When Wendy Bebie earned the Paddington Award for the top-placed amateur at the Radnor Hunt CCI** (Pa.) in October, she accomplished a goal she’d had for years. But now, at age 50, she has a taste for even more with her partner, Phoenix.

“I hardly believe I’m saying this, but I want to try advanced horse trials next year,” she said after finishing 14th on her dressage score at Radnor. “He’s definitely ready to go, and I’m getting older faster than he is!”

Bebie, of Round Hill, Va., completed her first two-star at the Jersey Fresh CCI (Pa.) in May, finishing ninth. “I was impressed. I thought it looked pretty hard, but Phoenix ate it up,” she said of Jersey Fresh. “I had no idea how much harder it would be, but I got there feeling extremely well-prepared.”

Regular training with Kim Keppick and Jim Wofford gave Bebie, a mother of three, the confidence she needed. “Between the two of them, I think I’ve seen every exercise I could possibly need,” she said.

But Radnor’s course, which was more than a minute longer than Jersey Fresh, also presented more terrain challenges.

“It was amazing to me how he went up and down hills like it was nothing. I kept giving him his head and asking, and he’d say, ‘I’m not tired; let’s go on!’ ” said Bebie. “It’s amazing how much more grown up he was there. He said, ‘I’ve got it; this is easy. I’m having a great time.’ “

In 1999, when Bebie bought Phoenix, now a 12-year-old Selle Franç¡©s-cross, he’d never evented. But Bebie saw potential in the 16-hand, bay gelding, and, from the beginning, Radnor was her goal.

“I’d always wanted to go to Radnor. When I got him vetted, I said, ‘I want to get to Radnor with this horse.’ In life and in horses, it’s so rare you get where you want to go, so it was especially sweet to do well [at Radnor],” said Bebie.

Keppick found Phoenix, who was then for sale as a jumper, through an advertisement in the Chronicle.

“He had tremendous jumping ability but no experience cross-country at all,” said Bebie. “He didn’t get it right away–we probably went novice more than anyone on a broke horse. He’d be looking at squirrels or jump judges, then, finally, he started looking for fences.”

After six or seven novice events, Bebie moved him up to training, where Phoenix had to learn how to gallop. “He pulled himself along with a lot of knee action,” said Bebie of her horse’s early gallop. “Even when he did the one-star at Morven Park [where hefinished 11th in 2002], Kim was laughing watching his steeplechase–his legs were flying in the air, and he had no idea what to do with himself.”

Bebie also spent a long time at preliminary–“more for me than him,” she said. But Keppick thinks Bebie’s patience has been a key to their success. “She always does her homework, and she’s never in a hurry to speed up the training process,” said Keppick. “Her compassion to her horses and her slow, patient training is a lesson to everyone.”

An Accidental Eventer

Bebie may not have intended to go advanced, but she did know that she wanted a taste of the upper levels, thanks to her previous horse, Lunar Eclipse, with whom she won the inaugural Morven Park CCI* (Va.) in 1999.

Bebie started riding as a child in Washington state. “I just had fun mostly. It was not serious,” she said of her early years with horses. While attending the University of Washing-ton at Seattle, she stopped riding but later returned to it while a student at Georgetown Law School (D.C.), taking lessons at Rock Creek Park in Washington.

In the 1980s, Bebie, who had worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Washington, and her husband, Bob Gordon, moved to Virginia.

“I got a horse and just kind of ended up with event people,” she said. She also became involved in hunting, since most of her neighbors hunted, and she continues to ride with the Piedmont Fox Hounds.

After her second child, Bebie stopped practicing law. “I really wanted to raise my own kids,” she said.

But she also got a lot of help from her husband. As Bebie spent more weekends with the horses, Gordon took over the kids’ weekend activities, driving them to soccer games and other activities. “He totally supports what I do,” said Bebie.

Keppick agreed that the family gives Bebie the time she needs to pursue her sport. “They know that if she’s doing well with horses, she’s happy and a great mom to them,” she said.

After a series of inappropriate horses at that time, Bebie came across Lunar Eclipse, or “Hase.” Lana Wright had bred the chestnut Connemara-cross to drive, but he didn’t take to that sport. Sharon White had evented him a few times when Bebie bought him.

