gets ridden and has his lunch and then when he finishes his lunch he bangs on his stall to tell Erin that he is ready to go outside. Anton is a very confident horse, not arrogant but confident. He is very comfortable in his skin and he believes he is the king of the barn. His people are extremely impor- tant to him,” she explains. “Lynsey is his groom and he loves her. My farm manager, Carl makes his own version of ‘stud muffins’; those are Anton’s favorite treats!”
He thinks she should not be riding him, but should be on the ground next to him. When she leads him up to the mount- ing block, he’ll go, but if she stands on the mounting block, he turns around and looks at her. He’ll walk off and shake his head, not bad, but just goofy,” Belinda says with a laugh.
Finding Young Anton Belinda had not been looking to buy a horse when Anton came into her life. In 2006 when her daughter Sophie was just a month old and her son Matthew was 15 months, Belinda and her mother were looking to lease a horse so that Belinda could try to qualify for the Pan American Games the next year. They traveled to her coach Christilot’s and her part- ner Udo Lange’s farm in Germany to look at a horse there. That horse didn’t work out, but Belinda’s mom Robyn asked if there were any other horses that they could try in the barn. Anton was there and was for sale because his owner was getting a divorce and could not afford to keep more than one horse. Anton was six at the time. Belinda recalls that he was a nice-looking young horse, but she didn’t think that he looked that special. “But when I sat on him, I loved him. I didn’t want to get off! He was so hot to ride. He was electric beyond belief. I didn’t even know if I could ride him outside. So my mom bought him. It was a kind of ‘meant to be thing,’ because it wasn’t planned.” Anton, a bay German-bred gelding foaled in 2000, is by
Antaeus, out of Shirley by Melit. He was bred by Mirko Glotz in Saxony, Germany. Belinda stays in touch with both his breeder and his former owner and says both are very proud of Anton’s success. “When I first competed in Wiesbaden with Anton in 2010,
Anton testing the new silver medal that he and Belinda won in the team competition of the 2015 Pan American Games in Ontario.
They also ask Anton to do carrot stretches every day and
Belinda says that he actually does them on his own if you show him a carrot. Anton is given daily Omega Alpha Phar- maceuticals supplements, including MinerEQ, a mineral supplement, and several of their gastric support supple- ments including probiotics which Belinda thinks are quite useful in keeping him healthy. Because he’s so focused on Belinda and bangs on his stall when he sees her, the staff had to move Anton in a stall at the back of the barn. Since Belinda spends much of her time at the barn, his stall relocation helps prevent him from constantly knocking the wall, which might cause him injury. Though Belinda is the one who rides him most of the
time, Lynsey does occasionally fill in exercising Anton when Belinda is away. Anton is not without a sense of humor in showing his opinion when Lynsey gets ready to ride, however. “She’s a wonderful rider, but he’s just funny about it.
32 January/February 2016
Herr Glotz made the six-hour drive to the show to see him. He said, ‘It’s his first international show in Germany. I have to see him.’ He brought me baby pictures; they meant a lot to me to see him out in the field. I could tell it was him in the picture from his signature stance—I call it the Anton pose— and the wild mane. As a baby his mane was everywhere, sticking up like a Thelwell pony’s and it still does that today,” she says with a smile.
What’s Next? As 2015 ends, the Rio Olympics are on Belinda’s wish list for 2016. They are in Florida this winter to continue training and to try to make one of the spots Canada has open. Though Canada did not qualify an entire team, they have at least one individual spot available and perhaps two. “After Rio he will be 16. I will let him decide if he wants to continue to compete with me at this level or if he would like to teach someone else at that point in his life,” says Belinda. “Anton is my biggest success in dressage. I feel from him
that he wants me to step up my game and perform our best. He loves to compete. Anton has taught me so much about myself and he challenges me to become better. I love Anton with all my heart and I am grateful for every day I have with him and every ride he gives me.”
Courtesy of Oakcrest Farm
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