The Aiken Horse News

Confronting Drugs in Racehorses

2011-12-02T19:54:00.001-05:00

Glenn Thompson, who trains racehorses out of the old Whitney barns in Aiken during the winter, has written a book about drugs in racing. The book is called “The Tradition of Cheating in the Sport of Kings,” and it contends that the vast majority of horses racing today are being illegally medicated by their veterinarians on race day. This epidemic of illegal medication, Thompson says, is contributing to the breakdown of racehorses and threatening the future of the sport.

Some of the medications that Thompson discusses are corticosteroids such as dexamethasone. Others are hormones such as ACTH, which is used to help horses relax. Others are vitamins and chemical compounds such as magnesium sulfate (Epsom Salts) and vitamin B1, which are used in conjunction with Lasix on horses that are bad bleeders.

Some of these substances sound relatively benign (giving vitamin B1 to a racehorse does not sound like such a terrible thing), but what Thompson is coming out against is not so much the compounds themselves, but the way they are being used.

“It is illegal for a vet to give a shot of anything other than Lasix on race day,” he says. “But you see vets going in to give the horse his Lasix, and they have four or five needles in their hands. It happens all the time.”

Another thing that Thompson points out in his book is that the medication rules are different from one state to the next, which can be confusing for trainers and bad for horses.

“In some states you are allowed to give adjunct medications with Lasix, but in other states you aren’t. It would be better if the rules were the same everywhere.”

Glenn’s book, which took him about three weeks to write, was published as an e-book by Smashwords, an electronic book publisher. It is available for download to a computer, iPad or other mobile device for $9.99.

Glenn, who will be back in Aiken to train this winter, says that most of the reaction to the book so far has been positive.

“People have come up to me and shook my hand,” he says. “The only negative reaction that I have gotten was from one of my vets, who quit. He didn’t say anything to me, he just stopped coming to my barn.”

To order a copy of the book, visit www.sportofkingsnovel.com

Equine Divine

2011-12-02T19:53:00.000-05:00

Equine Divine, one of Aiken’s favorite shops for art and décor items with an equestrian theme, is under new management this fall. Dini Jones, the new owner, came to Aiken from Ohio and is looking forward to supplying Aiken’s horse lovers with fine art as well as prints, note cards, books and clothing.

New things that are available at the store include a nice selection of Barbour jackets as well as some very stylish warm vests that can be worn to the barn or around town. Dini is also carrying a line of custom-made boots from La Mondial boots, which are made in Ecuador. You can buy polo boots, field boots, or cowboy boots, all made to order, for the low price of $599. For the gentleman who is not a rider, there are custom-made golf shoes for $299.

“I saw them at a trade show and I loved them,” says Dini.

There is also a new selection of items for children and some cool strings of horse, farm animal and cowboy boot lights that you can put on your Christmas tree. You can check these items out at the store on Laurens Street, or do you shopping online: www.equinedivineonline.com.

Semi-Retirement For Cot

2011-12-01T19:56:00.000-05:00

This November, Cot Campbell, who is the president of Dogwood Stables, announced that he is going into semi retirement. Cot, who is 84, is widely acknowledged as the pioneer of racehorse partnerships. Dogwood Stable, which has been putting together partnerships for the ownership of racehorses since 1971, currently has 90 partners involved in 43 different partnerships.

Although Cot will not be forming any more racing partnerships after January 1, he will continue to manage the existing partnerships, and there may be other ways that Dogwood will stay in the racing game.

“It may well be that Dogwood—in a newly-structured form—will continue the formation of new racing partnerships, but my only responsibility will be to see to the servicing of the partners and partnerships that are on the books now,” he is quoted at saying in a press release from the company.

“I adore racing horses, and will always keep at it, being involved in a variety of ways. What a wonderful life I have. However, though I am plenty fit and healthy, I am ready to ease off after doing this since 1971. This move will be no great shock, so it follows that we will be talking with several outfits and individuals that could be part of a restructured Dogwood, hopefully including a couple of key people currently with us.

“We have a wonderful client roster. Some partners who have been with us as long as 35 years. Many have become close friends. Since we started we estimate that we have brought into racing around 1200 people, and we have certainly bought that many horses.”

Over its history, Dogwood Stable has campaigned 76 stakes winners and had 15 Grade One winners. The stable has competed in six Kentucky Derbys with seven horses, run in 10 Breeders’ Cup races (winning the Juvenile Fillies with Storm Song in 1996), and collected two Eclipse Awards (for Storm Song and Inlander.) Summer Squall’s 1990 Preakness victory was a high-water mark for the stable.

Dogwood’s current star is Aikenite, a 4-year-old colt by Yes It’s True. Aikenite ran in the $1.5 million Breeder’s Cup Sprint on November 5 at Churchill Downs. Although the colt broke slowly, he came on strong in the homestretch, ultimately finishing fourth and bankrolling $90,000. This brings his career earnings to $866,635.

“I am so proud of Aikenite,” Cot said in a prepared statement. “He ran against the greatest sprinters in the world and was fourth – and we are thrilled with that accomplishment. He always comes running and the sprint was a thrilling race. He gave it his all – and that’s all we could ask of him.”

The Eyes Have It

2011-12-01T19:52:00.000-05:00

The eye, it is often said, is the window of the horse’s soul. Horse’s eyes, like people’s eyes, are each unique. No two horses have the same patterns in their irises. Even horses that are clones have different patterns because these patterns are created by an interaction of heredity and the environment.

With that in mind, a company called Global Animal Management, which is a subsidiary of Merck Animal Health, has created a new equine identification system called eyeD. EyeD requires a veterinarian to take infrared pictures of a horse’s eye using a special camera. The vet then attaches the camera to a computer with a USB cord, and sends the information to a central computer.

“In a nutshell, it’s a new, non invasive way to identify horse,” says Davis Knupp, who is the marketing manager for the product. “What we are doing is taking an eyeprint. We can assign a unique identifier to each eyeprint, and we have a database we can store that information in. We also provide a way for veterinarians to have their own local database.”

This kind of identification system has a wide range of possible applications, from recovering of stolen horses to accurately verifying the identify of racehorses – a racehorse of the future might be identified by an eyeprint rather than by a lip tattoo. The product was launched this fall at the American Association of Equine Practitioners annual meeting and is being made available exclusively to veterinarians.

“None of the breed registries have endorsed it yet,” says David. “But it has all been very positive. We sold over 30 systems at AAEP, so we’re working on implementing it with veterinarians and getting it up and running. We’ll also be launching it internationally in Canada, Germany, France and Italy – there is a lot of international interest.”

The first thing that horse owners might see the eyeD system used for is with their next Coggins test.

“We are integrated with a company called Global Vetlink, which provides electronic vet records and electronic Coggins test records. We’re also integrated into some veterinary practice management software. Using the eyed system with these other systems creates efficiency and accuracy in the veterinary clinic.”

When a horse is first enrolled, the vet takes an eye print of both eyes – this way of something happens to one eye, there will still be another one that can be used to identify the horse.

“It’s more accurate than DNA,” says David. “It’s the most accurate way we have to identify a horse.”

Welcome to the future.

Horse Lover’s Perfume

2011-12-01T19:50:00.000-05:00

Women who love horses are not like other women. They would rather get a saddle for Christmas than a diamond necklace. When they get dressed up to go out, they still might have just a little bit of manure on their shoes, even if those shoes are patent leather pumps. They prefer the smell of the barn to Chanel Number 5.

With that in mind, Elliott Levy and Coleen Reed have created a new fragrance especially for horsewomen. The new scent, Eau de Cheval, (literally “water of horse”) is intended to remind horsewomen of their favorite horses and stables.

“It has sweet alfalfa and English leather,” says Elliot. “I wanted them to add a little manure, but they wouldn’t. In place of manure, there is a hint of musk.” This is described, on the website, as “that indescribable dreamy equine essence.”

The fragrance was created by RS Essentials in Aiken, a company that makes exclusive skin care products, soaps and candles using natural ingredients. RS Essentials opened on Richland Avenue last June. Elliott Levy is the executive director of the Aiken County Historical Museum.

Elliott says he is convinced that Eau de Cheval is a product with great marketing potential in the equestrian world – after all, what woman wouldn’t want to smell like the stable? It is also a perfume with a purpose.

“One half of the profits will go to Friends of the Gaston Livery Stable,” says Elliott. This group, spearheaded by Coleen Reed, is working to raise enough money to purchase the historic Gaston Livery Stable on Park Avenue. The stable, which housed a thriving business during the days of the Winter Colony, is one of only five all-brick barns in South Carolina, and the only one that still has an original carriage lift, which was used to hoist carriages into the loft for storage.

Friends of the Gaston Livery Stable has raised almost enough money for the down payment on the property. It will have to raise a lot more to complete the sale and then to set about the process of restoring the stable, which has not been used in decades and has fallen into disrepair. Eau de Cheval might be just the thing.

You can purchase your own two-ounce bottle of Eau de Cheval ($39.95) at RS Essentials or the Aiken County Historical museum. It is also available online through the website www.eaudecheval.com. While you are visiting that site, be sure to watch the promotional videos, which feature Walker Spruell and Sharer Dale, both of Aiken. There are two separate videos, one for the English and one for the Western riding crowds. They were created by Jamie and Christi Koelker, local filmmakers who also have made documentaries about various historical subjects such as, most recently “Horse Creek Valley, a Tale Worth Telling” which was shown recently on SCETV.

Elliott says that if Eau de Cheval succeeds in raising enough money to save the Gaston Livery stable, it might later be used to raise money for other Aiken nonprofit groups. “You can’t save the world,” he says. “But you can have a positive impact on your corner of it.”

The Dog and Hound

2011-10-12T19:49:00.001-04:00

Horse people and dog people have a lot in common. In fact, most horse people are probably also dog people in one way or another, since horses and dogs tend to go together. Both animals are on the move and they like going places. If you are on a trail ride, taking your dogs along can make it more entertaining, since you can watch them enjoying themselves. People who go foxhunting often say that one of the primary reasons they love the sport is that they get to watch the hounds work.

If you look back in Aiken’s history, you will find that a number of the people who were prominent in horse sports in the era of the Winter Colony were also influential in the canine world. For instance, Lulie Hitchcock was famous for her beagles. Claudia Phelps was a well-known breeder of English Pointers. She has also been credited with bringing West Highland Terriers to America.

Because the dog world and the horse world do intersect, we often come across interesting dog stories, and we have written quite a few of them in this paper. For instance, we wrote about the dog rescue run by Ron Danta and Danny Robertshaw, who are prominent horse show riders and trainers. We wrote also wrote about the field trial dogs trained by Mark Fulmer at Sarahsetter Kennels – this story didn’t have much of an equestrian connection, beyond the fact that people follow their field trial dogs on horseback. But we liked the story, and we loved the pictures.

In fact, we have come across so many great dog stories that we have decided to dedicate more space to dogs in our paper. We also want to help support the rescue and education efforts at the Aiken SPCA as well the work being done by Friends of the Aiken County Animal Shelter. So, starting with the December/January issue, The Aiken Horse will contain our new venture, The Dog and Hound, a fourth section dedicated to dog stories, dog people, and pretty much anything canine. We are planning to produce this paper four times a year: Winter (with our December/January issue), Spring (with our February/March issue), Summer (with our Summer issue) and Fall (with our September issue.)

The Dog and Hound will follow the model of The Aiken Horse, with the best writing and photography we can give you. We know there are a lot of interesting stories out there, and we can’t wait to tell them. Of course, we will also include a separate calendar for dog events, as well as a separate news column for what is going on in the canine world. We are planning to donate a significant amount of space to dog rescue groups, and we hope that the dog people in the Aiken area and beyond will consider us their newspaper, just as Aiken’s horse people welcomed us as theirs.

If you would like more information, please visit our website:www.thedogandhound.com. We also have a Facebook page:www.facebook.com/pages/The-Dog-and-Hound/283960664965731. As ever, we welcome any suggestions for articles or any other information that readers might have for us.

Aiken Fall Festival

2011-10-12T19:47:00.000-04:00

Horse shows in Aiken seem to be thriving. Rick and Cathy Cram of Progressive Show Jumping are currently in the process of building a fourth barn to accommodate all of the horses that ship in to their Highfields Event Center on Gaston Road. Progressive Show Jumping itself holds many shows there – the biggest is the Aiken Spring Classic, to be held this coming year from April 18 through 29. This show is a staple on the Aiken spring calendar, regularly attracting riders and horses from all over the Southeast.

The Crams also lease their facility to other horse show companies. For the past several years, Equus Events Horse Show Productions, owned by JP and Megan Godard, has been taking over Highfields for two weeks in September for the USEF ‘A’ rated Aiken Fall Festival. This show includes such attractions as jumper classics and stakes, the South Carolina Hunter Jumper Association Governor’s Cup Equitation finals for junior riders, and Hunt Night, a group of classes for horses that can normally be found on the hunt field rather than in the show ring.

This year, the Aiken Fall Festival, which ran from September 8-18, filled Highfields to capacity with horses and riders from North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and other states farther afield. The first week of the competition brought a number of different horses and riders to the winner’s circle. Thursday’s $5,000 Open Welcome Stake went to Josh Dolan of Hilton Head, riding his horse Skylands Con Chino Z. On Friday evening, competitors headed to the hunter derby ring for the $2,500 National Hunter Classic. There were 21 entries, but the top four places would go to two riders, Liza Boyd from Camden and Daniel Geitner from Aiken. Liza was first on Marilla Van Beuren’s Marksman and third on Stephanie Saunders’s Heartbreaker. Daniel was second on Janet Peterson’s Damocles and fourth on Robin Hughes’s Zo Doro.

In Saturday’s featured class, the $15,000 Aiken Premiere Jumper Classic, Hardin Towell riding Kelly Maloney’s Fieona edged out Daniel Geitner on Tara Bostwick’s Sympa. The final feature event of the weekend was the Governor’s Cup Equitation Finals. The winner of this class was 17-year-old Allie Augustine from Mount Pleasant.

By many counts, the second week of the show belonged to Daniel Geitner. Daniel started his streak on Thursday by winning the $5,000 Open Welcome Jumper Stake aboard Ann Ritter’s Jumbo Jet. He followed that performance with the Green Working Hunter Championship riding Zo Doro, and the Reserve Championship in the same division on Paige Wilson’s Best Foot Forward. He then rode Damocles to the High Performance Hunter Championship and the Grand Championship in the hunter division.

Friday evening featured Hunt Night. In this division, followers of local hunts showed what they could do in Field Hunter, Handy Hunter and Hunt teams classes. Cathy Chambers, who rides with Why Worry Hounds, rode her horse Oscar to the championship for the second year in a row. Patti Brantley, Kathy Nofsinger and Arnie Bloom won the Hunt Teams competition, riding under the colors of Live Oak Hounds.

The final feature of the week was the $15,000 Aiken Fall Festival Jumper Classic, held on Sunday evening. The course, designed by JP Godard, was a tricky one, yielding only six clear rounds out of 22 competitors. In the jump-off, just two riders would go clean; Harold Chopping on Patent Pending (owned by Kendra Bullington) and Josh Dolan on Skylands Con Chino Z. Harold Chopping took home the first place honors, beating Josh by just .810 of a second. Daniel Geitner settled for third aboard T/Salemon, owned by Karen Kerby.

Ten Goals

2011-10-12T19:45:00.000-04:00

On the first Monday in October, the United States Polo Association National Handicap meeting took place at the Willcox hotel. A lot of interesting things happened at this meeting, including the assignment of the first-ever intermediate “half goal” handicaps to players between -1 and 2 goals. (The Board of Governors voted to institute these handicaps on Saturday, October 1.)

The other milestone was that Aiken’s own Tommy Biddle was raised to 10 goals in the arena. Tommy, who has been playing as a 9 in the arena and a 6 on the grass, is a skillful and imposing player – when he hits a ball, it may as well have been launched from a rocket. Polo spectators in Aiken witnessed his power this fall in the finals of the USPA National Copper Cup 12 goal, which he won with his team, Blanco Texas. A few years back, he also played (and won) the United States Arena Polo Championship at the Polo America arena in Aiken’s Steeplechase neighborhood. This spring, he captained America’s winning team in the USPA Townsend Cup, a 22-goal arena match-up against an English team, which took place at the Empire club in California.

The 10-goal rating is the pinnacle of polo success, and you don’t get there unless you are, literally, the best. While it certainly isn’t easy to get to 10 goals on the grass, it is even harder in the arena – throughout its history, the USPA has been extraordinarily stingy in giving out 10-goal ratings to arena players. Since the association was formed in 1890, it has named 49 10-goal outdoor players, but only four 10-goal arena players. The first was Winston Guest in the 1920s. The second was Clarence Coombs (known as Buddy), who reached 10 goals in 1951. The third was Joe Henderson, who played in the arena at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center and attained his 10-goal rating in the early 1990s. And now, in 2012, Tommy Biddle is the fourth.

The Gold Tray

2011-10-09T19:44:00.001-04:00

Keeneland Race Track, which opened in Kentucky in 1936, holds two prestigious race meets each year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Billing itself as “racing as it was meant to be,” Keeneland preserves the “tradition, ambiance and vision established by its founders – to showcase all that is noble, fine and enjoyable about Thoroughbred racing.” Keeneland has always attracted the top horses in the sport, including such standouts as Whirlaway (who won the Triple Crown in 1941), Alysheba (a Hall-of-Famer who raced in the 1980s) and Northern Dancer, a 1960s racehorse who became one of the most influential sires in Thoroughbred history.

Keeneland’s graded stakes races are special events. Not only do the winners earn cash, the owner of each winning horse also takes home a gold julep cup. When an owner wins eight cups, he or she gets the Keeneland Tray, a solid gold serving tray.

This spring, the 4-year-old colt Aikenite romped to victory in the Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland, earning his owner, Dogwood Stable, the winner’s share of the $175,000 purse, as well as Dogwood’s eighth Keeneland Stakes victory and that coveted gold tray. To celebrate, Dogwood is throwing a Gold Tray Party at the Aiken Racing Hall of Fame and Museum in Hopeland Gardens. The party is on Friday, November 11 from 5 to 7 and everyone is welcome. There will be light snacks and refreshments and Dogwood’s president, Cot Campbell, is expected to say a few words.

“There is no official program,” says Mary Jane Howell, who is the public relations director at Dogwood. “We’re basically saying a big thank you to Aiken.”

Aikenite is currently being pointed toward the Breeder’s Cup at Churchill Downs November 4-5. In his most recent outing, the Grade III Phoenix Stakes at Keeneland on October 7, he ran a thrilling, come-from-behind race, finishing second by a short nose to Mrs. S.K. Johnston’s New Zealand-bred Hoofit. There is no word yet on which Breeder’s Cup race Aikenite will enter.

Great Art, Great Place

2011-09-01T19:42:00.000-04:00

The Aiken Thoroughbred Hall of Fame and Museum is putting on an exhibit of the works of the late Allen F. Brewer from September 18 to October 18. There is an opening reception at the museum on Saturday, September 18 at 2 p.m., and the public is invited to attend. There, they will have the chance to meet the artist’s daughters, Susan Brewer Tonarely and Sherry Brewer. Show hours will be Tuesday through Friday from 2 to 5 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from 2 to 5 p.m. The exhibition is open to the public with free admission.

Allen Brewer (1921-1967) is considered one of the world’s foremost equine artists. He worked in oils, watercolor and pencil. Critics have rated his work highly in such areas as composition, perspective, handling of light and shadow, and the ability to suggest the underlying structure of bone and muscle. Horsemen have admired his paintings for their ability to reproduce an exact likeness of a particular horse.

Brewer is best known for his depictions of famous racehorses. The list of horses he has painted include Citation, Dr. Fager, Man O’War, Nashua, Northern Dancer, Stymie and Swaps. He also made portraits of several Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame members, including Capot, Kelso and Tom Fool.

The Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum is located in Hopelands Gardens at 135 Dupree Place and celebrates Aiken’s contributions to equestrian sports. Prints from this exhibit will be for sale and a portion of the proceeds will be donated to the Hall of Fame. For more information, please visit the website: www.aikenracinghalloffame.com

Pony Club Polo Players

2011-08-30T19:38:00.001-04:00

After 12 long years of work and negotiations, this summer the United States Pony Club has decided to accept polo as an official discipline.

“There were two main reasons that the Pony Club decide to accept us this year,” says Kris Bowman who is the director of club development at the United States Polo Association. “The first was that they saw how strong our intercollegiate and interscholastic program was – this year we had 110 teams. So they could see that if kids learned polo in the pony club, they could take it somewhere, they could play on an interscholastic or an intercollegiate level.

“The second reason was that they wanted to expand any programs that would retain boys in the Pony Club.”

Polo’s official induction into the USPC was marked by three days of games, clinics and demonstrations at the 2011 Pony Club Festival at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, from July 24-26. Clinics included sessions with the foot mallet, on horseback and in a hitting cage.

The polo demonstration match featured two members of Aiken’s interscholastic polo team, Ty Morris and Austin Allen. Austin is a junior member at Aiken Polo Club, while Ty plays with Overbrook in Wagener. Both young men are pony club members who are also veterans of polocrosse. Aiken is expected to have its own pony club polo team in the very near future.

“We expect Aiken to be one of the leaders in the pony club polo movement,” says Kris.

Kris is excited about the prospect of pony club introducing polo to hundreds, if not thousands of enthusiastic kids.

“Our interscholastic programs start when kids are 12,” she says. “But pony club starts when kids are much younger. So here we’ll have these amazing young riders, already playing polo by the time they are old enough for the interscholastic program.”

Aiken Drivers Abroad

2011-08-28T10:35:00.000-04:00

This summer and fall, no fewer than six Aiken-based drivers packed up their horses, harnesses, carts and carriages and flew to Europe to train and compete. Five of these whips are in the pony divisions and are on their way to the World Pony Driving Championships in Lipica, Slovenia from September 22-25. One, Joe Yoder, trained in Germany with the American driving coach Michael Freund and then competed with the rest of the American team at the Reisenbeck CAI in July. From there, he went to Conty, France for the FEI World Pair Driving Championships from August 25-28.

Joe, a young driver who recently relocated to Aiken from Montana, drives a pair of black Gelderlander geldings owned by Jack Wetzel. Earlier in the year, he drove these geldings to the United States Equestrian Federation national pairs championship at Live Oak in Florida. The FEI World Pair Driving Championships were his first international competition.

At the championships, things started out well for the Americans. Joe Yoder had an excellent dressage test, scoring 44.03, which was good enough for sixth place in that phase. His teammate, Misdee Wrigley-Miller, scored 52.86 and came in seventh, putting the United States into fifth place going into the marathon.

The weather in France had been wet and the ground was quite saturated on the next day, marathon day. It was a day of changeable weather, with sun one moment and pouring rain the next, the kind of day that can play havoc with competitors and spectators alike.

Kathrin Dancer, the third member of the American team, was the fifth driver of the day, and the first of the Americans. She went clean with no time penalties. Misdee Wrigley-Miller had the 26^th start position. She also made it through the course without penalties, despite a driving rain that drenched her halfway through her run. Joe Yoder, the driver who was expected to do best in the marathon and who had a chance of medaling, had an unlucky draw. He went 50^th out of 70 drivers. By this time the course was heavy, muddy and cut up. He slogged through, but it was not pretty. His groom fell off the cart on the fifth hazard, and he incurred more penalty points on the course. He ended up in 57^th place. Wrigley-Miller and Dancer were 28^th and 45^th respectively.

The next day, cones day, was not a great one for the Americans either. Wrigley-Miller was eliminated on the course, Yoder had two balls down for six penalty points and finished 21^st.. Dancer dropped a ball and had time penalties for 9.66 points and 29^th place. Overall, Yoder ended up in 27^th place and the American team came out 10^th. Although these scores may sound somewhat disheartening, this is a new team with little international experience. Things can only get better!

The pony drivers are still training in Germany in preparation for their trip to Slovenia. On the same weekend as the World Pair Championships, the American ponies competed at the German National Championships in Minden. American drivers fared best in the singles division. Miranda Cadwell, who trains in Southern Pines, N.C. came in second, while Shelley Temple, who has a winter training base in Windsor, finished fifth. Suzy Stafford, another Windsor driver, was just out of the ribbons in 11^th place.

Who Has America’s Favorite Trail Horse?

2011-08-25T19:40:00.001-04:00

The American Competitive Trail Horse Association has a new reality TV series called America’s Favorite Trail Horse. Competitors tried out for the show back in April in three- minute mounted auditions that included some simple trail obstacles. Auditions were held all over the country and were open to anyone 21 and older - all you had to do was pay the entry fee (it was $149, a little steep for some riders.)

The top 100 horses and their riders were selected as finalists. These horse and rider combinations participated in the national finals, a five-day ride held at the Franklin Family Ranch near Austin, Texas in May. This ride was filmed for 13 one-hour episodes that will air on the HRTV every Tuesday at 8 pm starting on September 13. (The shows are also repeated three hours later at 11 and then again at 10 a.m. on Sunday.) Episodes 2 through 11 will each feature ten different trail horses. After the show, America will have the chance to vote for their favorite horse in that episode, and the winner of each show will get $5,000. Episode 12 will feature the ten previous winners. America’s votes will then determine which horse is selected as America’s favorite trail horse. Winning comes with a cash prize - $25,000 for first, $15,000 for second and $10,000 for third.

According to the ACTHA website, “The purpose of America’s Favorite Trail Horse is to bring attention to the great American trail horse that has served this country so magnificently. It is our sincere hope that this effort will cause many to get back in the saddle again. . . .”

