A personal account by Christian Kennedy.
When one thinks of Florida, images of beaches, oranges, old people, and seafood usually come to mind. Not horses. However, every winter the horse industry takes a pilgrimage to the sun kissed land of Palm Beach and the Winter Equestrian Festival.
I found my way to the Sunshine State via my riding instructor Lisa Bishop, who was making her yearly trip down to train with a man named Michael Barisone. I had ridden with Michael Barisone twice before so we already knew each other a bit. Since the cost to bring a horse down myself would have been ridiculously expensive, I offered up my services as groom, to work for Lisa when she was in Florida. In return for a floor to sleep on, and an amazing experience to watch and learn from the best trainers in the sport.
In order to take the month off, I had to work out how to make up the classes I would miss. Since there little protocol for students who leave for extended periods of time, my parents, teachers, and I were able to figure out a solution. I ended up taking most of my work with me, the rest I did over Google Docs. There was a lot of work, boy it was a lot. Sadly though I had to make some sacrifices. Since there is no way to make up lab work, it was decided that I should retake Chemistry Honors next year. Similarly in Biology, I will have to retake 2nd trimester Junior year. As much as retaking classes sucks, I think it was definitely worth it. I owe a lot to all my teachers for helping me work out how to take this trip.
Centered in the town of Wellington, is the Winter Equestrian Festival, Disney for Horses. All the best riders in the sport spend the winter training and showing in Florida. The show grounds are on 80 acres of land, with facilities to support 10s of hundreds of horses, and riders. It has 13 arenas outfitted for jumpers, hunters, and derby events, including a stadium for Grand Prixs. There is a stupid amount of money that goes through here; in the lower levels, prize money is in the $1000- $3000 range. With the higher divisions topping off at $150,000. On top of that, many riders were trying to qualify for the Olympic Show Jumping team for this summer.
The weather was stunning, on most days it was a pleasant 75º and sunny. In fact it was a bit of a vacation for me. Being able to watch Olympic riders train is heaven for horse people. The whole environment was daunting though. Being a skinny Iowan boy, who hadn’t seen sunlight or green grass in months, I felt out of place walking amongst elites of the horse world, and the super rich. I honestly thought I had no chance of making.
Sitting ringside for 5 hours a day, in the shade of palm trees. I was able to pick up on many things from Michael. He is built like a football and is a bad ass when it comes to horses. He has a really witty sense of humor that is sort of vulgar, yet extremely funny. None the less, he is amazingly smart, and just a nice guy. It’s amazing how much one can learn from just listening, and thinking… It’s really incredible everybody should give it a try sometime. Even when we went to the show grounds. I was able to pick up on things. Whether they were simple procedures for showing, or some of the more arcane political ways of the horse world.
By far the highlight of the trip was being able to watch, and learn from how Michael trained his younger horses. He respects the horses but is also firm, demanding that a horse be “A good citizen” as Michael says. In a sport where the slightest misstep, mistiming, or change in rhythm can be the difference between winning and looking like a fool, the key to success is accuracy and precision.
