“For me — I’d never competed out of our country. I’d never BEEN out of the country,” said Bond, who received a hero’s reception upon return to Rancho Dos Palmas in Vista, where she trains. “It was just really exciting.”

And challenging. The fastest-growing sport in the equine industry, Extreme Cowboy Racing is a timed and judged event that demands both horsemanship and speed. It confronts both horse and rider with an extreme obstacle course of moguls, bridges, log crossings, tunnels, cowboy curtains, roll backs, and water crossings.

EXCA photo

Robin Bond and Chapo negotiate the 'Cameron Curtain' obstacle at the Calgary Stampede Cowboy Up Challenge Extreme Coybow Race. THey finsihed second by a single point after three days of competition.

“It was the most fun challenge of the event,” said Bond, whose 109.5 final score on “Chapo” fell second to Canadian cowboy Glenn Stewart on his 10-year-old Quarter Horse gelding, Genuine Jet Smooth.

“None of the horses wanted to walk into the spotlights.” she added.”Then, the spotlights appeared to be chasing them, and the horses didn’t want to be hit by the lights. Horses were bouncing off the walls for the first 15 minutes of this exercise — until they realized that the lights weren’t going to hurt them. Then the lights could be used during the performance.

The uneasiness caused by spotlights affected early go’s. Several horses, including Chapo, had issues.

“We were doing an intricate pattern of lead changes, and the spotlights were moving around him,” Bond said. “It caused him to break the trot on a number of occasions. But everyone had to deal with the same set of circumstances, so it wasn’t an unfair thing. We just didn’t score as many points on that obstacle as we would have otherwise.

Horsetrader photo

Rider poses with owner of Chapo, Ricky Cruz (from left) and Ann Laddon, owner of Rancho Dos Palmas in Vista where Bond trains.

After jitters led to a fifth-place finish in Day 1, Bond and Chapo relaxed in Day 2 and dominated, winning by more than six points over the second day’s runner-up, Kelly LaBlanc on Peppy’s Classic King.

Why the difference in scores?

“The first day, I fell into the classic trap of people who do jumping, trail obstacles – anything with your horses. I was looking AT the obstacle instead of THROUGH the obstacle. The second day I analyzed that and I paid attention. My focus was always on going THROUGH the obstacle, not the obstacle itself.

“The old adage, `throw your heart over the jump and the horse will follow.’ The same thing with this. If you don’t look through the obstacle, you’re going to be stuck on the obstacle. That was the difference.”

Day 3, the finals, was a classic tight match between the two front-runners. On this day, a close race went to Stewart, in his first EXCA race — which also was the first EXCA race in Canada. LeBlanc finished third, almost 6.5 points behind Bond.

The most challenging obstacle for Bond turned out to be filling a mailbox that stood high above the ground — and moved. Such creative details in obstacles are designed to test specific trained abilities, and they thrill spectators and entice riders.

The trophy buckle.

“At at event like this, they gave us a map of the course in the morning between 10 and noon, and the event happened at 3 p.m. — so we had the diagram,” Bond said. “But what we weren’t able to see was what the actual obstacles looked like. For instance, the diagram said, `take the mail and put it in the mail box.’ What we didn’t see until 15 minutes before we went was that the mailbox was 14 feet high in the air and it swiveled. It was on a pole that moved when you touched it. You’d reach for the latch, and the latch had a strong magnetic clasp. You couldn’t open this mailbox with one hand.”

During the three rounds of competition at the Cowboy Up Challenge, organizers changed the course each time, dotting the Saddledome infield with courses that Bond says inspires her to push for more visually enticing courses in California’s line-up of EXCA events.

“You can take a back-through `L’ obstacle and just have four poles on the ground, and you’re required to back through it,” she sais. “You can make that 20 times more challenging by putting a skull and a buffalo hide next to it — it makes it a different obstacle, a different degree of challenge.

“Horses see things very differently than people do – that’s one of the reasons why in the show jumping they use a lot of jump standards and different sized rails and planks and different foliage. Each time, if it’s not just visually interesting for the person, it makes it visually interesting for the horse.”

Bond’s next EXCA competition will be the Surf City Cowboy Challenge in Huntington Beach Aug. 14-15, but she will ride another horse — not Chapo, who at age 13 gets a rest after already qualifying for the 2010 EXCA World Championship Show Nov. 12-14 in Topeka, Kansas.

