THE RIDER SEPTEMBER 2010 HILLS OF HEADWATERS SPOTLIGHT /13 Profile: Liz Shaughnessy By Mallory Hendry


Five-year-old Liz Shaughnessy’s love of horses began by accident. Despite her father’s side of the family owning racehorses and her father having ridden as a child, she hadn’t had much interaction with the animals until one summer on her family’s annual sum- mer cottage trip. With two young girls to entertain, Liz’s mother needed to find something for them to do and she came across a small riding stable close to their cottage.


“We got hooked,” Liz says. “We were supposed to go once a week; we went every day!”


After a few weeks of this, her mother - who Liz describes as a “city girl” who had never sat on a horse in her life - asked for a “dead quiet” mount and began accompanying her daughters. When Liz’s father came up to join his family on the weekends, he got back in the saddle as well. It became a family past time. When the summer ended and they returned to their home in Etobicoke, they found they missed riding and Liz’s parents bought themselves horses, then the girls, and eventually were paying to board four or five of them at a stable. They decided it would make more sense to move to the country, so at twelve Liz happily relocated to Caledon and dove back into riding. Liz credits the Caledon Pony Club for teaching her not just about riding, but also about the care and maintenance of owning a horse. As she grew, she took lessons and moved from Western to English.


“The community there was very involved in eventing and show jumping so we gravitated towards that,” she says. Horses took a back burner as Liz


moved on to the University of Guelph but the spark never went out completely. In her late twenties, with her career on track, Liz got reacquainted with equestrian sports.


Now a successful marketing profes- sional, there are no more accidents for Liz when it comes to horses. She knows exact- ly what she’s doing as she keeps her involvement with the sport alive and well. A publicist with her own company, Liz Shaughnessy and Associates, Liz says she started viewing horse shows she attended with a business eye and saw room for improvement.


“I naturally gravitated to representing equestrian events,” she says. I saw blatant holes from an event marketing perspective, like empty seats and no big media cover- age, which didn’t make sense because it’s so spectator friendly.”


Driven by her personal love of hors- es, Liz started working pro bono for select


shows and jumping events and over time realized the problem: too many “horse show” horse shows strictly driv- en for the competitors, and nothing mar- keted as an “event”.


“Because of the fact that the majority of the horse population lived in Ontario and around the GTA, it was odd to me this sport that had taken off like wildfire (in terms of participant) in the area wasn’t getting recognition,” Liz says. “There was something I had the sport needed.”


Her realization found the support of Don Watt, president and CEO of The Watt Group. Liz says he saw the same thing - that there was something miss- ing. The sport wasn’t getting the event coverage it deserved.


Don was astute, Liz explains. He knew that to make their venture successful, they had to take control of the sport out of the handful of people who actually com- peted and rode horses in the backyard, and present it to the general public.


Although Don passed away recently, his impact on equestrian sports - and Liz - is alive and well.


“He saw something in me maybe I didn’t even see,” Liz says. “We collaborat- ed; we created and re-branded horse shows. He was definitely captain of the ship. I was a very eager officer.” Equestrian events lend themselves easily to consumption by viewers. As Liz points out, she’s still confused by football and soccer, but horse sports are easy to understand. Another good quality is that it’s one of the only sports where men and women compete equally. Also, people like strong visual sports.


“People are drawn to animals, and beautiful equine athletes are no exception,”


Equestrian Artist Jennifer Pratt


Jennifer began drawing horses at an early age a passion that continued throughout her high school years. She always had a strong interest and natural ability in the arts. Despite this ability, the stigma of the term ‘Starving Artist’ deterred her from think- ing a career as an artist was a possibility. She decided to pursue Interior Design; a field she felt was related to art. Jennifer gradu- ated from Sheridan College in ’97 taking top honors. She prac- ticed with several large firms in the city of Toronto, before mov- ing to the Headwaters region nearly 10 years ago. Inspired by the surrounding countryside populated with horses, Jennifer returned to her roots of drawing and painting horses once again. It wasn’t long before she was able to wean herself from designer to full- time artist with commissions of horses in the area. Today, Jennifer Pratt’s artistic style ranges from colorful, painterly gestures to traditional realistic portraits of the equine subject. While her color palette and technique is diverse, she always portrays the horse with distinct clarity. Subtle movements and unusual angles are recurring themes. Collectors describe her work as correct and true to the equine form.


Based in Orangeville Ontario, Jennifer shares her life with her husband, five-year-old son and senior K9 Maddie. She has been a horse owner for many years, but currently living horse- free. This move has allowed her more time at the easel and the freedom to travel, but feels “there will always be time for another horse down the road.”


Jennifer is passionate about sporthorses and learning warm-


blood pedigrees. She insists on studying each of her subjects live, and takes great pleasure in researching the bloodlines behind all of her subjects. This helps her fully understand the horse she is paint- ing and it’s back- ground.


She


believes this adds to much of her suc- cess as a commis- sion artist. She is proud of the many long-term, repeat clientele she sees in her studio. Many have become good friends during the commission pro- cess over the years. 2009 and


2010 are proving to be true growth years for Jen- nifer. Highlights include being commissioned by Dutch Masters Construction to paint ‘Gran Gesto’, a member of Canada’s 2008 Olympic Dressage team. This painting was given to his rider Jacqueline Brooks, whom Dutch Masters proudly sponsors.


Perhaps her biggest undertaking thus far, Jennifer traveled to Sweden in June of this year for a solo show. There she met new commission horses and clients. The journey forged new friendships and opened the door to the possibility of continued travel through her artwork. Within the Headwaters Region, you can meet her in per- son at the Art of the Horse event, at Deerfields Farm, on Wednesday September 15th as part of the Headwaters Stable Tour.


Jennifer’s work can be seen on her website, www.jennpratt.com and her blog at http://jen- nprattequineartist.wordpress.com. She also runs a very active Facebook page. Find her there under ‘Equestrian Artist Jennifer Pratt’ for the latest news from the studio.


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Liz says. “If they’ve sat on one or even touched one they’re drawn to them.”


Together, Liz and Don got the Crown Royal Tour national prime time coverage and a bud- get to advertise, and it went on for six years. The Audi Classic Tour also went national, brought into the living rooms of thou- sands across the country.


Most recently Liz has been involved with EquiChallenge. Her company is promoting it and it was created with her friend Meg Harris two years ago. The idea was a VIP event for every kind of horse, with no breed specifications, and every kind of rider.


“It’s about getting together a group of top riders in all areas and mixing it all up,” Liz explains. “So top show jumpers do dressage tests or barrel racing


- doing all the things they don’t normally do - and they’re on teams.”


The idea was a success; last year the event sold out and so far this year there’s been over 500 tickets sold.


Liz and her husband, who also got into riding with her, now live in Caledon on a 20 acre lot with lots of trails in the area, see- ing as almost everyone around has horses as well. For Liz, it was like coming home. As she explains, her horses were retired from the ring but not from life, and needed somewhere to be turned out and now she has the luxury of being a “happy hacker” and taking advantage of the great trail riding opportunities.


“I like having horses,” she says. “It’s a nice feeling to look out the window everyday and see my horses looking back at me.”


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