Cealy Tetley
American Trakehner Association
“Downtown Harrison” Headed UPTOWN in Eventing
Darren Chiacchia’s Ocala, Florida, eventing stable. He knew something was special about this horse. “Jon” bought the young prospect in 2006 with investment
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money his mother Constance had sent with him on his shopping trip. As he and the young Trakehner have developed their partnership, Jon’s original feeling has not let him down. Among their many accomplishments so far, Jon and Downtown Harrison, whom Jon named aſter a show business character, earned the Reserve Champion ribbon at Preliminary level in the 2010 American Eventing Championships at Chatahoochee Hills in Georgia. In 2011, the pair was selected for the U.S. Equestrian Team for the Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, when Downtown Harrison was only seven, and they were members of the 2012 U.S. Nation’s Cup squad competing at Boekelo in October in the Netherlands. Other highlights for the twosome were a win in their first CCI*** at the 2012 Bromont Event in Quebec in July, where they led from start to finish.
Tat Fateful Meeting “My mother had owned a nice horse that had competed at
the Rolex Kentucky Tree-Day Event in 2004. When that horse was injured, she wanted another really nice one and told me to find her the nicest young horse that I could,” says Jon. “So I stopped by Darren’s farm and looked at two youngsters, a filly and a colt. Downtown Harrison was the colt. I chose him based on several things. First, he moved great—he floated across the ground. His conformation was prety good. Tough most of all, he had that look in his eye that said he was the best thing in the world—a cool confidence bordering on arrogance. I have heard it called the ‘look of eagles.’ Tis colt had that look. He was the best horse I had seen, so I wrote the check,” Jon says of their first meeting. Many things had to come together before Jon and
Downtown Harrison, a.k.a. “Will,” would meet that day. Jon grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His early equestrian pursuits were in the jumper ring as well as in 4-H, and then
56 January/February 2013
The eight-year-old Anglo-Trakehner gelding Downtown Harrison (Il Sixtino – Silver Buck xx) and Jonathan Holling on cross-country at the 2012 Bromont CCI3* where they took first place leading from start to finish.
at age 14 he started eventing with a local trainer. “I tried eventing and loved the objectiveness of the sport. I love the daily process of working with the horses, probably as much or more than competing,” explains Jon. At 19 Jon moved to Canada to train with Peter Gray,
then the coach of the Canadian Eventing Team. He stayed in Canada for almost four years. At age 20 Jon competed in his first Rolex Kentucky
Tree-Day Event on a horse named Prairie Schooner. Jon also competed at Burghley Horse Trials in Great Britain and the World Cup eventing finals in Malmö, Sweden. Along the way Jon has also benefited from the coaching of such equestrian greats as Jimmy Wofford and George Morris. For the last six or seven years, Jon has ridden primarily with David O’Connor, an Olympic gold medalist and the new Chef d’Equipe of the U.S. Eventing Squad.
nternational Eventing rider Jonathan Holling had a “feeling” when he first saw a two-year-old dark bay Trakehner colt moving in a pasture at Olympic rider
By Kim Macmillan
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