“I don’t want to show him as much because he’s 13 years old,” she said. “Plus, Chapo actually belongs to my boyfriend, and I want to make sure that he gets to enjoy his own horse some, too!”

At this event, so large it must be spread over different venues and weekends, there are riders young and not-so-young, in breeches and in chaps, going over fences, around barrels and even in carriages. Clearly, Equestrian Trails, Inc. has grown beyond the trails it dedicated itself to acquire and protect in 1944.

“It sounds like a movie script, but during World War II, a small group of horsemen joined together to patrol the power lines and guard public property in Long Beach to secure the safety of the area,” explains current ETI President Linda Fullerton. “Every night during the war, these men on horseback patrolled areas only accessible by horseback.”

ETI photo

Trail riding, as Equestrian Trails, Inc.'s name implies, is a big part of membership. But member activities include events ranging from the Junior Ambassador program (below) to barrel racing, English riding, driving and more.

Today, ETI is divided into 35 “Corrals” in nine geographical areas in California – each one reflecting the flavor and interests of its region. ETI remains a volunteer organization dedicated to preserving the ability to have places where equines and their owners can enjoy the equestrian way of life.

“ETI maintains its original goals from 1945 — a remaining active and trying to help all equestrians maintain an environment that allows for the enjoyment and humane treatment of all equines,” says Fullerton.

This year marks 66 years that ETI members and officers have been working with city, county and statewide legislative and other governmental agencies in the interest of horse people – from maintaining equine facilities to an adjoined trail network, to stables, show venues, and camping/staging areas, to open space, to horse-friendly residential communities and to parks. In short, working to make a difference wherever it is feasible for horses to remain a part of the California lifestyle.

Carol Locus/MicroArtisan.com photo

“Equines and their owners empower a quiet but dynamic industry that has a strong impact on all of California,” she adds. “Between feed stores, tack and equipment stores, veterinarians, farriers, and trainers, we provide a significant economical impact on the state. Equine-supportive legislation could increase the positive economic impact of the equestrian way of life.”

Carol Locus/MicroArtisan.com photo

“They are the future of ETI and of the equine industry and lifestyle,” says Fullerton.

The Junior Ambassador Program, under the direction of Debbie Foster, is active year-round and provides junior members with the chance not only to learn and have fun, but also to be volunteers in their communities in a variety of ways. To be chosen as an ETI Junior Ambassador, they compete in a horsemanship test, a written test covering equine health and care, ETI’s past and present history and a poise and personality competition. The Junior Ambassadors are also ETI’s representatives to many other organizations and to the public.
“They serve as a visible example of the joy and the benefits of the equestrian lifestyle,” says Fullerton.

ETI and its Corrals offer a variety of activities throughout the year that celebrate the value of equines in our lives. This includes trail rides, horse camping, trail trials, gymkhanas, carriagedDriving, wagon trips, all types of horse shows, and a Trail Rider Award Program that helps document the use of trails and protects these trails for use by future riders and hikers. Annually, ETI leads a 125-mile ride through Death Valley, concluding at Furnace Creek as part of the 49ers Celebration Parade.

ETI photo

ETI, which supports the Equestrian Program at Pierce College, has its National Horse Show and Convention each summer — when most juniors are not in school and when people and their equines are more able to participate.

Because of the number of diverse ETI events, the National Show competition is spread over different weekends and locations. Gymkhana, trail trials, carriage driving, and Junior Ambassador competition have all been completed. But the hunter, jumper, dressage, and western shows will all take place July 30 through Aug. 1 at the L.A. Equestrian Center. Admission is free, and all competition is open to members and non-members alike. The Grand Entry, at lunch time on Saturday, July 31, will include drill team exhibitions and the presentation of the 2010-2011 Junior Ambassadors.

More on ETI: http://www.etinational.com

He was at the top of the Open Division.

But as fate would have it, he wasn’t alone there. Defending NRCHA Derby Open Champion Corey Cushing and Smart Boons (Peptoboonsmal x Smart Little Easter) were settled at the top, too, with an identical 664.5 composite score. Since both entries had identical 223 scores in finals fence work – used as the tie-breaker – there had to be a dramatic work-off. Bergen, who went second, scored a 221 to win with the 4-year old (Very Smart Remedy x Gunna Be Lucky), owned by Cable Creek Ranch.

