A heart-warming story for a special time of year

by Nancy Jaffer | Dec 26, 2021

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.”

A unique horseman tells the fascinating story of his life

by Nancy Jaffer | Dec 17, 2021

With the major competitions of 2021 now behind us, how do you get your eventing fix until the season starts again in earnest?

Here’s an easy answer that offers an opportunity for entertainment and education while relaxing by the fireplace. Sip that mulled cider and read Jim Wofford’s, “Still Horse Crazy After All These Years.” It’s a book that is as much a history of the sport during the Olympic medalist’s lifetime (with a glance at .the key years before) as it is a biography.

If you’ve ever attended a dinner where Jim was the speaker, you’re familiar with his clever blend of charm and wit. That’s reflected in his conversational writing style, which makes this an easy and most enjoyable read. At the center of his manuscript is his conviction “that horses are wonderful, life-changing creatures.”

Carawich and Jim in the water at Badminton.

For those behind in their Christmas shopping, Jim’s book is an easy choice for the equestrians on your list. It’s available both in print and as an e-book from www.horseandriderbooks.com. You don’t have to be an eventer to appreciate the horse world from his special vantagepoint. As he puts it, “I literally grew up with horse sports in the United States.”

The son of an army officer who rode in the 1932 Olympics and became the first president of the U.S. Equestrian Team, Jim spent his youth on the family farm next to Fort Riley Kansas, the home of the U.S. cavalry until 1949. (Did you know that during the cavalry era, the Army bred its own horses–and very successfully, too.) Sadly, Jim’s father, who taught him to ride, died of cancer in 1955. Because the grief-stricken 10-year-old boy associated horses with his father, Jim did not ride for three years after that.

But he soon came around; horses were in his blood. At the time Jim started eventing seriously during the early 1960s, the sport was small in the U.S., what his mother called a poor stepchild of the popular show jumping discipline. And dressage? It barely existed.

“Event riders all knew each other,” Jim recalls. That was easy, there were so few of them. Selected for training at the USET’s Gladstone, N.J., headquarters to prep him for international competition, he interacted with more experienced competitors such as Mike Plumb, Michael Page and Kevin Freeman, among others.

He also had an acquaintance with so many of the big names during that time, from Gen. Fuddy Wing, who was running the USET in the early 1960s, to Philip Hofmann, first president of the U.S. Combined Training Association (now the U.S. Eventing Association) and others who, sadly, likely will be recognized by few in this era.  Further afield, Jim even met Queen Elizabeth after finishing in the ribbons at Badminton.

Jim met Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phllip at Badminton.

The great horses he knew are also a major part of the narrative, of course. You’ll meet Castlewellan, The Optimist, Carawich and so many more that galloped through Jim’s life and are seen among the many photos in the book.

The author knows how to tell a story, and the book is filled with scores of intriguing tales, many of which will make the reader feel like an insider. One I particularly liked involved how Jim and Kevin turned the tables on a practical joke perpetrated by a young Robert Ridland (now the U.S. show jumping coach many decades later).

Jim’s heyday in the sport was at a moment when endurance and guts, as much as talent, were the keys to victory. The big players and their mounts were a different breed in those days; in the case of the horses, they were literally a different breed. The successful ones were thoroughbreds, or mostly so.

Jim and I had a conversation about that, and why the eventing of yesteryear  (which you can read about in detail in his book) is only a distant relation to today’s competitions.

Jim on Kilkenny at Badminton in 1968.

“Since 2004, we’ve been doing a different sport,” he told me. That, of course, was when the long format with its steeplechase and roads and tracks was abandoned in favor of the current more compact version.

“The only common theme is the fact that we do it with horses,” Jim said.

“Obviously, how you determine your winners is very different now. The old ratio of difficulty was 3 (dressage) to 12 (cross-country) and 2 (stadium jumping). Those were guidelines. If you were a cross-country star, chances are you were going to be a star regardless of the dressage or show jumping.

“And now, after they changed the scoring slightly a few years ago, you have a sport that is judged 1/1/1, with all three disciplines being equally important.”

