Beth Rasin

It all started 15 years ago in a quiet country town in Belgium, with a plumber, a 12-year-old girl, and her bike.

When Sapphire’s dam Idjaz C (by Hedjaz) started to foal, young Sofie van Bunder jumped on her bike to find her father, Walter, who was working as a plumber in the nearby village of Sint-Gillis-Waas. Upon hearing the news, Walter, a part-time horseman who bred about three mares per year, jumped on the bike and pedaled furiously to the foaling. But by the time he arrived, a chestnut filly was already on her feet.

With a CIC*** win on her resume, she moves on to a new rider.

The thing about Lady Calido is, if she doesn’t like you, she’ll let you know.

She’s had a fruitful career with her fond owner and rider Robyn Fisher, who has won numerous events with her, including the Twin Rivers CIC*** in Paso Robles, Calif., Sept. 25-27.

But that was probably the last ride Fisher will have on the mare for a while, since Amy Tryon will be taking over the reins, aiming for a CCI*** next spring.

•    Tamra Smith, Temecula, Calif., won the advanced division on Bubbles At Bricky, while her daughter Kaylawna Smith won the junior training rider class with Happy Go Lucky III.

•    Mark Watring, who walked all of the upper level courses at Twin Rivers, noted some definite changes in the sport in the two decades since he’d last competed.

Tamra Smith is reinspired after a CIC** win with a new partner.

Tamra Smith’s first trip to Rolex Kentucky in April didn’t go quite as she’d planned. When her mount Chaos Theory jumped into the famous Head of the Lake, he landed on all fours, causing Smith to hit her pelvic bone hard against the saddle. She continued on around the course, unaware that she had ruptured two blood vessels and was bleeding internally.

Emma Brown learns to ride her mother’s Thoroughbred and reaps the rewards at the USEF Zone 2 Hunter Finals.

The first time trainer Nancy Maillet saw North Cliff in action, she thought he had the perfect, cadenced canter for a show hunter—as he crossed the finish line at the Meadowlands Racetrack (N.J.).

“He was running his own race,” said Maillet with a laugh. “He was way behind.”

In most top stables, riders are taught to meticulously care for their mounts—to know each leg and which bumps and swellings are unusual, exactly which feeds or supplements each horse needs to best do his job, any special shoeing requirements, whether he empties his water buckets each night or fills them with hay… and on and on for a million factors that go into that horse’s well-being.

Headley Britannia is by the part Irish Draft stallion Jumbo out of an American Thoroughbred mare, Alan’s Bambi. She was bred by Mike and Betty Hounsell at Headley Stud in Berkshire, England. Jumbo competed briefly at the advanced level with Andrew Nicholson.

First-placed Lucinda Fredericks and second-placed Bettina Hoy have husbands who have won the event: Clayton Fredericks in 2007 and Andrew Hoy in 2006.
      

For any riders who might have been trying to glean some insight into Mike Etherington-Smith’s 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games cross-country course, he tried not to give away too many clues with this year’s revamped track. Although the 2009 and 2010 events are gearing up to the WEG, Etherington-Smith wanted to keep his cards close to his chest for 2010.

After winning the Rolex Kentucky CCI****, on what must have been one of the biggest days of her life, Lucinda Fredericks insisted that her wins with Headley Britannia came second to the first love of her life: her 5-year-old daughter, Ellie.

“I’ve had all of my success since having my baby,” said Lucinda, 43. “I was quite prepared for my body to say my time was up, that I’d lost my nerve or balance. But I’ve ridden better because I train better because I don’t want to hurt myself.”