“My game plan was just to be clean and not get any penalties,” said Bergen, who took advantage of a slight mistake by Cushing in the work-off’s first turn. The Open Championship paid $40,460. Cushing earned $29,670 for his reserve performance on Smart Boons, owned by Kevin and Sydney Knight.
Bergen, of Eagle Point, was pleased to see luck turn on Smart Luck, who was in the running last fall for a world championship at the 2009 NRCHA Snaffle Bit Futurity finals when the stallion fell during the fence work, finishing fifth.

“We were beginning to think his name was a bad omen and we’d have to change it,” he joked.

This year’s NRCHA Derby featured a $50,000-added Open Bridle Spectacular, sponsored by Holy Cow Performance Horses in Santa Ynez. Texan Shawn Hays rode Shine Smartly (Shining Spark x Smartly Dressed) to the Open title that paid $30,100. Hays’s wife, Tammy Jo, made the weekend in Paso Robles a family affair when she captured the Derby Non Pro Championship worth $11,825.

In the Intermediate Open, Will Pennebaker of Clements took the Open title on Haida Lena Peppy (Haidas Little Pep x Sallys Little Lena), scoring a 647.5 composite that earned him $6,820. In reserve was Canadian Cayley Wilson, who rode Freckles Be Twisted (Freckles Fancy Twist x She Be Jazzy) for owner Diane Bern to a 645.5 that paid $5,456.

In the Limited Open, Brad Barkemeyer of Scottsdale, Ariz., took Dulce Smart Boomer (Dulces Smart Lena x Boomerita) to the Limited Open Championship and was fourth in the Intermediate, earning $4,775 and $3,751, respectively, for owners Steven and Trish Greenberg. The Limited Open Reserve Champion was Nicholas Barthelemy on Jans Rey Cuatro (Dual Rey x Haidas Jan), owned by Sheri Jamieson, who earned $2,865.

More results: http://www.nrcha.com

A more immediate concern was Susie Hutchison on Cantano, her jump-off rival.

“I really didn’t think there was a possible way to beat her, so I just kind of said to myself, ‘well, here goes nothing,’ and I guess I got lucky,” said Davis, whose coolness under pressure as a junior rider has followed her into the grand prix level. “I knew she would go behind me and that she’d be tough to beat, so I just gave it my all and went as fast as I possibly could.”

Her pace-setting 39.222-second effort on the Scott Starnes-designed jump-off course was unmatched by Hutchison (41.085), who took second. Davis also finished third on her Nemo 119 (41.992), and Michael Endicott completed the final-round quartet in fourth with a time of 43.009 and a downed rail.

AC Custom photo

Lucy Davis of Los Angeles takes her gelding True Love to the teen-ager’s first career grand prix win May 31 at the Memorial Day Grand Prix.

“I was super excited after that one,” said Davis, a goal-oriented rider who last January had set sites on getting some grand prix experience – not necessarily wins – in 2010.

“She really is on fire,” said her jumper trainer, Dick Carvin of Meadow Grove Farm in Lake View Terrace. “She is truly an amazing rider. Before she entered the jumper world, she’d won everything there is to win in the hunters. She’s been champion in Harrisburg, Washington, Devon, many times over, time and time again. She doesn’t do the hunters any more – just the jumpers now – but she always has won. Always.”

With a hunter and equitation foundation laid by trainer Archie Cox in her early teens, Davis’s junior resume is sterling. Her wins include the 2007 Junior Hunter Championship and Best Child Rider at Devon title, the 2008 Junior Young Rider Championship and Team Gold, and last year took the silver in Young Rider competition. Last October in the prestigious Prix De States team competition at Harrisburg, the Zone 10 squad of Davis, Saer Coulter, Paris Sellon and Karl Cook faced a jumo-off in Nation’s Cup format where one rider would represent each team. Davis got the call – and the win.

“I was talking with someone at Harrisburg, and he said Lucy has the best head of anybody I know that rides,” said Carvin, who compares Davis’s poise to another top rider, Nicole Shahanian-Simpson. “Her mind is amazing. As a trainer, in watching these kids – even other trainers – they all know what a mind she has and what a talent she has.”

