By Amber Heintzberger
Bienvenue á Le Lion
Despite her injuries, a special American-bred mare was unstoppable on her way to France’s Young Event Horse World Championships.
Last year, a European tour from late August until mid-October proved life- changing for West Coast eventer Tamie Smith
of Teme-cula, California. She
competed Dempsey, Twizted Syster and Fleeceworks Royal at a series of events including Boekelo (NL), Bleheim (UK), Gatcombe Park (UK) and the Young Event Horse Championships at Le Lion d’Angers (FR). The trip was funded in part by the Rebecca Broussard International Grant, as well as the Holekamp/Turner Grant specifically for young horses to attend the championships at Le Lion, where Tamie rode Judith McSwain’s U.S.-bred Holsteiner mare Fleeceworks Royal (River- man x Marisol by Corofino I) to finish in twenty-fourth place out of 59 starters, on a final score of 64.3.
Young Event Horses at Galway Downs in California. She had been successful since she was a four-year-old, having claimed the reserve championship in the U.S. Eventing Association (USEA) Young Event Horse (YEH) Series for the west coast. The mare continued to develop under Tamie’s guid- ance and later won the 6-year-old West Coast Young Jumper Championships. She was also successful at the Preliminary and CCI1* level, and finished 2015 as the USEA Preliminary Horse of the Year and the American Holsteiner CIC Champion. (She was also Warmblood Today’s “cover girl” in the previous issue.)
T
Close Friendship Tamie met Judy, who is a retired Navy nurse, the first year she rode at the Rolex Kentucky three-day event. “I ended up having a hysterectomy a couple months before Kentucky; it was very non-invasive, but I had an awkward jump into the Head of the Lake and ended up hemorrhaging inside,” Tamie recounts. “I don’t think it’s ever happened before, but I ended up retiring a few fences from home. I actually thought something was wrong with my horse, but he was getting sluggish because I was flopping around like a dead fish on his back!” “I met Judy because my veterinarian Emily Sandler was there and said I should go to the hospital. I said, ‘No, I’m fine,’ but Judy insisted and escorted me to the hospital and got me in quickly. I ended up having full-on surgery that night and we became instant friends.” Shortly after this, Judy’s horse Fleeceworks Fernhill needed a
new rider because Jennifer Wooten was moving away, so Judy came up with a plan to have Tamie ride the Irish mare. Their friendship developed and Fleeceworks Royal entered the picture four years ago.
TOP: Tamie Smith and Rory (Fleeceworks Royal) during their jog, the first stage of the championship competition at Mondial du Lion.
Warmbloods Today 23
wo years ago Fleeceworks Royal, a.k.a. “Rory,” quali- fied for the Holekamp/Turner Grant to later compete in France when she won the West Coast Championship for
Libby Law Photography
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