Dressage star Laura Graves continues to hit the heights, with yet another run of success encapsulated over three days in Palm Beach County, Fla.
Not only do the judges reward her performances with Verdades, the Dutchbred gelding who was purchased on the basis of a video as a weanling, but now the public has voted in her favor as well. Actually, no surprise there; the only American ever to be ranked as world number one is widely admired for her down-to-earth work ethic. When she won the Grand Prix Freestyle with Verdades at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington Friday night, for instance, she picked up the check for the groom’s award as well as the first place prize.
The U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Equestrian of the Year and International Horse of the Year trophies were presented at the organization’s awards dinners over the weekend at the West Palm Beach Hilton. Laura got a standing ovation as she picked up the trophies for both major honors, decided through online ballots. Show jumping hero McLain Ward, also nominated for the Equestrian of the Year title—which he won for 2017– urged his fans to vote for her, and Laura acknowledged to me that she believed his generous gesture played a role in her victory.
But Laura is well-deserving of all her accolades, which also include two silver medals at the FEI World Equestrian Games in Tryon, N.C. Likely she would have had a third WEG medal, had not the WEG freestyle been cancelled. The WEG was where she was going to debut her new freestyle, performed to the Neil Diamond favorite, “Coming to America.”
“I was really looking forward to showing this at Tryon with everyone coming to our country,” she observed.
Instead, the debut was at Global last weekend before a good-size crowd, although not as big as the audience that would have seen it at the WEG. The freestyle had the same choreography as the one Laura rode previously, but she noted, “I just wanted to change the music.” The show was the first of the season, and the first World Cup qualifier for the finals, which will be in Gothenburg, Sweden, this spring.
Click on the video below to find out her thoughts.
The new freestyle was well-received for its energy and style. But always viewing her rides with the critical eye that has been crucial to her success, Laura cited a couple of mistakes, including one in her final pirouette.
“I need to settle down a little bit I think,” she said. “My horse is ready to go, he’s right on. I just came out at him a little strong.”
Laura had a full table backing her up at the awards dinners, with U.S. dressage technical advisor Debbie McDonald (who is also Laura’s coach), Betsy Juliano and WEG teammates Adrienne Lyle and Kasey Perry-Glass on hand.
Debbie picked up a well-deserved award of her own when she accepted a Pegasus Medal of Honor statue. Others in that category also went to U.S. jumping team gold medal coach Robert Ridland, along with one of the dressage world’s most respected figures, Janine Malone, and Ellen Di Bella, a western dressage standout. The medal is awarded for service to horses and the sport by those who have advanced its popularity.
The USEF owns seven figures worth of silver trophies, many of which date back decades and make for an impressive display. They are just there for presentation and photo purposes, however; winners only take home a small Pegasus statue.
Other honors went to former U.S. dressage technical advisor and international judge Anne Gribbons, who guided Laura Graves as a working student to bring Verdades to Grand Prix. Anne accepted the Walter B. Devereaux Sportsmanship Award for her commitment and dedication to the sport.
The winner of the Sallie Busch Wheeler Award for distinguished service is selected by USEF President Murray Kessler, and never revealed before the dinner.
It went to assistant show jumping coach and Olympic medalist Anne Kursinski, whose decision to talk about the abuse she suffered as a child from her trainer underlined the value of the Safe Sport program that is such an important part of USEF’s agenda.
One other winner who should be mentioned is the National Horse of the Year, Cobra. A wild mustang who has quite a story, he was.rounded up in Nevada as a six-year-old and later deemed unadoptable.
But owner/trainer Marsha Hartford-Sapp knew how to reach him and make use of his instincts. She bid on him after watching a 15-second video of this horse that had not found a home after being put up for adoption three times.
She prepared him for the Extreme Mustang Makeover, and he turned out to be a versatile competitor, excelling in both classical and western dressage.
Cobra has an impressive list of victories and awards to his credit. He was 2015 Horse of the Year for western dressage and won the Adequan/ U.S. Dressage Federation All-breeds American Mustang & Burro Association Prix St. Georges national championship in 2018. He stays busy making special appearances and has been immortalized as a Breyer model horse.
