How many indoor circuit ribbon-winning owners do you know who slept outside their horse’s foaling stall eight years ago, awaiting his birth? Then went on to bottle-feed the newly-orphaned weanling, raise him, train him under saddle and take him to his first show to compete in the baby greens?

Lynn Reed’s Holsteiner-Thoroughbred cross, Cupid (Camiros—Arabella), exemplifies the culmination of her long-term breeding and training efforts. This fall was the 8-year-old chestnut gelding’s first indoor season, and he fit right in alongside fancy imports and more experienced campaigners, picking up ribbons in the green conformation hunters at Capital Challenge (Md.), the Pennsylvania National, Washington International (D.C.) and National Horse Show (Ky.) with Todd Minikus up.

Lynn Reed’s Cupid is just one of her third-generation homebreds showing. Todd Minikus rode Cupid to  ribbons in the green conformation division at the  Pennsylvania National this fall. Photo by Kimberly Loushin

But Cupid is far from Reed’s only prized foal—the start-to-finish process of developing hunters is one that has been her focus for decades.

What About Me, 9, also campaigned in the green conformation division at indoors this year, and grew up with Cupid at Reed’s Fox Run Farm in Stanfordville, N.Y. They represent Reed’s third crop of homebreds.

“I imported my original Holsteiner, Grivaldi, through Emil Spadone 15 years ago and showed him,” she explained. “Then I bred him back to a Thoroughbred mare that I had bred. And then I got the stallion I stand now [Spellbound]. What I ended up doing was trying to find Thoroughbred lines in this country that would go toward jumping and showing, not just racetrack lines, so I actually had to breed my broodmares to get the broodmares I wanted to then cross with the Holsteiners. And now this generation is a product of that crop.”

While Reed is the first one to get her horses into the show ring, she has three top show riders in Daniel Geitner, Aaron Vale and Todd Minikus, who meet her at big shows. Minikus has most recently taken the reins on What About Me and Cupid in the green conformation hunters this fall.

“They’re literally homebreds that went one year in the pre-greens and now are in the green conformations,” Lynn said. “And luckily their riders think they’re good enough to ride them.”

Reed’s mares produce four to five foals each year, but what we see today—show-ready hunters and a large breeding program, including a winter base in Ocala, Fla.—is a product of decades of hard work; Reed’s successes came neither quickly nor easily.  

A lifelong New Yorker, Reed grew up in Harrison, N.Y., and became enthralled with the sport at age 6 when her father, Jim Reed, gifted her a pony and small shelter in their backyard. “Then we started Pony Club and quickly went from there—because my father is a very competitive person—to getting a real trainer and starting work,” said Reed, who took lessons with the likes of Anthony D’Ambrosio and Leslie Howard, starting her show career at age 8.

“My father used to sell trucks and trailers and horse vans,” she explained. “That kept us going in this world. Since we always had our horses at home, I always was taking care of my own horses: braiding them, shipping them to the horse shows and doing everything myself, which has served a good purpose because it’s allowed me to have the background to keep doing that.”

After Reed’s junior years, she found it difficult, as so many amateurs do, to financially support her riding dreams, joking that she didn’t make it in “the regular work force” and soon accepted her love for horses as both vocation and occupation.

A self-described devotee to her show horses, Reed wanted to make sure her junior mounts, who had given her so much, could retire under her care in the best environment possible.

“So I ended up starting my own boarding business so that I could afford to retire my horses,” she said. “And then I had some good amateur horses. I realized there was only one way I was going to continue doing this, business-wise: getting my own stallion and breeding. So now everything I’ve got are horses that I’ve bred. I’ve bred my stallion; I’ve bred all my mares. And now these are my crops of horses coming through off my breeding program.

“I’ve worked my whole life and have just recently been able to buy my own farm,” she added with a laugh. “I’m 53! Having my show horses show horses at one place, my broodmares at another, my foals at another, rotating three different facilities trying to keep everything together, was hard,” said Reed. “I was able to, after developing enough credit, purchase my own farm, so now everybody’s in one place.”

Reed has 60 horses on 130 acres at Fox Run today, but in order to support her passion, she’s had to branch out. Think her horse career is already diverse? Add foxhunting as another cornerstone of her business, and you see more of the full picture.

She hunts regularly with the nearby Millbrook Hunt (N.Y.), so when she breeds a horse that proves a bit high-strung for the hunter arena, there’s an equally enjoyable alternative. Likewise, the majority of her client base is interested in the discipline.

“I have a bunch of clientele and they come up on the weekends and I take them out foxhunting,” said Reed. “And I take a bunch of children foxhunting. It’s a lot of fun. Then we all hunter pace. A lot of them started out with me foxhunting and then started horse showing. Some of them bought my young horses that were horse showing. But it was all through coming to visit the area—it’s so beautiful, and they enjoyed learning to foxhunt.”

Her weekly schedule is consistent: she rides her young horses—her main passion—Monday through Friday, then teaches lessons and hunts every weekend.

When asked what she does when she’s not riding, Reed was speechless for a minute. “When you live on your own farm, it’s 24/7,” she said. “I’m up foaling out horses, or there if a horse is sick—I’m always at the barn.”

Dale Mills, a former employee of Vale, works for Reed, mostly with her stallions. While she’s used to breaking all the horses herself, his help has allowed her to share the big responsibility as she gets older. “Between the two of us, we get them all set up for Todd or Aaron,” she said.

However, Reed and her husband, Dennis Desoto, enjoy deep-sea fishing on the rare occasion of an overlapping day off.

“He’s an accountant; he’s the one that keeps me solvent,” she laughed. “I’m not really good at asking people for money; he’s the one that makes sure I get the bills out on time and makes sure I do all the things I can’t stand!

“This is such a hard industry; it’s nice when you get recognition from people who can’t just go out to Europe and spend $100,000 on a 3-year-old; we have to do it the old-fashioned way,” Lynn continued. “I think it gives other people hope that if you work hard enough, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

“Unfortunately in our industry, people like to take shortcuts. And in the long run, if you want a quality horse, there’s no easy way; you’ve got to do it right,” she continued. “If I’m going to get really quality riders on them, I have to make sure all my homework is done, that I’m following all the rules, dotting all my i’s and crossing all my t’s.

“I don’t think I’ve ever over-faced my horses,” she added of their success. “I’m very consistent in my training methods and there are no gimmicks; there are no short cuts. It’s just absolute, flat-out, consistent hard work. And then I think I got lucky enough to get extremely good show ring riders like Aaron, Todd and Daniel to ride them in the ring.

“I know when they walk in the ring, I’ve done everything I can for them. And because I foaled them all out, I know them so well. I’m the one hacking them in the morning, so I know they’ve settled in, I know where their bodies are, I know how they feel, I still braid their tails. I’m hands-on with the blacksmith and the vet. There’s nothing that happens that I don’t know about. It’s almost more nerve-wracking for me to watch them than to ride!”