Edgar Cato

2011-07-15T19:42:00.000-04:00

Edgar Thomas Cato, one of Aiken’s most influential horsemen, died on June 21. Mr. Cato was born in Aiken County in 1925 and grew up in Augusta. Along with his father Wayland Sr. and his brother, Wayland Jr., he founded the Cato Company in 1946. Cato stores specialized in women’s apparel and were an immediate success. By 1948, the company had seven stores in small towns in South Carolina. A year later, the company had over $1 million in revenue and it continued to grow and expand.

Mr. Cato was a sportsman, horseman, pilot and philanthropist. His sailing adventures took place mainly in Newport, R.I. and Charleston, S.C. He competed successfully in many regattas and was a two-time 12 meter world champion and an IRC champion. He was a supporter of and contributor to the International Yacht Restoration School and Sail Newport’s public access sailing programs. He also created the Hissar Sailing Center at the College of Charleston and the Edgar T. Cato Dinghy Park in Newport.

Many people will remember Edgar Cato wearing his hunting pinks and serving as the Master of Foxhounds of his own private pack, the Flat Branch Hounds at his Augusta Plantation in Windsor. He was not just an avid foxhunter, he was also a supporter of foxhunting and of the Aiken equestrian community. According to Linda Knox McLean, he was the largest single donor the Hitchcock Woods has ever had.

He had interests in horse racing and especially in steeplechasing. His steeplechasers, racing under the name Brigadoon Stable, were frequent entrants in races on the National Steeplechase Association circuit, including the semiannual races in Aiken. His most successful horse in recent years was Erin Go Bragh, who won the New Jersey Hunt Cup in 2008. His commitment to the sport was deep and he served two terms as a board member of the NSA.

Finally, he was a generous supporter and sponsor of polo. He created Loughrea Plantation about ten miles east of town, a spectacular polo farm that has two of the best tournament fields in the area. His Brigadoon polo team, captained by his daughter Christine, has been an important presence in low, medium and high goal tournaments in South Carolina and Florida.

A memorial service for Mr. Cato was held Saturday, June 25 at the Aiken Thoroughbred Hall of Fame and Museum.

Polo Plans

2011-06-16T13:53:00.000-04:00

Once again, numerous polo players are staying in Aiken for the summer, and there are several players who will be hosting informal, private chukkers on their own fields to give their green horses some experience and keep their hand-eye coordination up to par. At least two clubs will be offering organized games and practices. One is Overbrook in Wagener, and the other is Aiken Polo Club, which has not had a summer polo program for about 20 years.

According to Overbrook's Clint Nangle, the polo at his club will be casual and laid back. "If you want to go charging down the field, it's probably not the right place for you - we have a style of play that is more easy-going," he says. Practices are currently scheduled for Wednesday evenings at 6:30 pm and Saturday mornings at 9:00 am, but the schedule could easily be modified to accommodate players' schedules.

Overbrook is also offering coaching chukkers with pointers on rules and plays, and has been running a full lesson program with private and semiprivate sessions available for riders of all types, beginners through advanced. Clint says that the lessons have been quite successful, bringing in numerous new players, both from the greater Aiken equestrian community and from Lexington and Columbia. The chief instructor is Christine Cato, who brings a wealth of polo experience at all levels, from low goal club chukkers up to the 20 goal and beyond. (For more information, check out the website: www.overbrookaiken.com or call 803-646-8350.)

Aiken Polo Club's summer season is not just the first summer polo it has offered in a long time, it is also the first arena polo the club has ever had. The club will be using the new polo arena at Hilltop Farm east of town on Hatchway Bridge Road. Practice chukkers are scheduled for Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 9 am, with more practice days if there are enough people who want to play.

Aiken polo club's manager, Craig Fraser, says that there are plans to have lessons, lease horses, clinics and a progression league. The practice season starts June 18 and will conclude in mid August or carry on until the fall outdoor season starts in September if people want to play. For chukkers, call the regular APC hotline: 803-643-3611. For more information, contact Craig: craig@pologuy.com or 803-292-3377.

In other polo news, this spring New Bridge Polo Club decided to encourage more participation at their club. They are lowering their dues by almost 50 percent, bringing them more in line with other club dues in the area. Now, homeowners at New Bridge can play polo for $3,000 per year, while outside players can join for $3,500 per year. New Bridge holds three practices a week and maintains practice and stick and ball fields. Members are welcome at the practices, can use the stick and ball fields, and get a discount on club tournaments. They can even use the other club amenities, which include a swimming pool and tennis courts. Practice days are Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, so they mesh perfectly with Aiken Polo Club, which holds practices on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. If you join both clubs, you will have somewhere to play six days a week!

Willie Hartnett, who manages the club says that there are a few other changes on the horizon this fall. For instance, the club always holds an 8 goal, the Copa de Plata in the fall, but this tournament is usually just a club event. Now it will be a USPA event, and a qualifier for the National Presidents Cup, held each April in Palm Beach. There is a lot of enthusiasm for this tournament and for all the other fall tournaments. In fact, Willie says that there are already a handful of entry forms in the office from teams that are either very organized or very eager for the season to begin. "We expect a big season on the 8 to 12 goal level," he says.

Aiken International Horse Park

2011-06-16T13:51:00.000-04:00

The Equine Steering Committee of the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce is moving forward with plans to develop a world class international horse park in Aiken. Although the ESC has been talking about a horse park since its inception in early 2009, it has yet to create a formal plan and a proposal to do so. This spring however, the committee commissioned Jeff Wallace, a former editor at the Aiken Standard, to put together a draft of a white paper entitled a "Vision for an International Horse Park in Aiken County." The paper was then circulated to the members of the Equine Steering Committee, the chamber's board of directors, and to the membership of the Equine Support Council for review, comments and suggestions.

The proposal, which is 16 pages long, gives a summary of the history of the horse industry in Aiken and makes a case for the construction of a "comprehensive multi-use facility amenable to all equestrian disciplines." The ideal location for the park is deemed to be "somewhere in the 1-20 corridor, close to but not in Aiken proper." The park is envisioned as something that will help the equestrian industry in town, but which also is something that Aiken itself needs for a healthy future. Since the 1950s, the Savannah River Plant has been the major driver in Aiken's economy. With closures at the plant "more the rule than the exception", Aiken would be well advised to "look to other areas to bolster its future economy."

The proposal calls for a facility that encompasses at least 600 to 1000 acres, with space for a cross country course, permanent barns, a covered arena, and an "architecturally striking" signature building that is seen as a tourist destination in itself. The park would also have its own trail system, which would, ideally, connect up with a countywide system of trails that the Equine Support Council is in the process of establishing. The plan calls for the use of as much green technology as possible in the construction of the park, thus making it a "national model for conservation and green development." Use of green technology might also make the construction of the park eligible for various government grants and loans.

All of this is still in the very early planning stages, however. Not only is the draft white paper being modified through discussions with members of the Equine Support Council, but the Equine Steering Committee has yet to decide how the park should be funded, who exactly should own it, and even if they should pursue the project. An international horse park of the size and stature envisioned by the ESC's plan would necessarily cost many millions of dollars. Exactly where that money might come from in these uncertain economic times is certainly an important question. But proponents of the horse park are not daunted. Even if the money for the project is not all there yet, and even if the facility has to be constructed in stages, they believe that a horse park is vital to the future of the equestrian industry in the area, and even to the future of Aiken County itself.

Aiken International

2011-06-15T13:50:00.000-04:00

Horsemen who train in Aiken are doing quite a bit of traveling these days, and will be doing more in the near future. This spring, Shawna Harding, whose base of operations is Aiken, was selected as one of three riders to represent the U.S. at the World Cup Dressage finals in Leipzig, Germany at the end of April. After that competition, she stayed on in Europe to continue competing, giving her two mounts, Come On III and Rigo, valuable experience and exposure on the international circuit. Come On III is a stunning 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood that Shawna has owned and campaigned since he was a youngster, while Rigo is a10-year old Hanoverian gelding owned by Tonya Rowe.

Earlier this year, Shawna won the $25,000 Carol Lavell Advanced Dressage Prize which helped fund her trip overseas. Other fundraisers included an auction of 30 bags of feed donated by Charlie Herrick, owner of Banks Mill Feeds. Shawna will be showing in Germany, Austria and Italy before returning to the states.

This summer, a number of Aiken-based combined driving competitors will also descend on Europe. In August, Jennifer Matheson, Suzy Stafford, Wendy O'Brien and Shelly Temple will be transporting their ponies and vehicles to Germany to train with the U.S. driving coach Michael Freund before traveling to Lipica, Slovenia to represent the United States in the FÇdÇration Equestre Internationale World Pony Driving Championships. There, they will be joined by another Aiken based driver, Janelle Marshall, who will represent Australia, her native country. The World Pony Championships take place from September 21-25.

The FEI World Pair Driving Championships (for horses) will be held in Conty, France from August 24-28. Aiken will also have a representative in that event: Joe Yoder, a recent Aiken transplant, will be driving a pair of Gelderlander geldings owned by Jack Wetzel and trained by Vance Coulthard, both well-established Aiken horsemen. Jack's Gelderlanders started out as a four-in-hand of carriage driving horses, and were a familiar sight leading Aiken's many carriage parades. Just about two years ago, they entered their first combined driving event with Bill Long, a veteran competitor, acting as whip, and last fall, competed in the World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. This winter, Joe Yoder took the reins, driving them to the top of the standings in numerous pair competitions on the national circuit. In March, Joe and Wetzel's pair won the United States Equestrian Federation's National Pairs Championship.

Wetzel's team will fly to Germany to train with Michael Freund in early July. They will probably enter some warm-up competitions before taking on the world in France.

Fire at True Prospect

2011-06-14T13:48:00.000-04:00

Early in the morning of May 31, a fire destroyed the barn that the event rider Boyd Martin was renting from Phillip Dutton at Dutton's True Prospect Farm in Pennsylvania. There were 11 horses in the barn at the time, and three people living in the upstairs apartment. Lillian Heard, Caitlin Silliman and Ryan Wood were awakened by the fire and sounded the alarm. Along with Phillip and Boyd, they managed to rescue five horses from the blaze. The surviving horses were transported to the George D. Widener Hospital for Large Animals at the University of Pennsylvania New Bolton Center. Six other horses perished. Lillian, Caitlin and Ryan were treated and released from Jennersville Hospital.

The horses in Boyd's barn included numerous upper level eventers, some up-and coming horses, as well as the personal horses of Caitlin Silliman and Lillian Heard: Lillian's Ariel, a young mare competing at the Preliminary level, was one of the horses that died. The other horses that did not make it out were Call Me Ollie, Charla, Phantom Pursuit, Cagney Herself and Summer Breeze. Survivors included Catch a Star, Ambassador's Rose, Otis Barbotiere, Minotaure du Passoir and Neville Bardos, the horse that Boyd rode at the 2010 World Equestrian Games. After several weeks of treatment for burns and smoke inhalation, all five horses have been released from the clinic, but only one, Ambassador's Rose, has so far been able to return to work. The prognosis for the remaining horses is unclear, although they are reported to be healing rapidly.

The eventing community was shocked by the tragedy, and immediately united around all those affected by the fire. In the weeks since, there have been numerous fundraisers to help defray costs for Boyd as well as to help Ryan, Lillian and Caitlin, who lost all of their possessions in the fire. The outpouring of support has been immense, with charity auctions at various events, bake sales, special schooling events and an online charity auction on eBay. Many individuals and companies have stepped up to offer their support. For instance, EcoGold, a Canadian company that sponsors Boyd, donated 50 percent of proceeds from orders of their saddle pads to Boyd's team, raising over $8,000 in two weeks. At one charity auction, $14,000 was raised - then Alan Shinton, a generous supporter of eventing, stepped up to match those funds, bringing the total to $28,000. The June 12 Lumber River Starter Horse Trials at the Carolina Horse Park in Raeford, N.C. donated a portion of their funds to victims of the fire. Closer to home, Full Gallop Farm in Aiken made their June combined test a benefit for the True Prospect recovery funds.

Separate, tax deductible funds have been set up for Caitlin, Lillian and Ryan. There is also a general relief fund. To donate or for more information, visit the website at South California Equestrian Sports (www.scesports.org) or go to Boyd Martin's site. (www.boydandsilvamartin.com)

Boyd Martin and his team make their winter home in Aiken where they are based at Bridle Creek Equestrian Community. Fire investigators in Pennsylvania have determined that the fire was accidental and electrical in origin.

Aikenite Flies

2011-05-10T13:52:00.000-04:00

A special thoroughbred with an obvious Aiken connection is bringing acclaim to his home town on the stakes racing circuit. Aikenite, a 4-year-old owned by Dogwood Stable, has been having a great 2011 so far and is rapidly becoming one of the city's favorite sons.

Aikenite started out the year with a second place finish in a race in March. Then, in April, clinched a 21/4 length victory in the Grade II Commonwealth Stakes at Keeneland. On May 7, Kentucky Derby day, he was entered in the prestigious $348,900 Grade II Churchill Downs Stakes on the Kentucky Derby undercard. He drew the number one position (not his favorite) and was sent off as the seventh choice of the betting public. But his jockey, John Velasquez, gave him a great ride, letting him sit off the pace for much of the race, and then sending him home in the stretch. He ran down the race leaders to win by a nose and take home a winner's purse of over $200,000.

In his next race, the $500,000 Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park on May 30, Aikenite came in fourth. It was a fast race: the winner, Tizway, turned in the second fastest time for the race in its history. Aikenite is now being prepped for the Grade I Forego Stakes at Saratoga, and may even be headed to the Breeders Cup in early November. Cot Campbell certainly hopes that he is. In fact Cot has made an interesting wager with Lucky's Race and Sport Book in Las Vegas. At 10-1 odds, he has bet $5,000 that a Dogwood horse will win a Breeder's Cup race this year. Dogwood currently has 40 horses, including several promising 2-year-olds that have yet to show anyone what they can really do, so all of Cot's chances are not riding on his 4-year-old. But if he Aikenite does win, it will be sweet for Dogwood and for all his local fans.

On another note, Aikenite has so far banked over $700,000 in his race career. If he wins over $1 million, he will become eligible to be named the Aiken Trained Horse of the Year by the Aiken Thoroughbred Hall of Fame and Museum located in Hopeland Gardens.

SPCA Barn Tour

2011-05-01T13:51:00.000-04:00

The fourth annual Aiken Barn Tour took place on Saturday, April 16. This tour, in which participants were invited to take a look inside some of Aiken's most beautiful barns, included eight properties, all of them located along Aiken's 302 equestrian corridor east of town. Barns on the tour included numerous private stables, all of them constructed within the past six or seven years, and all of them spectacular.

The tour started at 11 a.m., and for seven of the barns it was self-guided: people on the tour got a map and then drove themselves to the various properties. Many of the properties were quite close to each other. For instance, Peter Michaels's Quartermore Farm on Flowing Well Road was right across the street from Mary Guynn and Justin Pimnser's Dollamor, and right around the corner from Laura and Mike Regan's Evergreen Farm and the Hunt Box on Hickory Creek, owned by Jim and Gayle Curtiss. Other properties included Chequers, a lovely farm in Hatchaway Bridge Farms where Arthur and Sandy Vann breed Gypsy Vanner horses; Bridlewood, which is John Abbott's show hunter barn; and Windswept farm, a private dressage facility owned by Theresa and Pat Blewett.

The piäce de rÇsistance came at 2:30 with the guided tour of Crestview Farm on Cooks Bridge Road. This property, hidden behind massive electronic gates, includes barns, paddocks, pastures, polo fields, and pavilions, all custom-built to the highest standard and using unique materials. Although Crestview held the final game of the 2010 Silver Cup on its tournament field last fall, this was the first time that the public was invited to take a look at the barns. Visitors were impressed, to say the least.

After the guided tour, Crestview's president, Alan Meeker, put on an exhibition polo match on his field. This match featured numerous Aiken-based players, including Meeker himself, as well as several players who haven't spent much time in Aiken before, such as Carter Carnegie, who is the interim co-president and CEO of the Breeder's Cup, Ltd.

The barn tour got lucky with a sunny day and had a great turnout. All proceeds went to the Aiken SPCA, which is a nonprofit no-kill shelter. Just a few weeks after the barn tour, on May 19, the SPCA celebrated the groundbreaking of its new expanded facility, the Albrecht Center for Animal Welfare. The facility new which will include the SPCA adoption center, an educational and training center and a regional spay and neuter clinic, is scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2012.

The Townsend Cup

2011-04-02T01:05:00.000-04:00

Back in March of 1923, a team of three American polo players in Manhattan played an international arena polo match against a team of three British players. The John R. Townsend International Cup was put on in conjunction with the national arena polo championships in the Squadron A Armory which once stood on Madison Avenue between 94th and 95th streets.

The British team arrived a month before the tournament started and spent the intervening weeks practicing the indoor game as it was played in America. The Americans were beating the British pretty badly in practice, until a few days before the tournament when the British were able to ride their own horses which had been brought over by ship. Then, they surprised everyone by beating an accomplished American team by a score of 10 to 4. But when it counted, the Americans came out on top, winning all three games by decisive margins (41/2-1, 11-2, 10-4.)

The British didn't return to contest the cup again until 2004, when again they lost, playing at the Empire Polo Club in California. They lost once more in 2008, playing against a team that included John Gobin, an Aiken resident and 6-goal arena player.

The Townsend Cup returned to Empire this March 26. The American team consisted of two players with Aiken connections, John Gobin and Tommy Biddle (9 goals), who played along with Shane Rice, a 7-goal arena player who has been a part of the Aiken scene in recent years.

Once again, the American team was dominant, downing the British by a score of 15 to 9.

Aiken Dry Goods

2011-04-02T01:04:00.001-04:00

Polo players will have a new place to shop for mallets, boots, tack and other equipment this spring at Aiken Dry Goods, a store that has just opened on Laurens Street, right next to the Hotel Aiken.

Aiken Dry Goods offers an eclectic mixture of clothing that ranges from designs by Free People and True Grit to riding clothes by Euro-Fit and Gersemi. There is also jewelry and various décor items. The back wall is devoted to tack, mostly imported from Argentina, and the back room will soon stock polo mallets, boots and other gear of the game.

Jami Chandler, who moved here recently from Saratoga Springs, is in charge of the clothing and décor part of the store, while her partner Matthew Fonseca, a 3-goal player based in Aiken, will be looking after the polo equipment. Matthew is planning to stock Tato's Mallets as well as hard-to-find Argentine brands such as Sebastian Ucha and Casablanca Polo Gear.

Aiken Dry Goods is on Facebook.

Horse Show Season

2011-03-31T01:03:00.003-04:00

April is horse show season in Aiken. Of course, there have been horse shows going on all winter long, including schooling shows at Three Runs Plantation on the southside and at Belvoir Farm South in Windsor. The Progressive Show Jumping Aiken Challenge Series, held at Highfields Event center on Gaston Road, included five AA rated shows from January through March, each of which boasted a mini prix and hunter classic.

But April is when the horse show crowds really come out. It all starts with the Aiken Horse Show in the Woods, held this year from April 1 through 3 at the historic horse show ring in the middle of the Hitchcock Woods. This show is a 95-year-old tradition, started by Louise Hitchcock in 1916 and carried on every year since. The horse show has traditionally been one of the social and competitive highlights of the season, bringing out many riders who can normally be found on the hunt field. It offers traditional classes from old-fashioned hunter shows, including the flat and over fences classes in the foxhunter division (for horses that have been out at least six times this season with a recognized hunt), hunter pairs, hunt teams, the family class, and leadline and costume classes for young children. There is also a full sidesaddle division (including over fences classes) and a gentleman's hack class.

The Aiken Horse Show, which is a benefit for the Hitchcock Woods Foundation (owner and operator of the Hitchcock Woods) is the one time each year when automobiles are allowed into the woods. Spectators come to enjoy lunch in the ringside tent, where they can also bid on an assortment of items at the silent auction. These items range from jewelry to a full African safari donated by International Ventures. Often, there are also rare books, photographs and Aiken historical memorabilia.

The horse show season heats up with the Aiken Spring Classic I and II, which are held over two long weekends (April 20-24 and April 27 through May 1) at Highfields. These shows are easily the biggest of the year, drawing competitors from all over the region and beyond. Marquee classes include two grand prix, held both Sundays at noon, and the $10,000 United States Hunter Jumper Association Hunter Derby Classic, held on Saturday the 23rd.

In 2011, the Spring Classic has an added attraction for spectators, especially those who may be unfamiliar with hunter/jumper shows. This is an event called "Grace over Fences," which is the final installment in the Equine Performing Arts series put on by the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce. The first two events in the series introduced spectators to foxhunting and to polo. Grace Over Fences will feature the hunter rider Liza Towell-Boyd and the show jumping rider Harold Chopping, who will put on a jumping demonstration on Friday evening, April 29 at 6:00 pm.

The event, which also includes cocktails and dinner, falls on an important day for anglophiles: on that same day, Prince William will marry Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey in London. For those who want to feel a part of the royal wedding, there will be a sunset reception honoring the royal couple. The dress is cocktail attire: "Dress to impress the Queen," advises the invitation. (It seems unlikely that she will be there.) For more information or for tickets, contact the Aiken Chamber of Commerce website: www.aikenchamber.net, or 803.641-1111.

The Aiken Spring Classic shows are being held in a series with the Camden Spring Classics I and II, which will take place at the South Carolina Equine Park in Camden from April 6-10 and from April 13-17. The four shows will form the Carolina Spring Circuit - a full month of AA sanctioned events, including a complete social schedule with various fundraisers and parties.

According to Cathy Cram, who is running the shows in the Carolina Spring Circuit along with her husband Rick, uncertainty in the economy has meant that competitors are generally waiting until the last possible minute to sign up for their classes. Because of this, there is no telling how big the shows in Aiken will end up being. However, as of this writing, entries are about on a par with last year's entries at the same time. How big was last year's show?
"We had to put up 500 stalls," says Cathy.

Driving Champions

2011-03-30T01:01:00.002-04:00

Aiken-based drivers had a phenomenal showing at the United States Equestrian Federation National Pair and Pony Championships, held March 24 through 27 at the Live Oak CAI in Ocala, Fla. This combined driving competition crowned three national champions in the pony divisions (singles, pairs and four-in-hands) and one in the horse division (pairs.) Three of the four championships went to drivers, horses and ponies that train in Aiken.

Joe Yoder drove a pair of Gelderlanders owned by Jack Wetzel, an Aiken resident, to the USEF National Pairs Championship. Yoder, an up-and-coming whip who will turn 30 in June, recently moved to Aiken from Bozeman, Montana to drive for Mr. Wetzel. He finished second by just over a point in the dressage phase, and then won the marathon handily to put himself ahead by 15 points going into cones. In that test, he had three balls down to incur 12 penalty points, which was still good enough for first place and the championship. This was Yoder's first national title.

Shelly Temple, who is based in Windsor, drove her Morgan pony "Cooper" (officially LR Ami B-Line) to the USEF National Single Pony Championship. Cooper and Shelly won the dressage by over seven points. Then they finished in the middle of the pack on the marathon phase, but were still in the lead heading into cones. There, they completed the difficult course with no balls down, just three seconds over the very fast 2:38 time allowed, winning the competition. (No pony went double clear.) Cooper was also given the Hanzi award, which is granted to the horse deemed the best in the show. Shelly and Cooper are no strangers to the awards table: they won the national championship in 2006 and 2010, and were reserve champions in 2005 and 2009. This was their second Hanzi award - they also won in 2010.

Jennifer Matheson, an Aiken resident who trains in Windsor, drove a pair of German riding ponies owned by her mother-in-law, Katrina Becker, to the USEF National Pony Pair Championship. Jennifer won the dressage phase by almost 8 points, which gave her a solid cushion going into the marathon. She put in a good effort over that course, coming in second. In cones, she had four balls down and incurred time penalties, but still came out the winner. Jennifer also won the national pairs championship in 2010.

A large Aiken contingent was on hand at Live Oak, including both spectators and competitors. Suzy Stafford, another driver based in Aiken over the winter months, won the reserve championship in the single pony division, driving Josephine, a 9-year-old Morab mare. In other divisions, Meghan Benge won Preliminary Pair Ponies; Pixie Keating was second in Intermediate Single Pony, Sherri Dolan was second in Intermediate Pair Pony and Irene Gillis was second in Preliminary Single Pony.

Tally Ho Polo

2011-03-18T01:06:00.000-04:00

Back in November, Linda Knox McLean, Master of The Aiken Hounds, invited area polo players to come out and enjoy a day of foxhunting. A large number took her up on the offer, swelling the Saturday morning hunt field to at least 70. Several polo players even decided to add hunting to their repertoires, keeping a horse or two in work over the winter and buying a whole new wardrobe of hunt clothes.

This March, as the foxhunting season wound down, Barbara Parker and Clint Nangle of Overbrook Farms, a polo development in Wagener, decided to reciprocate. They invited members of Aiken's hunts to come out for a polo lesson followed by a round-robin tournament. Members of three hunts took up the challenge. On March 13, teams from Why Worry Hounds, The Aiken Hounds and Whiskey Road Foxhounds gathered at Overbrook Farms, where they started out with drills, and then got a taste of real polo competition.

If the foxhunters proved one thing, it is that polo really brings out the competitive spirit in everyone. Each team was composed of first time polo players, along with one or two riders who were well versed in the both sports. The game was supposed to be played "at a level appropriate for first time players riding foxhunters." During the drills, the first time polo players trotted around conservatively, trying to get the hang of hitting the ball. It looked like it would be a friendly, slow little game.

