“I am certain that for anyone who is dedicated enough and is in the right program, [riding in a four-star] is attainable.”


like vegetables and would prefer to go without than to eat prepared food. I won’t buy a ready-to-eat meal, and late at night I will still cook an ‘old fashioned’ meal that has proper nutrients. I’ve always been a thin person, but I whittled my weight down to ride at Kentucky; I’m 6’ 1½” and try to keep my weight low. All I did was instead of eating two of something I’d eat one, and after a few weeks the weight came off. Because of my job I’m very active—my friends might say bordering on hyperac- tive—so I think I consume a lot of energy in my work as a vet. There’s a lot of lifting x-ray machines and so on, so it comes naturally that way. I work nine to eleven hours a day. I also walk the cross-country course a few times during events, running and jogging it a few times too.” When you’re an amateur, finding enough time to


prepare to ride in a four-star is very challenging. With Kevin’s busy work schedule, it takes careful planning to find time to get to the barn. He also plans his life strategically and lives close to his office, which is across the street from Phillip’s barn. He encour- ages anyone, no matter how busy they are, not to give up on their dreams. “I am certain that for anyone who is dedicated enough and is in the right program, it is attainable,” he says.


Disappointment on Course Unfortunately this year things didn’t go quite as planned in Kentucky. With the weather increasingly wet and cold and the footing getting heavier with each horse that galloped around, when Butterfly stopped at a fence late on the cross-country course, Kevin opted to retire from the competition. “I was number 72, and the footing had gotten very


deep,” he recalls. “I felt that my horse was not enjoying it very much. He was still jumping fine and was not at all tired, but he’s a very good cross-country horse, and with the conditions deteriorating, when he ran out at fence 21 I still had nine fences to go and elected to walk him home from there. In hindsight I’m glad I did. He’s a tough, rugged horse. He was bred in Ireland and is by Puissance, by Imperious, the sire of Master Imp—also Zara Phillips’ horse High Kingdom’s sire, out of a Thoroughbred mare. He’s between 80 and 85 percent Thoroughbred, so he’s easy to get fit and so forth; that phenotype is a real bene- fit. He’s an excellent cross-country horse, and he was tell- ing me it was not his day.” Even though his conscience is at peace, it bothered


Kevin that things didn’t go as planned. “Anyone who has done three-day eventing has had that experience, when you don’t get the results you want. The feeling of fail- ure on the day is hard to take. Fortunately Phillip Dutton, Boyd Martin and Will Coleman, my very good friends, were all there riding. After I didn’t have the round I desired,


I turned my attention to helping my friends with their horses since I’m an FEI veterinarian. That took my atten- tion off myself and Butterfly. Basically, everyone has had this experience; there are some people there who have had phenomenal experiences at the four-star level, who also didn’t complete the event. One thing you have to be is mentally strong to deal with the experience on the day.”


Still in the Game Back home in Pennsylvania he has a five-year-old Irish horse “Vinny” who is keeping him busy while Butterfly takes a well-earned rest. He purchased Vinny in Ireland over Thanksgiving last year and says he looks to be quite a nice type. “Carol Gee knew about the horse and helped me find him; he wasn’t hers, but she knows people in every corner of Ireland and she’s very good at sourc- ing horses. He’s doing Novice level—he’d never evented before and did not go to the young horse competition at Dublin, though he did win a qualifying class. One of the things in Phillip’s stable is that the horse be educated properly, so I want to take things slowly so he’s confident and happy and able to enjoy the sport.” Kevin also owns in syndicate Phillip and


wife Evie’s horse Mighty Nice, who was owned by the late businessman Richard Duchossois. This year


Mighty Nice was withdrawn from the competition with a bone chip on his stifle after cross-country. (The horse was checked at New Bolton Center in Pennsylvania, where they determined that he should be able to return to full soundness without surgery. He is currently rehabilitating.) When Butterfly gets back to work, Kevin plans to get


back on track so he can have another crack at Kentucky next year. “When you’ve had an experience that is not what you desire, the first thing is to give the horse some rest, then get back into training and get him going well again,” he says. Kevin says his coach, Phillip Dutton, will without a


doubt come up with a targeted game plan to meet that goal. “Phillip is not a very talkative person, as many know, but what that means to me is he’s quite an expert at summarizing everything. I knew he’d have an analysis for me of how Kentucky played out; he’s brilliant at train- ing from the ground. Phillip will quietly take all of this into consideration and when we begin to train, he’ll take everything that happened this spring and it’ll be incor- porated into corrective exercises. He’s a very astute horse person and very generous with his time, always helping people and not really expecting anything in return.” “Butterfly went very well in 2014. He’s still quite a


young horse and I’d like to give Rolex a go again. Even if I have to do another three-star, I’m prepared to do that and God willing, show up at Kentucky next year.”


Warmbloods Today 25


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