Caledon, Ontario—July 14
Every rider coming to the Pan American Games comes with a different goal–whether it’s to win a medal, achieve a personal best score or just bring attention to horse sport in their country.
While we loved cheering on the U.S. and Canadian teams as they battled it our for the top medals, we equally enjoyed talking with riders from smaller countries who each came to the Pan Ams with an interesting tale to tell. Here are some of their stories!
Irina Moleiro De Muro and Von Primaire (Venezuela)
Photo by Lindsay Berreth
Irina Moleiro De Muro is part of the three-person Venezuelan team. After a career of 22 years teaching kindergarten through sixth grade in Venezuela, De Muro decided to pursue dressage full-time. She met U.S.-based Australian rider Kelly Layne four years ago and decided to train with her.
“I wanted to be in the big leagues, so if I wanted to be in the Pan American Games, I could not be an amateur. That was my point of view,” she said of dedicating her time exclusively to riding and training with Layne.
In 2014, Layne offered to let her sit on Von Primaire, a now-13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Noraline—Amiral ZWPS), that Layne had brought through the levels to Grand Prix.
De Muro and the gelding instantly clicked and Layne lent him to her for the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games in Veracruz, Mexico. The pair placed fourth in the Intermediaire 1 freestyle with a 68.35%. After that success, Layne allowed De Muro to borrow “VP” again for the Pan Ams.
“All I know has been taught by Kelly Lane. She’s been my support in every way,” said De Muro, 51. “The first day she lent him to me to try, we made such a good pair that she said, ‘I’d like to see you riding him,’ and it went on.”
VP lives with Layne in Wellington, Fla., and De Muro comes up from Venezuela to train for three months at a time. She keeps three dressage horses at home and works with other dressage trainers in the area to keep her skills sharp.
De Muro’s 28-year-old daughter, Irina Muro, was going to take the fourth spot on the Venezuelan team, but last minute issues with their federation meant she missed the Games this time around. They rode on a team together at the Central American and Caribbean Games last year.
For her two Pan Am tests, De Muro was pleased and smiling from ear to ear.
“It was a very nice ride,” she said of her Intermediare 1 test, which scored a 66.63 percent. “My horse was right on the spot—‘OK, let’s go, OK let’s go!’ He was amazing. He was a little better than every other day. He was a little tense [for the first test] even though he did everything very nice and very correct. Today he was really supple and listening to my aids. I didn’t have to kick or pull.”
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Karen Atala Zablah and Weissenfels (Honduras)
Photo by Lindsay Berreth
Karen Atala Zablah is the only representative of Honduras in the equestrian disciplines at the Pan Ams this year and the first equestrian in the country’s history.
With only 50 riders in the Honduras national federation, equestrian sport is still growing, and Zablah hopes to bring publicity, especially to dressage.
“It’s very difficult because there’s no tradition in my country for equitation,” she said. “I’m just opening the path so that my kids can come one day to the Pan Ams and do a better job than I’m doing now. I’m just trying to have the people in Honduras know that there’s other sports, not only football, because everybody’s crazy for football, and tell them that we can participate in other sports and do well and represent our country.”
Zablah has four children and two of them ride. Her daughter, Michelle Espinosa, competed at the 2013 Central American Games in both dressage and show jumping and her son, Jose Pedro Espinosa, competes in eventing and rode at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games.
Zablah lives in the capital city of Tegucigalpa in Honduras and works at a riding club she started. She has an instructor do the teaching now and focuses on riding and managing the barn with her family.
She competed at the 2011 Pan Am Games in Mexico with Weissenfels, or “Goonie” as he’s called in the barn.
The 14-year-old Westphalian gelding (Windspiel AS—Freiburg, Freiherr) came from Germany when he was six.
Zablah trains with Columbian rider Marco Bernal, who’s also riding at the Pan Ams this year. She brought Goonie to his Wellington, Fla., base this year to train for the first time before the Games and found it to be invaluable.
“He’s a sweet guy. He never spooks,” she said of Goonie. “We bonded well together. Coming to train together in Florida was a great thing. He uses his hindquarters much better, he’s more round and he’s not fighting me all the time. We’ve really improved. We have a special bond. For the first time, I brought my horse to Wellington and it was like Disney Land for horse lovers! I really enjoyed it. Now my vacation is over because I’m going back to Honduras with my horse. I have four kids and a husband, so it was difficult. I want to thank my family for all their support. I was traveling a lot coming back and forth. They made my dream come true.”
Zablah noted it’s hard to compete in Honduras and she occasionally makes the trip to neighboring Guatemala, so her experience at the Pan Ams has been educational.
“We try to do shows once a month, but it’s very difficult. We travel with the horses to Guatemala for example, but it’s a 24 hour drive and a lot of problems in the frontiers,” she said. “[My family is] all here cheering me from the stands. I’m just happy to be here and get my scores up from the last Pan American Games. Last time I got a 61 percent, so yesterday I was 63, so that was very thrilling.”
Esther Mortimer Jones and Adajio (Guatemala)
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Photo by Lisa Slade
Esther Mortimer Jones was born in Canada to Guatemalan parents and grew up in Guatemala. She came back to Canada when she was 20 and now runs M2 dressage in Waterdown, Burlington, Ontario, with her husband, Harper Mackenzie.
An amateur client, Sue Schramayr, bought Adajio as a 6-year-old and wanted to see how far Mortimer Jones could take him.
Now 11, the Hanoverian gelding (Alabaster—Elfi, Eldorado) is making his first appearance on a Pan Am team. Mortimer Jones has competed at the Pan Ams in 2003 in the Dominican Republic and 2011 in Mexico.
“I love the horse big time,” she said. “We have a real connection. He tries his little heart out all the time and that’s all you can ask for. He never says, ‘No.’ I love [the atmosphere.] The bigger, the better. The big Games like this, I almost feel like I want to ride better out there. It’s very exciting to be here.”
Mortimer Jones, 36, scored a 67.05% on her Intermediaire 1 test. “I was very happy with my ride,” she said. “There were some unfortunate mistakes, but I’m very proud of my horse. I went for more brilliance and sometimes that costs you in accuracy marks, so I had a few accuracy marks I wasn’t too happy about, but he felt awesome. [The first test] was a great ride, but I wanted to go for a bit more today.”
Mortimer Jones said the gelding is very quiet in the barn. “He’s like a puppy dog—in your lap, loves attention. The more you spend time with him, the happier he is. We call him the Golden Retriever at home because you can do anything you want to him. He’s a happy horse,” she said.
The Chronicle is on location in Toronto to bring you everything you need to know about the Pan American Games. Miss anything? Never fear…
Read about…
The U.S. team’s thrilling gold medal
How Steffen Peters and Laura Graves added individual medals to the count
What the Chronicle reporters on-scene are loving about the Pan Ams
