PrintWith his amazing mount Che Mr. Wiseguy, he hopes to be the first rider from Ecuador to compete in a World Equestrian Games.
Ronald Zabala-Goetschel is used to being a little unconventional. When he was about 3 years old he made horse sounds instead of talking, and his non-horsey parents bought him an old and lame pony to ride. Little did they know that this would begin a lifelong passion for horses.
Zabala-Goetschel, 43, and his striking dark bay gelding Che Mr. Wiseguy are qualified to compete at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Ky. He’s the first Ecuadorian to qualify for a WEG.
The U.S. Eventing Association’s 2008 Adult Amateur Rider of the Year, Zabala-Goetschel only competed lightly in 2009 after the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** in April. Instead, he had to return to Ecuador to get his new businesses going. He wanted to be organized for 2010, when he plans to spend most of his time in the United States riding and preparing for the WEG.
“I was born with this chronic, incurable, hopeless disease called horse-aholicness, and it’s even gotten worse over the years!” joked Zabala-Goetschel, the second in a family of four brothers and three sisters from Quito.
And it seems that the disease is contagious. After Zabala-Goetschel started riding, two of his brothers and two sisters gave it a try. “At the moment only my youngest sister, Carmen Maria, 22, is also riding, while going to vet school in Ecuador,” he said.
Growing up in Ecuador, where eventing is not a popular sport, Zabala-Goet-schel still learned to ride and jump in
the open.
“I used to ride at our little farm, and one day I realized that a tree had fallen near the river. I had a beautiful palomino mare called Palomina and thought that it would be fun to jump over that foot-high log,” he said. “So I did and of course loved the feeling of suspension over a fence. I’m not sure Palomina enjoyed it as much as I did, since she had to jump that log at least 100 times that morning—and the morning after, and the morning after that!”
Zabala-Goetschel took jumping lessons, but eventing was only a military sport in Ecuador. But the magic of the silver screen captured Zabala-Goetschel’s imagination when he was about 9 years old and watched the movie International Velvet, about a young girl who represents England in eventing at the Olympic Games. Since then, he’s dreamed of competing at the Olympics.
Zabala-Goetschel competed in show jumping and endurance, and his first eventing competition was in 2001 at the Bolivarian Games in Ecuador. He was part of the team with a horse called Harley that had first been ridden and owned by his brother Max.
But the event ended tragically for Zabala-Goetschel when Harley fell at the water jump and broke his right shoulder. “It was a jump to immortality, because since then he always lives in my heart,” said Zabala-Goetschel.
After the accident Zabala-Goetschel stopped eventing and thought he would never come back. But the horse addiction ran deep, and after five months a friend asked him what could be the worst thing that could happen if he evented again.
He answered, “Losing a horse is the worst thing because if something happens to me, well, I know the risks and I’m not afraid.”
Knowing that the worst had already happened gave him the courage to try again.
The Entrepreneur