Like Verdades in his younger days, Cobra presented a challenge. But the persistence of Laura and Marsha illustrates how important it is to stick with a horse that has potential so these special animals can realize their true calling and show it off to the world.
Okay, he didn’t have eight tiny reindeer and a sleigh. His transportation was a propeller-driven airplane that landed at an airport, not on a rooftop. But Matt Kiener might as well have been Santa Claus this Christmas Eve.
After a five-hour flight, the pilot arrived yesterday in his single-engine Piper at Sky Manor in Pittstown with a load of puppies and a few older dogs, 26 canines in all. It was a special delivery from Mississippi by FlyPups to Puppy Love Pet Rescue, serving Union, Ocean, Monmouth and Middlesex counties.
The area from which these dogs came isn’t prosperous. Many of the residents cannot afford to spay or neuter their animals, leading to overpopulation. Shelters often have no choice but to euthanize some dogs to make room for others. Puppy Love offers a solution, with its volunteers fostering the dogs that FlyPups brought north.
Patty Gilmore of Union, whose sister, Joan leads Puppy Love, had volunteers go down south to clean up shelters. Using adoption fees, they also pay for spaying and neutering dogs that remain in Mississippi.
“There are very few organized rescues there,” explained Patty, noting Puppy Love volunteers last summer picked some dogs they wanted to bring to New Jersey.
“It’s very difficult to get the dogs up here. We’re so grateful to be able to get these dogs flown up. Some of them are so little; the 22-hour drive is so difficult for the puppies, versus a five or six hour flight,” she pointed out.
Patty recalled that when her organization contacted Matt, “he responded instantly. He can handle so many more than we can in a car. We are so grateful for Matt, especially at holiday time.”
The video below shows the arrival of the dogs at Sky Manor Airport.
You may know Matt’s name, because he has a connection with the horse world. The Jersey Fresh International Three-Day Event at the Horse Park of New Jersey this year hosted a 5-K run to benefit Fly Pups. Many equestrians have adopted dogs that arrived in New Jersey via FlyPups. Matt also works for Cassie and Carl Segal in Pottersville, where he takes care of retired eventing stars My Boy Bobby and Ballynoe Castle RM (Reggie), Buck Davidson’s former ride, who took his final bow before the public at Rolex Kentucky in 2017.
Matt got involved with dog rescue when a friend whose plane was grounded asked him to fill in bringing five dogs to New York State. At the time, Matt had an aerobatic plane without much room for cargo, but he was able to handle the five puppies involved.
“I flew the mission and it was an awakening, if you will. I hadn’t known that something like this needed to be. I didn’t understand that there were so many dogs that were in dire situations and would ultimately be destroyed if they were not relocated.
“On the flight home, I ended up naming the one dog I adopted Piper, knowing I’d have to sell my Cessna and buy something bigger that would allow me to do this more effectively and efficiently. It was one of those pivotal days when you just knew things were going to change,” Matt recalled.
“Five months later, I was deep in debt with this plane—it’s a mortgage payment—but look what I get to do. So it’s worth it.”
Matt was assisted by student pilot Liz Alexander of Rhode Island. Liz, who has been working with rescues for three years, flew the whole way to New Jersey with a five-week-old hound mix on her lap.
Explaining why she is so devoted to the rescue process, Liz said, “It’s good to see the puppies come out of disaster situations and go to foster homes and be happy and clean and healthy and not on the streets. And be home for the holidays.”
Cris Schoefer, who has five dogs, went to Mississippi in August to check out dogs who would be likely candidates and fell in love with Leyland. He was an unusual case, because he had been in a shelter for four years, since he was a puppy. When he arrived, Leyland seemed a bit overwhelmed, but stoic. Cris, however, was crying. Those were tears of joy, as she thought how happy she would be “just to see him sleeping on the bed tonight” at her home in Brick.
