve done everything with her from trails and dressage to show jumping and eventing. She’s given lead-line rides to kids. But her favorite thing is fox hunting. I’m the field master of our first flight at our fox hunt with her now, and she loves that job. She can run and jump as much as any of the other horses out there, and she doesn’t stop. She’s the most incredible horse I’ve ever owned.

What attracted you to Mustangs as a breed?

CG: There’s a Mustang out there for pretty much anything you want to do. Each herd has different breeds that influence the horses, so you have larger ones in Oregon (15-16 hands). Horses who pulled on the Oregon Trail ended up there, as well as some cavalry horses, so they’re a lot bigger.

Then you have the more gritty Nevada and Utah horses. There’s a herd called Pine Nut, and some of those are 12 hands. Then the Kigers have more direct Spanish influence.

There are a lot that look more like sport horses and have proven that they are great for sport horse work. They are very versatile no matter how they are built, and seem to be able to do pretty much anything you ask of them.

They are extremely intelligent in a way I haven’t seen in domestic horses. I don’t know if that’s from their survival instincts, but it makes them try so hard once you gain their trust.

I also love working with them because they’re completely blank slates. You are installing every button on that horse yourself. I really like being able to do that myself, and they come along so quickly once you lay that foundation.

What should you do before bringing a Mustang home?

CG: You need at least 6-foot-tall fencing and a pen that is at least 20’x20’ with an attached 12’x12’ shelter. You can expect to not be able to touch them right away or have them haltered for a little bit.

When I bring them home, I let them go in and check everything out, get a bite to eat and drink, and then I’ll go in and start with an approach and release method. Sometimes just being in the pen sets them off, so as soon as they stop running around, I’ll back up or leave the pen.

Eventually I can take the pressure away when they turn to look at me. I start to build a language with them where they understand that when they give the right answer, the pressure goes away. It builds to them starting to reach out to sniff my hand.

Having this language that you can use for all their other training is very helpful. Once they understand treats, I can begin using positive reinforcement, too, by giving them treats as a reward.

Before you bring a horse home, make sure you are totally prepared. To get approved if you are adopting directly through the BLM, you have to make sure your facility requirements are up to par.

Have a plan for how you are going to gentle your Mustang and what methods you are most aligned with and want to use. The more tricks up your sleeve the better; they are all different and learn in their own ways.

Also, be honest about your capabilities. If you don’t want to dive right into the deep end and get a totally wild horse, you can get a TIP-trained horse (Trainer Incentive Program). If you want them to have a little more training than that, a lot of TIP trainers can be hired privately to start them under saddle, and there are lots of other Mustangs out there privately that are a little further along in their training.

The Mustang Makeovers are a good option for that; those horses have 90-100 days of training on them and are usually started under saddle, so you can have a green-broke horse.

What does it mean when a Mustang is “gentled”?

CG: We consider a horse “gentled” when you can halter, lead, brush them all over, pick up all four feet, and load them on a trailer. They are usually still a little wary of people at that point. You have to be aware of their body language and willing to put the work in to keep the horse progressing.

Once they are trained and love people, I find that my Mustangs are tamer than most domestic horses. People are shocked when they visit the sanctuary that the horses come up to them and want all the attention. They are just so sweet and puppy-like; I call them my Golden Retrievers.

Can you tell us a little about your facility?

CG: We have an old bank barn with a large run-in. We usually only stall the horses when they eat or if we need to keep them in for some reason. But for the most part, they just come and go as they please. There is a stream in their field and a heated water tank in the winter, so they have options. When we have new Mustangs coming in, we use the 6-foot-tall pens until they can be caught and we aren’t worried about them jumping out, then they join the rest of the herd.

Right now, we have 10 permanent residents. Occasionally we get other untamed Mustangs in for training. My goal is to get the funding to fence in the back of the property and then take in an additional eight Mustangs, whether they be permanent residents or to give space to bring more in for training.

