Trainer Tom Wright took a bit of a chance putting together a unique horse, a 14-year-old junior rider, and a 19-year-old young professional rider. Little did he know, he was making show hunter history.

In 2000, Wright was on the lookout for a special horse for Clara Lindner (now Belden), his junior client who was then just 14. There was a striking bay mare that caught his eye with her athletic style and talent. She had a remarkable jump but was rough around the edges.

Wright had been watching Strapless for a while, ever since Lynn Little imported the warmblood of unrecorded breeding in early 1999 as a 6-year-old. “I just remember thinking that she had a little way to go before she was the kind of horse that I would be interested in. I liked her a lot, but she just wasn’t really ready for what the Lindners were looking for,” Wright said.

He kept watching her after Nancy Benzel bought Strapless and Lyman “T” Whitehead began showing her in the green conformation and second year green divisions under the guidance of trainer Bill Cooney in 2000. “She still looked a little difficult, but T was doing a great job on her. And of course, Bill was a wonderful horseman and had done a lot of homework with her,” Wright said.

By August 2000, Wright decided to trust his gut, take that chance, and finally put Strapless and Lindner together.

“I told [Craig Lindner, Clara’s father], ‘Strapless is a little bit of a handful, but I think Clara is capable of it,’ and so we went ahead and bought her,” said Wright. “Clara was very quietly determined and also incredibly talented. She had a very free, loose style. It complemented Strapless tremendously, because she needed to be able to be comfortable to ride with pace.”

And so, with that decision, Wright set in motion a process that would see Strapless become a horse of a lifetime for not just Clara but also for professional rider Emily Williams.

“She was super tricky, but Tom could see the potential that was underneath, and he believed in me so much, and it bonded us so tightly. Strapless really taught me how to be bold and brilliant and brave and go for it,” Clara said. “After she passed away, as I reflected on what I learned with from her, I realized that that lesson has served me so well in my life, in so many areas, not just riding. She was truly the horse of a lifetime.”

Strapless became the star of the hunter ring in the early 2000s, scoring championships at top shows up and down the East Coast in both the regular working division with Williams and the junior, then amateur, divisions with Clara. She also won what was then named the AHJF Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular (now the USHJA/WCHR Peter Wetherill Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular) four consecutive times—three with Williams and the last with Clara in 2004.

“She did so much for both Clara and me,” said Williams. “She was almost supernatural; if we gave 100 percent, she gave 110 percent every time. She didn’t know what she couldn’t do. Honestly, there was nothing she couldn’t do. The more the odds were against her, and the more challenging the class, the more she would rise to the occasion.”

The Dream Team

But it took a little bit of time for Strapless’ team to figure her out. Williams joined the Lindners’ All Seasons Farm as a rider in early 2001 and started showing Strapless in the regular working hunter division in Florida, while Clara took the reins for the small junior hunter, 15 and under, division.

“Emily was only 19, and we started slow with Strapless,” Wright said. “Things didn’t go great the first few weeks, but we just kept making positive steps forward. Clara also had some ups and downs with her, but we just pressed forward.”

As the 2001 Winter Equestrian Festival (Florida) went on, Strapless kept walking back to the barn adorned in blue ribbons. Then she and Williams really grabbed the headlines by topping the AHJF Palm Beach Hunter Spectacular.

“I remember Tom said, ‘If you trot out there, and she freaks out, just come out of the ring.’ That was our strategy, just to see what she did, because we really didn’t know how she’d react to that atmosphere and the lights,” said Williams. “But she trotted out there, and she pricked her ears and was like, ‘You guys all think I’m not gonna jump around this? Well, watch this.’ And that’s how she was.”

By the spring, they’d figured Strapless out, and the blue ribbons and tricolors just kept collecting in the tack room, from both divisions. At Devon (Pennsylvania), Williams and Strapless stormed to the regular working and grand hunter championships. Both riders picked up tricolors with her at shows like the Hampton Classic (New York), Pennsylvania National, and Washington International (D.C.).

“Honestly, there was nothing she couldn’t do. The more the odds were against her, and the more challenging the class, the more she would rise to the occasion.”

Emily Williams

“I don’t think that most young people at 14 turning 15 would have been able to handle that kind of challenge. But Clara was up for it,” Wright said. “Clara wasn’t as experienced as Emily, but their rides were very similar, and Strapless was very comfortable with both of the rides. Emily was like a big sister to Clara, and they really had a wonderful relationship. Emily always helped Clara with Strapless and was always there when Clara showed.”

Strapless was known for her explosive bascule over the jump, with a powerful takeoff and a dramatic hind end.

“It wasn’t hard to stay with, necessarily, but I literally had a scab on underneath my chin at all times,” Williams said. “She would come up so high through her wither that her braids would scrape my chin.”

That jump, coupled with Strapless’ preference for carrying a lot of pace around the course, left no room for her riders to be indecisive. Strapless could study the jumps a bit, so Williams and Clara needed to be very positive on the approach.

“Her boldness was so fun. She really loved to gallop,” Clara said. “I love horses that will let you push them. You would push her up to the base of the jump, and she would just fire off the ground. It was this explosiveness that I had never experienced before, and it was due to her athleticism. I wasn’t intimidated by her power—though maybe I should have been! I was young, and it just felt like fun.”