There were two blind dogs in the Christmas eve shipment. Pearl was an adorable blind and deaf 8-week old Aussie. That’s familiar territory for Cris, who owns a blind and deaf dog, Aspen.
She taps on his butt or nose to communicate with him, “but everything else, he does by himself,” she said. When her house lost power one day, he was operating without a problem; he’s used to being in the dark.
People had told her it was cruel to keep Aspen alive, but she is so glad she took him, and he’s happy.
“This dog makes me laugh more than any dog I’ve ever had,” she observed.
“If you’re in a bad mood, just him being his goofy self will bring you out of it.” And having Leyland around will make her even happier.
Joyanna Gilmore, Joan’s daughter, grew up with the rescue group, which has regular adoptions on Sundays at Petco in Toms River.
“I always thought it was interesting,” said Joyanna.
“I find it good for myself, volunteering and being able to help out animals. I love doing it.” She and her mother have three dogs of their own, but they still “foster whatever needs to be fostered.”
The 18-year-old Union County Community College student noted, “It makes my heart feel warm. I have my Christmas, and this is a Christmas present to them, because we’re giving them somewhere to be instead of a shelter. We’re giving them another chance at life.”
The Mississippi flight that saved the Puppy Love volunteers 22 hours of driving each way was certainly easier on the dogs. But it’s an expensive proposition for Matt, who spent $1,500 on operational costs, including gasoline, hotel and landing fees, and not including insurance or maintenance. He operates on donations, which can be made through his website www.flypups.org. The rescue takes contributions on its website www.Puppylovenj.com.
Listen to Matt and Joyanna talking about their mission.
I was so inspired by the efforts of Matt and the Puppy Love rescuers that I was in the right mood for Christmas Eve when I got home. I turned on my favorite movie, “The Bishop’s Wife,” with Cary Grant and Loretta Young, really taking to heart the final scene, the Christmas Eve sermon by David Niven, who plays the bishop. It’s about what Christmas should mean. Here it is:
“All the stockings are filled, all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up, the stocking for the child born in a manger. It’s His birthday we’re celebrating. Don’t let us ever forget that. Let us ask ourselves what He would wish for most, and then let each put in his share. Loving kindness, warm hearts and the stretched-out hand of tolerance. All the shining gifts that make peace on earth.”
When Heronwood Racing Partners set out to buy a thoroughbred who would run under the stable’s colors, members of the group already were thinking of a way to make sure the horse would have a new job after he finished at the track.
Mark Bellard, the partner of hunter/jumper trainer Rachel Rosenthal, is in the group with Julia Greifeld of Whitehouse Station, a director of Mane Stream therapeutic riding, and Anthony Sileno of Mendham, who revealed “I’ve wanted to buy racehorses since I was about five years old.”
Like Anthony, Julia said, “I’ve always loved the thought of a racehorse. I’ve been approached many times over the years, but I wanted to be with people who would be interested in an end-game plan for the horse. I could never sell any kind of horse down the road.”
The group invested in Street Fighting Man, a son of 2007 Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense and a great-grandson of Native Dancer. Street Fighting Man, who raced at Woodbine in Canada as a two-year-old, is known around the barn as Jagger after Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, who sang the tune for which the horse was named.
When Heronwood took on Jagger after his time in Canada, he contracted pneumonia within the first week.
“It was a long road back,” Mark recalled, but the flashy-looking black with a come-from-behind technique finally was ready for the New York racing scene, breaking his maiden with odds of 19-1 at Aqueduct on Rachel’s birthday in 2016.
“I can’t wait until he’s my jumper,” Rachel exclaimed, to which Mark responded, “Hold your horses.”
Street Fighting Man kept running for another year. By the time he finished the 2017 season as a five-year-old, having won a little more than $80,000 in 22 races, it was decision time.
(To see Street Fighting Man in action at the track, click on the video below and watch the number 3 horse with the jockey in the red cap.)
“The risk at that level is that you have to put them in claiming races. The trainer spotted him in places he thought he wouldn’t get claimed,” said Mark. But the fact that Jagger was a turf horse made the next step easy. At the end of 2017, the partnership was faced with laying him off for six months until racing on grass began again, or retiring him.
