Wonderful Walden may be 20 years old, but he still loves to show. He proved it with a Grand Prix CDI win at the Holiday And Horses show in Wellington, Fla., Dec. 4-7.

The Hanoverian gelding first made headlines with Betsy Rebar Sell in 1999 when the pair competed for the United States as part of the gold-medal team at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg. “Walden” finished just out of the medals in fourth place in his first international team outing and moved up to Grand Prix soon after the Games.

“He’s been doing the Grand Prix for a long time,” said Sell. “The biggest thing for me is that he’s been able to keep going for so long. He loves to show. I entered the show thinking he’s getting kind of older, but he loves it so much.”

Walden has continued showing at the top levels over the years—he and Sell competed in the Collecting Gaits Farm/U.S. Equestrian Federation Grand Prix Championship in 2007 and have contested Dressage At Devon (Pa.) numerous times.

“He’s very curious and full of life. That’s why I keep bringing him out,” said Sell. “It was really gratifying to me that he still wants to do his job.”

Sell has looked for a successor to Walden, but no horse can quite fill his shoes. “I’ve bought several horses trying to find another one with not much success,” she said. “The last one I bought got EPM, and I left him at home this year. We just finished treating it, and it wasn’t good timing for him to go to Florida.”

Sell, 49, splits her time between her Akron, Ohio, farm and Wellington. “I do a little bit of teaching in Wellington. I have a few students and stay low-key,” she explained. “My children are young adults now, and I’m just concentrating on looking for that next horse. Walden keeps me getting into the ring at CDIs.”

She also is a part owner of dressage boutique Sho Clothes with Michelle Hundt. “That’s fun because I get to try out all the things we have to offer people,” said Sell. “Our merchandise is tried and true. I’m using it! That adds another dimension to my horse life while I’m in Wellington.”

Sell said her routine with Walden consists of lots of trail riding and work on the basics. “I don’t drill him a lot. I keep him long in the neck and try to get him coming more from behind,” she said. “Some schoolmasters get to a point where they aren’t going to change that much. Walden is amazing in that he’ll still allow me to say, ‘Let’s try it this way.’ He’s the most incredible, willing partner.”

Sell first started riding Walden (Wittelsbach—Seerose) when he was 6. Carole Grant found him for her.

“I’ve rarely had a bad ride on him,” said Sell. “If I have a bad ride, it’s because something else is going on in my life, and I was in a bad mood in the first place.”

Not only did the pair win the Grand Prix CDI (62.08%) for the Grand Prix Special at Holiday And Horses, but they also placed second in the Special behind Paige Finnegan and Karola 1.

“I went off course in the Special. I just hadn’t done it in a while,” admitted Sell. “It’s a fun test, and I like the
passage to extended trot, but I forgot my test.”

Sell plans to continue showing Walden as long as he’s enjoying himself. “I feel so incredibly blessed and lucky to have such a wonderful horse. He’s a horse of a lifetime, and looking for a new horse is incredibly hard. He’s not the best in the world, but he’s a really good one. He’s not showing signs of wanting to stop.”

Of Power Tools And Piaffe
A little age under his belt was actually a bonus for Walden at Holiday And Horses, as new construction on the show grounds meant the atmosphere was a bit wild for less experienced horses.

Lars Petersen had to contend with some spooky antics from his mount, Succes, who won the Grand Prix for the freestyle and the freestyle in the CDI.

“He spooked in an extended trot in the Grand Prix,” said Petersen. “He was pretty difficult to ride there because they were working. The show ground was a construction zone. In the freestyle, he was a little bit better. He was not quite as tense as the Grand Prix. I had a mistake in my one-tempis on my circle. Otherwise he was pretty good.”

Petersen, 43, has had plenty of impressive results with the Danish Warmblood (Blue Hors Silvermoon—Wapiti), like winning back-to-back Grand Prix freestyles at Dressage At Devon in 2007 and 2008, but he’s always aware that a big blow up is a possibility from the electric gelding.