When the element of endurance is eliminated, he noted, you’re going to get different riders and different horses wearing the ribbons. Horses that won a gold medal in the 1960s and ‘70s would not be successful today, Jim believes. Conversely, he thinks, only a few of today’s 5-star horses would be successful in a classic 22-mile Olympic three day event.

Carawich was one of Jim’s most successful partners.

He recalled that when he was on the rules committee of the FEI (international equestrian federation), in the late 1970s and early ’80s, “the Germans already were haranguing they wanted to change it.”

Why? They wanted conditions more favorable to the warmbloods they bred, sold and competed.  The change was entirely German and financially driven, said Jim, explaining that “as long as you had to go 22 miles, the German verbands (breeders) were not going to be successful.”

Not unexpectedly, if Jim had a choice of riding either format, he would pick the classic version, “the thrill of the steeplechase, the difficulty of getting a horse that fit and retaining the soundness.’

He has watched riders looking worried at the Kentucky 5-star, six or eight minutes into a 10-minute course, that the horse is going to hit the wall, “meaning you’re starting to get to the limits of its physical capability.”

He pointed out that in 1978 at the Kentucky Horse Park, the steeplechase was in the infield and we galloped at 690 meters per minute for five minutes–half the length of the (current) 5-star cross-country. And that was just the warm-up.”

Today’s warmbloods are wonderful, he commented, but added, “if I had to choose the era and I were young and fit these days, I would still choose the classic era because of the difference in the horses and the difference in my skill set and the difference in the nature of the scoring. It was skewed toward someone with the skill set I had at the time.”

Jim is a popular emcee for awards ceremonies. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)

He added, “Riders these days are better riders in terms of pure riding capability. They are so far ahead of our era. Having said that, I’m not sure these people would learn how to ride a tired horse, or learn (to ride them) in such a way that they did not get tired. I don’t know how many people today, with all of their technical polish, would have the nerve to go down to the coffin (jump) with a horse that’s starting to get a little heavy in the shoulders.”

Eventing’s roots are in the cavalry, as were Jim’s through his father.

The sport “was designed by the military for the military, to satisfy to satisfy the military’s concerns and goals,” said Jim.

“It was a tough life these horses led. They broke them when they were four and expected them to still be in service when they were 14.”

It took horsemanship as well as riding ability to make that happen.

Part of his mission writing the book is to educate people and memorialize that classic era, while highlighting the incredible changes through which he has lived.

Jim has trained horses and riders at competition all over the world. (Photo © by Nancy Jaffer)

And his perspective goes beyond being a remarkable rider. He has been a successful coach and played an important role in governance, serving as president of the American Horse Shows Association (a predecessor of the U.S. Equestrian Federation), secretary of the USCTA and a member of committees for other horse sport entities that as a group he and his family referred to (not always fondly) as “the alphabets.”

Jim wrote the book for his four grandsons (all four know how to ride, but none are involved with horses), “so they won’t have the same vacuum that I have about my father,” he explained.

“That was a serious driving force. In another 10 or 15 years, they will get serious. They will keep looking forward and then they will start looking back over their shoulders. I didn’t write this as some earthshaking thing for posterity. I really wrote it as a memorial to my father and as a guideline for my grandsons.”

(Photos from Still Horse Crazy After All These Years by Jim Wofford reprinted with permission from Trafalgar Square Books (www.horseandriderbooks.com)

Where is Monmouth at the Team headed?

by Nancy Jaffer | Dec 9, 2021

What’s in the future for Monmouth at the Team?

The former Monmouth County Horse Show made an impressive statement as a boutique fixture in Somerset County, with the lure of lavish hospitality and a welcoming style. Most important in terms of attracting exhibitors and spectators was its new location at the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation headquarters in Gladstone.

The U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation stables offered a dramatic backdrop for competition during Monmouth at the Team. (Photo © 2019 by Nancy Jaffer)

Exhibitors drawn to the iconic site could say they had ridden in the same ring where the likes of Bill Steinkraus and other show jumping legends trained, against a backdrop of the famous stables that are recognized around the horse world.

In 2016, its debut at the Team, the competition was named the New Jersey Horse Shows Association’s Show of the Year. But five years after Tucker Ericson and his cousin, Michael Dowling, moved New Jersey’s oldest show north from its namesake county, Covid struck. Like many shows, Monmouth at the Team was cancelled in 2020.