Retirement won, and it was on to the next step for Jagger.
“We always knew we’d need a plan, and fortunately, with Rachel, we had one,” said Mark, discussing Jagger’s future. After chilling out in upstate New York for a few months, Jagger came back to Heronwood, Rachel’s barn in Bedminster, for training in his new vocation.
As Julia mentioned, “I liked the fact that he’s being trained by a professional for his next step in life.”
At the track, Jagger was under the guidance of trainer Nick Esler, who rides his own horses.
“He put some good miles on this horse,” Mark noted. “As soon as Rachel got on him, she knew it wasn’t like starting from scratch.”
Heronwood’s big goal is next month’s Thoroughbred Makeover, presented by the Retired Racehorse Project. Jagger will be among hundreds of off-the-track thoroughbreds who have 10 months or less of retraining. Competition involves 10 different disciplines, with entries seeking a share of the $100,000 in prize money. At the end, according to the organization, there will be one overall winner, “crowned America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred.”
It won’t be Jagger. The Heronwood group is under no illusions, considering that Jagger doesn’t have a lot of mileage in jumping and only seven months of retraining.
Rachel Rosenthal jumping Street Fighting Man. (Photo courtesy of Mark Bellard)
“It’s not about going there to win,” explained Rachel, who does feel Jagger will be prepared well enough to put on a decent performance.
“It’s about showing the community what you’ve got,” she continued, saying, “We’re going there to represent.”
Mark is as enthusiastic as the other partners about the Thoroughbred Makeover concept and Jagger’s appearance in Kentucky.
“It’s such a great exit plan for all the thousands of thoroughbreds that are looking for a second career. I think it’s gained a lot of traction with all the trainers and owners. It gives them more options what to do with their horse, sooner rather than later.”
Julia reminisced about how thoroughbreds once ruled the show ring, and then fell out of favor as the warmbloods took over. Thoroughbreds are making a comeback now through initiatives such as the Makeover and Thoroughbred Incentive Program at many shows.
“This re-purposing is a relatively new thing,” Julia pointed out. Anthony believes “the whole movement has reached almost everybody” and those at the track are more aware of the options for horses that have stopped racing.
Even though Jagger is pursuing a different profession now, racing is still in the partners’ blood.
“It gives us a lot of fun and takes us on some nice journeys,” said Mark. While Heronwood has no racehorses at the moment, it does have a mare in foal to 2008 Derby winner Big Brown. The partners also are looking for a filly who can race for them and then become a broodmare as her end game.
As for Jagger, “Right now, we’re interested in re-purposing him and giving him the best start,” said Rachel.
“We’re just trying to set him up for whatever his next stage might be. Had we not given him this training, he would have very few options,” Julia pointed out.
Anthony said a horse like Jagger probably would have wound up running in $10,000 claiming races at Mountaineer, a track in West Virginia.
“He would have been asked to run every couple of weeks until he broke down,” said Mark. But this horse has a different destiny, and Rachel is confident he has star quality, noting how much she likes his temperament.
“That’s the number one thing you look for in any horse,” she mentioned.
“He’s so sensible. I take him out in the woods and down the road. I think he’s really athletic; he’s been so easy to train. He gets it, and gets something new every day.”
Over the decades, the farm on Schooley’s Mountain has had its ups and downs.
But now the 64 acres, dotted with pastures and a variety of buildings in varying states of repair, belong to an optimistic new owner.
A bucolic view of Snowbird with a hayfield in the foreground. (Photo courtesy Frank Carrajat)
“We’re fixing it, said Frank Carrajat, a self-described “local farmer” (his email says it all: imafarmer22@gmail.com) who grows hay and has a vision for the facility that once was a big part of the New Jersey horse show scene, while offering more hunter/jumper competitions than any other venue in the state
In a tribute to the past, Frank is calling the place Snowbird.