But all that changed when the round robin started. The foxhunters wanted to win, and their horses were surprisingly game. There was no more trotting. Riders and horses galloped across the field, determined to score goals and earn glory.

The round robin ended in a tie. This meant the tournament would be decided by a shoot out. Why Worry Hounds won, on the strength of good goal by Jeff Shuler. Katherine Gunter's hunt horse Augustus was named the best playing foxhunter.

Coves Darden Show

2011-03-10T01:07:00.000-05:00

Judges and officials traveled all the way from Spain for the Inter States Pura Raza Espanola (I.S.P.R.E.) regional show at Coves Darden Farm just east of Aiken on Route 4. This show, held March 4 through 6, was the first in a series of three regional championships to be held in the United States under the auspices of the Associación Nacional de Criadores de Caballos Españolos (ANCCE), which is the organization that registers and inspects PRE (commonly called Andalusian) horses in Spain.

The show was primarily a conformation show for mares, stallions, geldings, colts and fillies. There were also "functionality" tests for stallions and geldings, which consisted of a basic dressage test. Each class awarded ribbons from first through third place. At the end of the show, championships and reserve championships were handed out to the top two stallions, mares, colts and fillies. There were also special awards for the champion owner, the horses with the best movement, and the one with the best functionality.

Competitors came from as far away as Florida and Virginia to take part in the new show series, and, judging from the scores handed out by the judge Saul Davalos Vidal, the quality of the horses was quite high. Champions included Fresona Roy, a 3-year-old filly owned by Kathy and Donald Stewart, who was both the juvenile movement champion and the juvenile female champion of the show. The Hacienda Terpak's Juny, a stallion who competed in the "over 7" class won the best movement award for adult horses. Coves Darden Farm took home championships for functionality with Berbenero B, and had the champion mare, stallion and young horse with Faraona CLXI, Tronc II and Nevado, respectively, earning the farm the champion owner award.

Future shows in the I.S.P.R.E. USA series will be held in Texas and California, with finals planned for November in Texas. For more information, check out the website: www.ispreusa.com.

Eventing Training Sessions in Aiken

2011-01-28T00:57:00.002-05:00

The United States Equestrian Federation has once again selected Aiken as the site for winter training sessions for riders aspiring to be on the U.S. eventing team. For the third year, these sessions will be at Three Runs Plantation, an equestrian residential community on Aiken's Southside. Three Runs is an ideal location for winter training, providing jumping and dressage arenas with excellent, all-weather footing as well as a comfortable clubhouse overlooking the facility. These sessions are open to the public, and provide an unrivalled opportunity to watch our international riders train with Captain Mark Phillips, the chef d'équipe of the eventing team. The management of Three Runs has also invited select groups of interested horsemen to come out and enjoy lunch while observing the action. Cross country training sessions will be held on the course at Paradise Farm on Route 302 east of town.

There will be four sessions, two in February and two in March. The dates are: February 6-9; February 21-22; March 2-5 and March 16-18. The sessions are for riders on the current High Performance A and B training lists, meaning those who will most likely earn a spot on the team this year, as well as those that have the potential to compete now and in the near future. The winter training list also includes a roster of Developing Riders, who will be participating in the sessions by invitation.

The High Performance Riders are preparing to compete in the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico in October. This year, three of the four riders on the A list are already based in Aiken during the winter months (Phillip Dutton, Boyd Martin and Kim Severson. The fourth rider, Amy Tryon, lives in Washington and will spend the winter months in California.) There are nine riders on the High Performance B list, and at least five of them will definitely be training in Aiken. (Allison Springer, Jennie Brannigan, Will Coleman, Will Faudree and Laine Ashker.) The Developing Rider list has quite a number of familiar Aiken names. These include Sinead Halpin, Doug Payne, Kristin Schmolze and Arden Wildasin. Other Developing Riders who are slated to train here include Danielle Dichting and Lizzie Snow. The complete schedule for the first sessions is available through the Three Runs Plantation website www.ThreeRunsPlantation.com.

Aiken is one of three locations that have been chosen for winter training sessions. The other two are Ocala, where the O'Connors are based, and Thousand Oaks, California. Aiken can make a claim to be the most important of these locations. After all, we have the most riders. (There are 14 who will be training here, as compared to 13 in the other two locations combined.) If you look at just the High Performance riders, Aiken is the clear winner: we have 8 and the other to locations have 5.

For a complete roster of High Performance and Developing riders, go to the USEF website: www.usef.org. (It's a bit of an odyssey to track them down. The easiest way is to search for news releases. The Developing Rider and High Performance Rider lists were published on December 8, 2010.)

Hopes and expectations are high for the U.S. team. After a disappointing showing at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky (the U.S. failed to medal on its own home turf), eventers are looking to redeem themselves in Mexico. The last time the team competed in the Pan Am Games was 2007 in Rio de Janeiro. There they won team gold as well as individual gold, silver and bronze. Anyone wishing to support the U.S. team efforts can make a donation to the USEF. Although there is no specific fund raiser planned at the Three Runs this year, it will be possible to donate at the sessions.

Breakfast at the Gallops

2011-01-28T00:55:00.000-05:00

The Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and Museum is putting on its fifth annual "Breakfast at the Gallops" on Thursday, March 16 from 8 to 10 am at the Aiken Training Track. The event, sponsored by Darley, is designed to give people interested in Thoroughbred racing an inside look at what goes on in a training facility. Local trainers, including Suzy Haslup, will be on hand to talk about training methods and to answer whatever questions people might have as they watch the horses work on the track.

Aiken has long had a reputation as a great place to train young horses, as well as a quiet setting in which to prepare older horses for the next season's campaign. Every winter, freshly minted 2-year olds take their first racing steps on Aiken's historic track. Every summer, scores of those horses go on to win races, and every year, one or two of those Aiken Training Track graduates takes a real shot at greatness, running in the Kentucky Derby, the Travers or the Breeder's Cup. At the Aiken Training Track, you never know which horses you see will become champions.

Tickets for the event cost $15 in advance and $20 at the gate. They can be purchased at the H.O. Weeks Activities Center on Whiskey Road or at the Aiken Training Track Office. Space is limited. A portion of the proceeds will go to support the Aiken Thoroughbred Hall of Fame and Museum.

Winter Polo Developments

2011-01-25T00:53:00.000-05:00

The polo season is still a few months away, but those who travel in polo circles have a lot of big plans. First, there has been quite a bit of winter polo going on this year, despite weather that has been unusually cold. Karen Reese, who has been playing with several groups, says that she counts 47 players who are actively practicing this winter, on at least 11 different fields. Because several local high goalers have stayed home in Aiken before making the pilgrimage to Florida for the professional season in mid-February, the level of these games is sometimes quite high.

"The practices go all the way from baby, baby chukkers for green horses, to flying," she says.

Karen is preparing to entertain more year-round polo at her Hilltop Farm east of town. This winter, she broke ground on a new outdoor polo arena, where she plans to have practices and tournaments in the future. Although local players have proven that it is possible to play on Aiken's fields all winter long, there are certainly some days when the fields are wet and an arena would come in handy. Karen has a more immediate and practical need for an arena, however, since she is interested in providing a place for Aiken Polo Club's new interscholastic polo team to practice.

Interscholastic and intercollegiate polo is arena polo. The rules and the strategies of arena polo are different than they are for the grass game, so Aiken's team so far has been at a disadvantage. Although they have been playing at Clint Nangle's Overbrook Farm in Wagener, they have had very little chance to practice in an actual arena. When the arena at Hilltop Farm is completed, it will become the home base for the APC team. It will also be available for an intercollegiate team from USC Aiken, which has been in the works for several months and may soon become a reality.

The Aiken Polo Club interscholastic team, organized in 2010, currently has five members. The two youngest members are Miranda Gantt and Karen Reese's daughter Tess Pimsner, both of whom are still in grade school. The three older members, Austin Allen, Jeff Schuler and Tyler Morris, are high school students who have been practicing this fall and winter and are on their way to a regional qualifying tournament in Newport, R.I. from February 11 through 13. If they win there, they will qualify for the regionals at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. a few weeks later. The nationals will be in Charlottesville, Va., this spring.

Craig Fraser, who is the polo manager at Aiken Polo Club and the coach of the interscholastic team, explains that the kids have to travel so far because there are not currently enough interscholastic teams to make a Southeast region.

"You need three teams," he says. "We tried to make it work with our team, a team from Atlanta and a team from Charleston, but the Charleston team wasn't ready to compete at this level yet. So our team is competing in the Northeast region."

In order to be eligible for the interscholastics, players must be in at least the fifth grade, and they may not have reached their 19th birthday on September 15 of the year that they are playing. To be a part of the Aiken Polo Club team, players must also live within 100 miles of the club. Since two of the senior members of the current team will soon be too old for the program, Aiken Polo Club is looking for new prospective members. Craig says that kids who would like to play do not need to have prior polo experience and they do not need to have their own horses. Anyone who is interested should email Craig. (craig@pologuy.com).

Spring Polo Plans

2011-01-16T00:52:00.001-05:00

Schedules are out for the spring tournaments in the Aiken area, and everyone is gearing up for what they hope will be an active season. New Bridge Polo Club and 302 Polo Club have coordinated their schedules and will be offering 6, 8 and 12 goal polo, starting in late April and finishing up in June. This is quite a change for 302 Polo, which, in years past, has put on a series of 16-goal tournaments. There will also be the annual 30-goal Aiken Equine Charities Cup, which will be held at New Bridge in May.

Following on the success of their fall schedule of USPA tournaments, Aiken Polo Club will be holding three USPA 4 to 8 goal tournaments in the spring. Practices will begin April 1, and the first tournament, the 6-goal USPA Sportsmanship Cup, begins on April 20. In recent years, Aiken has held a number of four chukker tournaments, which are more economical and easier on some players than the usual six chukker affairs. Generally speaking, these tournaments have been held at the beginning and the end of the season, with the result that players who are not prepared to play in six chukker tournaments sit out much of the middle of the season. To remedy this situation, Craig Fraser, the club manager, has structured the tournament season with both a four and a six chukker arm. Play begins with a four chukker 6 goal in April, after which they may elect to participate in two May four chukker 4 goals, or step up to play in two May six chukker 8 goals.

The schedule also includes Aiken Polo Club's first modern-day women's tournament in June. This is not, of course the first women's polo tournament in the area. The Aiken Ladies Invitational, held under the auspices of the 302 Polo Club each fall, has been going strong for over a decade. The ALI, which is a qualifier for the Women's Championship Tournament in Florida, regularly attracts some of the best female polo talent in the world to play in its upper flights. The USPA Women's Challenge Cup, held June 8 through 12, will be a 2 goal tournament and is likely to include a number of more locally-based teams.

Finally, Kris Bowman, who is the director of club development for the United States Polo Association, says that she is planning to make sure that a number of up-and-coming young players will be on hand for the spring season. The USPA has been running a program called Team USPA (originally Team USA), which identifies young people who are serious about the sport and provides them with coaching, playing and training opportunities. Last year, several of these young people ended up in Aiken after the end of the winter season in Florida, where they worked for top professional players. Several were picked up to play in tournaments at all levels.

This year, Aiken may be an official destination. There are plans in the works to have some training sessions for Team USPA on Aiken's fields in the spring. This could be a good thing for players looking to fill out their teams with fresh young talent.

The Aiken Triple Crown

2011-01-16T00:52:00.000-05:00

The annual Aiken Triple Crown (three consecutive weekends of different horse sports) starts a week later than usual this year. The first event, held Saturday March 19, is the Aiken Trials, a day of racing for young horses that have been training over the winter at the Aiken Training Track. The day usually includes several races for untried 2-year olds, as well as at least one race for older horses.

For the third year, there will also be a race for polo ponies sponsored by The Aiken Horse. The horses will race 300 yards (the length of a polo field) from a standing start. Entrants are required to be actual, experienced polo ponies, preferably ridden by real polo players. The races in 2009 and 2010 were both won by Eli Yale, a former racehorse currently playing at the Aiken Polo Club.

Although it can be a bit difficult to find polo horses that are fit and ready to run so early in the season, players who have participated have enjoyed themselves, and the race is a real crowd pleaser. Polo players who would like to join the action are welcome to put their entries in. If you are interested in racing, send an e-mail message to editor@theaikenhorse.com, or give us a call at 803.643.9960. Get those horses fit now!

Spectators who would like to come to the trials should plan to spend the afternoon. In addition to the races, there will be a carriage parade, a tent party, a hat contest, a best carriage contest, best tailgating spot contest and a traveling mariachi band. Tickets may be purchased in advance at various locations, including Boots, Bridles and Britches and Aiken Saddlery. If you buy in advance, tickets are $10. They're $15 on the day of the races. (www.aikentrainingtrack.com)

The second leg of the Triple Crown will be the Aiken Spring Steeplechase, held on March 26. The spring steeplechase is the first official meet on the National Steeplechasing Association calendar. It is also the largest equestrian spectator event in the area, drawing crowds from local areas as well as from further afield. Railside tailgating spots at the spring steeplechase are sold out months and even years in advance. General admission is always available, however and costs $10 in advance or $15 at the gate. Spectators may also elect to join the party under the tent opposite the finish line, which includes a gourmet lunch and a cash bar. There will also be a dinner and a dance the night before the races. For more information, contact the Steeplechase office at 803.648.9641, or check out the website: www.aikensteeplechase.com.

The final leg of the Triple Crown is the USC Aiken Pacers and Polo Match, which kicks off the spring polo season. This game will take place on Powderhouse Field on Saturday, April 2. The match, which always pulls in a big crowd, is a fundraiser for the University of South Carolina Pacers baseball team.

The night before the game, on Friday, April 1, there will be a party at the fieldside tent. This party, presented by the Equine Steering Committee of the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce, is the third event of the chamber's Equine Performing Arts Series. Called a "Polo Asado and Tango," it will celebrate polo's South American connection, featuring an Argentine-style barbecue over an open fire.

Over the past few years, there have been quite a number of polo-centered fieldside parties called "tangos." Generally, these have featured eating, drinking and socializing, but no dancing. This party will be different, however. The Mike Frost Trio will be playing and the Palmetto Dance Studio is sending instructors. Adios, muchachos.

For more information or to buy tickets, go to the Aiken Chamber of Commerce website: www.aikenchamber.net.

Prominent Trainers and Owners Mourned

2011-01-16T00:50:00.001-05:00

This winter, Aiken's Thoroughbred world lost two prominent members, Mack Miller and Ned Evans. Miller, who was a trainer of champion race horses, died on December 11, 2010, from complications of a stroke. He was 89. A few weeks later, on December 31, Edward "Ned" Evans, one of America's most prominent horse breeders and owners, died from leukemia. He was 68.

Ned Evans was the son of Thomas Mellon Evans, who once maintained a winter training base for his Buckland Farm in Aiken's historic district. After the elder Evans died in 1997, Buckland ceased operations. However, Ned Evans, who owned Spring Hill Farm in Virginia, continued a relationship with the city, regularly sending his young horses to Ron Stevens for winter training. One of Mr. Evans's most successful horses, Quality Road, was the Aiken Trained Horse of the Year in 2009 and 2010, making him the first horse ever to win that title twice.

MacKenzie Todd Miller, known as "Mack" was one of the most illustrious horsemen ever to train horses at Aiken's track. He was born in 1921 in Versailles, Kentucky, and was first exposed to racehorses at 14 when he attended the opening meet at nearby Keeneland with his father, who was a maintenance manager for Greyhound Lines and an amateur horse breeder. Mack saw his first Kentucky Derby two years later when he was 16.

Mr. Miller attended the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Fla, then went on to the University of Kentucky. He dropped out soon afterward to serve in the Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he went to Calumet Farm, so eager to be involved with racehorses he offered to work for nothing. He started out as a groom, and two years later took out his training license. In 1955, he won his first stakes race, and just a year later, trained Leallah, the champion 2-year-old filly of the year.

Mack Miller's career spanned 50 years and he trained 72 stakes winners. In addition to Leallah, he also trained three more champions: Assagai, who was champion male turf horse in 1966, Hawaii who was champion male turf horse of 1969 and Snow Knight who was champion male turf horse of 1975. He was the first trainer ever to develop three different American turf champions.

At the end of his career, Mr. Miller worked as a private trainer for Paul Mellon's Rokeby Stables, which had a winter stable in Aiken. In 1993, when Mr. Miller was 71 and Mr. Mellon was 85, Mellon convinced him to enter the horse Sea Hero in the Kentucky Derby, one of the only major stakes races that neither had won. Sea Hero, who was trained in Aiken, went off at 13-1, but came home the winner, beating the favorite by more than two lengths.

Mack Miller was known for his courtly manner and his ability to get the best out of difficult horses. The Aiken Thoroughbred Hall of Fame has a permanent Mackenzie Miller exhibit that includes photographs, win pictures, paintings and trophies. A video of Sea Hero winning the Kentucky Derby can be found on the hall of fame website: www.aikenracinghalloffame.com.

Spanish Horse Show

2011-01-15T00:49:00.001-05:00

Entries are coming in from up and down the East Coast for the first show in the newly organized Interstates P.R.E. show series to be held at Coves Darden Farm on Route 4. The I.S. P.RE. USA consists of three regional shows culminating in the national championships in November. The shows are for registered P.R.E. (Andalusian) horses, and are recognized by the Associación Nacional de Criadores de Caballos Españoles (ANCCE), which is the official Spanish organization that registers and inspects P.R.E. horses.

The Coves Darden show will be from March 4 through 6. It will include a full roster of conformation classes for fillies, colts, stallions and mares, There will also be a class for geldings and two "cobra" classes in which groups of three or five mares are presented together. The show also has "functionality tests" which are essentially dressage classes. Entries close on February 24.

Judges and officials will be flying in from Spain to ensure that the horses are assessed according to authentic Spanish criteria. There will also be several prominent representatives from Spain on hand, including Javier Conde who is the current president of the ANCCE.

Miguel Coves and Dorothea Darden, who own Coves Darden Farm, are also planning to make the show a sort of mini festival of the Spanish horse, with the goal of introducing new people to the breed, and giving Americans a taste of Spanish equestrian culture.

Future shows in the series will be held in Texas in June and in California in September. The finals will be in Texas in November.

For more information, visit the I.S.P.R.E. USA website: www.ispreusa.com.

Spanish Trainer, American Horses

2010-12-29T00:55:00.000-05:00

On December 17 and 18, Jose Francisco Garcia came to Coves Darden Farm just east of Aiken to conduct a dressage clinic. Jose Francisco Garcia is from the Royal Andalusian School of Equestrian Art in Jerez de la Frontera Spain, where he is a "jinete professor especialista", the highest level of horse trainer. The Royal Andalusian School is world famous for its riding school, which specializes in the art of high school dressage.

Mr. Garcia, who has been working at the school for 26 years, has been responsible for the training of some famous Spanish horses. For instance, when the Spanish team won the silver medal in dressage at the 2004 Olympics in Spain, one of the horses, Oleaje, ridden by Ignacio Rambla, was an animal that he trained for eight years.

Miguel Coves and Dorothea Darden, who invited Mr. Garcia to their farm, both agreed that he was possibly the best rider they had ever seen.

"I have never seen anyone ride a horse like him," says Miguel. "When he gets on a horse, it changes completely. When I see him riding my horse, I want to buy it again!"

"He has a great eye for what a horse needs," adds Dorothea. "He seems to know exactly what to do at the exact right time. It's been fascinating to watch him. He can get so much out of a horse. When he gets on, the horse just transforms."

Riders in the clinic agreed with these sentiments. Although Mr. Garcia is certainly an upper level trainer, he had no problem working with lower level horses, even those that had never really schooled in dressage before. Nancy Bruen Smith brought Mattox, her 9-year-old Percheron-Thoroughbred field hunter.

"Before I came here, I asked myself, am I crazy doing this?" she says. "He is so wonderful, I felt embarrassed at my level to come and take a lesson. But I accomplished so much in just that one lesson, that I can work on what I learned for weeks."

Shirley Singelton, a dressage trainer from [JBG1]Madison, Ga., brought two horses. One was a Swedish Warmblood schooling at Second level. The other was an Azteca (half PRE and half Quarter horse) belonging to her daughter that had been having trouble with his flying changes. Shirley was impressed with Mr. Garcia's understanding of this horse.

"He is the first trainer who really 'got' him," she says, noting that there was a real difference in the way the horse rode at the end of the session.

On Friday afternoon, clinic participants watched while Mr. Garcia schooled Orlando IV, a PRE stallion owned by Coves Darden Farm. At the beginning of the session, spectators chatted amongst themselves. But as the horse and the man worked in the arena, a hush settled over the place. By the end, everyone watching was silent and spellbound.

Francisco says that he enjoys giving lesson to horses and rider of all levels and abilities.

"The level is not important. What is important is to be able to help the person improve his own horse. I think the people came away happy, and the horses came away changed.

"When I give a clinic in America, the people riding dressage tend to have a harder contact," he continues. "I like to convey the art of understanding the horse's feelings, to show people how to play with his balance. It is important that the horse does not suffer, that he goes forward, feels important and enjoys himself. To learn the art of equestrian tact. . . it is like unheard music."

Mr. Garcia will be back for future clinics at Coves Darden Farm. For more information, visit the website: www.covesdardenpre.com. To watch a video of Francisco Jose Garcia's ride on Orlando IV, go to the CovesDarden channel on YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/CovesDarden.

Salute to Driving

2010-12-01T14:40:00.000-05:00

Most people in Aiken are at least reasonably aware that Aiken has many carriage driving enthusiasts. After all, the Aiken Driving Club is quite visible at many of city’s large horse events such as the Aiken Steeplechase and the Aiken Trials. People may not be quite as cognizant of the fact that the carriage driving or coaching group is only one part of the Aiken driving community. The other part, which mostly stays in the Windsor area, are combined driving competitors.

Combined driving, the driven equivalent of a mounted three day event, is an exciting, fast moving international discipline that is recognized by the Federation Equestre International. Driving is part of the World Equestrian Games, and has its own regularly scheduled international championships at various places in Europe. Both ponies and horses compete, and there are divisions for singles, pairs and four-in-hands. It is a growing sport in the United States and Aiken is one of three or four places on the East Coast where driving enthusiasts converge in the winter months. The area boasts one prestigious combined driving event (the annual Katydid CDE) and several smaller ones, along with schooling events, classes and clinics.

All this activity has attracted some of the top whips (drivers) in the business, many of whom are veterans of international competition, or have international aspirations. Being selected to represent the USA overseas is a great honor, but it is also expensive, especially for drivers, who have to transport several carriages and harnesses as well as their horses. The United States Equestrian Foundation provides some funding, but the majority of the USEF support tends to go to other equestrian sports that have a larger popular following.

Lisa Singer, who is one of America’s top drivers, and Bev Lesher, who owns Courage to Lead, one of America’s top driving ponies, decided that it was time for Aiken to help the USEF help the drivers. This year they are starting what they hope will be an annual three-day event intended to raise money for drivers while providing the Aiken area with more exposure to their discipline. The Salute To Driving and Low Country Dinner will take place from February 19 through 21. It will include American Driving Society clinics, a combined test and various other activities. There will also be a low country dinner at Trout Walk Farm in Aiken. All proceeds will go to the USEF and be earmarked for the driving discipline.

“What often happens is that people who have the talent to compete on the international level can’t do it because they can’t afford to travel to Europe,” says Bev, whose pony Courage to Lead won the bronze medal at the World Pony Championships in Greven, Germany in 2009. “We’re doing this because we want to give back to the sport, to help make it possible for our best people to represent us internationally. It’s a matter of national pride.”

Bev and Lisa also hope to educate the uninitiated, who might not know what combined driving is all about. “We’re hoping to have streaming video from the top competitions – the Laurels, Live Oak, the World Championships - so that people can see the sport at the highest levels and start to appreciate the athleticism of it and how exciting it can be.”

For more information, call Bev at 717.554.1241.

Polo Saturday on the Hunt

2010-11-27T14:42:00.002-05:00

How do you get more people out hunting? Theresa King, who recently earned her colors with the Aiken Hounds, thought one good way might be to invite some polo players to come along. As a polo player who started hunting about four years ago, Theresa knew that people who love galloping on the polo field might like to keep on galloping through the woods when the polo season was over. After all, she was bitten by the hunt bug after her first taste of riding with the drag.

“I just love it,” she says. “I love the speed of it, I love jumping and I love being in the woods. I thought that there are so many polo players who turn their horses out in the winter without realizing that there are other options that they might really enjoy. I thought we should make an easy way for polo players to try hunting to see if they liked it, and that’s where the idea of Polo Saturday came from.”

Linda McLean, who is the Master of Foxhounds at Aiken, and Katherine Gunter, who is the huntsman, agreed to give it a try. Invitations went out to Aiken’s polo players, urging them not to pull their horses’ shoes just yet, but to leave them on for a special hunt. The event was originally scheduled for Tuesday, November 16, a few days after the official end of the polo season. Rain disrupted the plan, and so Polo Tuesday became Polo Saturday, a change that may have made it even more attractive. The hunt was open to all polo players at no charge. They did not have to wear hunt attire, but could come in their boots, whites and polo helmets.

No one was quite sure how big the turnout would be beforehand. But on the day of the hunt, polo players took full advantage of the opportunity. In fact, the field was among the biggest of the year with almost 70 riders. Many of the players came dressed for a match, while others wore a combination of hunt and polo attire. Of course, the regular members of the field were riding too, but they may have been outnumbered by those from the polo side of the aisle. Barb Uskup from 302 Polo provided the stirrup cup at Memorial Gate.

