Hawley Bennett had never ridden above training level when she first sat on Livingstone, a gangly 4-year-old racetrack reject. Little did she know he would go on to become her 2004 Olympic partner.

“I thought the horse was too big for me, and I wasn’t totally sold on him,” admitted Bennett, of Langley, B.C. “But my mom, Gerry, told me to wait until we put some weight on him. And I was in love with his personality.”

Bennett, now 27, was 16 at the time and winning at training level with her Arabian gelding Ibn. She knew that if she wanted to continue improving her eventing skills, she would have to find a scopier horse.

Her plan was to work for Therese Washtock and help her sell horses so that she might eventually buy a horse of her own. But things didn’t quite work out that way because “Hank” was the first horse of Washtock’s that she rode.

“I just felt like he was such a sweet horse,” explained Bennett. “Even though he was 4, young and green, he tried his heart out.”

But as often is the case with a young rider and a green horse, it took the pair a while to really click.

“I had no idea what I was doing when I got him,” she said with a laugh. “It took me a year before I could even ride his canter. I was used to my Arab, and it was such a different ride.”

So she took her time. She worked with coach Pam Arthur and slowly began teaching Hank the skills he’d need. They spent a year competing at novice level.

“It took him a really long time,” said Bennett. “He was off the racetrack, so going to the right was non-existent. He had a big canter, and even as a 4-year-old he was jumping me out of the tack because he naturally jumped so big.”

A Steady Progression

After their year at novice, the pair moved up to training level. “He won a couple of events, and when I was 18 we moved up to preliminary,” said Bennett. “He did a one-star that year, and that’s when we started to really click.”

Arthur had been Gerry’s coach and Bennett credits her, and their focus on the basics, for making the progression feel easy.

“She stayed at pre-training level a long time, itching to move up,” recalled Arthur. “When you’re successful at the lower levels, nobody wants you to stay there. You’ve got to go and overface your horse. But I had a rule. They placed well with good results, but it wasn’t a matter of winning, it was what the win meant and who you were competing against.”

Arthur has always insisted that her students school a level above the level they were showing. She also focused on getting her students to refine their jumping skills.

“Bennett did all her homework,” said Arthur. “She was very patient. She rode for two years in the amateur-owner jumper division on the A-rated circuit when she was going preliminary. I find it disgraceful that the event riders look so terrible in the show jumping.”

All that patient work paid off because Hank was able to keep moving up the levels with few problems. Even today, Bennett rides him in a rubber snaffle in all three phases.

“We went intermediate and did [the North American Young Riders Championship] in 1998,” said Bennett. “He was the only horse to jump around clean and in the time.”

The pair finished fourth and moved up to advanced in 1999. “I rode him advanced on the West Coast and did quite well, so I thought I knew what I was doing,” she said.

But she was in for a surprise when she headed east to compete. Her plan was to run around the Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.).

But when she arrived, she found that the cross-country was on a much higher scale than what she’d been doing on the West Coast. “I was definitely a little fish in a big pond,” she admitted. “I had my eyes opened up because I was not ready.”

Bennett rode in the dressage but withdrew before cross-country.

“She was young and bouncy and very keen. She was very big-headed at that time,” recalled Arthur, who’d made the trip too. “Really and truly, she wasn’t ready. I think it was overwhelming for her. She was just a year early. She quietly withdrew, took a big gulp and got herself ready.”

Discouraged, But Not Defeated

Bennett moved Hank back down to intermediate when she returned home. Then she had her first major win with him at the Chase Creek CCI**(B.C.) in 2000.

“He was spectacular there and finished on his dressage score,” remembered Bennett.

She headed back east, but this time to spend some time as a working student for Stuart Black, the Canadian team’s most experienced rider. She made her second attempt at a three-star at the MBNA Foxhall Cup (Ga.) and this time she jumped around clean on cross-country, only to withdraw again, this time because Hank’s feet were sore before the final veterinary inspection.

Bennett stayed on the East Coast and was making plans for Fair Hill in the fall when tragedy struck: Hank was kicked and received a hairline fracture on his leg. She had no choice but to stick him in a stall for six months and hope for the best.

Meanwhile, she went to work for Bruce and Buck Davidson in Pennsylvania.

“It was the best thing I’ve ever done,” said Bennett. “I learned so much there. I worked super hard, but to have the opportunities to ride anything from babies in the field to Eagle Lion was remarkable. I got to jump Eagle Lion, and not many people that can say that.”

Bennett also struck up a longstanding friendship with Buck, and he has continued in the role of coach, mentor and friend.

But all that improvement wasn’t going to be useful unless Hank could recover from his injury. “He stood in his stall for six months. He wasn’t allowed out at all,” remembered Bennett. “When I brought him out he was skinny and his coat was gross. I thought he’d never jump again. It was scary. But I did the rehabilitation just like I was supposed to.”