“It is getting better. He is a very hot horse with these things. If it will totally go away, I don’t know,” admitted Petersen. “He’s 13 years old now. You’d think he would grow up soon. I honestly think that if there weren’t so many workers around him in the Grand Prix he would have been fine, but they were using power drills. It was a little too much for him.”

Petersen, who is Danish, but lives in the United States and runs a barn with Melissa Taylor in Wellington, said he’s
aiming Succes for the FEI World Cup Final in Las Vegas, Nev., in April. He’s done two qualifying CDIs already at Raleigh (N.C.) and Devon.

Although the chaotic atmosphere made things difficult for Succes, Petersen believes the only way Succes will overcome his spookiness is to continue going to shows.

“It’s hard to train it other than going to a horse show,” he said. “He doesn’t really do it at home. But I don’t think the horse has ever been as good as he is now. With the spookiness, you never know. It comes like lightning. It’s a hard thing to train at home, but I’m very happy with him.”

They’re Coming Into Their Own Now
Shelly Francis hasn’t had as much time in the ring as she’d like lately, but she believes this coming season is going to be a big one for her.

Francis swept the small tour classes at Holiday And Horses with Wig Wam and debuted Dominion in his first Intermediaire II.

Ten years ago Francis and Pikant represented the United States at the World Equestrian Games in Rome. She hasn’t been absent in the show ring since, but she’s taken some time to rebuild her string.

“I had another horse coming along, but he had to be put down because he foundered with Cushings,” she said. “Then I rode a student’s horse, Jasper, and took him to the ’04 selection trials. He wasn’t going to make an international horse, but he was a cute Grand Prix horse. Then I got these younger horses, and I had to train them for a while. I’ve been trying to bring them along carefully. I haven’t shown a lot, just a little here and there. This year I’ll show a bit more.”

Francis, 50, picked out Wig Wam as a 4-year-old, while Dominion was originally for Patricia Stempel, who owns both horses. “Then we discovered that he had more engine than we thought, and he might be more of a show horse,” said Francis.

She competed both horses at the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF Intermediaire I Championship in California in June.
Dominion, a 10-year-old Hanoverian (Donnerschwee—Wiebke), will move up to Grand Prix sometime later in the season after doing a few more practice runs in the Intermediaire II.

“I’m looking at bringing him along in the Grand Prix so he could maybe try out for the 2010 WEG,” said Francis. “He’s turning 11 this year. He needed time to develop. The big boys take a little time, and I try not to rush them too much.”

She said she took it easy in their first I2, aiming for a smooth and obedient test. “I felt almost like I had in the ring what I had at home. He was very obedient and felt much more engaged for the forward trots, where he used to get away from me, get low and be a bit strong. I was a little bit dainty with the piaffe-passage, and he was a little flatter with that than he would have been schooling. It wasn’t our full potential by any means.”

Francis also thinks Wig Wam might be a contender for 2010, although she plans to spend the rest of the season in the small tour with the 8-year-old Oldenburg (Wolkentanz II—Vanessa).

“This is his second season doing the small tour,” said Francis. “For sure Wig Wam will be an international caliber horse. I’ll have a little extra time with Dominion. But once Wig Wam comes into it he’ll be ready to roll. His head is just waiting for his body to catch up.”

Francis, Loxahatchee, Fla., was pleased to find that Wig Wam’s rideability had improved since the summer.
“He felt more confirmed and a lot more engaged,” she said. “I did have the feeling with the forward trots that I still need to let him be freer in his neck. In the freestyle ride, he was a little bit nervous. They were running water trucks on either side of where we were warming up. They kept spraying, and he got more and more nervous. I had to fudge it a little bit, but he still managed to win it. He tries hard. He doesn’t try to be disobedient. He’s been trying not to be nervous. He does feel like he’s getting more mature. All around he does everything pretty easily.”

Sara Lieser