Virginia is for (Horse) Lovers

Most people don’t know this about me, but I skipped my senior year of high school by graduating early - mainly so I could spend a gap year as a working student at various hunter/jumper farms on the East Coast.

Virginia is where I first fell in love with the crisp countryside air; the simple life of having few dining options and even fewer entertainment options. The barn itself was nothing to write home about - but what mattered more to me was how much space we had all to ourselves. Billie Rae Croll housed me at her BRC Stables right down the road from the Virginia Horse Center. Her mother raced Thoroughbreds and the ones that didn’t win came to Billie to be restarted as hunters or jumpers.

“How do you know what they’re going to be?” I remember asking her. “I don’t,” she replied. “They tell me what they want to be.”

The first time I visited the Virginia Horse Center, I was in awe. 600 acres, 19 show rings and my personal favorite - the Anderson Coliseum - which seats 4,000 people. I had heard stories about the legendary Joe Fargis and watched old videos of him competing at sleepover camp at my eventing barn as a kid. It was at the Virginia Horse Center that I first watched Joe Fargis compete in real life.

As soon as he trotted into the arena on a skinny and small Thoroughbred, perched far more forward than any equitation judge would approve of, I knew exactly who that lanky, 6-foot-something rider was.

Joe Fargis was a member of one of the most iconic teams in American History - he rode to individual and team gold on the now infamous mare, Touch of Class.

Joe Fargis would compete nearly every weekend I attended the horse show on small Thoroughbreds with big hearts. While other riders would gallop in on their overpriced, overfed imported Warmbloods, they’d usually take rails. In the early days of the imports, many forget that they were initially too heavy for the agility that courses on the East Coast required - not initially having been bred for the right mix.

There was usually too much emphasis on power, not enough on agility.

This was the beginning of the current era of importing pre-made, push-button Warmbloods that were practically factory produced by the Europeans.

This was before we Americans realized they weren’t ever actually sending us their 'A' string horses - even though they still came with six-figure price tags.

Many trainers - young and old - hopped on the European import band wagon. They threw their rescues to the wind and pivoted their entire business model to importing. Instead of giving horses in need a second chance, the industry shifted to importing everything and inevitably led to an increased amount of American horses being exported for slaughter.

Why? Because not only did they make a ridiculous amount in commission selling six-figure horses to people who barely knew how to ride, but it also meant they got an all-expenses-paid horse shopping vacation in an exotic European locale, courtesy of the client.

Many fell for the glitz and the glamour (and still do).

But not Joe Fargis.

He’d gallop into the ring on his tiny Thoroughbreds - he liked them small, just like Touch of Class - and assess the course while the crowd would grow quiet. He always rode in a hunt seat - hunched forward with his shoulders but still soft as a feather in his hands. His forward seat was so forward, in fact, that at times he looked like he might butt heads with his own horse.

His style could be described in three words: light, quick, agile.

Where other horses added a step, Joe left it out. Where the other riders almost always had to take the longer turns, Joe would take the inside track. If there was an option to slice the fence, you know he took it.

He wasn't just a rider, but a true showman, bringing out the best and the most brilliant in every mount he sat on.

Anyone who didn't know who he was would almost immediately gasp at the sight of him.

“What does he think he’s doing in the Grand Prix on that tiny Thoroughbred?”

The usual commentary centered around the size of the horse, having seen dozens of riders go before him on gigantic, heavy-boned European Warmbloods. The American Thoroughbred was light, medium-boned, lean, and with the stamina to go for hours.

Most people don't give racehorses enough credit.

Racing requires an instinctual desire to lead and succeed. It isn't just about fitness - it's a mental game. A trainer I met at the track once told me:

"The horse has to want to win - he has to want to be a leader to head up the pack."

What I loved about Joe Fargis is that he always put function over form.

Thoroughbreds are known for having high metabolisms and can be accused of being "high strung" if they don't get enough exercise and time outside in large spaces. They are a high stamina breed built for speed and, most importantly, they are smart.

If you miss a distance to a 5 foot fence and there's another fence right after it, you can easily flip a horse and you can both wind up dead. Perhaps what I love most about the Thoroughbred is that they are smart enough to call you on a bad idea when they see it.

I've sat on many Warmbloods who never questioned what I asked of them. And they should have.

I come from a humble middle-class household that was just lucky to have (barely) survived the 2008 stock market crash. When I was a kid, I rode a lot of Thoroughbreds - most of them having come from off the track or slaughter pens. Thoroughbreds are great teachers, especially for young kids, because they’re exceptionally inquisitive and in tune to their environment. Though temperament varies widely, dependent upon both nature and nurture, the breed is know for being exceptionally smart. They tend to peak when they are younger, are overall lighter in bone structure, and typically faster than your average Warmblood.

Thoroughbreds are a quick study, but can be considered a hard keeper for uneducated owners.

Many years after I left Virginia and found myself managing a private equestrian estate for a wealthy CEO, I met one of Touch of Class’ first owners (though I didn’t know it at the time).

I had recently been promoted to barn manager and had finally built up enough trust and confidence to takeover as the exercise rider. The CEO used to refer to his own beloved Warmbloods as "dumbbloods" and I've had many days since where that statement rang true.

The imported Warmbloods you see today were not bred for intelligence or temperament (unless they came with million dollar+ price tags and are funded by a shell corporation), they were bred and trained to jump high. That's it.

It doesn't seem problematic until you watch overmounted riders go around a complex jump course and make very simple mistakes that end in catastrophe.

Cyrene Loveland had been exercising his horses during the off-season and was getting ready to depart before the winter circuit began. She was kind enough to spend a handful of weeks teaching me the ropes of each of his vastly different and well-loved horses. Once she departed, it would be my responsibility to manage the 12-stall barn and ensure each horse got properly exercised.

One day when we were cooling out the horses, Cyrene casually started talking about Touch of Class - as if she wasn't one of the most iconic, well-loved horses of all time.

“You know, everybody told me that mare was never going to amount to anything. They said she was too small and nothing special to look at. They told me she was just an okay jumper. It took someone like Joe to see that she was so much more than that,” she said.

Cyrene inspired me to think differently about how and why we choose the "winners" that we do. Often times, I find that people get caught up in the aestetics and the trends of the time, and they forget to think for themselves.

In the sea of sameness, why not be who you choose to be – not what you're expected to be?

After a brief hiatus from the equestrian industry, I am (mostly) healed and back in the saddle as an amateur and searching for the very first horse to call me own. For these last 24 years and counting, it has never been in my reach to have a horse of my own. I have decided that I don’t aspire to be just another rider on just another imported Warmblood, winning ribbons because someone sat her a push-button ride.

I aspire to be something more.

I aspire to bring back the glory days of the sport, in the 1970s and 1980s, when an American could make a respectable living riding, caring for and competing American-bred sporthorses.

I have a vision - and it starts with my very own Thoroughbred.

I finally found my Thoroughbred. Read what comes next...Hello World: Meet Unbridled Dixie