POV
Olympian Julie Rich- ards competes “Sam- son.” In 2011, he had a break from Train- ing Level eventing to earn second place at the USEF National Young Horse Dressage Championships, Five- Year-Old, ridden by Caroline Roffman. “He’s a natural,”
says owner Katie Bry- ant. “You can put him at a combination and he will figure it out. As a four-year-old, he was answering questions that older horses had to think about before they answered.” Like Dana, Katie’s had to explain her horse’s dres- sage breeding. “On his dam’s side, the damsire Lombard does sire show jumpers.” When she started Samson under saddle, she realized her
San City and Katie Bryant at the American Eventing Preliminary Championships.
sure—except for the extremely tough cross-country questions. The excitement of cross-country day can affect the
horse’s performance in show jumping. Andrew pin- points that as the most difficult phase with stallions. “I’m riding a tired horse that is in energy conservation mode. This is where it gets hard to be competitive on a stallion, because on the third day of the event you may or may not have a sharp, attentive horse, and rails fall easily.” Training teaches a stallion to ignore distractions.
The trainer must establish routines to channel the horse’s masculine energy, so he’s safe to handle at home and at the show. Dana describes how her stal- lion is respectful. She keeps him at a large boarding fa-
youngster had talent over fences. “As I watched him jump, he was out of this world. He’s really safe and really honest.” This stallion will be presented at the American Hanoverian Soci- ety stallion licensing in December 2013. Liam, the Irish Draught, moved to Intermediate level in
2013. “He is very uncomplicated,” says Connie. “He likes food, and he likes to jump. You aim him at a jump, and that’s it.”
Training and Showing With their love of jumping, these eventing stallions have tak- en to the sport. About Archie, Dana says, “He’s easy to ride, especially for a stallion. He’s not very argumentative.” She says that on his fourth birthday, his first time jumping cross-coun- try, “He was a natural from day one. A student jumped him, and he had his knees under his jaw over a log, with a ridicu- lous bascule. I said, ‘Okay, I think he can jump!’” Andrew describes stallions as concerned with being care-
ful, and possibly threatened by the big obstacles. “Stallions have a higher sense of self-preservation than a mare or a gelding, and naturally cross country is threatening to their well being. This presents problems in various ways and pushing beyond the comfort zone can cause them to shut down. It requires a very ‘forward thinking’ stallion to work through these issues and can sometimes be more time consuming. In this way stallions do not always fit into a normal training program and therefore do not appeal to most pro- fessional riders.” In general, he sees that this self-preservation does make stallions “usu- ally very careful and safe.” He calls stallions finely tuned and able to perform under pres-
72 September/October 2013
cility with 60 horses. “He is right next to geldings, and stands next to other horses.” She adds, “I treat him like any other horse. The difference is to have a very clear line, and they do not cross the line.” Tate is a friend, according to Anissa. “He’s very much a people horse. He wants to be with his people all the time.” She bought his dam in foal, and gave him a name that means "lust for life" in German. Katie’s Samson stands tied to a trailer at the show. “At com- petitions he acts like a gelding. Anywhere else, you know he’s a stallion. He’s probably a little bit harder to handle at home.” Eventing keeps horses focused on performance, distinct
from breeding. “Archie has two jobs,” says Dana. “He knows when he can breed, and when he’s allowed to act like a stal- lion. He knows to keep his jobs separated. At competitions he’s super easy. He knows he’s not going to breed there.” Andrew agrees, because his stallions have a separate
breeding area at his farm. He exposes horses to distractions at home, helping them stay focused at shows. “They never have it in their heads that we ‘could be here for breeding.’ It is pretty clear to them what they are there for.” Eventing a stallion certainly promotes his breeding career.
Owners of eventing mares are likely customers. Connie says, “It’s not a huge market, but I definitely get mares where peo- ple are looking for eventing horses. I ship semen all over, and I think most have some eventing background.”
Archie and Dana in Open Intermidate at Woodside Spring Horse Trials in California.
Combating Preconceptions Andrew remembers the com- ments he heard when he started eventing on stallions. “From the beginning, I heard a lot of nega- tivity from professional trainers that I worked with.” As Andrews explains, “The nature of a stal- lion is to conserve and preserve. Self-preservation I already men- tioned, but they also conserve
Hoof Clix
Carol Mingst
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