PrintAnd they’ve contributed to the formation of a close-knit community of Alaskan horsemen.
The roots of Eaton Equestrian Centre in Anchorage, Alaska, reach back to 1969, when Julie Eaton left her native Buffalo, N.Y., and moved to Alaska with her husband.
Already a talented artist, Eaton developed a new passion in 1975, when she began riding.
By 1980, Eaton was a single parent of two daughters—Dana, 7, and Britta, 10—looking for ways to supplement her earnings. That’s when the concept of a riding school took hold.
“Before that,” Julie said, “I’d worked to help develop a public equestrian center in Anchorage, so I’d learned a lot along the way. I’d been a working artist, but I let that go to devote myself full time to my new business.”
Julie launched the EEC, one of the main hunter/jumper show barns in Anchorage, in 1980, and she still owns, manages and teaches there along with daughters Dana and Britta and Dana’s husband Michael.
EEC offers a full boarding, lesson and training program. The attractive facility makes efficient use of 2.5 acres, with a spacious indoor arena, 16 box stalls, two paddocks and numerous 12'x24' turnout pens. A second-floor trophy room overlooks the arena, and the Eatons’ cozy A-frame home sits on a small hill just up from the stables.
“I knew that hunter/jumper riding isn’t a traditional sport in Alaska,” Julie confessed. “But this type of business allowed me more time to spend with my daughters, because it’s based at home.”
Of course, considerable capital was needed to develop EEC. “My first horse was appropriately named Empty Pockets,” said Julie with a laugh.
She wasn’t shy about seeking counsel from experts. She credited Victor Hugo-Vidal, a frequent judge and visiting clinician in Alaska, “for giving me great advice over the years and for bringing suitable hunters and jumpers to the area.”
Like most trainers’ children, Dana and Britta rode from an early age. When they got older, the girls helped their mother with the beginner students. Over time, Britta’s interests became focused primarily on teaching and breeding, while Dana quickly rose through the state’s junior ranks and set her sights on show jumping.
During one Christmas visit to Julie’s hometown of Buffalo, she arranged for Dana to take a lesson at Susie Schoellkopf’s barn.
“Susie saw Dana ride,” Julie remembered, “and invited her to compete in a local horse show class. Susie was so kind, and it was a wonderful experience that affected Dana later in life, when she chose to go to school at Canisius College in Buffalo.”
Canisius had an intercollegiate team, and Dana took along a horse, Second Chance, or “Stilts,” a Quarter Horse bred in Alaska by the Eatons, out of Julie’s mare Empty Pockets.
“Dana braided at shows and did other work to help defray her riding expenses in New York,” said Julie.
Later, Dana earned a master’s degree in economics at the University of Oregon, where she met her husband of 10 years, Michael Enz, a professor who now spends winters teaching economics at Framing-ham State College in Massachusetts. But Enz spends college breaks and summers with the Eatons in Anchorage, where he helps manage some of the AHJA shows that EEC organizes.
A Rising Star
While still an undergraduate, Dana qualified for show jumping at the North American Young Rider Championships, a rare coup for an Alaskan, although fellow Alaskan Danielle Turner also rode in the NAYRC during the same years as Dana.