“Everyone knows the name,” he said. Snowbird was indeed a prominent farm during its heyday in the 1980s and 1990s, when it was the New Jersey Horse Shows Association Show of the Year for 1993.
An old banner from Snowbird’s glory days. (Photo by Nancy Jaffer)
At one time, well-known trainers such as Bill Cooney, George Morris and Karen Healey were familiar sights at the showgrounds in Morris County’s Washington Township. By 2009, though, the farm had fallen on hard times after owner Vicki Siegel became sick and the shows were transferred to another organizer off the premises.
The Snowbird acreage went downhill from there, rented without supervision when Vicki moved into a long-term care facility. In 2015, the property was purchased by a Chester real estate entrepreneur who renamed it GG farms and started work on renovating the stables and indoor ring. A few years later it went on the market again, and Frank snapped it up. He went into high gear at the beginning of June as much-needed work on the property got under way.
It’s a project he’s pursing with his wife, Erin, a vet tech at EquiHeart Veterinary Services in Califon, and their daughters Charlotte, 12, a member of the Somerset Hills Pony Club who is involved in 4-H, and Annabelle, 5, who likes to ride a mini-horse. Son Grayson, 6, more interested in mechanical farm equipment than horses, is along for the ride.
The Carrajat family: Frank and his wife, Erin, with daughters Charlotte and Annabelle, and son Grayson. (Photo courtesy of Frank Carrajat)
The Carrajats are renovating stables and working on the indoor ring, taking out “18 inches of I don’t know what to call it,” said Frank, and installing new footing, removing particle board around the perimeter and replacing it with tongue-in-groove wood.
New gates are being put on the pastures—“the day we closed, the pastures hadn’t been cut since last summer,” Frank said–and stables are being refurbished as well. The family is looking for a trainer or two who wants to base at the farm. Meanwhile, Erin, who has a bachelor’s degree in animal science, is running a small boarding operation and Frank suggested Snowbird could also be a destination for retired horses.
Frank grew up in Long Valley, where he did some showing and participated in 4-H. In 2001, he moved to Mendham, managing Middle Valley Farms there. He ships hay up and down the east coast, returning from a run to Ocala earlier this week.
The farm that became Snowbird had a proud history. Bought in the 1940s by Dora Hardy Hamilton, it was known as Highfields, a top pony breeding facility. It later became the New Jersey Training Center, where Leslie Burr Howard worked for awhile, before the Siegel family bought it.
The Carrajats are ready to write the next chapter.
“We’ve been careful who we bring in,” said Frank. “We don’t want drama.” His concept is a “friendly, family-like environment” in a place where “everyone is enjoying their horses…in a fun and safe way.”
The Tewksbury Trail Pace in Hunterdon County has been a favorite post-Labor Day destination for recreational riders from New Jersey and beyond since 1996, when it was introduced at Christie Hoffman Park. The well-organized Tewksbury Trail Association fixture usually draws more than 150 participants—making it one of the largest paces, if not the largest, in the state.
Last year, the pace moved to another scenic area of the township, giving participants a chance to ride through the Hill & Dale Preserve North at Hill & Dale Road and Parsonage Lot, as well as the South and Cold Brook Preserves for the benefit of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation.
This year, however, the pace is taking a bit of breather, giving a break to the dedicated volunteers who put on the event and stay busy year-round clearing the trails. In its place from 8 a.m.-1 p.m. on Sept. 16 will be the Tewksbury Fun Ride over seven miles of marked trails at Christie Hoffman. The route is among the hundreds of miles of trails available to association members.
No one will be timed, as they would be in a traditional pace, and there are no prizes—“everyone’s a winner,” according to the organization’s flyer. Instead, the association promotes it as a chance to ride with friends and learn the trails at the same time. Go out alone or with as many as a group of four. The fee is $25. Entrants don’t have to be Tewksbury Trail Association members to participate, but members and those who join will get a trail map for future rides.
Vanessa Patterson, Beth Durden, Dawn Eastabrooks enjoy the trails in much the same way that participants will during September’s fun ride. (Photo courtesy of Tewksbury Trail Association)
Normally, riders have to be TTA members to use the trails, so the fun ride offers a treat for those who haven’t been on these routes.
