in dressage, the pair competed to the two-star level. In 2009 they competed at the Fair Hill CCI2*, but an unfortu- nate tumble on cross-country left them in the mud rather than in the ribbons. The following spring, “Neo” was sent to Allie so that
she would have another horse to ride. One May evening while she was out to dinner with her family a huge thun- der storm rolled in. When they arrived home Allie had a feeling something was wrong, so she went to check the horses. She discovered Marshall lying in the field, killed when he was struck by lightning. Devastated from her loss, it was the diminutive geld- ing who helped her pull herself out of the despair follow- ing Marshall’s untimely demise, as she focused on the younger horse’s training. And by then, Allie already knew that Neo could be something special. “I got him because the lady that had owned him was an older adult and he was too much of a handful for her,” she says. “He’s a very smart horse—he’ll figure out a way out of the situation if he wants to. She wanted to find someone who would challenge him, and once I started training him more he stopped bucking all the time.” (She adds that bucking is a common trait in the line he comes from). “Especially when he’s going back to work he can still be a bit wild—he’s smart and witty and can be quite quick.” Both Sparrow’s Nio
Legendary Connemara stallion *Grange Finn Sparrow, known for producing top eventing horses and ponies.
and Sparrow’s Owen, a 15.1 hand Connemara- Appendix cross ridden by Megan Harris, are by *Grange Finn Sparrow (Coosheen Finn–Dun Sparrow, Carna Dunn), a Connemara bred by Lady Maria Levigne in Ireland. Grange Finn Sparrow competed successfully as a show
jumper and hunter in both Europe and the United States before his death in 2010; he also sired several advanced lev- el eventers, including Windswept, Wil’Ya Love Me, Meadow Sparrow and Galway Blazer. “Owen” and “Neo” were both bred by Jennifer Jones of Lewisburg, West Virginia. Neo may be 15.3, but Allie often refers to him as a
pony—for his size and his temperament. Allie recounts that while she was trying to help some Pony Club kids prepare for their ratings, as they were leading Neo in from the pasture, “halfway in he’d spook every time. He’s a very intelligent creature. He acts very studdish and lives by himself because he isn’t good with other horses. He’s a ‘wannabe stallion,’ so I ask not to be stabled near mares at events.” She continues, “I think if you harness that intelligence and guide it he can really excel. Going cross-country, his little ears are always perked—there’s not a picture of him on cross-country where he’s not looking for the next fence.”
28 January/February 2014
The pair has
moved up the levels steadily and they are now in their second season at Intermediate. They completed the Dansko Fair Hill CCI** (in Maryland) last fall, then spent the past win- ter training in Florida with Sara Kozumplik and Brian Murphy.
Road to
Victory Earlier in 2013 Al- lie and Neo com- peted at the Jer- sey Fresh CCI**, but without a trainer helping her during the competition she underestimated how long the cross-country course really was and, with a tired horse on Sunday, they dropped out of the top ten after a disastrous show jumping round. “On our honeymoon I told my husband I wanted to
The pair competing at Fair Hill during cross-country.
work on my show jumping, because every time I’d go into show jumping something awful would happen,” says Allie. “He’s ridden enough that he knows how to help me from the ground. Where I am and in the situation I’m in, I don’t have the opportunity to get a lot of lessons—it’s really beneficial. He’s also practiced with Neo for modern pen- tathlon, so he knows what he’s like to ride.” With only a few show jumping fences and a couple
of barrels out in a field to school over, the team got to work. “Sam would tell me to sit taller with my body, or whatever, and be my eyes on the ground every time I jumped; we’d also video it and I’d watch it again and again,” she says. “I’m tall enough on Neo that I’m kind of a lever up there, so the more movement I did up there the more I’d throw his balance off. The horse doesn’t want to touch the jumps, but when I’d get in his way he’d have a rail. It was more about fixing what I was doing
Photos by Amber Heintzberger
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