think. It’s a big decision to make.” Finally, she says, try to keep your search for a horse
grounded in reality. It can be easy to get star struck when you travel abroad, but Reese points out that at the end
of the day, horses are horses. While there are plenty of good ones to be found abroad, they are not unicorns. “The horses there are horses, and they’re being sold for a reason. They’re not all perfect; they’re still horses!” she says. v
Para dressage rider Dr. Deborah Stanitski of Charleston, South Carolina traveled to England last year to purchase Skovlunds De Nice, a Danish Warmblood mare found in Denmark by Mette Assouline, whose French husband Michel coaches the U.S. para dressage team.
Debbie Stanitski riding her imported Danish mare Skovlunds De Nice in Wellington during the Adequan Global Dressage Festival this past winter.
Personal Connections Debbie’s coach Michelle Folden had been casually looking for a horse for Debbie for a while, and Debbie had mentioned to Mette that she would like to find a Grade I walk horse (the Para Grade I test is walk only) just like Hero, who belonged to her friend Gigi Mackintosh (a former eventer and now a partial quadriplegic, who also competes in para dressage). Mette happened to find just about exactly what she was looking for. “When she found Jolie, Mette called Michelle and
asked how serious I was, and given the horse I was riding then was 19, and I’m 65, I was pretty serious. Not only do I not have time for a green horse, I can’t handle a hot horse any more. Thirty years ago bucking and rearing and spinning were alright for me, but now I’d end up on the ground,” Debbie says. Mette purchased Jolie in Denmark and brought the
horse to England, figuring if she was not a good fit for Debbie, she would be easy to re-sell since she was sound, attractive and had been competing at the equivalent of Prix St. Georges in Denmark. Michelle looked at the video of the mare and encouraged Debbie to fly over and try her, so Debbie traveled with a friend to try the mare and sent videos to Michelle, then bought her. Debbie says that she knew from the first ride that Jolie
was a good fit. “When I went over to try her, Jolie put up with me from day one. It wasn’t winter, but it was sweater weather, and she was still calm. I rode her indoors and outdoors and we figured behavior-wise she was fine in the cold and outdoors.” Jolie was shipped from Amsterdam to Miami, which
30 May/June 2019
are both major hubs for horse transport. She then spent the requisite 21 days for a mare in quarantine at the NC State Extension in Southern Pines, North Carolina before Debbie was able to bring her home to Charleston. “I have pictures of her when she came off the plane, and she looked like, ‘Where the hell am I?’ I was a little worried about her with the heat and humidity and bugs, but she was okay. Luckily she didn’t get hives or colic or anything weird,” she says. Jolie arrived in Charleston June 2, 2018, and it was time for Debbie to get acquainted with her new dance partner. “In the beginning she was wacko! Not totally crazy, but enough that I could get hurt. In the meantime I’d been invited to the WEG training camp in Virginia, and I took the horse I’d been borrowing, Butterfinger Bonanza, instead. Michelle rode Jolie for about two weeks, and I got on her maybe five times before we went to Virginia in August. I really didn’t start riding her consistently for a couple months—I got comfortable grooming her and handling her first. I didn’t get on her until late June and I didn’t start riding her all the time until early September. I’ve been riding consistently since then and now she’s very quiet. In fact I can [unintentionally] kick the heck out of Jolie and she doesn’t hold it against me.”
Hire a Professional As a para dressage rider, a reliable horse is particularly impor- tant, for safety reasons. Debbie had previously bought a mare in Texas who didn’t work out because she turned out to be too hot for her to handle. “I think it’s really important to go with a professional, particularly if you’re not ‘normal’, which I’m not,” says
SusanJStickle.com
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