Non-riders can take part in a new initiative, the Trail Blazers. Participants go out on foot—armed with clippers and gloves—to help trim the trails under the guidance of TTA veterans.
“Historically, it’s (the trail system) just been for riders,” TTA President Louisa Sargent said about offering hikers a chance to enjoy the countryside as well. They won’t be going out on the fun day, but plans call for groups of up to six individuals taking part in Trail Blazers once a month. There will be no fee as the program proceeds on a trial basis.
Louisa emphasized the organization is not giving up on the pace, but board members are thinking about alternating the pace and the fun ride in coming years. That makes sense in a year like this one, when the TTA and the Tewksbury Historical Society put on the Tewksbury Barn Tour. The barn tour, held every two years, ran last weekend and offered a wonderful selection of farms with many interesting buildings.
“To do both the barn tour and the pace the way we want to do it is a lot to do in three months,” she noted.
For more information, go to the association’s website at https://www.tta-nj.org/ Those who are interested in volunteering or learning more about the association can email tewksburytrail@gmail.com. And circle July 2020 on your calendar; you don’t want to miss the next barn tour.
When she mounts Diesel, her statuesque black Oldenburg, she swings her right leg over his back, then settles in the saddle and removes the prosthetic. After a quick zip to her specially tailored breeches that fit neatly over the stump of her leg, she’s ready to head out.
The moves are so smooth, you might think she’s been doing them all her life. But it’s only since 2015 that Katie’s leg was amputated above the knee after she was diagnosed with cancer.
“If I lose my leg, I’m going to keep riding,” she had vowed before the decision to amputate was made.
And so she has—over the weekend, the 38-year-old athlete and Diesel competed with nine other horse/rider combinations at Wheatland Farms in Virginia. The invitational event is one of the components to qualify for the short list ,from which will be chosen the U.S. para-equestrian team that goes to the FEI World Equestrian Games in North Carolina.
A lot of people have come together to put Katie in contention for a place on the squad that will meet the world’s best at the Tryon International Equestrian Center in September. Her original goal was to go for it with her horse Royal Dancer. After he sustained a minor injury during the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Florida last winter, things went off track.
“Such is life and horses,” she shrugged. Her life, however, took a sudden turn upward one day during the show while she was having a casual meal with Rowan O’Riley, who sponsors para rider Becca Hart.
Knowing that Katie was only able to tack-walk Royal, Rowan noted she was going to be away for a week and suggested her luncheon companion could keep going by riding her horse, Diesel, and taking lessons with Catherine Haddad Staller, her trainer at that time.
“I had a lovely instant connection with him, but at that point, it was just a week,” said Katie about Diesel, a 15-year-old son of DeNiro.
“I really loved working with Catherine. It was just one of those stars aligning that a few weeks later, Rowan decided to sell Diesel and gave me a call.”
Katie, who fits together beautifully with Diesel, noted, “I’ve been learning so much from him and so much from Catherine. He’s got a kind, willing personality. He knew his program and I was able to be introduced into his program in a way that made him open to it. It wasn’t about a leg being gone. It was about riding and understanding what he needs to do.”
The gelding, who has been in training with Catherine’s assistant, Michelle Brady, is “a kind soul and a sweet horse. He works hard and wants to please—that made the match,” observed Katie, who has a cheery, can-do, bubbly demeanor, one key to her success.
The system used by Catherine, a top international rider based in Tewksbury Township, became just what Katie needed, because it isn’t dependent on the lower leg.
“We train from the seat and weight and a little the turning of the thighs,” said Catherine.
“For Katie, it was the perfect system match. We had an instant mind meld. I teach her like an able-bodied rider. Whenever we need the lower right leg, we substitute the whip if needed, but (even) more, we substitute thought, rather than action.”
Removing the knee rolls from the saddle made a big difference as well.
“The stump appreciated taking it all away,” said Katie, who tends to speak of that appendage in the third person.
