The year started out tough for Margie Engle. Just before last year’s winter circuit her long-time partner Hidden Creek’s Wapino died following complications from colic surgery. The timing coincided with the sale of a few of Engle’s other contenders, so for the first time in 20 years the 10-time AGA Rider Of The Year found herself without a Sunday mount for the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.)—let alone a prospect for the Olympic Trials.
 
But Engle finished off her season with a big win, capturing the $125,000 Rolex/USEF National Show Jumping Championship at Holiday And Horses, Dec. 3-7, in Wellington, Fla. The championship comprised two rounds: the $40,000 Holiday And Horses Opener and the $60,000 Holiday And Horses CSI-W Grand Prix.

Engle and the lightning-quick Hidden Creek’s Pamina L stopped the clock fastest in the Opener—a speed class—but dropped two rails to finish fourth, while Todd Minikus and Pavarotti picked up the top check. Kent Farrington and Up Chiqui outran Russian Ljubov Kochetov and Aslan in the jump-off for the grand prix to win their third World Cup qualifier of the season. Engle and her most experienced mount Hidden Creek’s Quervo Gold tallied 8 faults to finish ninth, good enough to boost her to the national title with 44 points over rising stars Kirsten Coe and Starlight, who finished with 42 points.

With the points spread out and plenty of international riders (who are ineligible for the championship) competing in both classes, it wasn’t immediately clear who picked up the $25,000 check that accompanied the title.

“I was surprised to hear I’d won,” said Engle. “When you’re in the ring you just think about the class you’re doing—you can’t lose focus by dwelling on anything else. They were both good, fair courses, and it was a great way to finish up the year.”

With Quervo, Engle’s 2006 World Equestrian Games mount, as the only seasoned grand prix horse in her string, the Wellington, Fla., rider spent much of the year focused on her up-and-comers, saving Quervo for her biggest classes. Engle couldn’t have been happier with Pamina, who started the year in the 1.30-meter classes, and picked up eight grand prix victories by the end of the season. And when Quervo came down with a mild fever on President’s Cup day at the Washington International Horse Show (D.C.), Engle saddled up Pamina as a replacement, placing fourth in excellent company.
 
“When we got her we told [owner] Mike [Polaski] that she’d be a great competitor,” said Engle. “She seems to have a lot of heart, and she’s done everything I’ve asked her to. I keep testing her along the way to see where she is, and she keeps rising to the challenge. Friday was her first time going under lights, and she was super.”

Before Engle started with Pamina (Pontifex—Hauptstutbuch Power Jumper) the Westphalian hadn’t spent much time competing, having served as a broodmare. But the mare proved a quick study, making a mark in speed classes as well as the grand prix arena.

Engle’s other promising novice, 8-year-old Hidden Creek’s Coraya Z, blossomed this year under her tutelage, winning two grand prix classes at HITS Saugerties (N.Y.) over the summer. Engle describes the Holsteiner as scopey and talented, with a lot of quality. 

Engle, 50, acknowledged that with empty stalls in the stable it can be tempting to overface young talent.

“I think I pushed [Pamina and Coraya] a little more than I would have liked to,” she admitted. “But it works as long as they don’t seem like they’re getting scared, and I put them in a smaller class once in a while. The trick is to give young horses confidence without scaring them.”

But her biggest challenge isn’t staying patient with her freshmen grand prix mounts, it’s trying to track them down in the first place. The equine market has changed dramatically in the last few years, according to Engle, and finding and buying international-caliber horses has become more difficult than ever.

“It’s a constant battle trying to find new horses and new sponsors,” she said. “It’s getting harder and harder in the
economy, and they don’t seem to be adjusting the prices too much. Before you could find a talented horse at an
out-of-the-way place, but it seems like there are more scouts everywhere.”

Though her mounts have been performing beautifully, Engle resisted making any predictions about their futures. “All of mine are always for sale,” she said. “If Quervo weren’t around it might be too much to ask the young
mares to go [to the 2009 FEI World Cup Final or 2010 Alltech/FEI World Equestrian Games]. But we’ll see what happens. Not having a seasoned horse really makes you appreciate having a good one.”

Mollie Bailey