Debbie Rosen’s intermediate win at the Galway Downs Horse Trials, Feb. 13-14, was something of a group effort–starting with the event crew, who went to great extremes to transform the flooded grounds in Temecula, Calif., into a suitable event site.

Organizer Robert Kellerhouse rescheduled the event, originally slated for Feb. 12-13, after the heavy rains that have plagued Southern California this winter continued to fall on Saturday. “I never thought we were going to ride,” said Rosen. “I still can’t figure out for the life of me how they pulled it off.”

Management turned the large parking lot into a show jumping arena and warm-up area and made space for dressage, using tractors and bulldozers to rework the footing. “They really manufactured completely alternative places to ride from nothing, and the footing was great,” said Rosen, 44, of Calabasas, Calif.

But it was the advice of several friends and professionals that made the weekend come together for Rosen with Quinto 10, a horse who has been a huge challenge for her.

“He’s the first horse I’ve ever gotten who already had experience at the upper levels and the first horse who was purchased for me, and I couldn’t ride him at all when he got here,” said Rosen. “I had almost given up on him.”

The German-bred Bayern horse had only been ridden by a man, and Rosen had to learn a new method of communicating with him. “All my good friends offered suggestions, and I took everyone’s 10 cents,” she said.

Over the past year and a half, David Blake helped Rosen with dressage, a jumper friend gave her a new bit to try, fellow eventer Gina Economou helped her adjust her ride, and Jennifer Taxay let her school weekly over her cross-country course. “And my trainer, Brian Sabo, humored all of us and oversaw it,” said Rosen. “It was finding a new language–we both compromised a bit. It was great to have friends pitch in.”

Since Quinto, a 12-year-old owned by Mary Rose and Charlie Caspary, is a fast and strong horse, cross-country was especially difficult for Rosen. “As rude as my other guy [Gringosch] is, this one is incredibly opinionated,” she said. “If I couldn’t keep him off a fence–he’d run right down. It was scary.”
Gringosch, Rosen’s mount at last year’s Rolex Kentucky CCI****, has been retired due to an injury he incurred at home. “But, in a way, that’s forced me to concentrate more on this horse,” she said.

At Galway, Rosen and Quinto won the dressage and never looked back.

“He is an amazing mover, absolutely breathtaking,” she said. “He stops traffic. But it’s been a long road getting him to play the game. He’s pretty arrogant, and pretty much what you want to do with him, he doesn’t want to do. If you ask for the counter-canter and he doesn’t feel like it, he’ll do tempi changes across the ring. He can run away with you at the extended trot, which can be really humorous. He’s kind of a funny guy.”

Rosen didn’t think she’d warmed up enough for show jumping and lowered two rails as a result, but she had room for two more rails had she needed them.

Reaping Rewards

Two of Rosen’s students also took blue ribbons home from Galway. One was Alexandra Caspary, whose father owns Quinto.

Fortunately for Alexandra, her school’s administrative staff is generally understanding of her equestrian-related absences. So when the Galway Downs event had to be postponed from Saturday and Sunday to Sunday and Monday, she didn’t have to hurry home to Hidden Hills, Calif.

Although many competitors scratched during the downpours on Saturday, Alex-andra’s willingness to stick it out was rewarded with her first preliminary win.

“[Organizer] Robert Kellerhouse and his team did a great job of fixing the course,” she said. “They were out there all day, every day, until cross-country ran [on Monday], putting down sand, re-dragging and letting it dry out.”

Kellerhouse said they made use of the rider representatives and got horses out to test the footing in areas where riders had concerns. Alexandra was thrilled that the event could still take place, since she needed it to qualify for the Galway Downs CIC* in April and because it proved that her work over the winter had paid off.

Three years ago, Rosen presented Alexandra with a videotape of Maletto, a German-bred Westphalian, and she bought him without trying him. “I just couldn’t believe it when I first saw him [in quarantine],” she said. “He’s very athletic, and you could just tell. He has this look about him, even when he’s not being ridden.”

Since she’d only competed at the novice level when she bought him, it took some adjustments to get used to the horse, who’d competed at the preliminary level in Germany. “He’s very sophisticated,” said Alexandra. “He only responds to aids when they’re correctly given.”

The pair started their partnership at novice, then won their first outing at training level. But when they started at preliminary last year, “It was an issue of miscommunication, and I didn’t have enough confidence,” said Alexandra. “We’ve been working all winter, and something seems to have clicked.”

After earning fifth place in dressage, they moved up to third with a clear show jumping round. She found the course, which was held in a smaller ring than usual, to be technically difficult. Alexandra, who’d finished second at a Galway event last year, also had no worries about the cross-country course. But as the only rider in her division to make the time, she moved up to the top spot with more than a 10-point margin over second-placed Kristen Enedy on Beaujolais Neouveau.

This summer she hopes to make the Area VI one-star team for the North American Young Riders Championships.

Complete Turn Around

Amber Shevin, who won Galway’s training rider division on Black Jack Justice, had only hoped to complete the event–she’s been eliminated at each of her four previous training events with “Jax.”

“He had a bit of a stopping problem cross-country, and we’ve given him a bit of an attitude adjustment, basically closing down his opportunities to stop and making him realize it’s easier to do his job,” said Shevin, 17, of Calabasas, Calif.

But over the nine months that she’s owned the 12-year-old, Canadian Thoroughbred, Shevin has had her doubts. “It definitely crossed my mind,” she said. “I’ve questioned what I’m doing and where we’re going. But I’ve gotten lots of support from Debbie and my family, and it worked out.”

Since the pair had won a novice event at Galway last year, Shevin felt pretty confident about the course there. Now, after leading from start to finish, she has reason to hope she might someday be able to move him up, her goal when she purchased him. “We’ve jumped preliminary height, so I know he’s capable, but we’ll see if he can answer the questions,” she said.

Shevin, who has applied to 15 colleges, appreciates what she’s learned from Jax. “It was very frustrating and very hard, and it took a lot of support and encouragement from my barn and trainer to keep going,” she said. “But I’ve learned determination and sticking with it–to keep going and everything will work out. It felt so great to win.”

Rosen couldn’t have been more proud of her students. “Nobody walks this road without bumps and grinds, and all the girls overcame challenges to be successful in a less-than-perfect situation,” said Rosen. “Riding is a metaphor for life, and we work on things with our horses that help these ladies mature into amazing women.”

She’s Found Her Match

Eventers frequently head to New Zealand, Australia, England or Ireland in search of the perfect mount, but Debbie Rosen prefers her German connection. She first met agent Elly Schobel of Germany when she purchased Gringosch, who would become her 2004 Rolex Kentucky CCI**** mount.

“[Gringosch’s] tape found me, and I kind of lucked into this whole thing,” she said.

At the time, Germans were still trading in the deutschmark, and Rosen said she could get twice the horse for half the price she would pay at home. “And I fell in love with these horses’ minds,” she added. “They are so bold and brave and nonchalant about things that U.S. horses can be goofy about.”

Both her intermediate winner at Galway, Quinto 10, and her student’s preliminary winner, Maletto V, were bought via Schobel. “And it ended up being a business decision, for kids who don’t have $30,000 to spend for a novice horse. We thought we could get better horses for the money we had,” she said.

Rosen went to Germany and rode the first load of horses that were brought over, but since then she and her students have purchased them from videotapes.