In Aiken, of course, polo and hunting often do go together. Some current hunt riders have played a bit of polo, while some polo players also do quite a lot of hunting. In addition to Theresa King, other polo players often seen on the hunt field include Jack Whittemore, Christine Cato, Kim Rodriguez and Todd Martineau. David Smith, who is the Master of Whiskey Road Foxhounds, is also a long-time and dedicated polo player.

The tradition of polo players joining the hunt goes back to the days of the Winter Colony when such families as the Hitchcocks, the Bostwicks and the Knoxes all participated in both sports. Whether many more of today’s polo players will soon be out shopping for black jackets and velvet caps remains to be seen. However, several poloists who made their first forays into the Woods on Saturday were back on a horse at Opening Meet. This time, they looked pretty much like all the other foxhunters in their traditional clothing. Of course, you could pick them out pretty easily – all their horses had roached manes.

New Riding Coach at USCA

2010-11-24T14:44:00.001-05:00

This fall, the University of South Carolina Aiken named John Abbott as the coach of its new riding team. The team will practice at John’s Bridlewood Farm and is expected to start competing regularly in Intercollegiate Horse Show Association shows starting this February. The team has already been to two competitions, the first at Berry College in Rome, Ga. on October 23 and the second just a week later at Lander College in Greenwood, S.C.

The new riding team is a division of the USCA Equestrian Club, which has about a dozen members. The team itself, which requires tryouts and regular lessons at Bridlewood, has just three members at the moment, but John expects that number to grow in the coming months. The IHSA offers competitions in hunt seat as well as Western riding, but John says that right now all of the team members are English riders.

“I hope to build it up into a big program,” he says. “Already, I’ve given tours of the barn to a handful of girls who are considering coming to USC Aiken next year and want to bring their horses with them.” In addition, John says that about half a dozen members of the equestrian club have started taking lessons and expressed an interest in trying out for the team.

Intercollegiate Horse Shows are a democratic affair. In regular horse shows, riders bring their own horses and compete on them, which has the effect of favoring riders who have greater financial resources: a less talented or dedicated rider with a fancier horse will often beat a more talented or dedicated rider with a run-of-the-mill horse. In intercollegiate competition, the host school provides the horses and all the riders compete on comparable mounts. In fact, they draw which horse they will ride out of a hat shortly before entering the ring.

“I think it’s a great program,” says John. “It puts everyone on an equal footing, and it gives young people who might not have the resources to compete an opportunity show and get a taste for it.”

For more information about the USCA Equestrian Club or the Riding Team, contact Sarah Wach at smwach@usca.edu.

Foxhunters on Parade

2010-11-23T14:37:00.002-05:00

The second event in the Equine Performing Arts Series happened Saturday, November 13 when representatives of the Aiken Hounds and Why Worry Hounds arrived at Hopeland Farms for the Foxhunting Parade of Hounds and Hunt Breakfast. The event was part of a series is sponsored by the Equine Steering Committee of the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce. The series is intended to help connect the Aiken’s equestrian community with the community at large by providing educational events showcasing various equestrian disciplines.

A rather large crowd came out to Hopeland Farms, where they were served brunch under a tent overlooking a rolling field and a few hunt type jumps. There were various foxhunting exhibits on site, including a dog kennel holding a number of extremely sweet-looking young foxhounds. Before the arrival of the hunts themselves, guests were entertained by a string quartet.

The parade began with George and Jeanie Thomas, Masters of Why Worry Hounds, who arrived dressed in all their hunt finery to lead the pack across the fields with the help of their whippers-in, Emma Biederman and Juli Hearn. Then, Linda Knox McLean and Katherine Gunter brought the Aiken Hounds Penn-Mary-Dels out for a quick romp up and down the hills and over a few jumps. At the end of each of the demonstrations, the masters brought their packs up to the tent where guests could get a closer look at the horses and the hounds. Some guests got a very close look at the hounds, since several of them ran into the tent, hot on the trail of some entrees. Meanwhile, several people spoke about hunting and hunt traditions, including Larry Byers, who is a foxhunter and a member of the Equine Steering Committee, and Joseph Hardiman who is the professional huntsman at Whiskey Road Foxhounds.

Although many of the people who attended the event looked as if they were already familiar with the hunt scene, there were also quite a few people there who had never before seen foxhounds or foxhunters. But even those who already knew hunting were impressed by the scenic quality of the event as the horses and hounds galloped up the hill, punctuating the muted autumn landscape with vibrant spots of color. And the hounds appreciated it too, especially the ones that got a little lucky in the tent.

Next in the series is the Polo Asado and Tango, which will be held on Powderhouse Field (Powderhouse Road across from the Ford Conger steeplechase course). This dinner and dance will be at 6 p.m. on April 1, the night before the annual Pacers and Polo match, a game that traditionally opens the spring polo season in Aiken and is considered the third leg of the Aiken Triple Crown.

For tickets and more information, contact the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce. www.aikenchamber.net.

Dressage at Devon

2010-10-13T22:36:00.000-04:00

Dressage at Devon, held each fall in Pennsylvania, is probably the most prestigious annual international dressage competition held outside of Europe. It includes a complete breed show, as well as several days of dressage competition and regularly attracts top riders and their horses from all over the United States and beyond. This year marked the show’s 35^th anniversary.

The Aiken-based rider Shawna Harding and her horse Come On III were among the biggest winners at the show this year. First they won the Grand Prix Special qualifier on Saturday, October 2 with 65.149%. Then they returned to the ring on Sunday to win the Gramd Prix Special with a 68.292%.

Come On III, is an 11-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding that Shawna imported and brought up through the levels. This is the horse’s first year at the Grand Prix level, and his performances are getting stronger with each show. After the competition, a reporter asked the judge, Gary Rockwell, if Come on III was an Olympic caliber horse.

“Absolutely,” he replied.

Goodbye to the Barrel Finals

2010-10-12T00:25:00.001-04:00

For the past 17 years, the National Barrel Horse Association has held its championship show at the James Brown Arena in Augusta (also known as the Augusta Civic Center.) This was a huge show, often drawing 600 or more competitors from across the country, as well as from Italy and South America. The Augusta Convention and Visitors Bureau estimated that last year’s championships, which attracted about 8,000 fans, had a local economic impact of about $1.4 million.

This year, however, the National Barrel Horse Association accepted competitive bids from three other cities to hold the show: Tunica, Miss., Jackson, Miss. and Perry, Ga. Perry, which offered a substantial sponsorship package, was the winner. And so, the 2010 championships will be at the Georgia State Fairgrounds from October 25 through 30. In addition to offering the NBHA a better financial deal, the facilities in Perry also afford the event more space and more conveniently located stabling.

Sherry Fulmer, who is the executive director of the NBHA, told the Augusta Chronicle that the bid from the Augusta Civic Center was “not even in the ballpark.” However, the NBHA is based in Augusta, and, according to Ms. Fulmer, it is not out of the question that the finals will someday return to the area

The news that NBHA finals are leaving Augusta sparked speculation that the Augusta Futurity, an annual cutting horse event, would also be on its way out. So far, however, the Augusta Futurity is still slated to come to the civic center from January 21 through 29, 2011. However, according to show management, there will be some changes in the way the show will be run.

In the past, all of the cutting runs were held at the James Brown Arena in downtown Augusta. The majority of the horses are stabled across the Savannah River at the Hippodrome in North Augusta, S. C. This meant that they had to be trailered down Route 1 every time they had a class. The distance was not long, but sometimes there was slow traffic, making the trip a bit of a headache.

This January, the qualifying go-rounds will be held at the indoor Morris Arena at the Hippodrome, with the finals taking place in the Augusta Civic Center. This way, competitors will spend less time on the road and the competition will be more convenient all the way around. It may be a good thing for the vendors, too. Although some vendors have always set up shop at the Hippodrome, the majority have been at the civic center. This year, those that are targeting the competitors (tack shops and the like) may choose to stay at the Hippodrome where they will have more exposure to the people who are riding and caring for their horses all week long.

Time for Steeplechase

2010-10-11T00:31:00.000-04:00

The 19^th renewal of the Fall Steeplechase is coming to Ford Conger Field on Saturday, October 30. As usual, there will be dinner and dancing in the railside tent the night before the event: this year the theme is “Twilight in Transylvania,” in recognition of Halloween. There will be six races, starting at 1 p.m., with the traditional Aiken Driving Club carriage parade between the first and the second races. The featured race is the Budweiser Holiday Cup.

The races at the steeplechase are put on by the National Steeplechase Association, which runs race meets at tracks up and down the East Coast. The Aiken Spring Steeplechase, held on March 20 this year, was the first meet on the NSA calendar. The fall steeplechase is one of the last. Steeplechase horses, riders and trainers travel from meet to meet, trying to win purses and to earn enough money and races to put them at the top of the yearly standings.

By the time Aiken’s fall meet rolls around, most of the big money races will already be over, and the majority of the horses that will be racing here will be less experienced chasers. This is not to say that there won’t be good horses or trainers in evidence. The runaway top trainer this year is Jonathan Sheppard, who almost always brings a few horses to Aiken and is a fan of the town – he even played polo here in years past.

Sheppard, whose horses have won about 30 percent more money this year than those of his next closest rival in the trainer standings, also recently hit a milestone in his career. On September 25, Arcadius, a horse that he saddled for Hudson River Stables, jumped to victory in the $100,000 Helen Haskell Samson Stakes at Monmouth Park in New Jersey. This gave the 69-year-old Sheppard his 1,000^th career win over fences. This is especially impressive considering the low annual number of jump races held each year in the United States – generally there are fewer than 200 per year.

Sheppard, who was elected to the Racing Hall of Fame some 20 years ago, has been the leading trainer in the U.S. 24 times so far. He is the first trainer ever to saddle 1,000 steeplechase winners in this country.

For more information about the steeplechase or to buy tickets to the races or the dinner, visit the website (www.aikensteeplechase.com) or call 803.648.9641.

Katydid is Coming

2010-10-10T00:27:00.002-04:00

Now that the United States Combined Driving four-in-hand team has won a silver medal at the World Equestrian Games, there is no excuse for horse people in Aiken not to know about the sport. If you are not clear on what it is all about, you can get a good introduction at the Katydid Combined Driving Event held from November 7 through 10 at Katydid Farm in Windsor. (It’s on State Park Road and you can’t miss it.)

A combined driving event is just like a three day event, except that the competitors are driving their horses rather than riding them. They also might be driving more than one of them: there are divisions for pairs, for four-in-hands and for tandems, in which one horse is hitched directly behind the other. Dressage is on Friday and cones (driving’s equivalent of stadium jumping) is on Sunday. The best day to come is Saturday for the marathon, when the whips will race their horses through the hazards on the cross-country course– the water hazard is a favorite for spectators. The hazards are timed, so the faster they go, the better.

Katydid has become a well-established Aiken tradition and is also an important event on the national driving calendar. In fact, many of the top whips in the country are likely to be at Katydid, so if you come out to watch, you will have the chance to observe the best in the business. Admission is free, and the action gets started in the morning.

Equine Performing Arts Series

2010-10-10T00:16:00.001-04:00

This fall, everyone in Aiken is invited to attend a new series being presented by the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce’s Equine Steering Committee. The program, called the Equine Performing Arts Series, is intended to showcase various equestrian disciplines, with the aim of “connecting the equine community to the community at large,” according to the chamber’s promotional literature.

The plan is to make the series an annual event, and eventually, to cover all the disciplines represented in Aiken. This year, three disciplines will be represented and there will be four different events. The first event is a kick-off party to be held at Hatchaway Bridge Farms on Saturday, October 23 at 6:30. The theme of the party is “Shagging on the Hill,” and it will feature Kendall Standish, a cabaret singer, and her partner David Brown. The Palmetto Groove band will follow for those who like to dance. Dress is casual.

The second event takes place on Saturday, November 13 at 11:30 a.m. Called the “Traditional Foxhunters’ Parade and Hunt Breakfast,” it will be held at Hopeland Farms and will feature the Aiken Hounds and the Why Worry Hounds. Representatives of each of the hunts will come dressed in their hunt finery and give a demonstration with their packs.

The next event, the “Polo Asado and Tango” has two parts. The first part is an Argentine barbecue and dance held under the tent at Powderhouse Polo Field on the evening of Friday, April 1. If you attend this party, you will also get a ticket to the “Pacers and Polo” match the following day. Pacers and Polo, which is a benefit for the University of South Carolina Aiken’s baseball team (the Pacers), is the third leg of the Aiken Triple Crown and the traditional start of the spring polo season.

The final event, “Show Jumping – Grace over Fences” will be held in conjunction with the Aiken Spring Classic Horse show at Highfields Event Center on Friday, April 29. Liza-Towell Boyd and Harold Chopping, both professional riders who frequent Aiken’s show rings, will give a jumping demonstration.

Tickets to the individual events will be $60 apiece. If you buy a ticket to the whole series, it’s $150. You can buy your tickets online on the Chamber of Commerce website (www.aikenchamber.net) or at Aiken Saddlery, Equine Divine or Meybohm Realtors downtown.

Spanish Horse Inspections

2010-09-30T00:22:00.001-04:00

On September 27, the veterinarian Dr. Aida Huertas came to Coves-Darden Farm in Aiken to conduct a “revision” for the Asociación Nacional de Criadores de Caballos de Pura Raza Española (ANCCE, the Spanish association that registers and inspects purebred Andalusian horses.) Dr. Huertas lives in Spain and works with the ANCCE. She flew to the United States, and spent about two weeks traveling around the country to inspect horses from different states. Before coming to Aiken, she was on the West Coast (Washington and California) and the Midwest (most recently she was in Ohio) and after Aiken she was on her way to Florida.

Like many European breed associations, the ANCCE requires that horses that are going to be used for breeding purposes pass an inspection to ensure that their conformation represents the breed standard. When a horse with approved parents is born, he is “inscribed” in the stud book, DNA typed and microchipped. When he is 3 years old, he can be “revised.” If he passes the revision, he can be used for breeding purposes. If he doesn’t, he becomes a grade horse for all practical purposes: his foals will not be eligible for registration. Both mares and stallions must be revised.

Basic revision has a number of different steps and it must be conducted by an ANCCE veterinarian from Spain. First, the vet scans the horse for the microchip and compares the information on that chip with the horse’s official “carta” (passport.) Then, she conducts a series of measurements. Stallions must be at least 1.52 meters tall at the withers (15 hands) while mares must be at least 1.5 meters (14.3 hands). She also measures the circumference of the cannon bone below the knee and takes several other measurements of various parts of the body. Finally, she conducts a visual inspection to ensure that the horse has no other conformational flaws that will disqualify it. For instance, horses in the Pura Raza Española (PRE) studbook are not supposed to have dished faces. A more common conformational flaw is a “fallen crest” meaning that the crest of the neck flops from one side to another, something that heavy-necked horses can be prone to.

About 30 horses were revised at Coves-Darden Farm this September, including over two dozen Coves-Darden horses and several that shipped in from farms around the area. The majority of these horses passed and had their cartas stamped “apto” (for the stallions) or “apta”(for the mares) to indicate that they had been accepted as ANCCE breeding stock.

Basic revision is the first level of ANCCE approvals. A horse that has been revised can later undergo more rigorous evaluations to become “calificado” (“qualified”). There are only a handful of qualified PRE horses in the United States, seven of them at Coves-Darden Farm. One reason that so few horses in the U.S. are qualified is that there is currently no way for horses to undergo the more rigorous qualification examination in this country. Miguel Coves and Dorothea Darden of Coves-Darden Farm are working with the ANCCE to bring those examinations here sometime in the near future.

Coves-Darden Farm, established in Aiken two years ago this October, is an active breeding farm and currently has some 75 PRE. horses coming from many of the top bloodlines in Spain.

The World is Coming

2010-08-31T00:39:00.001-04:00

After five years of preparation, Lexington, Kentucky is bracing for the arrival of the world’s best equine athletes. They are coming for the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games, which begin on September 25 at the Kentucky Horse Park. Although at this writing the games are less than a month away, the American teams are not yet set. However, each discipline has submitted a list of “nominated entries” to the Fédération Equestre Internationale, the organization that oversees international equestrian sport. Aiken has a number of representatives on these lists, including a handful of horsemen who are virtual shoo-ins.

One of the probable competitors is Robin Brueckmann, who will likely be riding on the para dressage team. Although Robin lives in North Carolina, the horse she will compete is Raison d’Etre, a Thoroughbred/Holsteiner cross gelding owned and trained by Ellie Schobel, one of Aiken’s premier dressage riders. Robin was selected as a “nominated entry” on the American team after final selection trials at Lamplight Farm in Wayne, Illinois this past June. Para dressage is a dressage competition for people with disabilities; 2010 is the first time that it will be included in the WEG. The competition runs from October 5 though October 10.

Other probable entries are three event riders who train and compete here during the winter months. The first and most likely is Phillip Dutton, who has been the first-ranked event rider in the United States for ten years straight. Phillip is on the nominated entry list with five horses, one of which is Connaught, a 17-year-old Irish Sporthorse gelding owned by Bruce Duchossois, a full-time Aiken resident. Phillip was born in Australia, but became an American citizen in 2006, in time to represent the U.S. at the 2008 Olympics in Hong Kong.

The second eventer with Aiken ties is Boyd Martin, another rider who grew up in Australia. Although Boyd has always held dual Australian/American citizenship (his mother, an American, represented this country at the 1968 Olympics on the speed-skating team) he only recently switched his competitive nationality from Australian to American. Boyd first came to Aiken as Phillip’s assistant, and now has his own training business called Windurra USA that he runs with his wife, Silva, an FEI-level dressage rider and coach. Boyd is nominated with two horses, Remington and Neville Bardos.

Aiken’s third eventing hopeful is Kim Severson, who won the individual silver medal and team bronze at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Kim is nominated with the grey Irish Sporthorse gelding Tipperary Liadhnan. Although Kim’s home base is in Virginia, she spends several months in Aiken each winter, where she competes her young horses and conducts annual clinics.

The nominated entries for the eventing team have one mandatory outing left, the LandRover 2010 USEA American Eventing Championships in Fairburn, Ga. from September 9 through 12. Definite entries for the WEG will be named by September 25, and the eventing portion of the games runs from September 30 through October 3.

The final Aiken hopeful is Bill Long, who lives in Southern Pines, N.C., but who is on the nominated entry to compete in combined driving with a team of Gelderlander geldings lent to him by Jack Wetzel, an Aiken resident. The geldings (Digger, Director, Exodus and Bowman) are relative newcomers to the sport of combined driving, although they are an experienced four-in-hand coaching team. In fact, anyone who has seen a carriage parade in Aiken can probably picture them now: they are the stunning foursome of black horses with white socks and blazes that are customarily the parade’s leaders.

Jack Wetzel turned the team over to Bill Long, an experienced international competitor, not quite two years ago, and they have been competing against the best in the country ever since. As one of ten nominated four-in-hands, they are a definite possibility to compete, most likely as an individual entry rather than as part of the four-man American team. They are participating in a mandatory outing at the Carolina Horse Park in Southern Pines on August 28 through 31. The combined driving competition at the WEG runs from October 7 through 10.

If all this talk about the World Equestrian Games is making you wish you had bought tickets, take heart. It might not be too late. Although no one is saying this out loud, tickets and hotel rooms don’t appear to be selling as wildly as the organizers had hoped. In fact, tickets are still available, even to the hottest events such as the Grand Prix Freestyle and the Individual Show Jumping Final. Some ticket prices have been discounted, and hotels around Lexington, which had raised prices with visions of a bonanza, have mostly dropped them again. Check out www.alltechfeigames.com for last minute arrangements.

Angel is Gold in Puerto Rico

2010-08-26T00:50:00.002-04:00

Angel Karolyi, who rides with Andrea King of Hollow Creek Stables in Aiken, flew to Mayaguez, Puerto Rico this July to compete in the Central American and Caribbean Games as part of the Venezuelan show jumping team. Angel, who was born in Venezuela, was selected for the team this winter in Florida. He piloted Abigail Walker’s James T. Kirk, a 10 year-old half Thoroughbred gelding that he often shows in the Aiken-area Grand Prix.

The Venezuelan team, anchored by Pablo Barrios, beat all comers to win the Nations Cup competition, earning Angel, who jumped solidly, a gold medal. Barrios also won both the speed competition and the overall individual gold. It was the first time in the 21-year history of the games that one country has won all three gold medals in the jumping division.

“It was great experience,” says Angel, who will be back competing in Aiken at the Equus Events shows this fall. “It was a big step up for me and for the horse.”

Angel will be taking time off from his own showing schedule to attend the World Equestrian Games as a spectator this month. “Venezuela is not sending a show jumping team,” he says. “But there will be two Venezuelans there, Pablo Barrios and Andres Rodriguez. It’s very exciting to see the people from Venezuela starting to do so well on an international level.” Pablo Barrios recently won the puissance class at the Irish International Horse Show in Dublin.

Angel plans to show in Aiken and Tennessee this fall, riding several different horses, including James T. Kirk, Galant (a horse that has carried him to numerous Grand Prix wins) and a new horse for him, Rolling Stone who is, he says “a great horse that just needs a little more experience.”

Shawna’s Winning Way

2010-08-24T20:59:00.002-04:00

Shawna Harding has been making a name for herself on the Grand Prix circuit this year riding her 11-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding, Come On III. Although she only recently moved the horse up to the Grand Prix Level, the pair did well enough to qualify for the Collecting Gaits Farm USEF Festival of Champions in Gladstone, New Jersey this August. This two-weekend-long competition featured the top dressage horses and riders in the nation. It was, in fact, the final qualifying event for riders who hoped to make the U.S. dressage team at the 2010 World Equestrian Games.

Although Shawna and Come on III acquitted themselves admirably against the toughest competition in the nation, the pair did not quite make the cut this time. It is likely that with more experience at this level, they will be able to improve their performance and be contenders for future competitions.

But Shawna may also have some other opportunities. Come On III is not the only winning horse that she is riding and training. She has also been bringing along a 9-year-old Hanoverian gelding named Rigo, owned by Tonya Rowe. Shawna has been competing Rigo since he was imported from Germany in 2006, and the pair have racked up an impressive list of scores, wins and titles from First Level in 2006 up through FEI Prix St. Georges Level this year.

This July, Shawna and Rigo were invited to compete at the U.S. Developing Horse Championship at Lamplight in Wayne, Ill. There, the pair put away the competition, winning both the qualifying test and the championship by a wide margin and an overall score of 71.697 percent. The Developing Horse Championship is for horses that are from 7 to 9 years old, and is intended to recognize up-and-coming horses with the ability to compete internationally.

If Rigo continues along the same path he is on now, Shawna may soon have two horses competing at the Grand Prix Level with a serious shot at representing the U.S. in international competition. Although both horses are talented, willing animals with big hearts and a strong work ethic, physically they are quite different. Come On III is an imposing, 17.2 hand bay with an immediately striking appearance. Rigo stands about 15.2, and is most impressive for his extravagant movement. (Shawna reportedly calls him a “little sausage.”)

If you haven’t seen Shawna competing lately, you can always catch up with her career on YouTube. Shawna has her own YouTube channel where you can see many of her rides, including her two tests with Rigo at the Developing Horse Championships this summer.

Keeping Pace

2010-08-22T10:16:00.002-04:00

Over the last year, Pace Kneece of Aiken County Farm Supply has added a new option to the array of horse feeds available in the area. This option is Keep Pace, a proprietary feed, mixed and bagged at Orangeburg Milling Company. Keep Pace is a beet-pulp-based, high fat, low starch pellet originally designed for horses that have metabolic issues. The feed, which does not contain grain or sugars, has been selling at Aiken County Farm Supply since last December, and has a growing local following.

“It’s simple, but it’s good,” says Pace, explaining that the feed was formulated with the help of Amy DoBranski, a local equine dentist and feed consultant. Concentrates that do not contain grain are becoming popular, both for horses that have issues with grain, such as horses that have foundered, and for horses without such problems. Keep Pace includes alfalfa meal, soybean hulls and wheat middlings, as well as a liberal dose of flaxseed meal and stabilized rice bran to provide Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids. The feed even includes brewer’s yeast, kelp and peppermint.

“It’s a well-priced feed,” says Pace. “And it seems to be catching on. We’ve sold over 240 tons of it just this first year.”

Keep Pace is sold at Aiken County Farm Supply, and will soon be available at various locations around South Carolina and Georgia, including Camden, Charleston and Beaufort, S.C. and Grovetown, Atkinson and Sylvania, Ga.

Let the Waters Flow

2010-08-21T00:57:00.001-04:00

If you haven’t been in the horse district since last spring, you may be in for a surprise. For decades, there has been a problem with storm water drainage around Whitney Field. It was a problem that would go unnoticed in years with drought conditions. But when rain has been abundant, the field itself has been soggy, and backyards and basements in surrounding houses have flooded. In 2008, there was enough rain that Whitney Field itself became essentially unplayable, with turf so wet it would come up in sheets when polo ponies stopped quickly.

At the end of May, the Aiken City Council approved a plan to improve the drainage in the area by clearing brush and trees, cleaning out the old drainage ditches that surround the field and installing drains to shunt the water into a series of catch basins and retention areas. There was an existing drainage system at Whitney Field, apparently built in the 1940s, that included ditches and a network of pipes. According to Larry Morris, who is the director of Public Works Administration and Engineering for the city, that system had hardly been touched since that time and was no longer operating.

“All the ditches were full of undergrowth and trees,” he says. “It wasn’t percolating well. We went in there and removed the bushes and a number of trees. They were big trees, because they had been getting a lot of water and they grew well. But they can’t have been that old. I have a picture of the place taken in the 1930s and there was not one tree beside the polo field.”