AC Custom photo

Mark Watring takes his grand prix horse, Sapphire, on a final public tour during a retirement ceremony that followed a moving, patriotic Memorial Day tribute to the those who have honorably served the U.S.

“I’m just going to soak up as much as I possibly can with them – just learn as much as I possibly can,” she said of her summer trip. “I’m really looking forward to it.”
In hunter competition at LAEC, Jenny Karazissis rode Forbes, owned by Tonia Cook Looker, to the $10,000 Memorial Day Classic Chronicle of the Horse USHJA Hunter Derby for the second year in a row.

“He’s fantastic,” Karazissis said of the 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood, a horse she has been riding for two years. Karazissis noted that they call him a specialty horse because they only brought him to the show for the derby. In addition to his wins at the Memorial Day Classic, Forbes has earned consistent high prizes in other derbies and qualified for last year’s inaugural derby championship.

After watching the riders before her, Karazissis was going to play it safe and put in a more conservative ride but changed her mind

“He was so rideable in the first round I decided to go for it,” she said. “I took every inside track and tried to keep my turns as tidy as possible.”

Chris Collman’s course in the handy round sent the riders out of the arena — to what is usually the warm-up area — to negotiate two fences and a bounce through two hedges before jumping back into the arena. Riders had to quickly make a tight rollback to a trot fence before continuing the rest of the course. Riders had a number of opportunities to choose varying tracks and option jumps.

“I wanted to give the riders a lot of options to pick what would help them show off their horses,” Collman said.

Keri Kampsen piloted On Top, owned by Two Goals Farm LLC, to a close second behind Karazissis and Forbes. For Kampsen, the derbies are a fun combination of hunters and equitation.

“I live for these derbies,” she said. “They are my favorite class.”
Karazissis was equally positive.

“I think it brings so much excitement for the hunters,” she said of the derby. “It really gets us pumped up and excited.”

Excited was how professional Tasha Visokay described her feeling after winning a trip to Maui. The Memorial Day Equitation Challenge features teams of three riders, a professional, an amateur, and a junior. The professional of the winning team gets a week long stay at the Marriott Maui Ocean Club Resort courtesy of Langer Equestrian Group, while the junior and amateur each win beach bikes. Visokay rides for the Karen Healey Stables, and this was her first time participating in the class.

“I’ve never had a horse I could do it on. I’m very grateful to Kristi Siam for letting me borrow Krosus this year,” she said.

SHOW RESULTS: See website: http://bit.ly/LAECMemorial
MORE INFO: On Future LEG events: http://www.langershows.com

The three-day event, co-sponsored by the Southern California Reined Cow Horse Association and the Arizona Reined Cow Horse Association, featured an AQHA cutting on Friday, followed by reined cow horse events Saturday and Sunday that totaled almost $65,000 in pay-outs.

The list of winners reads like a “Who’s Who” in the stock horse world –- Lyn Anderson in the Bridle Spectacular, Lance Johnston in the Hackamore Spectacular, Karen Stallings in the Non-Pro Bridle Spectacular. But the victor here is the show itself, which commemorates the life of fellow trainer and friend Sherri Gilkerson and helps fund the Sherri Gilkerson Memorial Scholarships for undergraduate college and university students with an interest in reined cow horses.

The memory of Gilkerson, who died in 2006 at age 34 after a horse accident, continues to inspire the trainers who rode with and against her.

EQ Images photo

Lance Johnston and Nu Prize put it all together to win the $5,000-added Open Hackamore Spectacular on May 15 in Temecula.

Last year at this show, Anderson and Lil Time To Smoke (Senors Lil Brudder X Smoke Time Tuck) won the Hackamore Spectacular. This year, she’s looking to qualify him for World and NRCHA titles in both two-rein and bridle, so this event proved a good fit — providing bridle competition, a nice payout ($2,550) and something more important to her: “Sherri’s boots”, a perpetual trophy that goes to the Sherri Gilkerson Memorial Open Bridle winner. Sherri’s husband, Marc, had a pair of Sherri’s boots bronzed in the first year of the show, and even without a nameplate, it’s a coveted prize.

