Working with Cody hasn’t been easy. “It comes from
both ends, as far as kicking and biting and things like that,” says Maya. “He was gelded on a normal schedule, so that wasn’t something that influenced his behavior—I think they thought they could never keep him as a stallion. To this day he doesn’t like other horses. He’ll knock the fence down to try to get at them and bite the walls of his stall - he likes his personal space.” Learning how to manage him at shows has been diffi-
cult for Maya. “Giving him peace and quiet at the shows is important; at home he has a routine and he’s best if he has a paddock with thick electric fencing, or something he can’t kick. If he has a shelter somewhere it’s best if it doesn’t have walls, because he’ll kick the walls. At home in Washington it’s easy, but over time I’ve learned to manage it better, traveling around with him.” Cody’s stable mate Mowgli, a
young promising Thoroughbred that Maya purchased a year and a half ago currently going Preliminary, is the only horse that Cody tolerates. “Cody actually likes him as much as any horse—Mowgli is unassum- ing and doesn’t pick fights with him. So Cody can go in an end stall with Mowgli next to him. Or I have drapes and cover the walls at event stabling. I tried different kicking chains and things like that a couple years ago because I didn’t want him to hurt himself – I had to go and check on him throughout the night—but now I just deal with it by preventing the problem. A couple of people didn’t show up at Rolex, so he didn’t have any horses within six stalls of him and it was really ideal. I often request the corner stall. They can’t always accommodate him, and I don’t want them to think he’s going to destroy the stabling, but I do usually make a note on the stabling form.” He’s difficult as far as grooming and going in his stall, too.
For grooming and tacking up Maya always ties him up rather than leave him loose in the stall. Under saddle, Cody is much easier to work with, though he can be spooky there as well. “He’s a little bit funny to get on, but once you’re on him
and he’s been in consistent work he’s really quite good,” says Maya. “He has a good, trainable attitude. He has had his moments, where he doesn’t understand something and he’ll blow his nose and leap around a little, but now that we’re at the point where he’s learned most of what he needs to know and we’re focusing on making it better. Fortunately we haven’t had those discussions for a while!” He doesn’t like passing things like flowers or judge’s booths that are tall. “At Rebecca Farm, in Montana, they had beautiful judge’s booths with sails on them, and he didn’t like
that,” she continues. “But in the ring, even though he’ll be less relaxed than usual, he still pays attention.” On the cross country Cody is very focused and his spooki- ness disappears. But back in the show jumping arena, where things are slowed down, he tends to be spooky all over again.
READY TO ADVANCE
At the beginning of 2014, Maya made the decision to bring Cody east to train and compete. He had shown through the two-star level in Washington and California and she felt that he was nearly ready to move up to Advanced. She had previously trained two horses up to the two-star level, but little injuries had kept them from moving up. This was her chance and she wanted to make the most of it. She spent the winter of 2013-
2014 working for Jan Byyny, whom she had also worked for in 2008. The following winter, as a member of the High Performance training group, she worked with U.S. Eventing Team coaches David O’Connor and Silvio Mazzoni in Ocala, Florida. This past winter she’s been in Ocala working primarily with Karen O’Connor and has also taken dressage lessons with Adrienne Lyle, who’s also from Whid- bey Island. “Adrienne and I grew up riding
together, even though we’re not from horsey families. She’s been help- ful with dressage training questions over the years,” Maya continues. “I’ve worked for Debbie McDonald over the years too, and with Ocala only a few hours from Wellington, it was fun to go down there and see them and
get some good lessons with both horses.” When Maya made the high performance training list in 2014, Dan and Jon packed up their extra shoeing tools and sent them with Maya, so they have everything they need to shoe him. They fly out every five weeks to make sure his feet are in good shape.
OLYMPIC DREAMS
Maya and Cody’s success at The Fork and Rolex Kentucky could not have gone unnoticed by selectors for the U.S. Olympic team, but Maya remains practical in her viewpoint. “Before Rolex, the Olympics weren’t something I had
thought about because so many people have more experi- ence and more horses,” she says. “I haven’t been on a team and I just have the one horse. We’ve never been to Europe together.” “I sent in the paperwork for the Olympic qualification, so
in that way it’s still a possibility,” she continues. “But while I’d love to be considered, we’ll just have to see. He’s been in
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