The city’s crews removed enough brush to increase the size of the sand track next to the polo field by about a third. This had a dual purpose: not only did it help clear the ground for the new drainage ditches, it also opened up the area so that young horses that train there will have a better view of what is going on around them. According to Morris, the Whitney Trustees, who own the property, asked to have some extra clearing done for this reason.

“When horses know something is moving behind a bush, they are going to shy more if they can’t really see it,” says Morris.

Work on the Whitney Field area started in June. Although the schedule called for it to be completed by Labor Day, there is still a fair amount of work to be done. Heavy rainfall throughout the month of August slowed the job down by keeping the drainage ditches full and making it impossible to do significant work on the drainage pipes. But with a few dry days, the project should be back on track.

“We just ask people to be patient with us,” says Morris. “We’re working on it!”

Summer Activities

2010-06-12T23:24:00.002-04:00

Not too long ago, when you talked about Aiken’s equestrian activities, you would just be talking about things that happen in the colder months, between, say, November and May. Over the summer months, Aiken’s horsemen kept a low profile, training their horses in the early morning hours before the sun got too strong, or turning them out for the summer, or leaving town altogether.

These days however, the calendar has expanded, and there are organized horse activities all summer long. For polo players, there will once again be a summer league at 302 Polo Club. This is the fifth year of organized summer polo in the county. Practices will be Sundays at 9 am and Wednesdays and Fridays at 6 pm. This is a change from prior years, when all of the practices were held in the morning. The league starts on June 23. Check out the 302 Polo website for more information. (www.302polo.com).

For the eventing crowd, there will be clinics at both Full Gallop Farm and Paradise Farm. Full Gallop will have Steven Bradley in June and Ryan Wood in July, while Lellie Ward, who owns Paradise Farm, will conduct her own clinics in June, July and August. Full Gallop will also have one unrecognized combined training event per month, culminating in their recognized horse trials on August 28 and 29. (For more information: www.fullgallopenterprises.com orwww.paradisefarmaiken.com)

For the hunter/jumper crowd, there will also be shows, including economically priced schooling shows at Belvoir Farm in Windsor (www.belvoirfarm.com), as well as at Red Top Farm in Johnston. Highfields Event Center will hold a local show on July Fourth weekend. In addition, a number of trainers will continue working with their horses and students in Aiken while showing in North Carolina, Kentucky and farther afield.

Things might be a little slower around town, especially in the month of July, but the Aiken horse world does not grind to a halt just because it is a little bit warm. Of course, many people in the community are just resting up for another action-packed September.

Denise Boudrot Hopkins Dies

2010-06-12T23:00:00.000-04:00

Denise Boudrot Hopkins, a pioneering female jockey who rode over 1,000 winners on the New England circuit, died this May from brain cancer. Denise, who was 57, rode in her first race in 1972, just three years after Diane Crump broke the gender barrier by riding in a parimutuel race at Hialeah racetrack. She gained national fame in 1974 when she rode 94 winners in 92 days at Suffolk Downs in Boston, giving her the autumn riding title at the track. This feat garnered her a glowing profile in Sports Illustrated, which hailed her as the first of a “second generation of female riders.” Her ability to find the winner’s circle with the most unlikely of mounts earned her the nickname “Longshot Lady.” In the early 1970s, she bought her parents a farm in Elloree, S.C., which was called Longshot Lady Farm.

Denise later married Roland Hopkins, a racehorse owner and newspaper publisher – they first met when he hired her to pilot his longshot, Mostly Jesting, in a race at Suffolk Downs in 1982. (The horse paid $134 when he won.) After 13 years on the track, she retired from professional riding, and hit the horse show circuit. In the mid-2000s, she trained her Quarter Horse gelding, Cleve Kadiddlehopper to be a trick horse, and began traveling around the country performing an act called “The Reluctant Racehorse” in which Cleve would do such things as lie down on the track and sit in a beanbag chair. Denise brought this show to town in 2008, when she and Cleve performed at the Aiken Trials.

Denise will be posthumously inducted into the New England Turf Writer’s Association Hall of Fame on July 29.

New Adoption Center for Aiken SPCA

2010-06-12T22:29:00.000-04:00

Seventy-five years ago, a group of New York ladies who spent the colder months in Aiken as part of the Winter Colony got together to create the Aiken Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. In the beginning, the organization was chiefly dedicated to protecting working horses, cattle and mules, doing such things as supplying “any farmer” with “free of charge a rustless snapper bit in exchange for his old wire bit” and giving out leather tubes to put on working harnesses to prevent chafing. Other activities included an annual pet dog show, which was held at the Tea Cottage in the Hitchcock Woods as early as 1935. This was a precursor to today’s annual Westmuttster show, which is sponsored by the Aiken SPCA every fall.

Over the years, the society grew and changed. Today, the SPCA, which is a 501c3 charity and is not affiliated any other humane or governmental organization, is based on Wire Road. There, it operates an animal shelter, a spay/neuter facility and an adoption center for animals found or surrendered in the City of Aiken. It is a no kill shelter, and frequently accepts adoptable cats, dogs and other animals found in Aiken County and the surrounding areas. According to Gary Willoughby, who is the SPCA’s executive director, the main shelter, built in 1981, was not really intended to be a shelter.

“It was originally designed as a spay/neuter clinic,” he says. “But it evolved into being a shelter as well.”

Starting last January, members of the Aiken SPCA board have been working on a plan to build a new shelter, adoption center and spay/neuter facility on a 10-acre parcel of land that they own on Willow Run Road between Richland Avenue and the bypass. The plan calls for a state-of-the art building, with safe and comfortable living areas for dogs and cats, as well as a barn for horses, goats and potbellied pigs. There will also be an expanded spay/neuter facility with the capacity to perform up to 12,000 operations per year, an education and training center, a retail shop, a medical center and special adoption areas. The 2-acre dog park, complete with splash pool, opened last December.

The new building will cost in the neighborhood of $5 million. For the past year, the SPCA has been in the “quiet part” of the fundraising campaign, according to Gary Willoughby. In that time, they have already raised about $3.2 million, mostly from their board members and other major donors, who have given gifts as large as $350,000. About two weeks ago, they launched their general campaign, soliciting donations from the community at large.

“Folks can buy bricks that will be installed on paths in the dog park, or bricks and photo tiles that will be installed on the inside of the building,” he says. “There are also naming opportunities for benches and paths in the dog park, as well as for all of the rooms in the facility. You can also donate a live oak tree, like the trees that line South Boundary, which will be planted on either side of our driveway.”

Although the new facility will be able to take in and house more dogs and cats, the focus of the expansion is on the quality of care that the SPCA can provide, not on the number of animals it can accommodate. The expansion of the organization’s spay/neuter program is probably the most important element in the project.

“We can’t adopt our way out of pet overpopulation,” says Gary, explaining that with the new facility the Aiken SPCA will be able to offer spay/neuter services to animals within a 50 mile radius of Aiken.

“We’ll have a larger facility so that our animals can live in better conditions,” he says. “Dogs will be in rooms where they can’t see their neighbors, so they won’t be stressed out and there will be less barking. The cats will live in colonies with climbing walls, perches and covered screen porches so that they can get some fresh air.

“Our mailing about the facility just went out about three days ago,” he continues. “And we’ve already gotten about 100 envelopes back. There are a lot of big animal lovers in Aiken.”

Organizers hope to be able to break ground before the end of this year, and expect that the new building will take about 10 months to complete.

“We hope to be open by Christmas of next year,” says Gary.

A complete, 18-page brochure with drawings of the new facility may be downloaded from the Aiken SPCA website (www.aikenspca.org). If you would like to donate to the project, volunteer to help the fundraising effort, or buy a brick, a tile or a tree, contact Gary Willoughby at 803-648-6863.

South Carolina’s Heritage Horse

2010-06-11T23:32:00.000-04:00

As of this June, South Carolina has its own official State Heritage Horse. This is the Marsh Tacky Horse, a rare breed native to the coastal areas of the state. Descended from the original horses brought to the new world from Spain, the Marsh Tacky once roamed in feral herds throughout South Carolina’s low country. Sure-footed and hardy, the horses were often used for transportation and are said to have been the mounts of General Francis Marion, the Revolutionary War hero, whose forces repeatedly stymied the British by disappearing into a maze of swamp trails along the coast. This earned Marion the nickname “Swamp Fox” as well as the title “Father of American Guerilla Warfare.”

The Marsh Tacky is a small horse, standing 13 to 15 hands high. It comes in a range of colors, but is often dun, grullo or roan, colors often associated with horses descended from Spanish stock. Its most notable trait is its calm, level-headed temperament. People who ride Marsh Tackies says that they are extremely comfortable, and a recent study conducted at Mississippi State University showed that the horses are actually gaited, performing a “broken trot” in which the diagonal pairs of legs are disassociated as they hit the ground, creating a smoother ride. The gait is quite distinctive, and appears to be closest to the marcha batida gait performed by the Mangalarga Marchador, which is the national horse of Brazil. The Marsh Tacky gait doesn’t have an official name yet, but some candidates include “Swamp Fox Trot” and “Barrier Island Shuffle.”

The American Rare Breeds Conservancy lists the Marsh Tacky as “critical” on its endangered species list. The Carolina Marsh Tacky Association, formed in 2007, currently has just 252 horses listed on its registry, but is in the process of devising a strategy to preserve the breed while optimizing and protecting its genetic diversity.

The bill to get the Marsh Tacky recognized as the official breed of South Carolina passed the State Senate in April and the State House on June 1. It was ratified on June 7. Also this June, the North Carolina House of Representative designated the Colonial Spanish Mustang as that state’s official horse. Governor Bev Perdue is expected to sign that bill into law this month.

Aikenite’s Preakness

2010-06-01T23:30:00.002-04:00

On May 15, Aiken had a local horse to cheer for in the Preakness Stakes at the Pimlico Racetrack in Baltimore. Aikenite, a 3-year-old colt owned by Dogwood Stable, drew post position one, on the inside rail. The morning line put his odds at 20-1, but people who knew the horse thought he might have the ability to pull off an upset. He came to the race as one of two colts trained by Todd Pletcher. The other was Supersaver, the horse that won the Kentucky Derby just two weeks earlier.

Aikenite, who won his maiden in Saratoga as a 2-year-old, earned just over $300,000 in his eight starts before the Preakness. Although he hadn’t been back to the winner’s circle since Saratoga, he had run several impressive graded stakes races, and his late-closing style seemed to indicate that longer distances might suit him.

Dogwood’s president, Cot Campbell, gave the jockey Javier Castellano, his instructions before the race.

“I told the rider to take him back about ten lengths off the pace, and at the half mile pole to push the button and come running,” says Mr. Campbell.

But the race would not go Aikenite’s way.

“It just wasn’t a good day for him,” says Campbell. “He didn’t like the racetrack, or for some other reason, the real Aikenite did not show up that day. After the race, the jockey said to me ‘I pushed the button, but there was nobody home.’”

Although he did make a good move for short while, Aikenite finished near the back of the pack, along with his stablemate Supersaver.

“I felt bad about it for the City of Aiken, because so many people were rooting for him,” says Campbell. “He’s just a lot better than what he showed that day.”

Aikenite is entered in an allowance race at Belmont Park on June 19, and his connections will assess his future after that.

“If he runs a big race, maybe we’ll go back to stakes races. Right now we need to win a race with him, to get his confidence back,” says Campbell.

Dogwood has some other horses to get excited about, among them Lou Brissie, who made his debut at the Aiken Trails this March. A son of Dogwood’s champion Limehouse, Lou Brissie was second by a nose in his race at the Trials, which does not count on his official race record. He then went to Keeneland in Kentucky, where he broke his maiden on April 15. He won his second race, the Grade III Kentucky Juvenile Stakes, on April 30. His next race will be the Bashford Manor Stakes at Churchill Downs on July 3.

“He’s following in the exact same pattern as Limehouse,” says Cot, noting that Limehouse also broke his maiden at Keeneland, then won the Kentucky Juvenile, and went on to win the Bashford Manor. Limehouse won seven of 21 starts in his career, which included a fourth place finish in the 2004 Kentucky Derby behind Smarty Jones. In 2005, he was named Aiken Trained Horse of the Year. He now stands at stud at Vinery in Kentucky. Lou Brissie is from his second crop.

According to Cot Campbell, Dogwood is having a good season, and already has more winners this year than they did in all of 2009. The stable moves to Saratoga for seven weeks in the summer, where many of their 2-year-olds will run their first races.

“We’re happy,” says Cot. “We’ve got a lovely bunch of 2-year-olds, and we’re excited about them, but we’re excited every year about the 2-year-olds. That’s the nature of the game.”

New Medication Rules for Polo

2010-04-04T10:55:00.001-04:00

Polo’s Medication Rules
A Pilot Program

By Pam Gleason

Just one year ago, 21 polo horses in Florida suddenly collapsed and died after being injected with an improperly compounded vitamin cocktail. The horses, from the Lechuza Caracas team, were on their way to a quarter final match of the United States Open Polo Tournament that was to be played at the International Polo Club Palm Beach. It was the Sunday game. The majority of the horses were stricken at the field, and frantic attempts to save them were in full view of the crowd of spectators and members of the polo community. The incident became national and international news, as Food and Drug Administration and Florida Department of Agriculture investigators tried to determine what had killed the horses. Unofficial speculation was rampant: perhaps the horses were given a dangerous performance enhancing drug; maybe their vitamins were tainted with cleaning fluid; maybe they were intentionally poisoned by someone who had a vendetta against Victor Vargas, the Venezuelan banker who owns the team and most of the horses on it.

In the end, it was concluded that the horses were killed by selenium, a trace mineral that was accidentally put into an intravenous vitamin and mineral mixture at a lethal dose. In the media frenzy surrounding the event, reporters often noted that polo in the United States had no medication laws whatsoever. Most other high performance horse sports do have anti-doping laws, including Thoroughbred racing, show jumping, driving and dressage. Over the past several years, many people in the polo community had been thinking that it was time to introduce some kind of medication rules into the sport. The tragedy in Florida got the ball rolling.

Several weeks after the incident, the United States Polo Association announced the formation of its Polo Pony Welfare Committee (PPWC), which included 21 volunteer members and was headed by Dr. Bill Patterson. Among the topics addressed by this committee was whether and how to institute medication rules for the sport.

“We met in my office every Wednesday afternoon,” says Peter Rizzo, who is the executive director of the USPA and sits on the board of the PPWC. “First we went into a research phase to see what all the other organizations do. We’re not the first sport to face these issues, of course. What we concluded was that getting the correct rules is going to take time, and that we probably won’t get it right the first year, but it was time to get a program going.”

The PPWC presented its conclusions at the annual meeting of the USPA board of governors in October 2009, where it was unanimously agreed to start a drug testing program. On February 25, the USPA announced a pilot program for “Equine Drug and Medication Testing,” publishing a list of permitted, regulated and banned substances, and giving members of the association one month to familiarize themselves with the new regulations before they went into effect. As of March 28, anyone playing in a USPA event is implicitly agreeing to submit their horses to random drug testing. The list of permitted substances is fairly liberal, and the rules include provisions for filing veterinary reports, documenting that individual horses are being treated with various regulated substances for therapeutic purposes. The complete rules and regulations are posted on the USPA website (www.us-polo.org).

“It isn’t our intention to stop people from medicating their horses,” says Peter Rizzo. “We just want to make sure that whatever people are doing, they are doing under the supervision of their veterinarian and that it is for a legitimate, therapeutic reason.”

The rules permit the administration of antibiotics (with the exception of penicillin procaine), hormonal therapies (such as Regumate) anti-ulcer medications (such as Gastroguard) and dewormers. Some other drugs, such as the corticosteroid dexamethasone (Azium) and various nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (such as Bute) are permitted at restricted levels. There are specific prohibitions against “any stimulant, depressant, tranquilizer, local anesthetic, psychotropic (mood and/or behavior altering) substance, or drugs which might affect the performance of a horse.” The rules also state that “all other drug classes not specifically permitted herein these rules are prohibited.”

One class of substances not mentioned in the rules are the chondroprotectives, which are chemicals that protect and lubricate cartilage and joints. These include oral supplements such as glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate, as well as intramuscular and intravenous formulations such as Adequan and Legend. Chondroprotectives mimic chemicals found naturally in the body, and are among a small number of therapeutic agents that are legal under Fédération Équestre International (FEI) rules, which govern international horse sports such as the Olympics and the World Equestrian Games.

“All the chondroprotectives are allowed,” says Dr. Bill Patterson. “We didn’t know there would be so much confusion about that.”

In addition to rules about medications, the new regulations contain specific prohibitions against various ingredients in the vitamin cocktail that was administered to the stricken horses in Florida. For instance, you are not allowed to give selenium injections “in any application and dosage amount” nor can you give any vitamins and minerals “no matter how applied, when given in excessive dosage quantities for non-therapeutic reasons.”

“We wanted to take a stand,” says Peter Rizzo. “We wanted to name those substances. Medication rules would not have prevented what happened in Florida. But when you hyper-medicate horses, anything can be harmful. So some of it is a statement: things like selenium you can’t do.”

The drugs and medication program will be administered by the United States Equestrian Federation, which is the organization that oversees many equestrian sports in the U.S. Drug testing teams will act independently of the polo organization: the USPA will give the USEF a list of tournaments across the country, and the USEF will choose where it will send its agents, without informing anyone in polo.

“There will be testing at USPA tournaments all across the country at all handicap levels starting on March 28,” says Dr. Patterson. “Essentially, we’re looking at doing 20 to 22 tournament events this year. Testers will take samples from 12 to 16 horses at an event. The horses sampled will be chosen at random.”

In the first year of the program, although violators of the medication rules will be informed about a positive test, the USPA has not established any specific penalties. Proposed sanctions will be ready for discussion at the USPA fall meetings, held the last week in August in Santa Barbara.

So far, reaction to the program has been overwhelmingly positive. In early March, the USPA held an open telephone forum to discuss the new rules with any members who wanted to call in. About 25 players participated. Many people had questions about details of the program, but most also said that they thought it was about time that the association had some medication guidelines.

“I look at it from a positive perspective in that I think that it will get people to think about what they are doing with their horses, and encourage an ethical use of therapeutic agents,” says Bill Patterson.

“It’s all about the welfare of the horses, and we want the heightened awareness of that,” says Peter Rizzo. “We could talk about drug profiles and testing and clearance times, but the bottom line is that this is meant to preserve the welfare of the horses. We want people to use their vets and their best judgment to take care of their animals. That’s what polo is all about.”

For more information about the pilot program, go to the USPA website. The USPA welcomes questions about the details of the program.

Aiken Polo Pony Race

2010-03-15T11:37:00.006-04:00

When riders lined their horses up for the Post Trophy, the second annual Aiken Polo Pony race at the Aiken Trials, pretty much everyone knew there was one horse to beat. That horse, Eli Yale, was a 7-year-old Thoroughbred gelding who started his career on the racetrack before moving on to polo. In 2009, he took the inaugural Aiken Polo Pony race easily, setting a track record of 17 seconds for the 300-yard distance. His chief advantage then was that he got away so fast from the standing start that no other horse came near him. This year, he would be challenged by two of the same horses from 2009, along with three newcomers.

The polo pony race was the fourth on the card, scheduled to run between the three races for 2-year-olds and the two longer races for older horses. The sprint was 300 yards, the length of a polo field, with the start at the head of the stretch. The starter, Peter Krebs, lined the horses up, and then dropped his red flag. This time there would be no advantage for Eli Yale: the four horses on the inside of the track broke together and started their dash to the finish line. The two horses on the outside were caught a bit flat-footed, but were soon in on the chase.

It took only a few strides for Eli Yale to take the lead once again. Aztec, the second place finisher in 2009, was hot on his heels for the first half of the race, but by the time they went under the wire, it was Eli Yale all the way. He won by four lengths, bettering his 2009 time by 2.75 seconds. This lowered the track record to 14.25 seconds, and made the polo pony race, yard-for-yard, the fastest of the day.

Eli Yale is owned, trained and ridden by Pam Gleason, who plays polo at the Aiken Polo Club.

“In last year’s race, I just let him run,” says Pam. “This year, I wanted to see how fast he could go, so I asked him a little bit. He gave me a lot.”

Aztec, owned by The Aiken Horse, LLC, trained by Gary Knoll and ridden by Theresa King, was second. Third was Concepcion, owned, trained and ridden by Christine Cato. Tom Uskup, who came to the race dressed as the Easter Bunny, was fourth on a very good natured horse named Cederic. Party Til Dawn, ridden by Elissa Fridley and Callie ridden by Courtney Schwegler rounded out the field. Both horses are owned by David Smith.

The Aiken Polo Pony race was sponsored by The Aiken Horse.

Aiken's Snow Storm

2010-02-20T11:34:00.002-05:00

Snowbirds Get Snow

Ask horse people who came to Aiken from the North why they are here, and most of them will reply “to get away from the snow,” or some variation of that statement. That’s why it was a bit ironic that many horse people in the community were so excited when snow was predicted for the evening of Friday, February 12.

Of course, snow is not entirely unheard of in Aiken. Every few winters there will be snow in the forecast, and sometimes there are even a few flakes, or a cool dusting that throws the local forecasters into a tizzy. Usually, however, the snow never comes, or if it does, it’s hardly enough to whiten the sidewalk.

The winter of 2010, however, was a winter for snow everywhere. There were feet of it in North Carolina, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and all points north. When the snow started to fall in Aiken on Friday night, it was real snow, with big, determined flakes. It was clearly going to stick.

By the next morning, there were about five fresh white inches in downtown Aiken, and farms in the Wagener area recorded as much as seven or eight inches. There was so much snow that they had to postpone the classes at the Progressive Show Jumping horse show at Highfields Farm in Aiken, as well as the Saturday divisions of the United States Eventing Association horse trials at Pine Top Farm in Thompson, Ga.

Saturday morning, the earth was white, the sun was bright, the air was warm, and pretty much everyone in the county took a snow day. Children, adults and animals alike played in the snow. People took pictures, threw snowballs, made snowmen, and commented, over and again, on how beautiful it all was. Numerous websites of local stables now feature photographs of their barns and paddocks covered in snow. Perhaps their owners were so carried away with the novelty, they forgot that a snow-covered barn is hardly a way to advertise Aiken as a great place to ride in the winter.

Of course, snow in Aiken is different from snow in most other places. For one thing, no one had to worry much about digging themselves out. As the day wore on, the sun grew stronger, and the snow started to disappear. By the late afternoon, it was mostly gone, lingering a little longer under the trees, like a reverse shadow. On Sunday, the snow was just a memory. And like so many things you see only briefly, it certainly was beautiful.

Aiken’s Triple Crown

2010-02-02T21:52:00.000-05:00

If it’s spring, that means it’s time for the Aiken Triple Crown, the three-weekend-long celebration of horse sports that includes The Aiken Trials, The Aiken Steeplechase and the USC Aiken Pacers and Polo match. These three events are among the biggest spectator sports on Aiken’s equestrian calendar. The spring steeplechase is undoubtedly the largest draw, bringing in as many as 20,000 spectators to Ford Conger Field for a day of racing and socializing in the sun. Steeplechase weekend (March 19-20) always includes a gala party under the trackside tent the night before the races. This year, the party is called “The Great Gatsby,” and will feature music by Too Much Sylvia. Proceeds benefit Public Education Partners. Contact the Aiken Steeplechase office for reservations to the party or for tickets to the races. (803.648.9641.) Or visit the website for more information. www.aikensteeplechase.com

The first weekend of the Aiken Triple Crown is the Aiken Trials, a day of racing for fledgling race horses at the Aiken Training Track. The trials have been an annual tradition in Aiken since 1942, providing young horses the opportunity to experience a real race in front of a crowd before they head out to the parimutuel tracks.

This year, the Aiken Trials will take place on Saturday, March 13. The day will feature six races, four of them for 2-year-old maidens, and one, the Cup of Aiken, for older horses that have already won a race. One race (probably the third) will be the polo pony race sponsored by The Aiken Horse. Last year was the first time that the polo pony race was held at the Trials, and it was a big success. There were six entries, all proven polo ponies ridden by actual polo players. The horses raced 300 yards (the length of a polo field) from a standing start. The winner, Eli Yale, set a track record of 17 seconds. Eli is a former racehorse and the grandson of the great Storm Cat, but his Trials win was the first of his career. He is expected to return to defend his title.

Polo players who have a fast horse should start getting ready now. All horses in the race must be playing ponies, and all riders must be polo players. If you are interested in racing, send an email to editor@theaikenhorse.com, or give us a call at 803.643.9960.

If you would like to watch the races, gates open at 10:30. The events start off with the Aiken Driving Society carriage parade at 1 pm, followed by the first race. The races are usually over by around 4:30. Tickets may be purchased in advance at various locations, including Boots, Bridles and Britches and Aiken Saddlery. If you buy in advance, tickets are $10. They’re $15 on the day of the races.

Other events surrounding the Aiken Trials include Breakfast at the Gallops, a popular morning program that will take place at the Training Track on Thursday, March 11, from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. This will be a fundraiser for the Aiken Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame and will feature local trainers who will discuss horses and horse training. Tickets are limited, and this is often a sold out event. Finally, on March 14, the racehorse Quality Road will be honored as the Aiken Trained Horse of the Year at 12:30 pm in the courtyard of the Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame in Hopeland Gardens. For more information, visit the Aiken Training Track website: www.theaikentrainingtrack.com or the Hall of Fame website (www.aikenracinghalloffame.com) or call 803.642.7650.

