Fourteen years before Liza Towell Boyd rode Ondine D’Orleans into the Rolex Stadium at the Kentucky Horse Park to accept their red ribbon from the classic round of this year’s Platinum Performance/USHJA International Hunter Derby Championship, another chestnut was in that same arena collecting major accolades. And in a way, that horse’s win directly led to “Ondine’s” top finish.

Monique Keitz got the idea to try her hand at breeding while attending the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky. After watching Belgian rider Philippe Le Jeune and Vigo D’Arsouilles (Nabab De Reve—Illico D’Arsouilles, Fleuri Du Manoir) win the gold medal in show jumping and seeing how well the chestnut stallion behaved during the medal ceremonies, Keitz knew she wanted to breed a mare to him. She didn’t have a specific broodmare in mind, so she tabled the idea.

When Keitz met trainer Casey Anzalone in 2012, she shared her idea. Anzalone helped her find a good broodmare in Coco Chanel Z (Carthago—Kajottie, Farmer), who competed through the 1.50-meter level during her career. Keitz’s vision of a baby Vigo D’Arsouilles finally came to fruition on April 16, 2014, when “Ondine” was born, and since then Anzalone has been a daily part of the mare’s life. Ondine was Keitz’s first homebred foal, and she was also the first Vigo D’Arsouilles foal born in the U.S.

“ ‘Vigo’ certainly did not pass his gentle demeanor onto his chestnut daughter,” Anzalone said with a laugh. “Ondine was literally born a chestnut mare—at first, she didn’t like to be touched at all. She’s not evil or dangerous in any way, but she lets you know exactly how she feels about something and what mood she’s in. When she was a baby, Ondine would hide behind her mom instead of coming up to greet you. But then she would have sweet moments, like sometimes she would lay in my lap in her stall. I always say that it’s Ondine’s world and we just live in it.”

Ondine’s antics constantly kept everyone on their toes. When Anzalone and Keitz weaned baby Ondine from her mother, she kept jumping out of her stall to get back to her dam. Anzalone had to put the filly with another young horse in the same in-and-out stall to keep her from escaping.

At one point, a young Ondine had even trained Anzalone’s groom to do things her way.

“There was one day my groom was making feed, and I found him cutting up carrots,” said Anzalone, Wellington, Florida. “And I was like, ‘What are you doing?’ And he said, ‘Ondine won’t eat unless I cut up carrots for her feed.’ And I was like, ‘What?’ Originally when Ondine was younger, we were thinking we would sell her as a 3- or 4-year-old. So I told him, ‘No, she’s going to go somewhere else and stop eating because they’re not cutting up carrots for her.’ She had him trained.”

Getting Her Start

When it came time to break Ondine to ride, Anzalone was the first person to put Ondine on the end of a longe line with a working student on her back. Although Ondine was bred with the jumper ring in mind, her showing career began in the hunter ring. In January 2019, Ondine showed for the first time in the 3- and 4-year-old pre-green hunters during the first week of the Winter Equestrian Festival (Florida) and ended up reserve champion with rider Katie Brown . The mare didn’t show again until after the COVID-19 quarantine when Anzalone and Keitz decided to try her over striped rails.

“She was a bit more mature by that point,” Anzalone said. “Ondine didn’t do anything wrong—she jumped around fine, but you could tell she just didn’t like the jumper job. So we took her back to the hunter ring.

“I have pictures of her as a teeny, tiny baby jumping her first jumps and she was always perfect,” Anzalone added. “As far as being on her back, Ondine is amazing to ride. The mare is just so naturally talented on her own, and she has never, ever looked at a jump. She’s got a really good brain under saddle.”

In June 2021, Anzalone put amateur Ella Bostwick on Ondine, and she showed the mare in the adult amateur hunter division and the USHJA National Hunter Derby ring. They had such a great partnership together that Anzalone kept Bostwick as Ondine’s main rider for almost three years.

“I used to call Ella my ‘secret weapon’ because she and Ondine got along so well,” Anzalone said. “As Ondine got older, we realized the caliber of the horse we had, and we decided to keep her and enjoy her.”

That is, until Boyd spotted her showing at the WEF. The mare immediately reminded her of Brunello, her partner for three consecutive USHJA International Hunter Derby Championship wins, who retired in 2015. Boyd was intrigued by Ondine and wanted to try the mare for herself, but convincing Anzalone was harder than Boyd anticipated.

“At that point, we really weren’t looking to sell her,” Anzalone said, “but Liza stalked me for about a week, calling me, texting me, finding me at the show; she really wanted Ondine. Liza said to me, ‘I know she’s not everyone’s ride, but I would really like to get on and try her for myself.’ And I was like, ‘Eh, she’s not really for sale but I will think about it.’ ”

By the following week, Anzalone finally let Boyd try the Belgian Warmblood mare. Neill Sites and Finally Farm bought her for Boyd to ride shortly thereafter. Boyd and Ondine were champion in the 3’6” green hunter division during their first time showing together.

