Julia Steinberg had convinced herself that she already had plenty of four-legged friends when a tiny gelding named Mr. Big came into her life more than 10 years ago. Unbeknownst to Steinberg, the off-the-track Thoroughbred would eventually carry her to a U.S. Eventing Association Adult Amateur Rider of the Year title in 2005. And now, she’s preparing for their first four-star event.

Steinberg, West Grove, Pa., keeps a small barn and competes only a few horses, all of which are second-career Thoroughbreds.

Her first advanced-level star was Paddington, a talented chestnut gelding who, in 1997, was the only horse in the field of 103 entries to finish on his dressage score at the Radnor Hunt Three-Day (Pa.). The Paddington Award for adult amateurs was established at Radnor in his honor, and he is now happily retired at Steinberg’s farm in Pennsylvania.

Mr. Big has taken over where Paddington left off. At barely 15 hands, the dark bay grandson of Bold Ruler and Gallant Man has become a crowd favorite at East Coast events.

“I know he’s my horse and everybody thinks their horse is just amazing,” remarked Steinberg, 45. “But since many, many people have come up to talk to me about him, I’m now convinced that he is truly amazing.”

In fact, the gelding’s team even had a limited number of “Mr. Big Fan Club” buttons made. Steinberg said that wherever she goes, she always has people asking for more pins. “I think they’re going for a lot of money on eBay now!” she joked.

Steinberg’s long-time friend John Buswell, a classic British horseman, found Mr. Big in less-than-savory conditions near the Charlestown Racetrack (W.Va.). The 4-year-old gelding had won three races out of 15, and had been passed from trainer to trainer, finally ending up in what Steinberg described as “a swamp behind this lady’s trailer, literally knee-deep in mud.” But Buswell saw something special in him and insisted Steinberg find a way to purchase him.

“I said, ‘John, I have no money, I already have two horses, my husband’s going to kill me. I’m not supposed to get another horse,’ ” she recalled. “He was wild, absolutely wild. And [John’s] like, ‘I’m telling you, you have to buy this horse’. “

So she borrowed $2,500 from her sister, bought the horse and toted him home, only to be met with laughter from her friends. “He was like a tiny rat,” she said.

Afraid to tell her spouse that she’d purchased yet another mount, she hid the gelding in a friend’s field for a year, and the pair gradually forged a bond. “This horse was a natural at everything,” said Steinberg. “He was the bravest horse, no matter what you’d point him at. He jumped like he’d been jumping all his life.”


Onward And Upward
After a year of countryside romps and clandestine jump schools in the pasture, Mr. Big (Touch Of Pleasure–Maggotty) made his eventing debut and never looked back, winning his first preliminary event at age 6, placing 10th in his first one-star, and completing the Blenheim CCI*** (England) in 2003. Now 16, Mr. Big has been showing at the advanced level for six years, and Steinberg hopes to compete at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** this April.

Last year’s Rolex bid was unexpectedly terminated due to a trailering accident on the way home from Red Hills (Fla.) in March. Mr. Big flipped in the trailer, sustaining moderate injuries that prevented him from competing in the four-star, but he went on to place 10th at the Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.) in the fall.

“My goal is to make sure that she and her horse get [to Rolex] very confident, just to make sure that he’s fit and confident going into it,” said Steinberg’s trainer, Phillip Dutton. “You see her at her best in competition.

“There’s a real understanding and chemistry between the two,” he continued. “He’s a real gutsy little horse. He has no idea that he’s not real big. I’m not sure that he would have gone as far with any other rider.”

Although the gelding is a fantastic jumper, Steinberg said his size and gait are always a challenge in the dressage. “He doesn’t have one of those big, huge, ground-sweeping trots. He’s small,” she admitted. “I’m always working on it, but I know that he’s not going to have a trot like a warmblood horse. That said, he has a lot of qualities that a warmblood horse doesn’t have that I adore.”

Speed and courage are just a few of said qualities. The 10th-placed finish at Fair Hill came after the pair initially sat in 49th after dressage but posted a clean and fast cross-country round. He also jumped his way into the ribbons in the 2005 Jersey Fresh CCI*** (N.J.) and the 2006 American Eventing Championships (N.C.).

“He is a pretty phenomenal horse,” said Steinberg, who feels her partnership with the horse “has brought my life to a whole other level. It’s almost a spiritual level.”


Life’s Lessons
Steinberg grew up riding in the forests of Massachusetts and competed in lower-level horse trials. After high school she studied for a degree in the humanities at Shimer College in Illinois, where she was encouraged by a professor to pursue further education in Germany. Despite having no ties in the country, she moved to Berlin and lived there for six years in the early 1980s. During her stay, Steinberg often passed through Checkpoint Charlie and ventured into East Germany. “You could go to the theater and dinner in East Germany for a fraction of the cost,” she recalled.