The final leg of the Triple Crown, the USC Aiken Pacers and Polo Match, is the first official polo event of the spring season. It will take place on Powderhouse Field on Saturday, March 27. This match usually pits a Burger King team against a Biddle Realty team, and is one of the best attended polo contests in Aiken. The game is a benefit for the University of South Carolina Pacers baseball team. In addition to horse polo, it will also showcase a bicycle polo exhibition, put on by Boxwood Bicycle Polo Club.

Celebrating Aiken

2010-02-01T21:53:00.000-05:00

In case you haven’t heard, the city of Aiken was founded in 1835, so this year, it is turning 175, quite a respectable age. To commemorate the occasion, the city is having a yearlong party called “Celebrate Aiken!” The festivities began on January 9 with a kick-off party called “Sights, Sounds and Tastes of 1835,” an event designed to educate people about the early history of the city. The party took over the downtown area around the Alley, and included such nineteenth century attractions as a flea circus, clogging (a popular folk dance style of the period) and a washboard band. There were also numerous historical interpreters dressed in 1835-era clothing who showed what it was like to live and work in Aiken 175 years ago.
The first quarter of the year is dedicated to “Horses, Health and History,” and includes some specifically equestrian events. The first was the dedication of a historic water trough at Banksia, the grand Winter Colony home that now houses the Aiken County Historical Museum. The cement trough, which had been languishing unused behind the Aiken County courthouse, was moved to the bottom of South Boundary Avenue, near the entrance to the Hitchcock Woods. Its original location was at the corner of Richland Avenue and Laurens Street, where it was a public water supply for people who rode or drove their horses into the city.
County workers took about two weeks to move the trough, refurbish it and install it in its new location. It now provides fresh, potable water for horses that have come from an outing in the woods. The county also installed a drinking fountain for people, and there are plans to fit the trough with a heater so that the water doesn’t freeze in the winter.
On Saturday morning, January 23, the water trough was officially dedicated to the memory of Summer Squall, the great racehorse owned by Dogwood Stable, who died in 2009. Over 100 people came to the dedication, which took place after a meeting of the Aiken Hounds and before a hunt breakfast at Banksia. Numerous people arrived dressed in period costume, including Aiken’s mayor, Fred Cavanaugh. The Henrys, a father and son bluegrass duo, provided musical entertainment.
Other Celebrate Aiken! festivities on tap for the first quarter of the year include a tea party at the Green Boundary Club on February 18. This party, which costs $10 and will have two seatings, encourages “period hats and gloves,” and is already sold out. On February 27, there will be a walking tour of downtown Aiken that starts at Aiken Prep. Then, on March 7, there will be a program at Rye Patch called Aiken’s Horse Heroes. This event will feature speakers and presentations about a selection of the racehorses that are members of Aiken’s Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame.
For more information about Celebrate Aiken! go to the website: www.celebrateaiken.com

Friends of the Animal Shelter

2010-02-01T21:45:00.000-05:00

In 2009, a group of animal lovers got together to form Friends of the Animal Shelter (FOTAS) a nonprofit volunteer organization with the mission of improving conditions at the Aiken County Animal Shelter and increasing the number of animals adopted. Aiken actually has two shelters on Wire Road. The Aiken SPCA is generally for animals rescued within city limits. The county shelter next door is for animals from outside the city. The Aiken SPCA is a non-profit organization with strong community support, dedicated volunteers and an excellent record of placing adoptable animals in loving homes. The county shelter has a larger volume of animals coming through its doors and has, in the past, been less fortunate in finding all of its adoptable pets new owners.

FOTAS volunteers, many of them in the horse community, have been holding fundraisers for the shelter and organizing various events to help upgrade the facility, attract more volunteers, and get more animals adopted. Volunteers are always in great demand. They are needed to do any number of different things, from walking dogs and grooming cats to working in the office, answering the phone and helping with education and community outreach.

Starting on Valentines Day, February 14, FOTAS will have its own website. The site will feature a list of adoptable animals. It will also have a community message board, an events calendar and information about sponsorship and volunteer opportunities.

For more information, call 803.642.1537 or email info@fotasaiken.org.

Georgia Racing?

2010-01-31T21:50:00.000-05:00

Can you imagine going to watch horse races at Augusta Downs? The members of the Georgia-South Carolina Horse Racing Committee can, and they do. In fact, this year, it looks as if they might be a step closer to realizing their horse-racing dreams. The group, which is based in Augusta, has been working for about 18 years to get parimutuel betting and horse racing legalized in the state. The main obstacle is a provision in the Georgia constitution that prohibits any type of gaming except for the state lottery. On Tuesday, January 26, Representative Henry Geisinger (R) introduced HR 1177 into the Georgia House of Representatives, a bill that would remove the block on gaming in the state. Since allowing gambling would alter the state constitution, changing the law requires passage by two thirds of the lawmakers as well as the approval of the voters in the November elections.

Arthur Anderson, who works with the Georgia-South Carolina horse racing group, says that members were surprised and pleased that the bill entered the house with 50 co-sponsors, which would seem to be a good sign. According to Anderson, the main reason that Georgia lawmakers might be eager to legalize horse racing is economic.

“Georgia is looking at tax deficits of two billion dollars over the next few years,” he says. “Representative Geisinger chaired a committee in October that showed how much money horse racing could generate for the state. Our concept is to earmark those funds for education.”

Anderson says that the horse racing group would like to see four parimutuel tracks in Georgia, one near Augusta, one near Perry, one near Atlanta and a fourth somewhere in the western part of the state. If horse racing is legalized, there is already a consortium with a reported $50 million ready to start building tracks, barns and hotels.

The news that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the leader of Dubai, has purchased land in Aiken for a Thoroughbred training facility has certainly raised consciousness about the desirability of the area for racehorses. Arthur Anderson says that the horse racing lobby group would like to use this as a starting point for horse racing talks in South Carolina.

“We’ll start in Aiken, then go to Camden, then to Charleston,” he says.

Bruce McGhee, who owns McGhee’s Mile, the historic mile track for Standardbreds on Banks Mill Road, has been a part of the Georgia-South Carolina Horse Racing Committee for about a year. He is excited about the prospect of legalized racing in Georgia because he believes it would revitalize the area’s economy. He also thinks that horse racing would be a great thing for the community as a whole.

“Anyone who denies the magnificence of a racehorse doesn’t understand what racing is about,’ he says.

For more information about the Georgia-South Carolina Horse Racing Committee, go to the website www.gaschrc.org.

USEF Training Sessions

2010-01-28T21:49:00.000-05:00

The upper level eventers will be back in Aiken this winter to train at Three Runs Plantation. The United States Equestrian Federation has announced that riders vying for a spot on the U.S. eventing team will be in Aiken for five separate training sessions, three in February (Feb. 7-8, 15-16 and 22-24) and two in March (Mar. 11-12, and 15-17.) Captain Mark Phillips, who is the chef d’équipe of the U.S. team, will be on hand. He will be assisted this year by Katie Monahan Prudent and Oded Shimoni. Katie Prudent, who won team gold at the World Showjumping Championship in 1986, is one of the most accomplished show jumper riders anywhere. Oded Shimoni is among the most respected names in international dressage. A native of Israel, he is a veteran of two World Equestrian Games and two European Championships.

This is the second year that Three Runs Plantation has been selected as the location for the high performance sessions. Three Runs, a 2,400-acre equestrian residential community, has top quality dressage and show jumping areas that are ideal for the sessions. They are particularly convenient for spectators because the Three Runs clubhouse faces the rings, so if it is cold or windy, spectators can still watch in comfort. During the final session in mid-March,Wayne Raiford, the owner and developer of Three Runs, will hold a private fundraiser for the U.S. Equestrian Team.

The training sessions are open to the public, and members of the equestrian community are encouraged to come out and watch the elite riders train. This year, the sessions are for “A” and “B” listed riders only, meaning riders that are serious contenders for a spot on the U.S. Team that will compete at the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky. Riders on the list include quite a few who already make Aiken their winter home: Phillip Dutton, Boyd Martin, Will Coleman, Stephen Bradley, Jan Byyny, Sinead Halpin. It will be a great opportunity to see some of the best get even better.

For more information, contact Laurie Garner at 704.770.0748 or garnermarketing@aol.com.

Foxhunting Frenzy

2010-01-21T21:47:00.003-05:00

The weather up north has been frightful this year, so it’s little wonder that large numbers of foxhunters have decided to take an Aiken vacation this February. Every year, Whiskey Road Foxhounds’ Hunt Week welcomes scores of horses and riders from Virginia, Maryland, New York, Toronto and other points north for a generous seven days of sport. Hunt week has had a smaller following over the past few years, because of the weak economy and the high price of gas. But this year, according to Gail Flintom who is in charge of the event, the numbers promise to be huge.

“It will be more like the Hunt Weeks of a few years ago,” she says. “We’ll probably have fields of over 100 riders. We’ll divide those into three flights, first flight, second flight and hilltoppers.”

Hunt Week runs from February 3 through 11 and will include five days of live hunting, as well as the opportunity to go out with the Aiken Hounds drag hunt on Saturday morning, February 6. The largest field will be on Sunday, February 7, when the hunt meets at Sage Valley, where there has been some good sport already this season thanks to the large population of coyotes, foxes and bobcats there. This meet will be followed by a hunt breakfast at Sage Valley Hunt Club.

The social calendar begins with a welcoming reception at the Aiken County Historical Museum on Wednesday, February 3. Other events include the Friday night Hunt Ball at Woodside Plantation, the Monday night Hitchcock Woods benefit gala, a cocktail party given by Equine Divine and numerous other parties, hunt teas and hunt breakfasts. When the traveling foxhunters return home, they will probably need some time to rest up from their vacation.

Young Players, High Hopes

2010-01-21T21:38:00.001-05:00

Those with an interest in the future of polo often wonder out loud where we will get our next generation of great players. Polo is a difficult sport to play well, and an expensive one, since to improve one generally needs to play with and against better players, riding high quality horses. Unless you are a young person whose father or mother happens to be a high goal player, coaching is often hard to come by.

With these things in mind, the United States Polo Association instituted a new program this year called Team USA. Young people between the ages of 19 and 25 were invited to apply for the program. Twenty-four successful applicants will attend a three-day training and evaluation event in Wellington, Florida from February 13-15. Of the original 24 players, six to eight will be selected to enter an internship with a top-ranked polo professional. The idea is to give talented young players the chance to improve, with the goal of creating more homegrown high goal players.

Of the 24 players selected for the program, six have an Aiken connection. Cristina Fernandez, who just graduated from the University of Virginia where she was the captain of the national championship women’s intercollegiate team, lives and plays in Aiken. Taylor Freeman, who is known for his incredible stickwork in both horse and bicycle polo, is also an Aiken resident. Two brothers chosen for the program, Carlos and Nicolai Galindo, have recently bought property in the county and put up a barn. Jacob Brown, who played here in the Ford Trucks Arena Polo Championship last spring, can occasionally be found playing on Aiken fields with his father Scott and his sister Martha. Finally, Nick Snow, a recent Harvard graduate and an accomplished all-around athlete, is the younger brother of Adam Snow, one of Aiken’s highest rated and most illustrious players.

If the players chosen for Team USA are the future of American polo, then Aiken will clearly continue to play an important role.

Snow Polo

2010-01-05T21:42:00.002-05:00

Polo is normally a warm weather sport, played under sunny skies anywhere the grass in green and the field is smooth. But there is also another type of polo that is gaining in popularity: snow polo. Snow polo was first played in the mid 1980s on a frozen lake in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where the annual Polo World Cup on Snow now attracts several 10-goal players every year.

The snow polo rules resemble the rules for arena polo and the players (three to a side) use an inflated bright orange ball to provide a contrast to the white snow. The horses wear high traction snow shoes, and the snow is compacted to make a fast playing surface. The American center for snow polo is Aspen, Colo., the site last December of the tenth annual Piaget Polo on the Snow USPA World Snow Polo Championship.

For the second year in a row, the Crestview Genetics Polo Team, which is based in Aiken, went out for the event. The team, made up of Alan Martinez, John Eicher and Alan Meeker, won the tournament last year. They couldn’t repeat that feat this year, in what is becoming an increasingly high goal tournament with an international flair. The honors went to the Audi team of Melissa Ganzi, Juan Bollini and Kris Kampsen. Perhaps next year, Crestview will return with the trophy

Art Show Returns

2009-12-06T21:13:00.001-05:00

Lovers of sporting art will be glad to hear that the annual Sporting Life Art Show and Sale will be returning to the Aiken Center for the Arts this February. The highly popular sale will once again benefit the Aiken Chapter of the American Red Cross. The show starts on Thursday evening, February 18, when there will be a preview party. It runs through February 21, giving buyers a narrow window in which to select and purchase their favorite pieces.

There are quite a few well-respected local artists who will offer their creations for viewing and for sale. In addition, Elizabeth Beer, who runs the Beresford Gallery in Unionville, Penn., will once again be bringing in a wide selection of works by artists from around the country. This is the sixth time that the Beresford Gallery has been involved with the show, which is becoming an important fixture on the sporting art calendar. February is a great time to have this collection of artwork on display in Aiken because so many horse people are in town to participate in eventing competitions or in one of the local foxhunts.

The show should offer an unparalleled chance for Aiken area art enthusiasts to add to their collections, and, for those who just love to look, to see a sampling of some of the top sporting artists in the country. Although many of the works for sale will be in the higher price ranges, organizers stress that there are always a number of pieces that are priced for the new collector, or for the person who has more taste than money in the bank.

NBHA Barrel Finals

2009-12-06T21:11:00.004-05:00

It’s amazing how much some riders can get done in less than 15 seconds. This is particularly true if they happen to be world class barrel racers mounted on fast, fit horses. At the National Barrel Horse Association World Finals, held from October 26 to 31 at the James Brown Arena in Augusta, Georgia, you had to be able to race into the arena, spin around three barrels and then race out again in about 14 seconds in order to have a hope of being in the top ten.

The winning horse and rider combination this year was Lacy Childress of Loxely, Alabama aboard LS Wonder Boy, who whirled around the barrels in 14.295 seconds. It was a dramatic run. If a horse knocks a barrel and it hits the ground, the run will count as a “no time” and the competitor will be out. As Wonder Boy rounded the second barrel, he hit it and it tipped. Lacy reached out and eased it back into an upright position without skipping a beat. The barrel stayed up and they won the title, pocketing $4,297 in cash and winning a number of other prizes in addition to the World Championship title.

Lacy, who is 22, is taking a year off from her studies at the University of South Alabama. In addition to LS Wonder Boy, a 2001 sorrel gelding that she has owned since he was 4, she also competes on LS Wonder Boy’s half brother, LS Shaky Bargain and several other horses.

The National Barrel Horse Association is headquartered in the offices of the Augusta Chronicle, and the World Finals is the organization’s largest event. Each year, the show draws in top barrel racers from all over the country, as well as from Canada and from as far away as Australia. If you go by the number of horses involved, it is probably the largest equestrian competition in the Aiken-Augusta area. This year, there were over 1,000 horses at the event.

Dressage Success

2009-12-06T21:09:00.001-05:00

It’s not easy to make it to the top in any horse sport. Dressage is certainly no exception. This is why people are pretty impressed by Shawna Harding, an Aiken-based rider, and her horse Come On III. Shawna moved Come On III up to the Grand Prix level this year, after he was named United States Dressage Federation Dressage Horse of the Year at the Intermediaire I level and finished second in the standings at the Prix St. Georges level in 2008. The pair did well enough during the 2009 show year to qualify for the USDF’s Region I dressage championships, held in Lexington, Va. this October.

But it wasn’t enough just to go to the championships. They were there to win. Shawna and Come On III won the title at both the Grand Prix and the Intermediaire II level. Come On has now won six regional championship titles: Fourth Level, Fourth Level Freestyle, Prix St. Georges, Intermediaire I, Intermediaire II and Grand Prix. It’s an amazing résumé for any horse. Come On III ended the year ranked eighth on the USDF Dressage Horse of the Year standings at the Grand Prix level and third at the Intermediaire II level.

Shawna has also been enjoying success with other horses that she rides, trains and shows, bringing home two other regional titles from her excursion to Lexington. She won the Fourth level championship with Tonya Rowe’s Rigo, who has now won the regional championship at three levels (First in 2007 and Second in 2008). And she won the First level championship with her horse Contreau. The USDF year end standings showed Shawna’s rides holding the top two spots in the Dressage Horse of the Year standings at the Fourth level: She was the champion with Rigo and the reserve with Richman, owned by Kathleen Broughan.

Paul Fortugno Memorial Polo Tournament

2009-12-06T21:06:00.001-05:00

The first annual Paul Fortugno Memorial Polo Tournament took over the fields of the Wagener Polo Club from October 14 to 25, attracting four competitive 6-goal teams. The purpose of the tournament was to honor the memory of Paul Fortugno, who grew up playing on his family’s Mallet Hill team along with his younger brother Gene and his father Fred. Paul, who attained a rating of 6 goals, had a reputation of being one of the nicest people in polo. Back in the 1960s and 70s, the Mallet Hill team, based in Pennsylvania in the summer months, was a regular on Aiken’s polo fields during the winter. By the 1980s, the family had moved their winter polo operation to Florida. Paul’s polo career took him to the Florida circuit and to Nashville, Tn, where he died in 2007 while still in his 40s. Today, Gene and Fred can both be found back in Aiken during the polo season.

The tournament format called for all the teams to play one another and then for the two with the best records to compete in the finals. The top two teams were Polo Cops (Kathie Roberts, Scott Brown, Geoff Cameron, Tim Zekany) and Tandem (Paul Shealy, Pam Gleason, Billy Raab, Gabriel Caro.) The Tandem team came to the finals undefeated. The Polo Cops team had lost their game against Tandem, but had beaten the other teams in decisive fashion.

After a warm and sunny autumn, the morning of the finals felt like the first taste of winter. With a cold wind blowing and skies threatening to rain, the players took to the field. It quickly became clear that the Tandem team, which had won all its previous games by margins of at least five goals, was not ready to quit. They emerged the victors after four hard-fought chukkers. Geoff Cameron of Polo Cops was named the Most Valuable Player, while Billy Raab’s horse Pinta took home the Best Playing Pony blanket. Fred Fortugno was there to give out the trophies with the assistance of Gene Fortugno and his two young daughters.

Equine Steering Committee Progress

2009-12-06T21:02:00.005-05:00

The Equine Steering Committee at the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce has been busy finding ways to promote the equestrian industry in Aiken. One of the things they have been working on is paving the way for the creation of an international quality horse park in the Aiken area. Another one of their focuses is on establishing an integrated network of riding trails throughout the county.

The steering committee has been so industrious it has generated more work than can be handled on a volunteer basis. The chamber is now looking for a part time “Equine Coordinator” to serve as the liaison between the chamber staff and the committee. The job will involve maintaining the committee database, attending meetings, recording their minutes, and distributing those the minutes and other news relevant to the equestrian community. The chamber is also working on a new page on their website that will be devoted to the equestrian community. The idea behind the steering committee’s efforts is “preserving and growing the area’s equine industry.” It seems that horse people in Aiken aren’t just enthusiastic, they’re also organized. It’s a rare thing.

Alltech's Dr. Pearse Lyons to Speak in Aiken

2009-10-25T23:44:00.003-04:00

Dr. Pearse Lyons, who is the founder and president of Alltech, will be speaking at Newberry Hall in Aiken, Monday, October 26 from 5:00 - 7:30 PM. Alltech, an animal nutrition company, is the presenting sponsor of the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Lexington, Kentucky. John Nicholson, the director of the Kentucky Horse Park, will also be speaking.

The event is free and open to the public. The following is from the official invitation to the talk:

"This gathering is an opportunity for Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder and President of Alltech, to meet you and your community, to share Alltech’s hospitality, and tell about the exciting plans he envisions for the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games 2010 in Kentucky, the Alltech Fortnight Festival and Alltech's LIFEFORCE equine formula.This event is free and open to the public….and you’re invited!"

October 26, 2009
5:00-7:00 PM
Newberry Hall
117 Newberry Street SW
Aiken, South Carolina

Summer Squall Euthanized

2009-09-23T22:43:00.003-04:00

Summer Squall who won the Preakness Stakes and finished second in the Kentucky Derby in 1990, was euthanized on Tuesday, September 22. The stallion, who was 22 years old, had recently foundered.

Summer Squall was trained in Aiken for Dogwood Stable and ran in the Aiken Trials as a 2-year old. He went on to an undefeated 2-year-old season racing in the best company. As a 3-year-old, he won the Preakness, the Jim Beam, the Blue Grass Stakes, and the Pennsylvannia Derby. He retired from racing with 13 wins and a bankroll of $1,844,282.

Summer Squall stood at stud at Lanes End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky. His distinguished offspring include Charismatic, who was named Horse of the Year in 1999, and Storm Song, who, racing under Dogwood colors, won the Breeder's Cup for Juvenile Fillies and took home an Eclipse Award in 1996.

Summer Squall had been retired at Lanes End Farm for several years. In September, The Aiken Horse ran a feature about his life. Go to The Aiken Horse September issue. The article begins on page 56.

Dinner at the Willcox

2009-08-30T19:37:00.000-04:00

It won't be long before you could be having dinner at the Willcox. The Willcox is one of Aiken's most historic and iconic hotels. It was started as a catering enterprise back in 1897 by Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Willcox. The Willcoxes provided lunches, dinners and elaborate picnics for Aiken's Winter Colonists. Eventually, they turned their home into a grand inn, adding an elegant restaurant and a ballroom.

Although the Willcox was originally all about the food, it has not had a restaurant for quite some time. Last winter, Tina McCarthy, the general manager of the hotel, opened a piano bar in the lobby on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, and it has become a favorite meeting place for Aiken's equestrian crowd. This September, guests will be able to consume more than just cocktails and snacks because the Willcox will once again feature a full service restaurant.

According to Geoffrey Ellis, the general manager, The Restaurant at the Willcox will be a "gastro pub." A gastro pub is a restaurant that has the atmosphere of an English pub, but which focuses on the science of food and has the energy of an up-market bar. The head chef, Regan Browell, is coming here from New Zealand, where she was the head chef of Rain, a gastro bar that featured Heineken beer and an updated, pub-type menu. Geoffrey Ellis, who has deep roots in the Aiken area, was the manager of Rain as well as of a wood-fired pizza restaurant in New Zealand, but he recently sold those businesses to move back to South Carolina along with his wife and family.

The Restaurant at The Willcox is scheduled to open during the third week of September.

USPA on the Way

2009-08-30T19:35:00.000-04:00

The USPA is on its Way
Every fall the United States Polo Association holds its annual meetings in a different city somewhere in the U.S. This fall, the meetings will be at Newberry Hall in downtown Aiken.

"We try to organize the meetings around a major tournament every fall," says Ed Armstrong, the USPA Director of Tournaments and Clubs. "This year the meetings coincide with the final week of the USPA Silver Cup [at 302 Polo Club]. Aiken is a good spot for the meetings because it's easy for most people to get to. Plus, everyone knows someone that plays in Aiken."

From the players' point of view, the most important item on the agenda is the annual national handicap meeting. This is when all the players in the United States have their handicaps reviewed by their own club delegates as well as by the circuit delegates and the national handicapping committee. Since the composition of every team depends upon the sum of the handicaps of all of its players, accurate and consistent handicaps are crucial to keeping the sport fair and competitive. For players, however, especially for professional players, the goal is often to keep handicaps as low as possible so that they can be considered "cheap" at their rating rather than "heavy", assuring them of more jobs and a better chance of winning.

There are numerous other items on the agenda, including meetings and reports from the various committees. As ever, there is sure to be a fair amount of discussion on topics related to rules changes. The biggest debate is likely to center around the so-called "American rule." For decades, many Americans in the sport have decried the dominance of foreign professionals. Foreign players, they say, are often under-rated, and take playing opportunities away from young American professionals. Over the years, various rules have been enacted that are intended to help Americans get and keep playing jobs. The latest rule, set to take effect on January 1, states that every team entered in a tournament with a handicap of 22 or below must have at least one Registered Player member (i.e., a U.S. citizen), in addition to the "sponsor" who may be of any nationality (foreign players are registered as Affiliate Members.)

USPA officials, delegates and committee members will descend on Aiken from all over the country. They will be staying at several area hotels, including the Willcox, Hotel Aiken and the Hampton Inn on Whiskey Road. Polo players are generally people who like to have a good time. With the Silver Cup finals and the fall meetings going on, expect evenings in downtown Aiken to look like one big party between October 14 and 18.

Two Notch Road Wins

2009-08-30T19:32:00.001-04:00

Glenn Thompson, who trains racehorses out of the Whitney racing barn all winter, had a nice victory in the $60,000 Continental Mile Stakes at Monmouth Park in Oceanport, New Jersey on August 15. Two Notch Road, a 2-year-old colt he owns and trains, took the lead in mid-stretch and then cruised to a 11/4 length victory over the turf.

Glenn was not overcome with surprise by the win, but the public was. Two Notch Road went off at 107-1 and paid $216.40 at the betting windows: the local newspaper called the victory a "shocker." This was the colt's fourth start and his first victory. In fact, before the Continental Mile, he had never been closer than sixth. In his last race before the stakes race, he was beaten by 27 lengths.

But Glenn knew the colt and had faith. He had already trained Two Notch Road's older sister, and he knew that she was about 20 lengths better over the turf than she was on the dirt. Glenn had wanted to run the colt on the grass from the beginning, but America is not big on turf races, and there are few of them written for 2-year-old horses. The Continental Mile, in fact, was the first turf opportunity that came up. Even so, the colt almost didn't make it to the post.

