Bakara KS is now a successful FEI horse with her owner Ellie Kennedy. Here they are competing Prix St. Georges last May at the Marin Chap- ter Show in Petaluma, California. Prior to that she had two foals and above is she and her 2015 filly Karrera by Vitalis.
2014, she had colic surgery, after which owner Gundi Younger bred her twice. In 2016, at 10, Bakara was sold to amateur rider Ellie
Kennedy, who bought her sight unseen knowing both the horse’s owner and Bakara’s show record. “I bought her preg- nant, then saw her in a pasture with her baby. Once the baby was weaned, I had her vetted and brought her home,” Ellie says. This year she will be competing at Intermediaire I after a few times out at Prix St. Georges. Bringing Bakara back from motherhood has progressed
slowly, even though Ellie will soon be showing at the high- est level for the mare. “I was super careful. Our biggest hurdle was conditioning. She had a belly. That takes time to build up stomach muscles and to lose weight. It took me awhile to get her nutrition right. It’s only been in the last six months that I feel she is in condition for FEI.” With as much experience as Bakara had in the show arena, Ellie assumed that she could put her in a trailer and take her just about anywhere. Unfortunately, a clinic two and half hours away proved to be overwhelming for the mare. The trip entailed a lot of bucking and rearing. “She was really stressed out. It hadn’t occurred to me to treat her more like a young horse. In hindsight I should have taken her on short rides to local places and just ridden her around,” says Ellie, who worked for several years as an assistant dressage trainer and often worked with young horses. “Like a young horse, she was fine when she first arrived at the barn. They’re compliant at first, as they’re figuring things out. Then they get more suspi- cious, a little defiant and testing.” Bakara returned home from the clinic not quite right and
Ellie gave her some time off. Nonetheless, Bakara rebounded and has taken to barn life in a big way. “She loves being fussed over, coming out and doing her job and showing off. She nickers at me when I come into the barn. She is bred to be a performance horse. I feel like I won the lottery. I took a chance on her and it has really paid off. She’s the nicest horse
20 January/February 2019
I’ve ridden and I’ve ridden a ton of horses. She works hard for me. I joke with my instructor that I’ve never had a horse where you apply an aid and she actually does it.” Willy is not surprised at Bakara’s success under saddle,
knowing both her offspring and her family tree well. He has had two of her foals and owned two of her half-sisters. More importantly, he knew her as a foal and later rode her in the KWPN keuring which led to her crowning as North Ameri- can KWPN champion as a five-year-old. He also competed her mother at Prix St. Georges. “Her grandmother was number one in the nation as a foal and her great grand- mother was a phenomenal producer in Holland who came here at age 9 or 10 and we had super riding horses from her,” he explains. “The mare line is the most important. Work ethic and ride-
ability are natural traits,” he continues. “So if they are ridden and competed, you know how they take to training and how that line will be as dressage horses. Jumping is heritable. Dressage is more training, gaits and soundness. You can have a horse with three nice gaits and then with a good rider it can turn into a good Grand Prix horse. It’s character and training. Then you know there should be no problem putting them back to work after they have been broodmares.”
Lady Calido’s Story Eventing trainer Robyn Fisher also took a gamble on a baby momma. Holsteiner Lady Calido (Calido I x Aronny/Renomee) would go on to be USEA Horse of the Year in 2009, but when Robin got her she was nine and had had foals at four, six and eight years old with one at her side. She had been backed and could walk, trot and canter under saddle. That was it. And as expected, the mare had never seen a cross-country course. “She was out of shape. The ligaments around her sacro-
iliac joint had dropped for that baby. But she was very keen to start work,” Robyn recalls. With baby at her side, Lady Calido was lunged in a small
Hannah Beebe
Courtesy Gundi Younger
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