A Particular Charge

When Boyd took over the ride on Ondine, Anzalone warned her that the mare was weird about certain things, especially in her stall.

“Ondine likes a certain feng shei in her stall, and I told Liza that at the beginning,” Anzalone said. “And she laughed at first, so my response was, ‘No, you’ll see!’ And then a few days later, Liza called me to tell me I was right—Ondine’s haynet has to be here, her water buckets have to be there, and everything else has to be in a specific spot. I swear that I’m not like this with all of my horses; Ondine is just that special.”

After returning home to Camden, South Carolina, from WEF, Boyd had to enlist Brunello’s help when Boyd couldn’t find a stall that Ondine liked.

“At first, Ondine was in a different barn and she was being really bad—she was kicking the walls and all of that,” Boyd said. “So we moved Ondine over to our other barn and there she met ‘Ike.’ I think Ike really put her in her place. He will bulldoze the horses beside him, so we put Ondine across the aisle from him. Ike really helped shape her up; he is weird about his stall too, so apparently I’m attracted to horses who are weird in their stalls!”

Minus one trip up north for a hurricane evacuation, Ondine had spent her entire life in South Florida up to that point and was extremely comfortable showing at the Wellington International show grounds and the South Florida show circuit. But when the Finally Farm team started their summer horse show schedule on the road in May, Boyd realized the 10-year old mare didn’t have a lot of experience traveling around from show to show.

“Ondine is so brave and scopey under saddle, but she’s a little green still,” Boyd said. “And I call her ‘green’ more in the sense of she was not used to traveling and changing venues all the time. Most horses by the time they’re 10 years old have shipped around up and down the East Coast and are well-traveled. It definitely took her a minute to settle into that way of life.”

Whenever Boyd has a question about how to manage Ondine, she immediately calls Anzalone for help.

“I’m not embarrassed by that at all,” Boyd said. “She had that mare for 10 years, and she knows Ondine inside and out. I appreciate Casey’s suggestions and advice.”

Although some riders would be intimidated by Ondine’s pickiness on the ground, Boyd doesn’t let it bother her anymore. Over the past seven months, her barn manager Randi Button and assistant trainer Olivia Murray have developed quite a rapport with Ondine and have learned how to properly manage her.

“We’ve all learned that Ondine likes things a certain way,” Boyd said. “We try to find a common ground to meet in the middle and make both sides happy. The way she’s fiery in the stall and on the ground, that’s why she’s so good in the ring. I don’t want to take that away from Ondine because the good ones are always quirky, and that quirkiness is what makes them so good.”

Coming To Fruition

Prior to competing at this year’s championship, Ondine had only shown in two derbies. In an effort to improve the mare’s rideability, Boyd enlisted help from Andrew Lustig on the flat.

“At Blowing Rock [North Carolina], he started riding Ondine and giving me flat lessons on her, and he gives me homework to work on,” said Boyd. “Andrew even makes me ride her without stirrups! That has done wonders; that work has really helped Ondine in the handy rounds.”

All the extra work paid off when Ondine was second in the first round of the championship with scores of 93, 93.5 and 94. Anzalone considered going to watch but in the end stayed home.

“I had bought a ticket to fly there [for the first round] but then I was like, ‘I don’t need to be a stalker,’ so I didn’t go,” Anzalone said. “I try to be conscious of the fact that Ondine is not my horse anymore, and I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes. So I watched the first round on the livestream instead. But then when Ondine was second [in the first round], I was like, ‘OK, I gotta go buy a ticket to make it for the second round.’ So I bought an early plane ticket and drove an hour and a half from the airport to make it for the second round of derby finals.”

While Ondine ticked a rail out of the cups at the final fence of the second round to finish 22nd overall, Boyd was still thrilled with her performance.

“Ultimately, the mare exceeded all of our expectations [at derby finals],” Boyd said. “All the raw talent is there, and she’s come leaps and bounds in a short time. Ondine proved to me that she can do this, and she stepped up when I asked her to. The feeling she gives you over the jumps is incredible—you feel so confident and brave.”

During the 2010 WEG, when Keitz first got the idea to breed, Boyd was at the Kentucky Horse Park too, riding Brunello in hunter derby demonstrations that accompanied the championship.   

“Ondine has kept me on my toes a bit. Brunello won a lot for me, but he was so easy to ride,” Boyd said. “Ondine is a little more complicated than he was, and she’s making me a better horsewoman because of that. We can always get better, be better, do better for our horses. Never be afraid to ask for help.”