"I'm a bit of a dreamer and I always shoot high with my horses," says Glenn. "I had two choices on what to enter him in. One was the stakes race, and the other was a $25,000 claiming race about a week before. I thought I would be prudent, so rather than shoot for the moon, I entered him in the claiming race. I didn't worry that someone would take him because of his terrible last start. But on the way to the post in that race, he threw his rider, ran to the three-quarter pole, dropped his head and started eating grass. I thought that he was telling me he wanted to be on the grass."

The stewards scratched Two Notch Road from the claiming race because of his bad behavior. Just over a week later, he was in the Continental Mile winner's circle.

"It's nice when it all falls together," says Glenn. "I can't remember the last time I won a turf race."

Two Notch Road has a bit of a romantic history. He was orphaned at birth. Then, as a yearling last fall, he was entered in the Fasig Tipton Sale at the Timonium Fairgrounds in Maryland. With the economy in uncertain shape, the year 2008 was not great for selling racehorses. Those without stellar connections were going very cheap. Glenn noticed that the bidding on the colt was practically nonexistent. He trained horses for the breeders, was familiar with the colt and with his lineage, and knew he had potential. So he bought him for $2,500. Not a bad price tag for a future stakes winner.

Dogwood Winners

2009-08-30T19:29:00.001-04:00

Dogwood Stable is having a great time at the Saratoga race meet this August. August in Saratoga is very much the big show: pretty much anyone on the East Coast with a promising race horse is either at Saratoga, or wishes they were. Horses that win at Saratoga as 2-year-olds are often on the road to greater things, things like the Breeders' Cup this fall and the Triple Crown races next spring.

That's why Dogwood Stable is excited to have three 2-year-old winners at Saratoga thus far. One is a bay filly by Lion Heart named Snap Happy. Snap Happy won a $50,000 Maiden Special Weights filly race on August 13. It was her first time out, and Dogwood connections are thrilled with the result and impressed with her determination and heart.

"She broke well, and ran gamely into the turn," says Jack Sadler, Dogwood's vice president. "Then she drifted out wide at the top of the stretch and lost ground. But she dug in and came home in front."

Calvin Borel, who rode Mine that Bird to victory in the Kentucky Derby and Rachel Alexandra in her stunning Preakness win, was the jockey. Snap Happy's success broke a summer-long, 19-race losing streak for the rider.

The next winner is a colt named Aikenite by Yes it's True who broke his maiden in his first start on August 9. Mary Jane Howell, Dogwood Stable's director of public relations, says that Cot Campbell, Dogwood's president, has been wanting to name a horse for his home town for a long time, and that this colt won the honor because of Cot's high hopes for him.

Aikenite, running in a 51/2 furlong maiden race, broke well, stalked the leader to the top of the stretch, and then powered home in front by 21/2 lengths. At the winner's circle, the jockey, John Velasquez, turned to Cot and said, "Boss, you've got a good one here."

Finally, on August 20, Golly Day, another 2-year-old sired by Lion Heart, won his first start, a mile and sixteenth contest on the turf. Golly Day made an explosive move coming down the stretch to finish first by over three lengths.

Aikenite, "a grand looking colt," is being pointed to the $300,000 Grade I Hopeful Stakes in early September, the most prestigious 2-year-old stakes race at the meet. Snap Happy is headed to the $300,000 Grade I Spinaway, the filly version of the Hopeful, also in September.

Fall Festival Opens

2009-08-30T19:24:00.002-04:00

One of the first major equestrian events of the 2009 fall season is the Aiken Fall Festival horse show, held at Highfields show grounds on Gaston Road. This show is put on by Equus Events and starts on Thursday, September 3. The action runs through the weekend, then horses and riders have a few days off before competition starts up again on Thursday, September 10.

The horse show features a number of exciting classes each week, including two $15,000 Open Jumper Classics, two $5,000 Welcome Stakes, a $10,000 Childrens/Adult Jumper Prix, and the Governor's Cup Medal Finals on Sunday the 13th. The Governor's Cup is the equitation final for the South Carolina Hunters and Jumpers Association. Junior equitation riders qualify during the season by winning points at Governor's Cup classes in shows around the region, with the top 20 riders eligible to compete in the finals. The first ride goes at 8 a.m.

Other spectator-friendly events include Hunt Night and the 6-bar. Hunt Night features horses and riders that can normally be found on the hunt field rather than in the show ring. Equus Events introduced field hunter classes at the show last fall, and they were so popular that more of them have been added. Aiken has five local hunts and competition should be fierce. Everyone especially likes the hunt teams class, which calls for three horses to negotiate a course in tandem. Hunt Night is September 12 and the classes will take place on the polo field at Highfields, where there is plenty of room to park cars on the sidelines and tailgate. Action starts around noon.

The 6-bar is a show jumping competition in which horses go over a line of six jumps. After each horse completes the six jumps successfully, the jumps are raised and the horses go again. This is a knock-down-and-you're-out affair. The jumps go up as the number of competitors goes down until there's just one horse left. It's a fast moving competition and can really get the crowd gasping. The 6-bar will be on Friday, September 11, and it will be the last class of the day.

During the final weekend of the show, there will be two charity events under the ringside tent. On Friday, September 11, High Steppin' at Highfields, a dinner, dance and silent auction held in conjunction with the 6-bar, will benefit the United Way of Aiken. Admission is $45 per person. On Sunday, September 13, there is a luncheon during the $15,000 Open Jumper Classic. Tickets are $35 a person, with proceeds going to Children's Place.

Aiken's horse shows always have large numbers of competitors. Megan Godard, who runs the Equus Events shows along with her husband J.P., hopes that more spectators will come out to watch this year. There will be some top quality horses and riders, and the jumper competitions in particular make for a good spectacle. Admission to the show grounds is always free.

Some News from the Summer Issue

2009-06-12T21:52:00.001-04:00

Horse Show in the Woods
The 93rd annual Aiken Horse Show in the Woods was another success this year, with many new winners and some new divisions and trophies to boot. The Aiken Horse Show is designed to give people who hunt a chance to show off their horses in the ring and to get families and children involved in some friendly competition. It’s a different kind of show, chiefly because it is set in an old fashioned, grassy arena about a mile into the Woods. One of its primary missions is to showcase the beauty of the Woods and to raise money for the Hitchcock Woods Foundation.

The most coveted trophy of the show is the Foxhunter Championship. Horses that compete in the Foxhunter division must be true hunt horses that have actually hunted during the season under the rider who shows them. This year the trophy went to Sarah Accord and her horse Chambourcin. The pair also won the Adult Amateur Hunter championship. The Reserve Champion Foxhunter was Wow, ridden by Ann Wicander. Wow also won the Rushkia Award as the judge’s choice for the best field hunter.

One new division this year was the Colonel Howard Fair Pony Club Challenge, which was sponsored by Larry Byers, a current Aiken resident and a former president of the United States Pony Club. The trophy honors Howard Fair, one of the founders of the USPC, who foxhunted in Aiken during the 1930s and encouraged young Aiken Prep students to join the hunt. The challenge cup went to the pony club accumulating the most points in the foxhunter divisions of the show. The members of three pony clubs competed for the title: the Aiken County Pony Club, the Tryon Pony Club and the Palmetto Pony Club. The Palmetto Pony Club, with four members competing (Justice and Boyce Myers, Shannon Hardiman and Victoria Jacks) took home the cup.

Aiken Ladies Aside sponsored another new division at the show this year, which included two classes and even a few jumps. The Ladies Sidesaddle Champion was Betty Alexander, who has been the ALA’s mentor and instructor, riding Clover Hill’s Silver Lining. Betty was also named Best Turned Out Sidesaddle rider. Linda Lee Algar on Sunny Boy was Reserve Champion. The Aiken sidesaddle group has become quite active lately, with many new converts to the old-fashioned way of riding. If nothing else, this shows that Aiken’s riders love tradition.

Williston’s Horse Source
Williston’s growing horse population has a new place to buy their feed and horse supplies. Buck’s Building Supply on West Street, formerly known as Shumpert’s Building Supply, has expanded their equestrian section and is featuring a full line of Purina feeds for horses, dogs and cats. The store is also stocking bagged shavings and some useful items like halters and leads. They will eventually carry hay as well as grain and become a full service feed store. Delivery is already available.

The new owners of Buck’s Building Supply are Jason and Joel Stapleton, who purchased the store from their relatives in February. Recognizing the growth of the horse community in their area, they decided that it would be good business to offer more services to horse people. They hired Ann Dearborn, owner of Rumor Has It Farm, to manage the horse section. So far, it has been a big hit with people in the area, who are thrilled that they don’t have to drive all the way to Aiken to purchase their feed – it is 22 miles, after all.

As part of their outreach to the equestrian community in Aiken County, Bucks recently donated 800 pounds of grain to Equine Rescue of Aiken.

New Drills
Are you looking for something new to do with your horse? Have you ever considered joining a drill team? Some members of the Aiken horse community have formed one, and they would like to have a few new members. The group was born as an offshoot of the sidesaddle club, Aiken Ladies Aside, and has been meeting on Wednesday mornings at 10 a.m. at Shonna Athman’s area just east of town. Participants are riding under the tutelage of Jo Fantay, a certified drill team instructor, and have been working on a short drill that is set to music.

“We’re all just learning,” says Karen Alexander, who rides with the group, “and we’re really just doing it for fun. For me it was a way to do something with my horse and get out of my box. But it is amazing. I never rode to music before. The best thing about it is that you have to have a good position to get your horse to do what you want him to do, so it really improves the rider, without being a lesson. Every day is a learning experience.”

Aiken’s drill team expects to practice throughout the summer. Who knows, by the fall they may be ready to give an exhibit somewhere. If you are interested in joining the group or finding out more about it, call Karen Alexander at 803-643-0303

Virginia Beach on an Aiken Polo Streak
The Virginia Beach polo team extended their winning streak to 18 consecutive games this spring. The team, headlined by Omar Cepeda and owned by Virginia Beach resident Bart Frye, had been in the hunt all last spring, winning the Taylor Cup 4-goal and making it to the finals of the Aiken Cup 8-goal and the Carolina First Spring 8-goal. They started their winning streak on Sunday, October 4, 2008, with a victory in the first game of the Partridge Inn 8-goal invitational. They proceeded to win 10 games in a row that fall, taking home the Partridge Inn trophy and then triumphing in the Carolina First Fall 8-goal. They came back this spring to win the Holley Tractor 4-goal (four consecutive games) and then all of their match games in the Smoak Family 8-goal (four consecutive games.)

The winning streak finally broke on May 17 at the Smoak Family finals. Casa Azul/C-Spear, powered by the dynamic Eddy Martinez with Matt Sekera, Grayson Brown and J.D. Cooper, took the game 10-9. Virginia Beach came back the following week to win the Banks Mill Feeds 8-goal, perhaps starting another winning streak that they will carry on in the fall. If you are counting, they have now won three games in a row. . .

More Polo Opportunities
If you have never played polo, but would like to give it a try, now is your opportunity. Tiger Kneece, a 6-goal professional who has led the Brigadoon team to numerous championships in tournaments of all levels, is giving a series of polo clinics at the Brigadoon Polo Club. The clinics, which take place over a weekend, include polo instruction and practice games for players who are just starting out.

Billy Benton, a local real estate broker and a foxhunter got an email advertising the first “Tiger in the Woods” clinic this spring. “I had not been planning on doing a polo clinic,” he writes. “But I checked my calendar and realized I had no appointments to show real estate. One of the nicest things about today’s real estate market is not being bothered by pesky buyers on weekends.”

Billy was joined by two other local riders (Amy Brooks and Bryan Smith) and two out-of-towners (Tim Mitchell from Colorado and Gary Kauffman from Tennessee). There were four instructors (Tiger, Kris Bowman, Christine Cato and Maybe Ortiz) and five students, so everyone got lots of attention. Billy praised the horses and the activities, saying it was fun, safe and priced right at $400, probably the lowest cost polo experience on the East Coast. He thinks anyone interested should give it a try. “And if you’re in the market for Aiken real estate, I would be pleased to schedule a tour of available properties,” he adds.

The next clinic will be held June 19-21. For more information, call Christine Cato at 704.905.3706.

Sending Lost Pets Home
If you are missing a dog or a cat (or you have found one), there is a new website that can help you. Aiken Pets Reunited (aikenpetsreunited.com) is a countywide notice board where people can post notices about lost or found pets, free of charge. Victoria Foulkes-Pyle, a local realtor and horse person, started the website after finding a lost dog. Although she did eventually locate the dog’s owners, she realized how difficult it is to reunite lost pets with their families because there is no easy way to let people know if you have lost a pet or found one.

The website was set up by Victoria and Wes Funderberg, who is the city of Aiken web administrator, with the help of Barbara Nelson, the president of the Aiken SPCA. There is a daily list of lost and found animals. You can sign up for alerts via email, and even follow the organization on Twitter. If you have lost a pet, you may send an email to lostandfound@aikenpetsreunited.org.

More Hall of Famers
A number of Aiken-connected horsemen are getting inducted into various halls of fame recently. The latest inductee is Gustav Schickedanz, a Canadian racehorse breeder who owns Long Leaf Plantation, a training facility in Aiken. Mr. Schickedanz, who is 80 years old, will be inducted into the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame this August.

Schickedanz is one of the most successful breeders of racehorses in North America. He bred the top stallion Langfuhr (Danzig out of Sweet Briar Too by Briartic) who was one of the leading graded stakes winning sprinters in North America before retiring to stud at Lanes End Farm in Kentucky in 1997. In 2005, Langfuhr was the leading sire in North America by number of winners, and he continues to rank among the top sires on the continent. One of Langfuhr’s sons, Wando (Langfuhr out of Kathie’s Colleen by Woodman), also bred and owned by Schickedanz, won the Canadian Triple Crown and was named Canadian Horse of the Year in 2003.

Gustav Schickedanz was born in Memel, Germany in 1929. His family had a 300-acre farm near the Russian border where they raised Trakehners. In 1944, as the Russian forces approached, the family took the horses and fled to Bavaria. After the war, they relocated to Ontario, where Gustav and his brothers worked in the family construction business. In the 1960s, Gustav got into racing, starting out with inexpensive horses, before realizing he would have a better time with higher class stock. He has been on an upward trajectory ever since. This year alone, Schickedanz’s horses have a win percentage of 25 percent with earnings of over $340,000 in 28 starts.

The Horse District
The downtown horse district is one of the things that makes Aiken, Aiken. Recognizing that, members of the city’s planning commission have been examining whether new zoning ordinances might be used to add another layer of protection to the area. Under current zoning regulations, many of the horse district’s most prominent attractions could actually be subdivided, including the Whitney polo field with its track and barns and the Aiken Training Track. Another idea is to create conservation easements that might be able to protect the properties in perpetuity.

Aiken's Polo Ponies Can Run

2009-04-30T16:01:00.001-04:00

Polo Ponies Race

For the first time in its 67 year history, the Aiken Trials included a race for polo ponies. The horses took off from a standing start and ran 300 yards, the length of a polo field. Before the race, riders and horses put on a short polo demonstration on the track. Riders were dressed in their polo gear and looked ready for a match.

There were six entries, all of them piloted by players who can be found competing in local matches during the season. Starter Peter Krebs lined the horses up on the track. He dropped his red flag, and everyone was off.

The first horse to get away was Eli Yale, a 6-year-old Thoroughbred gelding, owned, ridden and conditioned by Pam Gleason, the editor and publisher of The Aiken Horse. Eli broke so fast, he was soon several lengths ahead of the field. Although Aztec, also owned by The Aiken Horse and ridden by Salvatore Torres, made up some ground in the final yards of the race, the outcome was never really in doubt. By the time Eli galloped past the paddock, his ears were pricked forward and he seemed to be coasting. Aztec finished second, while Elegant Matter, a 7-year-old gelding owned, ridden and trained by Ben Gregoncza was third.

Eli Yale, who was acquired at the Aiken Polo Pony sale in the fall of 2007, is in his second year of tournament polo. Before polo, he had a short career on the racetrack, where he ran in good turf company, but never won a race before Aiken Trials day. Perhaps his handlers should have entered him in shorter sprints: his time of 17 seconds set an Aiken Training Track record and was off the world record for that distance by a little over two seconds.

Riders and spectators agreed that the polo race was a great addition to the Trials. Polo players who were watching suddenly wished that they had entered a horse themselves, and many are already planning their entries for next year. Other members of Aiken's horse community commented that the inclusion of the polo race made them feel like they were a part of the festivities, rather than just spectators.

The race was called the Post Trophy and was sponsored by The Aiken Horse. The name is a fitting one. Fred and William Post were a father-and-son team of polo trainers and breeders who came to Aiken in the second decade of the 1900s. Their polo field was inside today's Aiken Training Track, which they built in 1941 to train and conditioned their flat racers.

The winner received a silver plate and registration in the American Polo Horse Association.

Polo Ponies Die in Florida

2009-04-20T22:24:00.009-04:00

At around 2:15 on Sunday, April 19, polo ponies from the Lechuza Caracas polo team began to die. They were scheduled to play in a quarter final match of the US Open tournament at the International Polo Club Palm Beach at 3:00. But when their trailer arrived at the field, at least one horse inside was already down. As the rest of the horses were unloaded from the trailer, they showed signs of confusion, dizziness and respiratory distress. One by one they collapsed to the grass.

Although about 20 veterinarians rushed to attend to the stricken animals, there was nothing that could be done. They administered intravenous fluids, cooled the horses with fans and ice packs, and desperately sought anything that might be an antidote to what appeared to be a some type of poison. About 100 people tended to the downed horses. Observers erected blue tarps to shield them from the crowd. Seven horses were transported back to Palm Beach Equine Clinic. But 11 horses were dead within an hour. A further 10 died before Monday morning, some of them at the clinic, others at the Lechuza barn. The official death count is 21, but unofficial reports say there may be as many as 30 dead horses.

The horses went down so suddenly it was clear to the veterinarians that the cause of the "mysterious illness" was not a virus or any contagious disease. Necropsies are being performed at the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville and by state vets at the Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab in Kissimmee, trying to determine exactly what killed the horses.

Although veterinarians who spoke to the press said they suspected that the horses may have eaten something poisonous, the word around the polo world was quite different. According to unconfirmed reports, the horses had received injections before the match. Exactly what the injections contained is unknown, although the shots were supposed to be vitamins to help the horses recover from the stress of the game. The injections, if they are indeed to blame for the deaths, may have been a combination of vitamins and other substances. They may have been contaminated (one report posited that they were contaminated with cleaning fluid) or they may have contained a combination of substances that caused a toxic reaction.

Lechuza Caracas is owned by Venezuelan banker and player Victor Vargas. Lechuza was considered one of the top teams in Florida this winter. News reports say that the horses that died were worth about 2 million dollars. Many of them were owned by Lechuza, but some were owned by the players. Several of the horses were reportedly leased to the team by other players. On Monday, Lechuza withdrew from the US Open tournament and issued a statement about the tragedy.

It may be several days before pathologists determine what killed the horses. In the meantime, investigations have been launched by the Florida Department of Agriculture, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and the United States Polo Association.

Aiken Spring Season

2009-04-02T22:19:00.001-04:00

Spring is upon us. The Masters of Foxhounds have blown the horn on the winter season, the foxhounds are back in their kennels and the foxhunters who were visiting from Northern climes have packed up their horses and headed home. The upper level event riders are gone, too. They spent the winter riding, training, practicing and competing at various Aiken venues. Now they are on the road, headed to competitions at The Fork (North Carolina), Fair Hill (Maryland), Jersey Fresh (New Jersey) and Rolex (Kentucky). But eventing isn’t over here: Aiken has many local event riders, and there are several lower-key competitions in Aiken and the surrounding areas throughout April and May, and even into the hot summer months.

The young racehorses that spent the winter learning their trade at Aiken Training Track are leaving, too. Many of them started shipping out shortly after the Aiken Trials on March 14. They are going to racetracks around the country: Belmont Park in New York, Churchill Downs in Kentucky, Del Mar in California, Gulfstream Park in Florida. Almost every region of the United States will have at least one or two racehorses representing Aiken. The 2-year-olds will spend at least a few more months training before entering their first races. The 3-year-olds may be racing already.

As the ground temperatures rise, the Bermuda grass on the polo fields starts to green up, bringing back the polo players. The most serious of Aiken’s players spent the winter in Florida, competing in various important national and international tournaments. Some of them will be there until the end of April to watch (or play in) the U.S. Open Polo Championship, a 26-goal tournament with finals scheduled for April 26. Others will be shipping back to Aiken throughout the month of April. Players who spent the winter in town have had their horses in work for at least a couple of weeks and many are ready to play. If they are lucky, the horses are mostly shed-out and look like athletes again after spending the winter lounging about, eating hay. When players run into each other in social contexts in late March and early April, one of the first questions they are likely to ask is “Are your horses up yet?” or, more cryptically, “You up?”

The other events that mark the spring in Aiken are the horse shows, starting with the historic Aiken Horse Show in the Woods, held this year from April 3 through 5. There have been horse shows in Aiken throughout the winter, of course, mostly held at Highfields Event Center on Gaston Road. These included two weekends each of the “AA” rated Aiken Winter Classic and March Madness shows, which were quite well-attended this year, partially thanks to a strong contingent that shipped in from nearby Camden.

Mid-April, however, will be the main event, the eleventh anniversary Aiken Spring Classic I and II. The top draws at these shows are the $10,000 International Hunter Derby Classic on April 18, the $25,000 Aiken Spring Classic Grand Prix and Sunday brunch on April 19, and the $30,000 Carolina Real Estate Grand Prix and brunch on April 30. On April 19, Chris Powers, who is chairwoman of Women Beyond Cancer, is having a luncheon at the showgrounds to raise money for her charity. Women Beyond Cancer provides free retreats for women with cancer, some of them at Chris’s Two Sisters Farm in Windsor. The luncheon, which costs $40 per person, features lunch by Chef Miles of the Willcox, a silent auction and a sidesaddle demonstration by Aiken Ladies Aside. If you are interested in the luncheon or the retreats, find more information at www.womenbeyondcancer.org.

Into the Arena: Arena Polo Tournaments

2009-04-02T22:07:00.000-04:00

Arena polo at the Polo America Arena in the Steeplechase Equestrian Community got its official inauguration on Sunday, March 22, with an exhibition match. The arena, which will be the site of the Ford Trucks U.S. Open Arena Polo Championships at the end of April, features several terraced spectator areas, including a main patio with a fireplace at one end. When the tournament comes to town, those who come to watch the important matches will be able to enjoy a catered dinner while taking in all the action.

The Ford Trucks U.S. Open Arena Polo Championships is a 16-goal tournament that is being put on by Randy Russell, president of Polo America. To date, there are several confirmed teams, including one that will showcase the talents of the ultra-talented Snow brothers, Adam and Nick. Adam, as most polo enthusiasts know, is an Aiken resident and one of the top players in America. Rated 8 goals on the grass (outdoors) and 9 goals in the arena (indoors), he is sure to be one of the stars of the show. Nick, who is a Senior at Harvard this year and captain of the polo club there, is rated 4 goals both indoors and out. There are rumors that the New Bridge Polo Club might field a team featuring 9-goaler Matias Magrini. Other top players who will be on the roster include Tommy Biddle at 8 goals. It may just end up being a clash of the Titans, and there aren’t just bragging rights at stake. The winning team will receive various prizes including first class tickets on American Airlines that will take them to a four-night, five-day polo vacation in Costa Careyes, Mexico.

A team from Hawaii is also on the way to Aiken, eager to take the top arena prize. This team isn’t bringing any horses, and is still looking for a few to fill out their chukker lists. They are offering anyone who is willing to supply them with mounts a week’s accommodations in Hawaii, as well as horses to ride and polo matches to play.

Aiken players were enthusiastic enough about the prospect of an arena tournament that Randy decided to add a low goal contest to the schedule. The Ford Trucks Classic will be played at the 3 goal level on the “off” days of the Open. Players in the low goal are guaranteed three games and will get tickets to the Open finals. Teams and individuals who are interested in playing in the Ford Truck Classic should contact Randy Russell at randy@poloamerica.com or call him at 760.238.7168.

Those who would like to watch the matches can select from various types of ticket packages. Tickets will be available at Aiken Saddlery, Boots, Bridles & Britches and any Aiken-Augusta area Ford truck dealership. A significant portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will go to the military families at Fort Gordon. For more information: www.poloamerica.com.

Polo In Aiken This Spring

2009-04-02T22:05:00.000-04:00

With all the current talk about an economic meltdown, polo organizers in Aiken are looking forward to the spring season with a measure of apprehension. Will people still want to play polo? Will anyone be able to afford to play polo? What will become of all the beautiful fields?

Although the season hasn’t started yet, so far, things look promising on the playing front. It is certainly true that economic circumstances have curtailed the activity of some of the most reliable teams at the medium and high goal levels. There are also very likely numerous lower profile players who will not be spending as much on their polo this year. But Aiken’s playing base is both wide and deep. Early indications are that there will indeed be a polo season this spring, and it might even be a good one. Just to be safe, organizers at various clubs have lowered fees and put together various incentives for players.

For instance, 302 Polo is holding three medium goal tournaments this spring (one 14 and two 16 goals). To encourage participation, they are giving a discount to teams that enter more than one tournament. There is even talk about adding a cash prize for the winners. “We call it our 302 stimulus package,” laughs Barb Uskup, one of the club’s organizers.

