TRAINERS’ POINT OF VIEW By Charlene Strickland Stallions in Eventing
IN DRESSAGE AND JUMPING, STALLIONS COM- PETE IN ABUNDANCE. IN THREE DAY EVENT- ING, NOT SO MANY ENTER THE START BOX. OUT OF 46 HORSES ENTERED AT ROLEX KENTUCKY IN 2013, FOR EXAMPLE, ONLY ONE STALLION, CHILLI MORNING RIDDEN BY WILLIAM FOX-PITT, WAS THERE. WHY SO FEW? HEREWE TAKE A LOOK AT THE PROS AND THE CONS – AND THE CHAL- LENGES – OF COMPETING A STALLION.
“ I
t’s a fantastic way to display your horse’s talents,” says Dana Estes, of Vineyard Eventing in Livermore, California. Dana owns and trains the Hanoverian, Worthy Opponent. “The emotional bond with a stallion is never equal to a gelding or mare. My horse will save me more than any other horse when the chips are down,” she adds. That special partnership, along with the unique vigor a stallion brings to his job, is what cap- tivates horsemen and women who are passionate about the eventing discipline.
Exuberant Athletes At any show, stallions tend to express their verve. That spar- kle—that “look at me” attitude—sets them apart. Obviously expression can boost a stallion’s score in the dressage phase, but these guys evidently thrive on the cross-country course. Anissa Cottongim of Alford,
Florida owns the outstand- ing stallion Tatendrang, fondly called “Tate” (Onassis x Avignon II). “When you watch this horse go cross country, you know that’s what he wants to do. He loves it. He eats the fences up. He looks for the fences and he just goes for it. He’s got this look on his face,” says Anissa. “Tate can do the dressage
and get great scores, but to him that little white box is a
70 September/October 2013
Archie and owner/rider Dana Estes in Open Intermediate at Twin Rivers this past spring.
means to get to the cross-country field and jumping,” she adds. At a strictly dressage show, he can get bored by the third day of wearing a dressage saddle. But when he gets his boots on for cross country, Anissa jokes, “He starts grinning. He’s like a little kid.” Tate’s trainer, Andrew Palmer of Eufala, Alabama, who cur-
rently has numerous stallions in training, agrees with Anissa. “He is perfectly willing to do dressage but he does get bored with it and his best dressage days come after he gets to jump,” says Andrew. “Sometimes you just know what a horse wants to do and stallions are no exception.” “Tate has a lot of natural talent combined with a great
work ethic,” he says about the Trakehner. “He is really in his element out on cross country. He absolutely loves to run and jump, and he has a great uphill gallop, which is critical.” A stallion with the heart and desire to jump fences cross
country is a joy to ride. Connie Arthur of Lone Tree Farm in Waterford, California, says that jumping is in the DNA of her 2000 Irish Draught stallion, Bridon Beale Street, or “Liam” (Mountain Pearl x King Elvis), which he passes to his offspring. “They take ev- erything you throw at them in jumping,” she says. “They have a desire to jump. My stallion hasn’t ever refused anything. Most horses, the first time jumping a corner they will hesitate or wiggle. His first corner, he never hesitated—he took me to the corner.” She recalls when she first ponied Liam down to
a river’s edge, he stepped right in the water. “The next day I took him to the river again, and by the time I got there he was leading my gelding to the river.”
Tate (Tatendrang) and Andrew Palmer at Intermediate at Chattahoochee Hills, GA this past July.
Ultimately owners have to make the deci-
sion to compete stallions in the sport. Dana says, “I think people are afraid to event their stallions.
Carol Mingst
Eileen Dimond/Liz Crawley Photography
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