Leslie Nelson fulfills a lifelong dream by riding her homebred 3-year-old to top honors

For two years, Leslie Nelson has watched Wow take blue ribbon after blue ribbon on the line.
But on Aug. 26-27, Nelson got to take center stage with the flashy bay filly she bred, raised and trained. She rode Wow to the grand 3-year-old performance championship at the International Hunter Futurity Western Regional at Del Mar, Calif.

“It’s been a dream of mine to ride one of my own in the IHF. It was beyond exciting for me to actually get to ride and show her and see what she can do as a performance horse after she’s been a pretty ornament her whole life. She was amazing,” Nelson said.

Wow (Popeye K—Holy Cow, Fire Jade) also took the reserve best young horse honors at the IHF in the hunter breeding portion.

Showing on the line as a yearling and 2-year-old, Wow, an Oldenburg, was a formidable competitor. She was the U.S. Equestrian Federation national horse of the year last year at age 2 as well as the reserve champion in the Sallie B. Wheeler/USEF National Hunter Breeding Championship.

One of Wow’s toughest competitors was her full sister, 24 K, who is the same age. Nelson bred them through embryo transfer out of her Thoroughbred mare Holy Cow. She planned to devote 2009 to training and showing 24 K and let Wow have a break.

“I had no intentions on showing her—it was going to be all about her sister. But 24 K had an unfortunate accident in May and broke her coffin bone. It was awful. I’d really put my time into starting her right and had just started showing her,” Nelson said.

So Nelson figured she’d turn her attention to Wow.

“She probably had a good 60 days under saddle before the IHF,” said Nelson. “Because we’re on the road all the time, we just brought her to all the horse shows and started jumping her. Much like her mother, it was so easy. You just float the rein and she loves it. We showed her just once the week before the futurity, at Showpark. She jumped everything like she was in the grand prix—it was rather exciting as a spectator, let me tell you.”

There, Nelson shared showing duties with Archie Cox, but at the IHF, it was all her.

“I literally have to say that in all my years of being a professional, I had the round of a lifetime on her [at the IHF],” Nelson said. “She knew it was show day. She walked in that ring so relaxed you’d think she’d been doing it her whole life. She marched right around and jumped every jump the same. It was fun to breed one, be successful on the line with her, then be able to ride her myself and have it go so well.”

Wow has presented a few challenges, however.

“She’s definitely more like a Thoroughbred than a warmblood,” said Nelson. “She’s beyond athletic, and if she were a human, she’d be a genius. She tends to overthink everything, but once you figure out to stay out of her way, drop the reins and let her jump, she’s absolutely spectacular. Honestly, she just loves to jump, and it doesn’t matter what you put in front of her, she’s happy to go down there every single time.”

Nelson plans to let Wow relax for the rest of the year, just flatting and trail riding, then get her going again next year for the 4-year-old IHF. She also hopes that 24 K—who had surgery to repair the coffin bone—will be back in action to give her sister a run for her money.

“They were pretty optimistic that she might have a full recovery, so hopefully that goes well,” she said.

Nelson runs a training, teaching and showing business in Santa Barbara, Calif., with her husband, Dan. She’s been a hunter/jumper professional for 25 years.

“I’m very new to the breeding end of it,” she said. “I’ve had so much support from people I’ve admired my whole life. I’ve been able to meet some really spectacular people.”

A Great Start

Jennifer Grubb-Reed is also just dipping her toe into the hunter breeding scene, but she’s making a big splash too. Her Glenn Morangie, a yearling filly, claimed the best young horse title at the IHF.

Glenn Morangie (Glenn Livit—Showgirl, Sandro Hit) is an Oldenburg filly and a true homebred, since Grubb-Reed stands Glenn Livit at her Sunny Hill Farm in Walnut Creek, Calif. She imported the mare, Showgirl, as a foal.

“I didn’t breed the mare until three years ago, for showing reasons, but I’ve got some really amazing offspring from her. Glenn Morangie truly got the best of both the stallion and the mare. Her temperament is incredible. I knew from the moment we put the halter on her at a day old that she was going to be special,” Grubb-Reed said.

Grubb-Reed, who shows in the dressage and hunter/jumper worlds but had never shown a horse on the line, decided to seek some help from professional Sue Lightner to introduce “Ellie” to the hunter breeding world.

“It was new to me. I looked at this filly and thought, ‘I’ve got something special here. I’ve got to get out and promote her,’ ” she said. “She likes showing on the line, and the credit for that goes to Sue. I couldn’t be doing this without Sue—she’s so good with the young horses, and she’s fair to them, not doing too much.”

Ellie lives with Lightner at her Lightacres in Modesto, Calif.

“She’s been special from the get-go,” Lightner said. “She’s quite opinionated. She wasn’t the easiest one to begin handling, but I spent a good bit of time with her, and now she’s just a princess. She thinks the show ring is meant for her. We took her to her first show in February, and at one point I thought she was going to jump in my lap. She was so impressed, but we worked through all that and now she’s a little trouper—she jumps right in the trailer and off we go.”

While she handed Ellie over to Lightner, Grubb-Reed can look out of the back window and see Glenn Livit, a 13-year-old Trakhener stallion. She has just the one broodmare, Showgirl, but also breeds him to outside mares. Glenn Livit had a hunter show career with Hap Hansen but now competes in dressage with Grubb-Reed.