It was all set to return in 2021, but quarantine protocols for the Olympic dressage, para dressage and eventing teams meant they had to be isolated at the foundation before taking off for the Games. In the end, problems with flights meant they would quarantine in Germany, but that decision came far too late to accommodate Monmouth. It moved a half-hour’s drive away to Centenary University in yet another county, Morris.

The Bobcat Derb–complete with bobcat ears on every helmet–translated to a new location at Centenary in 2021. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)

Now Tucker doesn’t think the show can return to the USET Foundation.

“Most likely, it will stay at Centenary,” he said, noting that university is considering taking on the show.

Tucker has a new job involving building insurance programs for a vehicle fleet management company and is working at it 10 to 12 hours a day while living in Philadelphia. That means he is unable to devote himself to the show the way he did in the past.

“I can’t do all the work,” he said, adding that his cousin also is busy with two jobs, teaching at Centenary and working as a trainer.

Cousins Michael Dowling and Tucker Ericson kept busy doing every job that had to be done at the show, whether it was at the Team or at Centenary, as it was this year. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)

Tucker hopes to stay involved with the show to some extent, but noted he and Michael need “to partner with someone who has a facility.”

If the foundation were willing to run the show, he would offer it the dates, but that isn’t happening because employees need to focus on the organization’s mission. The foundation is the philanthropic partner of the U.S. Equestrian Federation, helping to fund U.S. teams, programs and the development pathway, through charitable gifts and donations

Tucker has three concerns as he looks at what will happen with the show.

First, he needs to partner with an organization that is going to handle a lot of the groundwork, “which means doing emails and phone calls every week of the year.”

Second, he wants to keep it “separate and unique,” so it therefore shouldn’t be part of the three circuits that dominate the show scene in New Jersey.

The third thing that is most important to him in connection with the show is the Nature Conservancy’s Bobcat Derby, a very popular hunter derby with proceeds going to benefit the purchase of land that will help preserve and expand the bobcat habitat in the state.

“The Nature Conservancy kind of fits our values,” he explained.

The disadvantage of the foundation site is that while it has a great outdoor ring, it’s the only ring, which makes a show there very costly.

“You can’t make money on a one-ring show,” said Tucker, then quickly added, “It’s not even about making money; it’s the struggle to break even.”

Hospitality is an important part of the show. (Photo © 2019 by Nancy Jaffer)

At Centenary, all the classes that had to be staged at the foundation over eight days can be held instead in four or five days by using two rings, which means staffing costs can be cut. And Centenary doesn’t have to rent a facility–they have one–so that’s less expense there as well and more money to benefit the Nature Conservancy.

“I think the show can survive,” Tucker said.

He noted they can apply for  a jumper rating and have jumpers run in one ring while the A-rated hunter classes go in another ring. Half the day of hunter competition can be A-rated, while the other half could be C-rated and unrated..

Tucker said he and Michael are only “concerned about offering a viable solution.”

With Covid, a lot has changed, he observed, noting that because people didn’t want to travel as much during the pandemic, they would rent a place and set up for a month to participate in a multi-week show like Traverse City, Mich., or Tryon, N.C. Nearing the end of August, “to do a one-week boutique show, it’s not as enticing when you’ve been on the road away from home all summer and you’ve got your points and spent a lot of money,” he pointed out.

Reducing the number of days, making it more cost-effective and trying to run jumpers in conjunction with other classes instead of on separate days seems to be the way to approach it.

“There’s pros and cons to the concept, but I think it might be one of the only viable solutions to keep it going. We’ll see what Centenary says,” commented Tucker, noting it’s not yet a done deal.

“If someone stepped up who was super-interested in the dates and running them at the Team and either didn’t care about money or had ways of raising enough, I certainly would talk to anyone who I thought was a good representation of the industry and had the right vision.”

He added, however, he won’t let the dates go “unless they have a secure home. We’re completely flexible for a solution that makes sense.”

What should the show be called if it isn’t at the team?

Noting that there are still probably $5,000 worth of ribbons left over, Tucker suggested leaving the name the same for the first year and running a contest with a big prize for whoever comes up with the best name for the future.