For Dave and Tracy Kenly, horses are a family affair. And the combination of Dave’s love of racing with Tracy’s lifelong experience riding hunters and jumpers produced international show jumping stars Bradford and Kirk.

Tracy’s equestrian experience started early, as her mother, Kitty Tomkinson, owned a boarding stable and gave riding lessons. Tracy and her brother, Arizona trainer Tim Tomkinson, grew up on horseback at Quakerfield Stables in Orchard Park, N.Y.

Tracy and Tim followed the hounds and were members of the local Pony Club. In the winter, Tracy would put a Western saddle on her pony, Parliament, and pull skiers across the snow. In college, Tracy rode on the Skid-more (N.Y.) drill team. After college, she ran a stable in New York City.

She moved to Arizona in 1978 to be with her mother and went to work for Tim, and that’s when she met Dave. Dave, a rose farmer, grew up in Arizona, but he loved to go to the track. One day he claimed a horse in New Mexico and started his racing stable.

“I like to go to races and bet,” he said. “Betting led to owning.”

When Tracy met Dave, a friend had given him some breeding stock. He owned race horses and 10 brood mares. But Tracy inspired his interest in riding after taking him foxhunting in Ireland. He began riding his race horses and jumping them. Then he got Beer (German for Bear) and started showing him.

Since the race horses were at their home in Phoenix, Ariz., Tracy and Dave rode some of them. Aboard Miss Awesome and Beer, Dave won many adult amateur jumper classes. Their daughter, Erin, who now works at the Brooks Institute of Photo-graphy in Santa Barbara, Calif., also rode and showed. Often, the whole family, including Tim, would be at the shows, usually bringing home one or more championships.

Unveiling Their Talents
Tracy began to take race horses with “serious cases of the slows” who she thought had a chance of being jumpers rather than claimers.

Tracy looks for horses with a big stride. She wants a good mover, with a good quality jump. “It’s always easier to compact a big stride than to create one,” she said. “All horses jump, but not all are good quality. Some are more athletic than others. Big horses can have small strides and the converse. I had a 15.2-hand horse that had such a big stride he could bounce an in-and-out.”

Although Kirk won a few races, he wasn’t competitive at the stakes level, so Tracy took him on as a project.

“Kirk was tough,” said Dave. “He was a nut, strong, hot, and got so excited. We took him to a lot of shows and to a lot more shows to get him used to water.”

Tracy was never able to get Kirk comfortable over water jumps; in Arizona, there is no access to open water.

While spending the summer of 1995 at Del Mar (Calif.) for the racing season, Dave went to a show at Show Park (Calif.) and approached rider Richard Spooner about Kirk.

“He said Kirk needed a little training. Kirk was a wily Thoroughbred with a water problem,” said Spooner. “Tracy was showing him in amateur-owner jumpers and doing great except for this problem with the water. Originally, I was just supposed to ride Kirk a month or two and resolve the water problem.”

Since Spooner had two water jumps at his stable at Griffith Park he took Kirk home with him to school in September. They won a futures grand prix in November.

“After I rode Kirk for a while, I said to Dave that Kirk has the potential to be one of the better grand prix horses,” said Spooner. “Dave and Tracy let me take a shot. They let me keep Kirk.”

In 1996, Kirk won his first national grand prix in the $50,000 Oaks Grandprix (Calif.); it was Spooner’s first grand prix win also. Kirk became the 1997 PCHA Grand Prix horse of the year and won the $150,000 Grand Prix of the Desert at Indio (Calif.) in 1998. Spooner took him to Monterey, Mexico and two times to Europe with the U.S. Equestrian Team.

While Spooner was showing Kirk, Tracy began to show their homebred Bradford. The Kenlys owned a share of Ally Dark, an Arizona stallion by Alydar. Dave, hoping to get a top race horse, bred Ally Dark to Virablee, a mare that he bought in Kentucky. The result was Bradford, who was so slow that he never even got tattooed.

“We sent him off to the track and the trainer sent him home,” said Tracy. “He was here so I started to ride him.”

She named him Bradford after a special show in Bradford, Pa., where she competed as a junior rider. For the Tomkinsons, it was a special show. “If we got anything for Christmas–a new jacket or boots–we’d say ‘We’re going to save this for Bradford,’ ” she said. “I decided to name him after that show.”

After Tracy saw Kirk win at Indio, she went home, determined to get Bradford going higher. Bradford put it all together–height, scope, water.

