is worth the pay check and aggravation. Maybe this isn’t the horse you count on for the Olympic team. Maybe it’s another one paying the bills.
n DANIEL: I see customers who want the horse to do the Grand Prix and do children’s hunters with the customer’s daughter. That doesn’t work. With most of my customers either I’ll show or they do. It’s not fair to expect the horse to be sharp and energetic and on for jumping big jumps with me and the next day be quiet jumping little jumps with the owners. If there is conflict, I remind myself it’s not my horse and I
put my pride aside. I let the customer do the horse show and I take a week off from riding that horse.
WT
ARE THERE EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENTS TO THE HORSES YOU TRAIN?
n GEORGE: As a professional you have to have an emotional attachment or report with the horse. At the same time you keep in mind that these are not your horses. The situation can change and break your heart at anytime. But that doesn’t mean you can’t strive to have the emotional attachment with horses you don’t own and put your heart into the relationship. As a professional you can’t be afraid that the horse will be taken away from you. It takes maturity and time in the business to understand this. The top combinations have this close connection.
n DARREN: I get quite emotional. I had two very good horses removed from my care during my recuperation from my injury. That was very painful. How could the owner do such a thing and how could the new rider do such a thing? I wasn’t raised that way. If one of my peers was injured and in the hospital and the owner asked me to maintain the horse, I would say sure. I’ll send you a bill and you send the check to my injured peer.
n DANIEL: I try to not get emotionally attached. We have a huge business riding and selling. I’ve had a couple I hated to sell, but I have had offers too good to refuse or the owner had the horse here to sell. I encourage my owners not to get attached by taking
what a horse does personally. If the horse has a bad day, don’t get emotional about it. They don’t wake up in the morning and say I’m going to be bad today. They are living beings that have good days and bad days. They could have slept poorly or had a bad batch of hay. I try to leave my pride and emotions out of it.
DARREN CHIACCHIA and the Trakehner stallion Windfall II, owned by Tim Holekamp, compete at the Fork 1 event in North Carolina in April 2009. Photos by Shannon Brinkman.
Warmbloods Today 47
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