“It was one of those lucky things; who would have thought that little pony would be so good?” said Bebie. “He loved surprises–coming around a corner and seeing a fence in his face. He was so eager to jump.”

Bebie and Lunar Eclipse earned the U.S. Eventing Association’s Horse of the Year award at training level in 1996, and at preliminary level in 1999.

But approximately one month after winning the Morven Park CCI, Hase was kicked in the stifle. “We were told it was irreparable, even for a pasture pet,” said Bebie, who had decided to semi-retire Hase after Morven Park and let her daughter, Katie, ride him in Pony Club competitions.

Fortunately, Bebie had bought Phoenix two weeks before Hase was euthanized.

“I was really stuck when Lunar Eclipse was put down,” said Bebie. “It was probably a good thing I’d already bought Phoenix, or I probably would have quit, at least for a while. But each horse is special, and you have a different relationship with each one.”

After losing Hase, Bebie decided to sponsor a trophy in his name–that trophy is given at the Morven Park CCI to the top amateur rider who has never competed at advanced. “I realized in my own eventing, that there are a lot of people like me, for whom this is the biggest thing they’ll do, and it is so important [to acknowledge them],” said Bebie. “Doing a three-day is something all lower-level riders want to do.”

On A Roll

By the time they embarked on intermediate, Bebie said Phoenix had learned to run after the fence all too well. “He got caught in combinations with hidden jumps,” she said. “He blew past one fence after another [at first]. Now he’s got the idea.”

In Phoenix’s first year at intermediate, in 2003, Bebie noticed drops of blood in his nose. Her veterinarian suspected a sinus infection and put him on antibiotics. But an X-ray later revealed a growth in his sinuses, and he had surgery last August to remove that growth.

“[The veterinarians] said when [that kind of growth] gets bigger, it can affect their balance,” said Bebie. “We missed the whole fall season, and [the ordeal] was really hard on him. He looked poor, and it took a lot of time to get him back.”

But Bebie’s dedication brought him back at his best in the spring. He earned a fifth place in the intermediate at Southern Pines (N.C.) in March, then went on to a third place at Plantation Field (Pa.), second at Loudoun (Va.) and fourth at Morven Park before heading to Jersey Fresh and the start of the best year of her career.

“She’s talented, and she never stops trying to learn,” said Keppick of her student. “Some professionals don’t do that.”

And now that Bebie’s two sons and her daughter are in high school and college, she has even more time to ride. “I now have complete flexibility and can arrange my own schedule,” she said.

Although, the weekend after Radnor, all three children had parents’ weekends at their schools, so Bebie drove to Richmond, Charlottesville and Pennsylvania in one weekend.

Bebie also keeps a second horse for hunting, and she goes out at least once a week during the season. “Hunting is great for your eventing. You learn that horses can deal with all sorts of things coming at them without help from you,” she said. “Hours of galloping in the saddle get you ready [for eventing] more than any amount of thinking about it can do.”

As this season wound down, Bebie wasn’t resting on her laurels–in addition to hunting, she is riding young horses belonging to some of Keppick’s other students. “Competition is important to her, and she’s very driven,” said Keppick. “She doesn’t want a break; she got right back in it [after Radnor]. She loves to compete.”

As of Oct. 18, Bebie was leading the USEA Master Amateur Intermediate Rider standings, with 66 points, more than twice as many as second-placed Lynn Partridge. In September, she won at the Middleburg (Va.) Horse Trials, besting the likes of Phillip Dutton and Stuart Black.

But Bebie modestly attributes much of her accomplishment to Phoenix.

“As an amateur, you’re seeing things you’ve not ridden before [on course], and your horse says, ‘OK, I’ll go do it.’ You really appreciate how generous your horse is. For pros, they’ve done it before; they’ve seen that problem,” she said. “I’m really proudof Phoenix; I think he’s phenomenal, and his generosity is what’s made us get so far.”

Since she typically competes one horse at a time, Bebie develops complete faith in that horse, which she thinks gives her a marked advantage. “You totally believe in your horse; you have that bond that you wouldn’t have as a professional,” she said.

Agreed Keppick, “She’s grateful every day Phoenix is still around for her to ride.”