We have visitors come to interact with the trained horses, and we also hold different programs. We’ve had veterans come out, special needs kids, people from a women’s center. I really like to promote Mustangs’ versatility as riding horses. I have five of them out fox hunting right now.

I’m also a Mustang Heritage TIP trainer, so people interested in adopting can contact me and we can find a horse from a satellite event or one of the recent round-ups out west and I’ll do the initial gentling, and then they can adopt them for $125. I also take in other Mustangs that are in need and find them homes.

I do most of the work myself. A woman rents my front field in exchange for helping with some of the feeding, but aside from that, it’s just me. We do have occasional volunteers, but it really is my labor of love. It’s a lot, but it’s also my greatest happiness. It’s certainly a lot to balance on top of a full-time corporate job, but it gives my life purpose and I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

What’s the biggest challenge when working with Mustangs?

CG: The biggest challenge is that they are wild animals at first. They might try to charge you, kick and rear. They are scared. They don’t know to trust you, so winning that trust is the hardest part. But it’s also the greatest reward when you become the first person that the animal has ever trusted.

You can ask pretty much any Mustang trainer, and that first touch when they reach out and touch your hand with their nose is the most magical experience. There is nothing else like it, and having the trust of these animals is the greatest honor.

This article about Folly & Friends Mustang Sanctuary appeared in the January/February 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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The winter months can be tricky. It’s hard to keep your horse from getting bored with the repetition of ring work, especially in places that rely on small indoor arenas. These two exercises are simple to set up and useful for riders of all horse sports, including pleasure riders!

They’ll help keep you motivated to keep going through the colder months and keep your horse’s brain and body engaged. Plus, you just need eight poles and four cones (or other objects), so setup is simple.

Exercise No. 1: Transitions and Accuracy

Whether you’re preparing to trot down the centerline or take on the trails come spring, nailing your transitions is a perfect winter goal to get you ready for the sunnier days ahead, and this versatile and easy-to-set-up exercise will come in handy. If space is very limited, it can even be set up on a 20-meter circle or expanded into a larger oval for greener horses and riders.

What You’ll Need:

◆ Eight poles
◆ Four cones or other marker objects (we used fake rocks here)
◆ Set up four trot poles, evenly spaced around 4.5 feet apart
◆ Set up four canter poles, evenly spaced, around 9 feet apart
◆ Set up four cones or other objects in a rectangle, around 3 feet wide by 8 feet long to make a “halt box.”

The goal of the exercise is to create responsive and prompt transitions. However, putting the entire exercise together in one go can be tricky, so it’s best to start by separating the parts and build on your new skills.

Start by trotting through the trot poles and cantering through the canter poles separately. Then practice a square halt in the space between the cones (or other markers). Once you and your horse are comfortable with all parts of the exercise separately, it’s time to put everything together.

It’s simplest to start in the halt box. Next, pick up your trot and trot over the trot poles. The goal is to canter before you get to your canter poles, then halt again in the box.

It takes a lot of fine tuning to get your transitions prompt enough to be accurate, so don’t worry if it takes a number of tries to put it all together.

You can also try the exercise in reverse, starting in the halt box, asking for a canter transition, and then trotting before your trot poles before once again halting in the halt box.

One of the best things about this exercise is how it can be adapted for all levels of horses and riders. If you aren’t ready to canter your horse yet, you can trot through both sets of poles.

If halting in the halt box is too much of an ask, you can try a walk transition in this space, or just keep cruising through the box without a transition at all.

If your horse’s halt-to-canter transition isn’t spot on yet, you can adapt the exercise by walking a few strides, picking up your trot, and then ask for your canter just before the canter poles.

Essentially, the three different elements of the setup are markers for transitions, but which transitions you do are up to you! Just don’t try to canter through the trot poles (they are spaced too closely for a canter stride).

Also Read: Maintain Your Winter Riding Goals

Exercise No. 2: Nail Your Leads

The second exercise focuses on asking for the correct lead and quickly identifying what lead your horse is on.