“That thing means a whole lot to me and everybody else who’s won it,” said Anderson, who wanted to win the trophy and take it home since she first saw the boots, but didn’t have an open bridle horse until this year. “It’s right here on my kitchen table. Bob Avila won it last year, and he told me `oh, it’s heavy’. He’s right, it’s heavy. It looks like you could just put the boots on. The guy that did them did a spectacular job. It’s just a very cool trophy award.”

Anderson began training Lil Time To Smoke as a 2-year old for a customer who had bought him as a weanling from Skip Brown, his dam’s owner. She has shown him every year since.

“I’ve always really liked this horse, so I bought him myself about a year ago,” she said. “The Smoke Time Tuck and Senors Lil Brudder cross have been really good to me.”

She’s ridden several full brothers to this horse -– two of them to their Supreme Reined Cow Horse before this. Lil Time To Smoke, she says, is now eligible for Supreme Reined Cow Horse himself since he has won the amount of money he needed to in the bridle. One full brother, Smart Time Tuck, has earned more then $115,000.

“I’ll just enjoy riding him,” she says of her plans. “And I’ve got a couple mares now, so I’ll be using him to breed.”

Lil Time To Smoke had his first baby on the ground, “Cisco,” May 5.

“All I know is I’ve had a halter on him twice, and he’s like his father so far –- really easy to train,” she said. “That’s what I’ve liked about Lil Time To Smoke — he’s just a dream to train. Just a really, really good-minded horse, and athletic. He just never gave me any problems. Plus, he’s just a fun horse to ride.”

She intended to go back the two-rein field at the Fairlea Ranch show instead of the bridle, then at the NRCHA Derby in Paso Robles, she’ll also show him in the two-rein.

Horsetrader photo

Karen Stallings of Tucson, Ariz., won the Non Pro Bridle Spectacular with her stallino, NMSU Truckin Chex.

“I do hope he will be a long-term bridle horse,” she added. “That’s my plan. Once I’m done with that, he’ll be a breeding stallion.”

Karen Stallings of Tucson won the Non-Pro Bridle Spectacular on her 12-year-old stallion, NMSU Truckin Chex.

“He continues to get better and better,” Stallings said of “Elvis,” whose career earnings of more than $115,000, plus AQHA World and NRCHA titles in open and non-pro bridle with Karen and her husband, Kevin. “I marked a 75 on him out of the herd — that’s the highest I’ve ever marked out of the herd, and by far the best run I’ve ever made.

“He’s been a really amazing horse,” she added. “He’s just stayed so sound mentally and physically that it’s just been pretty amazing.”

In the $5,000-added Open Hackamore Spectacular, Lance Johnston rode Nu Prize (Smokums Prize X My Nu Masterpiece) to a victory that paid $2,865 and a great deal of satisfaction for Johnston, who’d been looking to win on the talentd mare for some time.

“She had been a hard luck girl,” Johnston said. “For one reason or another, in the cow events, a bad cow always has knowcked me out of it. She’s always been good — she’s never been bad. We just haven’t been able to make it through three runs. I finally did!”

Johnston, who first cracked the NRCHA Snaffle Bit Finals on Nu Prize’s dam in 1999, credits the mare’s success to encouragement from Ted Robinson to stick with her.

“He cheered me on with this mare,” Johnston said. “I’ve been having bad luck, and he just keeps telling me to keep fighting through it. So I just kept going, and he was there cheering for me when I ended up winning it.”

Robinson, who won the 2000 Snaffle Bit Futurity on Nu Prize’s sire, says it was a just a
matter of keeping on the special mare.

“I think he liked this mare so much that he wasn’t showing her the way he shows horses – he’s a winner who rides to win every time,” Robinson said. “He was just kind of riding her instead of asking her. He thought she was so great that he forgot he still had to ask her the way he trained her. I kept telling him `you’re not riding her like you do your other horses – you got to keep on her, make her get over there, try harder.’ He just took it for granted because she’s so special that she would be there. When he showed her, he wasn’t staying aggressive like he trains.”

Robinson also lauded the two clubs that put on the Sherri Gilkerson Memorial.

“They do a great job of putting it on — you can’t say enough good things about it,” he said. “You have a fun show there with the dinner and barbeque in memory of a great friend of all of ours – Sherri. It’s the one weekend horse show that I’m going to go to every year.”