Her hard work and patience were rewarded when she was able to take him to Foxhall again, and this time he finished on a clean show jumping round.

Bennett was back on track and ready to go. She ran Fair Hill in October 2002 and was the top-placed Canadian pair, finishing 14th. And then in 2003 she ran him in the four-star at Rolex Kentucky. “That had been one of my big goals,” said Bennett. “I wasn’t nervous or scared because we’d done everything right.”

That fall they represented Canada at the Pan Am Games, finishing 15th. “I finally got my red coat,” said Bennett. “Hundreds of thousands of dollars and hours later! It was really special to do that, and we won team silver there.”

It Was Worth The Wait

In 2004 Bennett ran Kentucky again and was the top-placed Canadian rider in the short-format CCI (14th). That earned her a berth on the Canadian Olympic team for the Athens Olympics.

“I remember being in grade 2 and saying I wanted to ride in the 2000 Olympics,” recalled Bennett. “That didn’t quite happen, but we did it, and I feel very lucky.”

Bennett, Gerry, and her long-time groom and friend Stacey Thorson made the trip across the ocean together.

Although they finished near the bottom, it didn’t take away from the fact that the pair had gone through thick and thin to reach the sport’s highest level.

Bennett continues to credit her early patience for their achievements. “It wasn’t all peaches and cream,” she admitted. “I remember one cross-country lesson specifically. All I had to do was jump this one fence out of stride and I couldn’t do it.”

She continued, “But he’s the type of horse you can’t get mad at, you just have to be patient. If you keep at him, and he doesn’t understand, that’s when he’s going to freak out or rear. It taught me that instead of being mad and beating the horse up over it, to take a deep breath and think of another way to show them.”

Bennett also had some confidence issues along the way. “She had two years of problems with water,” recalled Arthur. “It was her own fears. But you have to work on that, and it’s a problem when you’ve only got one horse. You can’t go jumping your own horse all the time.”

Arthur encouraged Bennett to start galloping race horses. “She needed to develop a little strength because she’s small,” explained Arthur.

Not only did Bennett gain strength from galloping race horses, but she also earned money that she desperately needed to continue in the sport.

“I’ve been working since I was 15 to do this,” she explained. “I made decisions not go out Friday night because I had to gallop race horses the next morning.”

She’s had numerous other side jobs along the way, including bartending, teaching riding and Pony Club lessons, as well as working at McDonald’s for five years.

Despite her money worries, Bennett never thought about selling Hank. “I was offered a ton of money after I won my two-star on him,” she remembered. “But I couldn’t do it. I’d had him so long, and it would have been like selling my best friend.”

Bennett and Hank have been competing at advanced together for almost seven years. Hank, now 15, is still going strong, and Bennett hopes she will be able to compete for a spot at the World Equestrian Games in 2006.

She’s back on the West Coast, living at Kingsway Farm in Temecula, Calif. She works there for owners Terry and Linda Paine, who’ve been able to provide her with some horses to ride as well. Terry is the master and huntsman of the Santa Fe Hunt.

“Terry and Linda have been like angels in the sky for me,” said Bennett. “They’re so supportive of what I’m doing and have helped me out in so many ways.”

Bennett is definitely on the lookout for her next big-time horse, although she hopes to keep Hank happy and sound for as long as possible.

“Now it would be easier for me to bring a horse along more quickly,” she said. But that doesn’t mean she regrets all the time spent with Hank.

“He could easily have been pushed and gone intermediate at age 6, but I don’t know if he’d be the same horse today,” said Bennett.

And while she’s looking forward to starting some new projects, no one will replace Hank. Together, they’ve started nine CCIs, from the two-star to the four-star level, completing eight and winning one.

“He’s just such an amazing horse,” said Bennett. “They always say you have one in a million, and I think I’ve had mine.”

The “Neigh-sayers”

Not surprisingly, not too many people thought it was a great idea for a 16-year-old girl to event a 4-year-old horse.

“My biggest inspiration was people saying I couldn’t do it,” admitted Hawley Bennett. “I wanted to prove them wrong.”

And the criticism didn’t end when she reached advanced. Bennett had two stops with Livingstone at the Galway Downs (Calif.) World Cup qualifier in 2003 before she headed to the four-star at Rolex Kentucky for the first time.

“Everyone wanted to know if I was still going to go,” recalled Bennett. “They didn’t think I should. What I’ve realized is there are very few people that are going to believe in you and trust you, while there’s a million people saying you can’t do it.”

“It was almost a given that she was going to try to go all the way,” said coach Pam Arthur. “She certainly has the determination and the right spirit. She works really hard at it, and she’s very focused. She enjoys a challenge.”