What You’ll Need:

◆ Eight to 10 poles
◆ Set up four trot poles, spaced evenly, followed by a 9-foot gap to another pole.
◆ Set up two more poles lightly to the right and left of the 9-foot-spaced pole, three to four canter strides away.
◆ Optional: Three sets of cavallettis or standards. You’ll need a little more space for this setup, but it’s still perfect for a smaller indoor and can easily fit in a dressage ring.

Start by trotting through all of the poles, then trot straight ahead between the two offset cavalletti. Once you and your horse are comfortable, try asking for a canter after the four trot poles, before the 9-foot spaced canter pole.

Next, it’s time to incorporate the two bending lines to work on your canter leads. There are two ways of doing this:

1. Go through your trot poles and canter over the canter pole, letting your horse pick which lead to land on. If he picks the right lead, head toward the pole to your right. If he lands on the left lead, head toward the left pole. See how fast you can tell which lead your horse is on—you don’t have many strides to make your decision!

2. After trotting through your trot poles, cue your horse specifically for the right or left lead canter. Carry on to the coordinating second pole. Alternate which lead you aim for, keeping both yourself and your horse on your toes and focused.

Extra Challenge

After the second canter pole, ask your horse to pick up the opposite lead (for example, if you cantered over the right pole, ask for the left lead), then loop back toward the start of the exercise to pop over the other pole option in the opposite direction.

This exercise can easily be adjusted for lots of different levels of riders and horses. For greener horses, everything can remain poles on the ground. For more experienced pairs, the canter poles can become cavallettis. If you want to mix things up a little more, you can also incorporate larger jumps (in place of the poles/cavallettis) into the exercise to add an extra challenge.

The Slide Exercise

This pole exercise is called “The Slide.” It takes the shape of a variation of three standard trot poles but only two of the poles overlap and one of the poles is separate, creating a slide pattern. Each pole is parallel and one trot stride apart from the next. If you are riding alone, you could wedge the poles with the surface of the arena so they don’t move as much when you are riding over them.

In this video from Ridely, Tania Grantham demonstrates plenty of exercises that you can try with your horse over this setup of poles. The different exercises test straightness, transitions and medium trot. You can ride the exercises in either trot or canter and adapt them to what you need to work on with your horse.

Register for Ridely PRO to access 450+ other useful training videos.

Keeping yourself and your horse active and busy this winter will set you up to be ready to get back into the show ring, on the trails, or in the outdoor arenas as soon as the warmer weather is back!

Special thanks to our models, Ashley Anderson and her horse Global Jedi, for demonstrating these exercises.

This article about exercises for your horse in small riding spaces appeared in the November/December 2022 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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At Next Level Eventing, Tamie Smith utilizes a physiotherapist, chiropractor, acupuncturist, PEMF, BEMER blankets, Revitavet, laser therapy, and other therapeutic resources to keep her horses in top shape.   

Jo-Ann Wilson, the United States Eventing Team sports therapist, helps riders and their grooms come up with an ideal therapy plan and makes sure to check in with the riders consistently, even though they are spread across the country. She works closely with Tamie to determine which therapies are best for her horses to keep them feeling and going their best.  

Keeping up with fitness and bodywork is not just important for Tamie’s horses, but for Tamie herself.  

“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to incorporate taking care of my body more,” she says. “I’m lucky that I’m a pretty fit, healthy person. I go to the gym three to five days a week in order to be good enough to be at the top of the sport.” 

While Tamie rides multiple horses daily, she says that riding alone is not enough to maintain the level of fitness she needs.  

“Most people would think that was enough,” says Tamie. “It absolutely is not. I do a lot of cardio work, like the Stairmaster. I do light weights but high reps. It’s mostly about keeping my cardio [fitness] and my muscles strong so that I can be in the best shape for my horses.” 

Eventing requires a strong partnership between horse and rider, and putting in the extra work off of the horse has clearly paid off for Tamie and her herd.  

This article about Tamie Smith’s approach to alternative therapies and fitness is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine’s “Next Level” series. Click here to subscribe!

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