The holidays offer the perfect occasion to showcase a feel-good tale, so here’s one that fills the bill.
During Dressage at Devon last fall, I spotted a lovely palomino, and marched right over to him. That was only natural; palominos are rare in the dressage ring, so he caught my eye. But it turned out his looks weren’t the only unusual thing about him. He came with a story, and now, after my hectic autumn season, I finally have time to tell it to you.
Fantom belonged to a retired music teacher, Bev Thomas, who was at a barn where Jess Idol was the assistant trainer. A Lusitano by the perlino stallion XA, Fantom was imported from Portugal. Jess doesn’t know what happened to him there or later, while he was passed around in the U.S., but said, “I assume he had a hard upbringing.”
Jess Idol and Fantom leaving the ring after the Prix St. Georges at Dressage at Devon. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
The horse could do the Spanish walk, though Jess mused, “He was so afraid of the whip. I think they just made him do it. I don’t think anyone taught him.”
As a result, Fantom was spooky and challenging, which didn’t get him votes as a barn favorite. Bev was an amateur who loved her horse, but wasn’t really enjoying riding him.
So Jess started working with him in-hand and found “he was just sort of uncomfortable in his own skin.” Every day, however, the attention encouraged him to be better and better; “more honest and more trustworthy,” she remembered.
“I think he just needed someone to be his friend,” said Jess.
“Bev and I were the only people who believed in the horse.”
When Bev suggested that Jess should show Fantom, that wasn’t the most inviting proposal, but Jess accepted.
“I won’t say no to an opportunity,” she explained.
Jess and Bev were ecstatic with a 64 percent at Third Level, especially since they hadn’t thought he would even get in the ring. Bev realized that what the gelding needed was one person to be his trainer, and that’s why she chose Jess. Bev had dialed the right number.
Jess comes from a natural horsemanship background. starting youngsters and sorting out problem horses. She worked with her mother, Amy Beeson, in North Carolina. They advertised well over a dozen specialties, from training trail horses to desensitizing, teaching them how to load on a trailer and western dressage. It wasn’t an easy way to earn a living.
“Growing up,” recalled 26-year-old Jess, training horses was “how we ate dinner. We would get on anything. We lived out of our horse trailer.”
This was not some fancy van with sleeping quarters; it was a gooseneck with a tack room and a mattress on the floor.
“You mean you were…?” I asked hesitantly.
“Homeless,” was Jess’s quick response.
“We’d go to anyone’s place who had a horse. They were often horses that shouldn’t have been ridden. We would go to auctions. As a kid, five or six years old, I was put on horses to show they were kid-safe.”
Jess started riding Fantom, now 11, when he was nine.
“He just bonded with me and bonded with his owner. Only she or I could catch him in the field,” said Jess.
In mid-2020, she was doing a clinic with 2016 Olympic team bronze medalist Ali Brock and of course, Bev was supposed to be coming to watch, as she always did. But Fantom’s owner never showed up.
After her ride, Jess went to Bev’s house, where she saw newspapers in the driveway, mail in the mailbox and Bev’s dog sitting by the door. Alarmed, knowing that Bev was 70 and not in the best of health, she called 911. A fireman opened the door to the laundry room and found Bev in a diabetic coma. She was hospitalized but suffered bilateral strokes before passing away.
It was a huge loss. Jess noted Bev would do whatever she could for people at the barn, donated to every charity, had adopted mustangs and did much to help animals, especially golden retrievers and horses.
Bev had talked to Jess about taking Fantom if anything happened to her. Jess said she would, explaining “I love him.”
Jess pats Fantom for a job well done. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
It turned out that Bev had left Fantom to Jess in her will, along with a trust fund so the trainer could afford to keep him.
Talking about it, Jess got emotional while thinking of how she misses her friend.
“Bev and I were the only people who believed in the horse. People felt he was tricky and difficult. He used to hide in the back of his stall and try to disappear. Now that he’s so confident, he has the biggest personality.”
He has graduated to a stall where can hang his head out and ask for cookies.
Jess works out of Dynamic Dressage in White Post, Va., with her partner, Patrick Tigchelaar.
Although they often ride in the same classes, Jess and Patrick are partners, not rivals.
“We don’t compete against. We just ride together,” explained Jess.
“We support. It’s easy. I say, `Good job.’ He says, `Good job.'”
In October, the two went to Dressage at Devon, a dream come true for Jess. Although Patrick had ridden at Devon five times, won there in 2011 and would win again this year in the Intermediate I, everything about the storied venue was a revelation for Jess.
“I had always seen people posting photos of being in the Dixon Oval,” she said, explaining she kept “visualizing what it was going to look like, what it’s going to feel like.”
But the visualizations didn’t quite match reality when Patrick pointed out the compact showgrounds as they drove along busy US Route 30 outside of Philadelphia. Jess had trouble believing that was Devon.
“I was taken aback that it’s literally in the middle of a town,” she said, still almost in disbelief.
“When you get in there, that’s where the magic is. You get in the Dixon Oval and it’s special,” Patrick told her.
As Jess finally walked into the arena on Fantom, she found the experience was indeed as special as she had hoped it would be.
“Holy cow!” she thought, while going through the gate and seeing the famous grandstand, painted Devon blue, towering in front of her.
Riding in the Dixon Oval at Dressage at Devon was always a dream for Jess Idol. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
“This is my moment, I’m in the Oval. I’m in a CDI (FEI class) with these judges that I look up to: Here I am. They rang the bell, I patted Fantom and said, `Here we go.’ ”
It wasn’t a bad test. Fantom finished 14th on 63.333 percent after scoring some marks of 5 in the flying changes every four strides and the extended and collected walk. But he also had some better moments, including 7s for flying changes and collected canters and the end of his test with a nice halt.
The next day in the Intermediate I, which Patrick won on O’Captain, Fantom moved up to seventh place on 65.490 percent, with two of three judges marking him at more than 66 percent. Fantom’s only mark below 6 was a 5.5 for the extended walk.
Lusitanos aren’t made for Small Tour, “they’re made for Grand Prix,” Jess declared.
“My ambitions are to conquer the world on horseback. Fantom is probably not going to be the horse I conquer the world with, but he’s going to be the horse that lets me get my feet wet in everything and lets people see me.”
She believes that Fantom will be a much better Grand Prix horse than he is Small Tour horse, because “walking is not a favorable gait for Lusitanos. When he can piaffe and passage around the ring for eight minutes, he’s going to be phenomenal.”
A national Grand Prix is the goal for the spring while Jess works on improving CDI scores in the Small and Medium tour.
“The ultimate goal (is) to do a CDI GP in the near future.”
They are hoping to compete in the new CDI in Lexington, Va., during May.
Jess and Patrick with Fantom and the photo of his former owner, Bev Thomas. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Even though she’s gone, Bev is still a presence for them.
“She was the best horse show mom. She would always bring snacks and water for us,” commented Jess.
At Devon, Bev’s photo hung on Fantom’s stall.
As Jess explained, “It was important for her to be here.”