SCRCHA President Laura Edwards said there were 165 go’s on Saturday and 132 on Sunday an increase of about 14 percent from 2009. Spectacular entries increased 17 percent, she said.

“The group from Arizona are really neat to work with,” said Edwards. “They offer assistance all year long in preparation, and when they finally arrive here in California, they pitch in where ever needed — filling ice chests, setting up shop, and helping trouble shooting any issues that arise. Deb Kolacy, the President of AzRCHA, and I worked great together. I have new friends in Arizona. It was a great weekend and one that I am proud to be a part of.”

Sponsors included Planinum, Green Oaks Ranch, Choice Transportation, Big Horse Feed,Caleb Distribution, Sunworld, Polymer Logistics, Yotta Mark, Aeroll Staffing, Mid Valley Packaging, Rherig Pacific, Cuddeback Trailers, Runaway Creek Ranch, as well as product and service providers Jimmy Flores Cowboy Gear, David Thornberry Chaps, Freedom Block Show Off Time, Cowdog Saddles Tony Zimmerman, Los Vogt Bits and Spurs, and Quick Clenz.

For complete results, visit: www.scrcha.com

“I’ve been knocking on the door for several years with him,” said Schmersal, who moved his operation to Overbrook, Okla., from Menifee in 2005. “That’s the thing about that horse. He’s been a hard-knocker. Every time you show somewhere, he has a chance to win.”

The duo’s 228 bested 30 other riders in a tough finals that required a 221 to enter. Reserve was split between Jordan Larson on Stop Like A Dream, owned by Gilbertgo Leal, and Shawn Flarida on Wimpys Little Chic, owned by Arcese Quarter Horses — both with 227.5.

The NBRC event has evolved into one of – if not the – favorite stops on reiners’ calendars. The large, well-footed arena combined with the aged horses make an event that truly allows the showing of a reiner. The fact that this event is well-run by its management team helps, too, as its steady growth indicates. This year’s total payout of $1,405,903 was the most ever, and entries for the show and the Classic totaled about 1,900 – an increase of five percent.

Waltenberry photo

After winning riding Boom Shernic to the National Reining Breeders Classic open title, next up for Craig Schmersal is to take the stallion to the NRHA Derby June 21-26 and – less than two weeks later – the qualifier July 5-10 for the USET team that will compete at the Alltech FEI World Games in September.

In its 13 years, the NRBC has paid out $11,381,709 – more than any other reining in that length of time other than the National Reining Horse Association Futurity.

Schmersal, a $2 million Reiner as of January this year, earned $75,000 for the title. He had two other horses in the NRBC top 15, including Peppy Superboom (Boomernic X Peppy Designed) in a 10th-11th place tie that paid $25,000, and Whizs Katrina (Topsail Whiz X Shiners Sulena) in a 14th-15th tie that earned $20,000.

It was Boom Shernic’s who assumed the spotlight at the Classic, and apparently who will remain there as Schmersal gears up for a challenging remainder of 2010. After the NRHA Derby June 21-26, he hopes to take Boom Shernic to the qualifier for the Alltech FEI World Games less than two weeks later at the AQHA Battle in the Saddle July 5-10. Both events will be at the State Fair Arena in Oklahoma City.

“It’d be a great deal to be part of that team,” said Schmersal, who also has good crop of futurity horses for the NRHA Futurity later in the year. “He’s enough horse. The timing’s just terrible with the Derby being right before the weekend they’ve got to show to qualify for the team. It’s going to be one tough reining.”

Schmersal moved to Overbrook where he and his wife Ginger raise four children, including Chris, 16, Nick, 14, Brendyn, 5, and Addisyn, 4. His California years in Riverside County were instrumental in his career, he said.

“I put a nice program together when I was in California, and I just got to build on the program that I built there,” he said. “I love California, but I love Oklahoma, too. We grew to the point where moving here was the best option to buy more land and let the babies grow up on grass. I’m not sad I made the move, but I do miss California from time to time.”

More results: http://www.nrbc.com/index.php

The April 2 Friday night headliner class, the final West Coast qualifier for the 2010 FEI World Cup Finals in Geneva, Switzerland, April 14-18, went to the Canadians. Riders John Pearce, Karen Cudmore and Chris Pratt went 1-2-3, respectively, with Pearce and Chianto the only ones managing a clear round on Olaf Petersen Jr.’s challenging course.

