Story By Ritchie Rozzelle
Photography by Ritchie Rozzelle and Shannon Brinkman
You just don't see very many top hats these days. The preferred chapeau of Abraham Lincoln, Willy Wonka and the vast majority of magicians has largely gone by the wayside. Such a shame, really. There's something pretty great about a top hat. It has the power to elevate the wearer in both stature and standing. It exudes confidence, and it apparently contains an inexhaustible supply of rabbits.
The top hat is the perfect symbol for refinement and mystique.
How suiting then, that one of the last remaining strongholds of the topper sits atop the heads of some of the most talented equestrians. If you're looking to spot a top hat in the wild, simply attend the dressage phase of an eventing competition. There, the sport's most advanced riders, dressed in their best, show off the peak of equestrian precision. If you were to stick around for all of eventing's phases, you would witness an amazing display of horse and rider working together to complete a rigorous battery of galloping and jumping. Eventing encompasses such a wide range of skills that the best way to sum it up is to break it down by the numbers:
This is one competition consisting of three phases, spread over three days. Day one's dressage phase allows riders five minutes to execute nineteen dressage drills. Day two's cross-country phase spans twenty miles of trail and crosses some fifty obstacles, streams and steeplechase fences, all at speeds up to twenty-five miles per hour. Show jumping, day three's final phase, takes eventers over fifteen fences, each up to four feet tall. All this is executed by one rider teamed up with one horse, which adds up to an infinitely challenging test of skill, stamina and strength for both.
Few people know the daunting mathematics of eventing better than equestrian super-couple Mike and Emma Winter. Together, they own and operate Wayfarer Eventing out of Newnan, Georgia. Both Mike and Emma compete at the top CCI**** level. Mike, a citizen of our neighbor to the north, represented Canada at the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Emma, originally from Britain, brings an unmatched level of professionalism and knowledge to Mike's more gut-driven pursuit of eventing's highest levels. They team up to train eventing horses all the way from the early breaking stages up to this international level. They also train eventing riders of all ability levels. They do all this while raising their six-year-old daughter Amelia and attending, coaching and riding in up to 30 competitions per year. This hectic life leaves the Winters little downtime, but for them, eventing represents the pinnacle of horse sports as well as their life's passion.
"It can be difficult turning your hobby into your job," says Mike Winter. "You have to remind yourself that you do it because it's what you love, and you're lucky to get to do something you love every day."
This everyday love of eventing means an every morning regimen of taking each horse through involved and targeted training. "The training is very individualized for the horses," Mike says. "They are on a fitness regimen based on competition schedules. We keep a roster and a checklist inside the barn so that we work on each horse's weaknesses leading up to a competition." This is because eventing is like few other competitions. It calls on a horse to have a wide range of abilities, as well as all around conditioning. In the case of Olympic and International competitions, this perfection needs to be so ingrained that it can be summoned up after overseas flights in the belly of a 747 jetliner.
This level of performance matches anything we expect of professional athletes. In fact, Mike compares the three-day event to a triathlon, with each phase requiring a completely different skill set and game-day mindset. Unlike the solitary man-on-a-mission nature of a triathlon, eventing is totally a team sport. Horse and rider must be in tune at every step, jump and turn. Mike sums it up as "an overall test of horse and rider's ability to display bravery, elevate control and precision." With cross-country courses that involve jumping fences into unknown water obstacles and clearing blind hedges, that performance boils down to trust.
"This is one of the reasons I love eventing more than any other horse sport," says Mike. "Eventing horses reach the peak of their career between the ages of 12 and 14 years old. They take years and years to produce, to create the complete package of muscle, strength and stamina. We're trying to time their abilities to peak with their potential. It takes so many years, and so many important steps along the way, to build trust and confidence - not just trust and confidence in the rider, but trust and confidence in themselves. You do that by teaching the horse skills that they can tap into when they're in a difficult situation."
This constant quest to bring out the best in both horse and rider is a task that eventing is almost uniquely qualified to fill. According to Mike, it demands the most of experienced riders, but it also encourages the most commitment of beginners. "I see eventing as a sport that really brings along young horsemen and horsewomen. They have to really truly understand what it takes to keep a horse in good condition as far as feeding, grooming, training and soundness. It's not one of those sports where someone else can get the horse ready for you, and you go out to show your skills. You have to understand all of the work that goes into it to do it well."
"It can be difficult turning your hobby into your job. You have to remind yourself that you do it because it's what you love, and you're lucky to get to do something you love every day."
With Mike standing hopeful for another run at the 2008 Olympics, both he and Emma know what it takes to make it in this taxing and dangerous sport. They put up with stiff mornings from the broken bones and bad falls. They have stories of concussions, cuts and close calls. They deal with a constantly restless schedule. In fact, that on-the-go lifestyle lends Wayfarer Eventing its name. "We just looked it up in the thesaurus," admits Mike. "For the first year or two that my wife and I were together and starting our business we were traveling all the time and living out of our horse trailer like gypsies or roamers, or ‘wayfarers.'"
It's this shared passion that lets the Winters endure a wayfarer's lifestyle. It keeps them as strong riders and strong partners. In this sport that demands the peak performance, Mike says their mutual encouragement keeps them up to the challenge, "We want the best for each other."
Update: We are delighted to announce that Wayfarer Eventing's Mike Winter and Kingpin have been named to the Canadian 3-Day Eventing Olympic Team. Wayfarer Eventing feeds Triple Crown feeds out of the Griffin (GA) Southern States. Mike also qualified a second mount for the team - Wonderful Will. Congratulations to everyone at Wayfarer Eventing! We couldn't be more proud to be part of your Olympic Team! The Olympics will be held in Bejing, China, in August.
Mike describes his relationship with Southern States feed as consistency in a whirlwind of travel: "One of the reasons that we started using Southern States is that we travel a lot - all up and down the eastern states. The ability to consistently fi nd a feed that maintains high quality when we're traveling is very important. As well, the feed recommended for eventing is very high in fiber, which is good for horses that are traveling all the time." Wayfarer Eventing proudly feeds Triple Crown® Complete and Triple Crown® Rice Bran Oil Plus from the Southern States store in Griffi n, Georgia.