“I’m mainly a weekend rider—I don’t get to ride as much as I’d like to,” Grubb-Reed said. “We have three trainers at the farm—Laura Dwyer for dressage, Joy Parker for hunter/jumper and Terri Hicklin for beginner lessons. We have 30 stalls here and do the whole nine yards in terms of training and showing. The young horses need space and grass, so they go to Sue’s.”

Ellie has one full brother, Glenn Fiddich, who is 2.

“I have to sell him—I can’t keep them all. He’s awesome too, and he’s starting under saddle. He kind of got put on the back burner because I wanted to concentrate on her,” said Grubb-Reed.

Ellie, on the other hand, has a home for life at Sunny Hill Farm. “She’s once-in-a-lifetime for me,” Grubb-Reed said. “She’s going to have a performance career, but I’d like her to eventually be a broodmare too.”

Last year Ellie showed in an Oldenburg inspection, and she was the highest scoring foal in country with a 9 on her trot and a total score of 8.8.

A Family Legacy

Lightner had a great few days at the IHF. Not only did she hold Glenn Morangie for her best young horse honors, but she also saw Reggae, whom she bred and owns, take the 4-year-old performance grand championship with John French aboard.

She didn’t stop there, however. Lightner held the reins on her own Raggedy Music (Ragtime—Piasadorable, Pikadero) to win the 2-year-old filly class and showed Distinctively K to win the yearling colts/geldings class.

Reggae (Ragtime—Misty View, Star Choice) is a striking dapple gray and won both over fences classes and placed fourth in the under saddle for the grand cham-pionship. His full brother, Ragtime Cowboy, owned by Twinkle Gorman, was second in the 2-year-old colt/gelding class with Lightner at the reins.

Reggae’s dam, Misty View, 20, is a special one to Lightner.

“I showed her and she won quite a bit, then I started to breed her. She just gave birth to her seventh foal this year, a full sibling to Reggae. She loves being a mom—it was her life’s calling. She was selected for the IHF Hall Of Fame broodmare last year,” said Lightner.

This spring, Misty View went completely blind.

“Originally, I wasn’t going to breed her back when I realized she’d gone blind, but she’s been so happy that my vet and I figured, ‘Well, we’ll just try once.’ And she’s in foal again to Ragtime,” said Lightner.

Ragtime, a 13-year-old Hanoverian stallion, is also close to Lightner’s heart.

“Ragtime was under my care [for former owner Pamela Sands] from 2004 to this spring, when we sold him to Priscilla Tamkin at China Blue Farm,” Lightner said.

“I was smitten with Ragtime from the beginning. I judged at a horse show in early 2003 and saw him—he had a 14 and under rider on him, doing the children’s jumpers. The kids were bumping off him in the warm-up area and not paying attention, but he was perfectly mannered. And it didn’t matter what distance the kid found to the jumps, he jumped impeccably.”

Ragtime showed in the regular conformation hunters and the jumper ring while with Lightner.

“He’s just one of those horses who is beautiful and has a phenomenal temperament. And his offspring are just wonderful. We sold him to China Blue because I knew it would be a wonderful home for him,” Lightner said.

At her Lightacres in Modesto, Calif., Lightner keeps her breeding operation small. “The most we have at any one time is six. This year, I just had one filly. I keep it small on purpose so that I can do a quality job with the offspring,” she said.

“I have done hunter/jumper training for 30 years here at Lightacres. I did a lot of showing, but I started to step out of the irons in about 2002 and not do so much showing myself. The last few years, I’ve branched into doing rehabilitation for injured horses. I wanted to start slowing down a little bit on the horse show stuff, and it was a service I thought would be useful for a lot of people. I’ve had lots of great trainers send me horses to take care of.”

Zabest Is Best

Tish Quirk’s Zabest is no stranger to winning at the IHF or on the line—she was the USEF Zone 10 champion at every age. This year, Quirk took advantage of the new 5-year-old hunter classic to continue Za-best’s IHF career, and the elegant bay won.

“She’s bred to be special,” Quirk said of Zabest (Just The Best—Inetta, Beach Boy). “That cross has produced several very special horses. She’s a beautiful jumper and lovely mover.

“She’s very athletic and elegant. From the first time we jumped her, she liked it and was comfortable doing it. She measures the distances herself and balances herself. She’s best if you sit there and do nothing,” added Quirk.

Last year, fellow Just The Best offspring Just Sasha won the IHF Western Regional 4-year-old division, and Zabest was the reserve. But this year, Zabest relegated Just Sasha to second place.

Quirk stands Just The Best at her Carlsbad, Calif., farm. Just The Best and her other stallion, More Than Luck, are sons of her foundation sire, Best Of Luck. “I really see Best Of Luck in all the offspring. They’re all stamped—beautiful movers, great minds, great athletic ability,” she said.

Zabest showed at two local shows to prepare for the IHF this year. “We show very lightly. I wish I could get to more shows, but I get busy at the breeding farm, and showing is expensive,” Quirk said.

But she admitted she might have to step up the schedule to get more mileage on Zabest for the future. “I would like to aim her for the hunter derbies. I think she’d be great at those—she’s what the big-time hunters are supposed to be,” she said.