Leaving her riding behind, Steinberg joined a theater troupe while living in Europe, and played in Germany, Boston and New York. “I then fancied myself an actress,” Steinberg said with a laugh.

She met her husband David in the New York restaurant where she worked as a waitress, and she credited him with her return to the saddle after a 13-year hiatus.

“I had no idea it was going to take on the life that is has or the expense that it has!” he said of his initial suggestion that his wife take up riding again. He found Julia a horse in the Chronicle, and she soon began splitting her time between Middleburg, Va., and New York, where David works in real estate. As her love of riding blossomed anew, the Steinbergs began looking for a farm of their own, eventually finding their ideal homestead in Pennsylvania.

They live just down the road from Dutton, whom Julia rides with about once a week, as well as friend and 2006 leading steeplechase trainer of the year, Sanna Hendriks. Julia travels to Aiken, S.C., each spring to train with Dutton, but during her months at home, she devotes several mornings a week to galloping race horses for Hendriks, along with friend Jody Petty, a top steeplechase jockey.

“What makes Julia so great is that she’s such a happy person,” Petty said. “She’s very outgoing and always wants to do things. She’s gotten me to do things that I never would have done,” he noted, referring to everything from competing in eventing to seeing independent films in Philadelphia.

Dutton echoed that sentiment. “She’s obviously a student, but most importantly she’s become a good friend to [my wife] Evie and me,” he said. “She’s committed to her riding, but she’s really a great friend.”


Help From All Sides
Julia said her special love of Thoroughbreds was fostered by Buswell, who passed away from lung cancer, but taught her volumes about horses. “[His death] was very traumatic to me, and now five years later I’ve taken on his mission,” said Julia, who enjoys the thrill of hunting for and re-training prospective eventers.

Many of Julia’s best mounts were proclaimed pasture ornaments before she acquired them. When N.Y., N.Y., another horse bought off the Charlestown track, broke a knee, Julia nursed him back to health and watched him compete at the intermediate level with Petty. A full year out to pasture brought Henares, a former steeplechaser given to Julia by Hendriks, back from serious tendon injuries, and careful handling and communication has given the sensitive Acrostic a more stable mental state after a traumatic ‘chasing career.

Julia credits her veterinarians, farriers, dentists, acupuncturists, massage therapists and animal communicators for keeping her horses happy and healthy. “I think what I’ve learned to do is work all these different angles to keep the horse healthy to prevent any injury,” she said. “I do really think that at the upper levels of our sport, there’s just really no other way to do it.”

Indeed, Julia’s well-rounded care regimen seems to be the secret to her horses’ long careers. “People go through so many horses in eventing, and she’s had Mr. Big going advanced for six or seven years. How often does that happen?” Petty remarked.

“Her strength is that she’s always with the horse,” said Dutton. “I mean she never really pulls back too much, and sometimes that is something we work on. But her main strength is her horsemanship and understanding a horse.”

With Julia’s favorite mount getting up in the years, she continues to bring along a few youngsters with the help of Hendriks and Petty. And although he often can’t bear to watch his wife ride cross-country, David hopes that an even better horse will come along. He said he often jokingly reminds her, “On the horse you’re riding, even Robert Dover wouldn’t get a good dressage score.”

In earnest, David noted, “I’m really proud of what she’s done. She works very, very hard, and I’ve been always hoping that one of these days that special horse would come around that would do all three phases for her. I just want her to be happy. If she’s happy, I’m happy.”

“She’s not a rider that’s just going to get along with every horse,” Dutton remarked. “[But] when she finds the right match for her, that dedication and love and effort and hard work shows up in a trust between her and the horse.”

Julia noted that she is incredibly lucky to have family and friends who support her emotionally and financially. One of only a handful of advanced amateur riders in the country, she has never felt her abilities were strong enough to become a professional. “I never really considered myself a professional,” she said, adding, “I believe if I complete a four-star successfully I might start to think of myself as not an amateur.”

Under the tutelage of Dutton, it’s easy to understand Julia’s comfort in her role as an amateur. “He has a vision,” she said of her trainer. “He’s very matter-of-fact and straightforward. He never laughs at you–he sits down with you, and it makes you feel great and you think, ‘OK, I can do it!’ It seems like he’s a real man’s man, but he’s like a mother.”

Julia has also worked closely over the years with Jimmy Wofford, Stephen Bradley, Paul Belasik and a host of other household names. But she also said her life’s hidden helpers have been just as important. “I feel like a lot of times with horses you have these people behind the scenes that nobody’s heard much of, but they are every bit as important or brilliant as the people you have heard about,” she said.

And in the end, Julia thanks her equine partners for giving her a perspective she could not have gained anywhere else. She said horse ownership constantly challenges her to be more and more physically motivated, emotionally selfless and mentally educated. “The horses opened my life up and made me pay attention to things I never would have thought about,” she said.

Kat Netzler