“Having a grand prix horse is really the result of talent, training, and progression,” she said. “We’d meet up with [Spooner] at shows.”

Kirk was reaching the end of his career as a grand prix jumper, and Tracy had always dreamed of showing at Spruce Meadows (Alta.).

“When Kirk was 15, he had his winningest year but was at the twilight of his career as a grand prix jumper,” said Spooner. “Tracy wanted another chance to show him so they traded me Bradford for Kirk.”

It was hard for Tracy to give up Bradford, but she wanted the horse to reach his full potential.

“Finally, we made the decision to let Richard show him,” she said. “It’s hard in Arizona. There are no shows in the summer. If your horse is a grand prix horse you need to be in California or the East Coast. The horse has to be in a program. The shows here are few and far between.”

Spooner was thrilled to have Bradford.

“I always wanted Bradford,” he said. “He’s a wonderful horse and has had a tremendous year [in 2004]. He won three major speed classes at Spruce Meadows. They’ve been phenomenal owners. They gave me my first break. They let me have Kirk for years instead of a couple of months. When they wanted Kirk back in Tracy’s string, they gave me Bradford. I couldn’t ask for more from any owners.”

Fulfilling Dreams
In 2003, Bradford and Spooner represented the United States at the FEI World Cup Final. In 2004, their victories included a win in the $50,000 EMO Grand Prix (Calif.), a second in the $75,000 Grand Prix of Del Mar (Calif.) and three speed classes at the Spruce Meadows Nationals.

“Richard always goes for it,” said Tracy.

“He always has the fastest time with Bradford,” said Tracey. “The horse does best with courses with open gallops. When Bradford starts running, Richard loses control on tight courses. Richard likes him better indoors; he has more control.”

In 2003, Ally Dark posthumously won the South Pacific Memorial Award for the leading U.S.-based jumper sire. Ally Dark ranked among the leading sires on money won by offspring primarily due to the earnings of Bradford.

Tracy fulfilled her dream with Kirk, as she took him to Spruce Meadows on the West Coast Active Riders tour on the junior/amateur-owner team. “I went clean in the team competition,” said Tracy. “It was thrilling to be there on a seasoned horse.”

Tracy and Kirk also earned an amateur-owner jumper championship at Indio, but then Kirk sustained an injury. Tracy was depressed about not having an upper level horse to ride so Dave surprised her with Heraklion.

“I saw Heraklion in Holland and fell in love,” she said. “Dave bought him for me as a surprise. Quarantine called and said, ‘Mr. Kenly’s horse is here;’ I thought it was one of Dave’s race horses. When Dave got home, I told him and he said, ‘They ruined the surprise; I bought “Joey” for you.'”

Heraklion, Tracy’s first made grand prix horse, has proved to be the “gift that goes on giving.” They’ve finished in the ribbons in a number of grand prix classes.

Many people never have a horse the caliber of either Kirk or Bradford, but Tracy doesn’t believe she did anything special.

“As far as starting horses, I think lots of people do the same thing,” she said. “They find a green, sound, sane, and athletic horse, spend lots of time, longe it over fences, start little gymnastics, take it to schooling shows. I don’t think that is unique. I don’t really do anything differently.”

Tracy enjoys making her jumpers. “I like creating horses from scratch,” she said. “I like to take a horse that never jumped a crossrail and make him into something.”

Tracy believes in jumping her young horses every time she rides them. “I like them to think it’s no big deal. Just, ‘oh yes, she’s getting on me again and we’re going to jump.’ I won’t move them up a level until we’ve gone to two consecutive shows and been double-clear including no time faults.”

Although Dave still has his racing stable, he’s stopped breeding. “He eventually discovered that you can buy yearlings cheaper then breeding, and you can see what you have,” said Tracy. “If you breed, maybe you’ll get one out of 10 breedings to actually race at the track.”

In addition to Bradford’s success in the grand prix ring last year, Dave had his best year at the track. He won a $100,000 stakes race at Golden Gate with the mare Scrofa, by Unusual Heat. Lava Man won a stakes race and was second in a grade I race in Santa Anita.

This year, while Tracy has a sound Kirk, who won his first grand prix with Tracy in March, and Heraklion to show in the amateur-owners, Dave hopes to build on his winning year at the track. And just perhaps there is another slow race horse, waiting for Tracy to “make into something.”