Trot jumps, however, weren’t much fun with Strapless. Ubiquitous in handy courses, the trot jump was Strapless’ Achilles heel.

“With Strapless, they were terrifying. I’d rather jump a 5′ oxer with her, because you had to have so much momentum. The second that momentum was broken, you could be in trouble,” said Clara. “Emily and I would either win, or we would fall off at the trot jump. There was no in between. That measly little trot jump was our nemesis, and I fell off at more tiny little trot jumps than I ever had at anything else in my life, I think.”

What Set Her Apart

Wright was thrilled to watch Clara and Williams form such formidable partnerships with Strapless. He was also excited to see the bay mare fulfill the promise he’d seen in her.

“She was incredibly beautiful and was really a good mover. She had an exceptional trot,” Wright said. “She exploded over the jump, but in doing so, she’d land shallow and have a little bit of a short, choppy stride instead of a big, relaxed stride. Gradually, as the spook disappeared, that super high jump became a medium high jump, which was still higher than most horses, and that also gave us the necessary length of stride that we really needed to be competitive. So gradually, just her finding her way is what made her successful. Her presence and her movement, and that explosive jump, always set her apart.”

While Clara and Williams were in the spotlight with Strapless, they both acknowledge that Wright’s guidance was essential.

“Tom is a master at bringing out the best in horses,” Williams said. “I just don’t think that every person would have seen in her what Tom saw in her. She was definitely different. But he knew that we were like the dream team, that it was just a matter of us all believing in each other. She definitely was a horse that you weren’t going to tell her what to do. You always had to let it be her idea. Tom was able to teach Clara and I how to do that.”

After Clara’s win in the Hunter Spectacular in 2004, Strapless showed a bit more, but her career was winding down. Wright and the Lindners decided to retire her and breed her. Strapless had two foals—one by Sir Caletto and one by Vegas—but neither matched her brilliance.

Strapless’ Support System

One of the most important people on Strapless’ team wasn’t one who got to take center stage when she won, but groom Emilie Hamilton was essential to the mare’s success. Hamilton took care of Strapless all the years she showed, and into her retirement. Hamilton died in 2015.

“Emilie was dedicated to Strapless like nothing I’ve ever seen before, and I truly believe that our success wouldn’t have happened without Emilie,” said Clara. “Strapless was really quirky, and Emilie knew how to how to make her feel comfortable and keep her healthy and happy. She was Strapless’ favorite person.”

Tom Wright recalled that in Strapless’ early days of showing, Hamilton would feed her breakfast while handwalking her in the show ring to familiarize her with the jumps and minimize her spook. “She had her routine in the morning to get her in the ring. She’d put Strapless’ grain on top of the jump and have her eat off the jumps. She also was so patient putting in a lot of slow flatwork on her.”

Hamilton wasn’t Strapless’ only favorite; the mare also adored the Lindner family’s star large pony, Dreamboat. “She was her emotional support pony,” Wright said. “We used to bring Dreamboat to the ring when Strapless would be nervous, and it made a difference. When Strapless retired, Dreamboat retired at the same time, and they were turned out together.”

Wright remembered that in retirement, one day Dreamboat was brought into the barn without Strapless.

“Strapless just trotted up to the fence, popped over it, and kind of ice skated down the paved driveway to the barn,” he said. “And there she was at the barn, like she was saying, ‘You forgot me!’ They were best friends.”

A Rock Star To The End

In retirement at Kyalami Farm in Franklin, Tennessee, Strapless kept her status as queen. She wasn’t a fan of being turned out behind fences, so she was allowed to roam the farm freely until she died in November 2024 at the age of 31.

“When I would go to visit her, she still remembered me,” said Clara, who lives in Nashville with her husband, Wesley Belden, and two children, who are 5 and 9. If Clara was wearing a hat, Strapless would grab it, pull it off, and spin it around in her mouth just like she did when she was competing.

“My children got to meet her, which meant so much to me. She was a rock star until the very end,” said Clara.

Clara no longer rides, but she feels the reverberations of Strapless’ influence in her life still. She founded and runs a mental health company called The Happy Hour in Nashville.

“We do therapy, like psychotherapy and life coaching and sound healing. A lot of the lessons that I learned through the horses and through Strapless are ones that I now try to implement with my clients, which is fun,” she said.

Clara, Williams and Wright all treasure the time they had with Strapless. 

“What a dream it all was,” Wright said. “A great horse creates so much camaraderie within the barn. It kind of takes you to another place when you’ve got a horse that’s that famous. =The kind of energy that it creates within the barn is so positive and so exciting. It really is something that you cannot duplicate. And she gave that to us in spades.”

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This article originally appeared in the June 2025 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse. You can subscribe and get online access to a digital version and then enjoy a year of The Chronicle of the Horse. If you’re just following COTH online, you’re missing so much great unique content. Each print issue of the Chronicle is full of in-depth competition news, fascinating features, probing looks at issues within the sports of hunter/jumper, eventing and dressage, and stunning photography.