Finishing fourth was a hard-charging Susie Hutchison on Cantano, a dynamic duo in each of the last two Blenheim seasons. For Hutchison, who is coming off a solid HITS Desert Circuit this year where she finished third in the $300,000 Lamborghini Grand Prix of the Desert March 14, there’s plenty of optimism as she enters her fourth year with the striking, 10-year-old Holsteiner stallion owned by the El Dorado 29 partnership.

Jump Shot photo

$50,000 Orange County Register CSI-W Grand Prix winners John Pearce and Chianto with Blenheim EquiSports President Robert Ridland, VP of Marketing Melissa Braunstein, Lelani Kroeker and Jackie Saragueta of The Orange County Register, and Blenheim EquiSports CEO, R.J. Brandes.

“That’s the goal” says Hutchison.

She turned 57 during this year’s HITS Thermal campaign, and she appears as energetic as ever. Her secret is no secret –it’s the horse.

“They do that to you,” says Hutchison, who’ll campaign just one grand prix horse this year in Cantano. ““You’re only as good as you are mounted. Two (grand prix horses) would be nice, but it’s great just to back in that ring. It’s fabulous. To be on a horse that can be a player and a competitor –it just makes all the difference in the world.”

As a 6-year old, Cantano was paired with Hutchison by Sandy Aston, who had imported the stallion for another client.

“Sandy was helping the owner with the horse, and he was a little bit of a handful to be in the hunter barn,” says Hutchison. “So they kind of said, `well, let’s see what happens with Susie on him.’ It just kind of fell into my lap.”

That spring, Cantano aced his first 1.45 m challenge at the Oaks Spring Classic II so well that they decided to give the grand prix a try. He won it.

Then, when Aston recommended to her longtime clients, Jim and Pat Iverson of El Dorado 29, that they buy Cantano, the team was in place.

“She thought that we’d be a good match,” Hutchison says. “Sandy’s got a really good eye for a horse, and good eye for matching up horses and riders. Luckily for me, she was right!
“I give her the credit for all this,” she adds. “She had a lot of faith in the horse. She just had that gut feeling. I must say I thought he was a nice horse. I don’t know if I really thought that he was `the’ horse, but he’s certainly stepping up to the plate to be `the’ horse.”

Dirk Gallian photo for Jump Shot

Open Equitation winner Blake Lindsley and Pascal receive their award from presenters Melissa Braunstein, VP Marketing of Blenheim EquiSports and Jenny Fine of Royal Champion.

“I have been showing in California and not outside it for a while just because I feel that if you can’t win here, you shouldn’t be showing somewhere else,” she says. “ In my opinion, it’s too costly nowadays to go to Spruce Meadows or the East Coast unless you think you can be a player.

“I’ve been lucky enough to be mounted on some really nice horses — thanks to Samsung and some other clients in the past — and I’ve had that opportunity. Now with this Million Dollar class, our hopes are that we’ll stay in the top 40 and go back to Saugerties and do that. I’d also like to go to Colorado this year and do a couple of shows there. We’re spread out wings out a little bit — venturing out.”

And the World Cup?

“Not this year,” she says. “And even if he were in, I think he’d be a year too young to do that. I’ve been there when I haven’t felt comfortable about being there in the past. I learned that anyone who doesn’t feel that they can be a player for the U.S. and know that it’s the right time for their horse, it’s really a bad decision. Next year is the goal.”

“As I said last year, that horse is the reason that I still put my boots and breeches on, you know?,” she says. “The horses you ride stimulate your attitude, and draw you forward or pull you back.

Hutchison, whose stables opened March 1 at a new location at Ashe Farm in Temecula Valley, also enjoyed HITS Desert Classic success with young horses of another client, SIG International from Japan. Two wins came on Feng Shui in the 6-year-old Classics.

“As long as I’ve got the horses, and as long as I feel that I am physically in good shape and can be fair to the owners, to the horse and to myself, then I’ll still be out there,” she says, preparing to get back to work. “The day that I feel that’s not happening anymore is the day you won’t see me.”

Like the swallows not one day returning, California show jumping circuit without Susie Hutchison seems unfathomable.

Show results: http://bit.ly/blenheimspring