“I went from all this stuff to block it in and support it, to just a little Velcro that helps keep it stablilized. It’s the happiest it’s been. I dealt with a lot of pain where the femur would bang into it and bruise internally and get a lot of muscle cramping. The Stubben saddle has been a game-changer for me.”
Katie travels regularly to New Jersey from her Austin, Texas, base, where the dentist manages a practice. Patients are cared for by Katie’s associates, since it is too painful for her to stand in the position that she would need to use while working hands-on.
Her husband, Yancey, who is in the home construction business, has learned a lot about the horse game as he helps his wife. Other pieces of the effort to get to the WEG fell into place because Katie became friendly during the Florida circuit with veterinarians Brendan and Wendy Furlong who coincidentally–just like Catherine’s husband, Dr. Greg Staller–have an equine clinic in Tewksbury.
Katie stayed with the Furlongs in Florida and they extended the invitation to her in New Jersey as well, so she is their guest in Pittstown, a short drive from Tewksbury and Catherine. The backing all around from people who have become part of Katie’s team and others rooting for her has made it work.
In Bedminster, the June Red Tail dressage show made a provision for her to practice her freestyle in a competition atmosphere. The judge marked her at 74.5 percent, which Catherine said, “brought tears to my eyes.”
Katie expressed gratitude to everyone who has become a part of her quest, from Greg Staller and farrier Chris Pinola, who care for Diesel, to Brendan Furlong, who works with Royal Dancer, and beyond that, to others she doesn’t even know.
She mentioned, “The environment of support that has come around me, people cheering for me in other countries through social media and the power of friends and family. You hear stories, `My friend in India is praying for you.’
“It makes a difference and lifts you up and gives you strength you didn’t know you had. It’s probably the most humbling thing I have ever encountered.” she said.
Katie is a long way from where her journey started in a very dark place three years ago, when she was diagnosed with an aggressive type of tumor growing behind her right knee.
“We were fortunate that it didn’t appear to have spread,” she said, but at the same time, “It’s devastating. It’s a blow. You never expect to have that kind of news, especially at 35 years old. It knocks you off your path and you feel pretty lost for quite a bit. It changed the trajectory of everything from my career to my business and family life,” she recalled.
But giving up riding was never even a thought. Katie started riding as a child in Oregon, and became focused on dressage.
“Dressage always has been something I’ve loved; the connection you have with the horses, the detail and just the beauty of it,” said Katie, who had earned a U.S. Dressage Federation silver medal on Debbie Hubbard’s Winterstolz.
After getting in the saddle again following her operation, she began training with Kai Handt, chef d’equipe of the U.S. para team.
“He was able to get me back riding and competing,” she said. Katie rides as para-equestrian Grade V, in which competitors do multiple flying changes, half-passes and other advanced movements. The para scale starts with Grade I, which is walk only.
She finished 2017 at the top of the United States Dressage Federation’s Grade V standings, and also was ranked third on the FEI Para-Dressage Grade V World Rankings List.
With her goals for the WEG and 2020 Paralympics in sight, Katie reflected how she got to this juncture.
“Cancer gave me perspective on doing what I love,” she said. As a teenager, she made the decision to go to college and pursue graduate studies, though at one point, “I really wanted to keep riding and training and push myself to see what I could do as an equestrian,” she remembered.
But Katie never rode at her current level when she had both legs.
If she had not undergone the amputation, riding “would have been what I fit in in the evening and weekends,” she pointed out.
Learning that she needed the amputation, she grasped at the idea of being able to do dressage as a para-equestrian. It was comforting because “it’s a known and something close to my heart.
“This opportunity has been incredible. It’s been a gift to push myself and do this and also has helped me through the cancer and the loss; physical loss, loss of the journey and path you were on. It’s given me kind of a new purpose and a reason to get up and push hard every day and do something that’s hopefully bigger than me.
“If you could make lemonade from lemons of having something happen, this has been pretty incredible,’ said Katie.
“It has not been easy, but there are things that have aligned and you just put it out to the universe.”