Other clubs are looking forward to active low goal seasons this spring. New Bridge Polo Club, now managed by Willie Hartnett, will hold a 12 goal tournament in April, followed by an 8 goal tournament in May and a 6 goal tournament, date to be determined. “We were a little bit worried about what would happen at first,” says Eugene Gibelli, the New Bridge general manager. “But every day I am getting calls from people who are interested in looking at property here, and players who are coming to play. It helps that we have approximately 50 members. I think regardless of the economy, we are going to have an exciting season.”

Aiken Polo Club has made its spring season more affordable by lowering the goal level of the tournaments. Last year, for instance, Aiken held one 4 goal and three 8 goals. This year there will be three 4 goals and one 8 goal.

Poloists who want to play even more economically can choose among three low goal clubs in the area. Wire Road Polo Club is having $10 per chukker practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays, as well as a 4 goal league and a 6 goal league. The schedule isn’t out yet for Omar Cepeda’s O.C. Farm, but last fall’s 4-6 goal tournaments there were enjoyable and affordable. There will even be inexpensive polo on some very top class fields at the Brigadoon Polo Club in Windsor. Rebecca Gutierrez, who has been running chukkers and leagues at Edisto Polo in Wagener for the past few years, is moving her operation to the new field at Brigadoon. There will be three 4-6 goal tournaments in April and May, with discounts for teams that enter two or more tournaments.

Interested in polo? Here are some numbers and websites: Aiken Polo Club: www.aikenpoloclub.org, 803.643.3611. 302 Polo Club: www.302polo.com, 803.642.8780 (tournaments) or 803.642.8787 (practices.) New Bridge Polo and Country Club: www.newbridgepolo.com, 803.644.7706. Brigadoon Polo Club: 561.676.2879. Wire Road Polo Club: 561.722.5953. Omar Cepeda: 561.762.4506.

Equine Rescue Looking For Riders

2009-04-02T22:03:00.001-04:00

Larkin Steele of Equine Rescue of Aiken says she is looking for some experienced riders to help ride and school the horses at the facility.

“We have horses of lots of different types,” she says, “And we need some experienced riders to volunteer to ride them so that we can make them more adoptable. If we can get the horses we have here adopted out, then we will have more room to take in horses that need help.”

Larkin stresses that the horses that need riding aren’t rank. Some are green, and some do need retraining. They all need exercise and attention. There are also lots of nice horses available for adoption or fostering. Fostering could be a great solution for someone who is only in town seasonally, or who would like to have and care for a horse, but can’t commit to owning one long-term.

Check out the website: www.aikenequinerescue.com or call 803.643.1850.

Equine Summit in Aiken

2009-04-02T22:00:00.000-04:00

After commissioning a study that showed that the Aiken equestrian community contributes over 71 million dollars a year to the local economy, the Aiken Chamber of Commerce knows that horses are an economic force. The Chamber wants horse people to start exercising their political clout, too. To this end, they asked Samantha Charles, who is a member of the Chamber board, chair of the Chamber’s Equine Steering Committee and the publisher of Sidelines magazine, to organize a meeting of horse people from various disciplines. The purpose of the meeting was to talk about the current state of the industry, and to discuss ways that things can be improved in the future.

The meeting, which took place February 24 at the Aiken Chamber headquarters on Richland Avenue, included 20 representatives from the horse community, as well as several members of the Chamber who were not involved in the horse industry. Liz Stewart, a facilitator, divided the people into three sub groups, each of which was asked to brainstorm about a particular question. One group was asked to identify factors that can help keep the horse industry healthy. The second group was asked to identify what barriers there might be to strengthening the industry, while the third came up with examples from other communities that might be useful in ensuring that the Aiken community as a whole continues to support the horse community. Afterwards, each subgroup presented its ideas.

In the second part of the meeting, the subgroups discussed the pros and cons of pursuing the idea of building a large, state-supported horse park in Aiken. Finally, the discussion turned to the possibility of organizing an Equine Summit for the fourth quarter of 2009. The idea for the Equine Summit, tentatively entitled “Horses – Past, Present and Future,” is in an embryonic stage. In the coming months, another meeting (or two) at the Chamber will clarify what the summit will be about, who will be invited, and even whether there will be a summit at all.

In the first two parts of the meeting, the various groups came up with several interesting ideas, and there were a number of differing opinions about the hottest topic of the day, the potential horse park. Proponents of a horse park would like to see one built somewhere close to Route 20, perhaps along Route 1. They see a horse park as an economic boon that would ensure the survival of the equestrian industry in Aiken. Those who spoke against a horse park said, essentially, that Aiken itself is a horse park, and that we don’t need to encourage the horse industry in Aiken to grow any larger than it already is.

“Aiken’s horse industry already contributes 71 million dollars to the economy,” said Tom Uskup, who was there as one of the representatives of the polo community. “How much more do we need? How much is enough?”

Equine Divine Welcomes New Partner

2009-03-21T22:17:00.000-04:00

If you are at the Aiken Spring Classic Horse Show this April, be sure to stop by the Equine Divine booth to see a sample of what’s in the store. Or better yet, stop by the store itself in the Holley Building on Laurens Street downtown. Since its opening in 2004, Equine Divine has established itself as one of the “must go” destinations for horse people living in or visiting Aiken. The store features a wide selection of original equestrian and sporting art, as well as home decor, jewelry and clothing, all with an equestrian theme.

Taryn Hartnett Eicher recently joined Equine Divine as the new managing partner, and is now working with Lydia del Rossi, the store’s founder. She is bringing in two new lines of jewelry and more clothing, specifically a line called J. McLaughlin. J. McLaughlin clothing is based in New York and sold up and down the East Coast. It features high quality men’s and women’s clothing with “a flair for bold colors and signature prints combined with unexpected design twists,” according to the website. Taryn says that there will be a trunk show to promote the clothing at the store during the week of the Masters Golf Tournament in Augusta, April 6 through 11.

Taryn, a horsewoman from a well-established equestrian family, has spent the last 12 years in the banking industry. Although she has lived in Aiken for several years, she was commuting to Charlotte for work.

“I decided I was ready for a change,” she says. “I wanted to be in Aiken full-time, and I wanted something that was not in the office five days a week. I had heard that Lydia was looking for a partner, we sat down and talked about it and decided that it would be a good fit.”

“We’re so excited about Taryn coming in as managing partner,” says Lydia. “She brings such life, energy and enthusiasm to the store. I had taken Equine Divine as far as I was able, and I think she will be able to take it to a whole new level, a higher level. I feel like I have sent my child off to college.”

Equine Divine will continue to represent the artists that Aiken’s horsemen have come to identify with the store, including Susan Easton Burns, Anne Amrich, Anne Lattimore and Beth Carlson. New artists include Lynn Carlisle, an Aiken resident who is known for her exquisite portraits of dogs. Other new artists will soon be represented in the store, which will also have a new logo and a new website.

Pennfield promises

2009-03-16T22:13:00.000-04:00

The eventing season in Aiken attracted more than just horses and riders. It also brought various officials from the United States Equestrian Team and several evening events and parties, including a well attended United States Equestrian Foundation benefit gala at Phillip Dutton’s Red Oak Farm in the Bridle Creek Equestrian Community.

One of the most talked about evening events was the “That’s a Promise” Tour, put on by Pennfield Feeds. Pennfield Feeds, based in Pennsylvania, is the brand used by many upper-level event riders who have their home bases in the mid-Atlantic states. After being selected as the official feed for the United States Equestrian Team at the 2008 Olympics, Pennfield began pursuing a higher profile nationally. The “That’s a Promise” Tour was conceived as an evening of talks about equine nutrition, combined with a chance to meet some of the top riders (and drivers) that rely on Pennfield Feeds, including Olympians such as Karen and David O’Connor, Bruce Davidson and Phillip Dutton. The tour also raised money for the USEF Young Rider program. Attendees could participate in a silent auction and competed for a chance to win a training session with one of the upper-level riders. There were, of course, drinks and hors d’oeuvres.

The tour started on February 8 in Wellington, Fla., and will hit eight cities on the East Coast, ending up in Gladstone, N.J. on October 7. Aiken was the third stop on the tour. The March 10 event was, according to Pennfield representatives, the most successful so far, bringing out a large and enthusiastic crowd. Of course, this is no surprise, because in Aiken, everyone loves a party, and what better than a party combined with the chance to win something? Pennfield Feeds itself is gaining a following in town. It can be found at Aiken Saddlery and Aiken Country Farm Supply.

Polo Pony Race at the Aiken Trials

2009-03-10T22:37:00.003-04:00

The Aiken Trials, Aiken's day of races for young horses, will feature a race for polo ponies this year. The ponies, which are required to be playing horses, will run 300 yards from a standing start to compete for the title of "Fastest Polo Pony in Aiken."

The Aiken Trials will be held on Saturday, March 14. The card has six races, four of them for untried 2-year-old race horses, one for seasoned horses of racing age, and the polo pony race, which will be the fourth of the day. Although members of Aiken's old Winter Colony probably raced polo ponies in Aiken before World War II, this is the first time that the Aiken Trials will include a race for polo ponies.

There are six polo ponies entered in the race. They are:

1-Eli Yale, 6 year old chestnut gelding, owned, trained and ridden by Pam Gleason

2-Jasmine, 9 year old chestnut mare, owned, trained and ridden by Theresa King

3-Do What, 6 year old bay gelding, owned, trained and ridden by Tom Uskup

4-Elegant Matter, 7 year old bay mare, owned, trained and ridden by Ben Gregoncza

5-Aztec, 9 year old chestnut gelding, owned by the Aiken Horse LLC, trained by Gary Knoll and ridden by Salvador Torres.

6-Sabrina, 9 year old bay mare, owned, trained and ridden by Edgar Cato III.

The polo pony race is sponsored by The Aiken Horse.

Southern Saddlery Closes

2009-03-04T22:15:00.000-05:00

After 18 years of serving Aiken’s equestrians, Southern Saddlery closed this February.

Susan Henderson, the store’s owner and founder, says that she is retiring from the retail trade to pursue other interests.
“I’m very thankful for the years of support the store has gotten from Aiken’s horse people,” she says.

On Friday, February 20, Susan made the announcement that the store would close at the end of the month after a going-out-of-business sale. Word spread rapidly, and Southern Saddlery was soon flooded with customers. People bought so much and so quickly, that the store was essentially empty in a couple of days, closing its doors by Thursday, February 26, two days ahead of schedule. An Aiken horse community icon, Southern Saddlery will be missed.

A Horse Park for Aiken?

2009-02-04T17:52:00.007-05:00

On Wednesday afternoon January 21, word spread like a line of flame through the horse community: there was to be an open forum at the University of South Carolina Aiken Convocation Center, to discuss the construction of a large-scale, international-quality horse park in the city. Numerous horsemen from the show, event, hunt and driving worlds joined realtors and other people connected with Aiken’s equestrian world. The meeting room suddenly didn’t have quite enough chairs.

“Only around 30 people R.S.V.P’d,” apologized one of the organizers, Mary Ann Keisler, who is director of tourism at Thoroughbred Country, an organization dedicated to promoting the hospitality industry in western South Carolina. “And there are many more of you here than we expected.”

It turned out that the meeting wasn’t about a horse park. Rather, it was a forum conducted by Robert Cleverdon, director of an Ireland-based company called Tourism Development International, to solicit ideas and opinions about how to promote Aiken and Edgefield Counties as tourist destinations. Tourism Development International is a consulting firm that was hired by South Carolina’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism to create a comprehensive tourism plan for the state. One option in that plan calls for solidifying Aiken’s reputation as an equestrian destination by making it the location of a horse park that could be used for shows, clinics and other equestrian events.

Robert Cleverdon had an agenda that he tried to follow during the meeting. That agenda included identifying various things other than the equestrian life that might attract tourists. The meeting was also intended to address potential tourist attractions in Edgefield County. Several people had made the trip to USCA from Edgefield, and they may have been eager to discuss historic houses, Native American archeological sites and bike trails in their neighborhoods. However, the overwhelming majority of attendees were horse people from Aiken. They had come to talk about a horse park, and that is what they did.

Cleverdon, an Englishman, didn’t appear to understand exactly what was happening. He would ask if people in Aiken wanted more museums, and someone would reply that they thought a horse park would be good for the area because it would complement the many great equestrian facilities we already have. He would suggest that we could develop our waterways to attract more tourists, and someone else would answer that they worried that the horse park might detract from the charm of Aiken. Although a horse park was, indeed, one of the official topics of discussion, after a few rounds on the subject, Mr. Cleverdon tried, with little success, to get people to stop bringing it up. The end result was perhaps a bit disappointing for horsemen and Englishmen alike, since neither got to explore the topics that interested them in any depth.

Tourism Development International will be making recommendations to the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, and they might even suggest developing a horse park for Aiken. However, in the current economic climate, it is unlikely that the state would be able to do anything in the near future. Funds for creating such a facility would have to come from a public-private partnership, and even then, the state would have to be on firmer financial footing before considering such a thing.

What the forum did prove was that Aiken’s horsemen are very eager to talk about a horse park. Following the meeting, Deirdre Stoker Vaillancourt, a realtor with Meybohm and a horsewoman, spoke with Representative Tim Young, a state legislator who was eager to pursue the idea further. Several area horsemen are planning to set up meetings that really are about a horse park, both to explore its possible impact on the area and to determine ways that it could be made a reality. Stay for the latest updates.

Eventing News

2009-02-03T15:00:00.000-05:00

There can be no doubt that Aiken is the place to be this winter if you are an eventer. Not only are there competitions, training and schooling opportunities galore, pretty much everyone is here. This year that includes riders from the United States Equestrian Federation’s winter training list of “Developing” riders as well as a selection of elite riders in consideration for the United States Eventing Team that will compete at international events in the coming years.

The riders will train at Three Runs Plantation, an equestrian development on the Southside. There will be three sessions, held on February 17-21, March 4-6 and March 17-19. On February 18, riders will train over the cross country course at Paradise Farm on route 302 east of town. Captain Mark Phillips, who recently renewed his contract as the U.S. chef d’équipe, will work with the riders. Wayne Raeford, who is the owner and developer of Three Runs, will be holding a V.I.P. brunch at the Three Runs clubhouse on February 19 with proceeds to benefit the USEF.

Other eventing extras this winter include a USEF benefit gala cocktail party and silent auction held at Phillip Dutton’s Red Oak Farm in Bridle Creek on the evening of March 6. This will be the second of five annual parties that Evie Dutton (Phillip’s wife) and Dineen Daniels (Bridle Creek’s co-owner and developer) are organizing in order to assist the USEF. Phillip Dutton will speak about the 2008 Hong Kong Olympics and there will be a silent auction and bountiful hors d’oeuvres. There is also a possibility that Gina Miles, who won the individual silver medal at the Games, will fly in from California. Tickets are $55 and can be purchased at Meybohm Realtors’ downtown office until February 27.

Horsemen might also want to check out the “That’s a Promise” tour, put on by Pennfield Feeds. Pennfield, a Pennsylvania-based company, feeds many of the horses on the U.S. Eventing Team, including horses owned by Phillip Dutton. Another Pennfield-fed horse, Jamaica, a driving horse owned by Chester Weber, was recently named the USEF Horse of the Year. The “That’s a Promise” tour starts in Florida and will be in Aiken on March 10. The evening will include talks about equine nutrition, the chance to meet Olympic riders, sip wine and sample hors d’oeuvres and compete for the opportunity to win a training session with an Olympian. Proceeds will benefit the USEF Young Rider program. For tickets and more information: www.thatsapromisetour.com.

Sharer Dale is Jumping Higher

2009-02-02T19:15:00.000-05:00

Sharer Dale, a professional realtor and amateur rider who recently relocated to Aiken from Chagrin Falls, Ohio, has been supplementing her income by outjumping the pros at this winter’s Progressive Show Jumping events. At the Aiken Winter Classic at the end of December, she was fifth in the $10,000 Mini Prix riding her horse Antares, then won the $5,000 Welcome Stake with Antares and took second with her other top jumper Gerry 79. At the Aiken Winter Classic II in early January, she came back to win the $10,000 Mini Prix, again riding Antares. In the jump-off, she bested Daniel Geitner, a top local professional, by nearly six seconds.

“My guys are really good,” says Shari, speaking of her horses. “I bought Antares off a video nine years ago when he was 6. I had told Wilhelm Genn that I needed a horse with a sense of humor, and he picked out Antares for me. Antares was in Germany. The video was of him jumping with a 13-year-old girl riding him. He was obviously so forgiving, with such heart. Every time he came around a corner and saw a fence, his ears would just shoot forward. I knew he was the right horse for me. I could never replace him.”

In addition to her seasoned campaigners, Shari also has two young horses she is excited about. Over the winter she and Sarah Thompson, the Aiken veterinarian, went down to Argentina where they bought three horses from La Tatabra, the best-known breeder of jumping horses in that country. One horse is for Sarah, the other two are for Shari. These horses are just coming 4 this year, so it will be a while before their jumping careers really take off, but watch out for them in the future. Shari keeps her horses at home and rides with Drasius Arkus. When she is not on a horse winning jumper classes, Shari works at Meybohm downtown

Midshipman to Aiken TB Hall of Fame

2009-02-02T19:09:00.000-05:00

New Addition to TB Hall of Fame
After a 12-year drought, the Aiken Thoroughbred Hall of Fame will induct a racing champion this spring. Midshipman, a colt owned by Darley and started at the Aiken Training Track under Stonerside’s Tim Jones, won the Eclipse Award for outstanding Juvenile (2-year-old) Colt of 2008. He will be the first horse inducted into the Hall of Fame since Dogwood Stables’ Storm Song won the Eclipse as the outstanding Juvenile Filly of 1996.

Midshipman was sired by Unbridled’s Song, one of the top ten money-earning sires of 2008. His dam, Avenue of Flags, was a multiple graded stakes winning mare from California, who won $631,190 on her way to becoming California’s champion 3-year-old filly of 1997 and champion older female of 1998. Midshipman started his racing career on August 17 with a win at Del Mar (California), followed on September 3 by a win in the Grade I Del Mar Futurity. He was second in the Grade I Norfolk Stakes, and capped his 2-year-old year by winning the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on October 25. His performance was good enough to make him the overwhelming winner in the Eclipse Award voting, garnering 195 votes, some 160 ahead of his closest competitor.

Midshipman was one of the horses that Bob and Janice McNair sold to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Makhtoum as part of the sheikh’s deal to buy Stonerside Stables back in September. Now a part of Darley Stables and a winner of $1.38 million, he was one of five young horses from that outfit to fly back to Dubai this December, presumably in preparation for a run at the United Arab Emirates Derby in late March. If all goes well, perhaps he will be stateside again on the first Saturday in May. Aiken always loves rooting for an Aiken-connected Kentucky Derby contender.

Induction into the Aiken Thoroughbred Hall of Fame is an honor that has been bestowed upon 39 horses, including Midshipman. To qualify, a horse must be recognized as a champion by winning an Eclipse Award, and must have trained in Aiken at some point in its career. Midshipman was not the only horse with Aiken ties who was up for an Eclipse this year. Another contender was Eight Belles, nominated in the 3-Year-Old Filly category. Eight Belles, who trained at Legacy Stable under Ron Stevens as a 2-year-old, finished second in the Kentucky Derby before breaking down on the racetrack where she was euthanized.

The ceremony honoring Midshipman will be held on Sunday, March 15 at 12:30 p.m. at the Thoroughbred Hall of Fame and Museum in Hopeland Gardens.

Owen Rinehart to Polo Hall of Fame

2009-02-02T19:08:00.000-05:00

Aiken has always had a stellar reputation in polo circles for attracting and producing outstanding players and ponies. Some of the best players in the history of the game have graced Aiken’s fields, including the immortal Tommy Hitchcock (1900-1944), a 10 goal player who was often considered the best player the sport had ever seen, and Adolfo Cambiaso (1975 - ) an Argentine 10-goal superstar whose reputation has even eclipsed Tommy’s. In fact, of the 21 American born players who have been awarded a 10-goal rating by the United States Polo Association, seven (a full third!) have lived and played in Aiken.

This February, another of Aiken’s players will be inducted into the National Museum of Polo Hall of Fame in Lake Worth, Florida. Owen Rinehart, who attained a 10-goal handicap in 1991, is this year’s living inductee. He joins other Aiken-connected poloists on the roster, including Pete Bostwick, Thomas, Tommy and Louise Hitchcock, Alan Corey Jr. (father of the Alan Corey who plays today) Elbridge Gerry (who attended Aiken Prep School) Philip and Stewart Iglehart, Norty Knox, Devereux Milburn, Lewis Smith, Louis Stoddard and Harry Payne Whitney.

Owen Rinehart has a long list of polo accomplishments, including wins in the U.S. Open, the U.S. Handicap, the Gold Cup, the Monty Waterbury Cup, the America Cup, the Hall of Fame Cup, the World Cup and the East Coast Open. He also played for America in the Westchester Cup in 1992, the last year that the U.S. won the historic international match against England. This year, he serves as coach for the American team in the first year that the Westchester Cup will be contested on American soil since 1939.

Although Owen has a stellar reputation as a player, he may be best known for breeding, training and developing horses. His breeding operation is one of the most well-respected in the nation, and horses bred and trained at his Isinya Farm on Langdon Road have won numerous Best Playing Pony Awards in some of the top tournaments in the country. Additionally, he was named Best Mounted Player in both the 2005 Gold Cup (played at New Bridge Polo and Country Club) and in the 2007 U.S. Open in Palm Beach.

Owen will be inducted at the 20th Annual Hall of Fame Awards Gala at the museum on Friday, February 13. Other inductees include the Aiken “Ponies to Remember” Belle of All, owned and played by Louis Stoddard; and Rotallen, owned and played by Norty Knox. The evening begins with a Champagne reception and a silent auction to benefit the Hall of Fame. There will be a seated dinner, then the awards ceremony, then dancing. Tickets are $200 per person. (www.polomuseum.com or call 561.969.3210)

Aiken Gets Arena Polo

2009-02-02T19:06:00.000-05:00

Aiken’s polo players have been threatening to start playing arena polo here for years, and several polo enthusiasts have gone so far as to put up polo arenas. There has even been at least one exhibition game over at The Plains of Aiken development. Now, although there is no word of anyone organizing regular arena practices or making an arena club, we will have an arena polo tournament, thanks to Randy Russell, president of Polo America and the man behind the Ford Trucks Balloon and Polo Festival, held here in 2007 and 2008.

Randy has put together the Ford Trucks U.S. Open Arena Championship, a 14-16-goal tournament that will be held at an arena he is in the process of completing at his home in the Steeplechase development on Aiken’s Southside. The tournament runs from April 28 until May 3. It will be limited to eight teams and already has attracted serious interest from three or four.

A polo arena is 300 feet long by 150 feet wide, although many arenas are either bigger or smaller. Whereas outdoor polo has four players to a side, arena polo has just three. The ball, made of inflated plastic or leather and about the size of a Florida grapefruit, resembles a mini soccer ball. Players can bounce the ball off the walls (“boards”) of the arena and they score by hitting the ball against a marked-off (usually) recessed area the arena’s end.

Like many indoor versions of outdoor sports, arena polo can be both faster (in terms of how the play changes) and more physical than grass polo. The game is definitely easier to watch and understand since the players never get that far away from the spectators. Many players, especially those from Northern climes, get their start in arena polo, which can be played year round indoors, even in Chicago or Maine. Horses that play in the arena have to be quick, bold and handy. They can even be a little bit crazy: on the grass a hot-headed, keen horse might be hard to stop, but in the arena there is nowhere to go but to the play.

The entry fee for the tournament is $1,000 per team and parking for spectators will be five dollars per car, and five dollars to attend the final match. There will be a Kentucky Derby party after the consolation finals on Saturday, May 2, at which players, spectators and friends can watch the race and (presumably) indulge in Mint Juleps. All proceeds go to benefit the families of servicemen at Fort Gordon. The families of Fort Gordon have also been the beneficiaries of the Ford Trucks Balloon and Polo festivals.

“I didn’t have a connection to the military before,” explains Randy. “But after we made the families of Fort Gordon the beneficiaries of the first balloon festival, I saw how appreciative they were and how much it is needed. Now about 90 percent of my events benefit military families. We’ve been able to help about 30 families attend funerals of loved ones that have died in the line of service. We’ve also been able to help a little boy get treatment for a blood disease after his mother ran out of insurance and ran up all her charge cards. We raised enough money to pay for his treatment and to pay off all her credit cards. Now the little boy is cured and playing soccer.”

Horsemen's Hangouts

2009-02-02T19:04:00.000-05:00

Aiken isn’t just a great place to ride. It’s also great place for horsemen to network and socialize: everyone who is in the area is bound to come downtown for dinner or a drink, at least once in a while. When they do, they’re pretty likely to run into other horse people. People looking for work as riders or grooms often say they have the best luck getting hired just by going to the Polo Bar at the Hotel Aiken and talking to people.

This winter, there are a few new additions to the scene. One is a new cocktail hour on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at The Willcox, one of Aiken’s stateliest and most historic hotels. The Willcox’s manager, Tina McCarthy, a horsewoman, is married to Dan McCarthy of Farmer Road Polo, the premier green horse training facility for polo in the area. With the McCarthys’s equestrian connections, it is little wonder that the cocktail hour is frequented by horse people of all disciplines. Of course, it also helps that numerous visiting horse people choose The Willcox as their residence during their sojourns in the city.

The other new addition is a welcome one for horsemen on the East side of town. New Bridge Polo Club has opened the New Bridge Café, serving breakfast and lunch from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily. The chef is from Argentina and the menu is North American with a South American flair. For instance, for lunch, you could order a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich. Or you could have the Milanesa (crisply fried breaded beef) lunch plate. Either way, prices are quite reasonable and the atmosphere is laid back, elegant and understated.