The first thing that hits you is the smell. It’s strong, distinctive, definitely horsy, and, if you like it, addictive.
“I just had a teenage girl show up at the barn last night who hadn’t been around for months, and she said, `Oh, I just had to get over here, it smells so good.’ Horse people are nuts about it,” says Kathy Kowalski, owner of Eldamain Farm in Plano.
She should know. For 26 years now, Kowalski has been teaching English hunter-jumper lessons to folks from 6 to 60. She doesn’t intend to hang up her hat anytime soon, either.
“There’s that expression,” she says. ” `The outside of a horse is good for the inside of man.’ That is so true.”
Horseback riding has that effect on people.
“It grabs you both physically and mentally,” Kowalski explains. “It’s such a change, and that’s what (my riders) like about it. It takes your mind off everything else.”
The obsessive nature of riding, as she refers to it, appears to be contagious. Just talk to most stable owners, trainers and instructors these days and they’ll tell you they’re as busy as they want to be. Novice riders are cropping up all the time, and veterans just can’t get enough. From serious equestrians who thrive on such classic competitions as hunting, jumping and dressage to the more laid-back western trail riders, horse enthusiasts run the gamut.
And, interestingly enough, the majority of them are female, indulging an infatuation that appears to develop in childhood.
“I think the difference is that girls just fall in love with horses,” says Janet Sassmannshausen, 14-year owner of Kinvarra Stables in St. Charles. “Boys have a different temperament.”
A hunter-jumper facility, Kinvarra has picked up a few more male riders, particularly in the 9-to-11 age group, since head trainer Steve Schaefer came on board 18 months ago. He seems better able to relate to boys, such as realizing that beginner lessons can be especially boring, notes Sassmannshausen.
Schaefer even inspired the owner’s 9-year-old son, Eric, who just began showing competitively this year. “He made it fun, and the fear of falling off was gone,” Sassmannshausen says.
The benefits of horseback riding are particularly appreciated by the young at heart.
Like so many others, 57-year-old Kelly Cummings was bitten by the equine bug as a little girl. Yet it was just two years ago that she finally fulfilled her lifelong dream of taking riding lessons. Six months later, she bought her first horse, a black paso fino mare named Dona.
“It was love at first sight,” she says, while combing out the horse’s long mane and tail.
A respiratory therapist from Winfield, Cummings says riding provides a much-needed respite after tiring nights at the hospital. “I work (11 p.m. to 7 a.m.), so I like to be out here days, just relaxing. This is my time off.”
It’s also educational. When she isn’t taking lessons in English saddle seat, Cummings is cleaning stalls or feeding and grooming other horses.
“I’ve learned a whole lot here about feed, splints, lameness, shoes, feet, different kinds of bridles and bits. And I’m still learning,” she says. “The kids out here say I’ll be 85 and still getting on a horse.”
Jill Krischon, Cummings’ instructor, achieved a goal of her own when she bought her farm near Big Rock two years ago. Just two months after Sunset Knoll Riding Academy opened its doors, all 16 horse stalls were full.
“It astonished me,” says Krischon. “I had no idea I was going to grow out of this so quickly. I was giving myself four to five years.”
Besides the five horses she boards for other people, Krischon has 12 horses of her own, mostly American saddlebreds, that are used strictly for lessons. New stalls are forthcoming to accommodate the influx of students and horses.
Marthann Staszkow began riding 23 years ago when her daughter was only 2, satisfying her need to get out of the house. “For a long time I was a one-lesson-a-week person,” she says. “Then I got up to two.”
Her daughter is now away at veterinary school and Staszkow, 52, drives from her Morris home to Eldamain at least five times a week. Most days she takes lessons on her 14-year-old thoroughbred Keepsake, continually striving to perfect her skills.
“I don’t have an objective to make the team or anything,” she says. “It’s a personal challenge, almost an academic pursuit in some ways. And it’s so much fun, with a fair amount of frustration thrown in, but I just feel very lucky that it’s something I’m able to pursue.”
Although neither Cummings nor Staszkow cares to become involved in big-time horse showing, plenty of others are in it for the thrill of competition.
At Flagship Training Center in Maple Park, nearly all of the 18 horses boarded there, as well as their owners, are under the tutelage of business partners Thomas Poulin and Ryan Yap. They say dressage has become the most popular equestrian sport in the world.
“It’s classical gymnastics for the training of the equine athlete,” explains Poulin, an international trainer for 30 years. “That form of training, the harmony between horse and rider, filters down into all the other disciplines. I can ride when I’m 70 or 80 years old because we’re not going over fences or crossing bridges, but we’re dancing with our horses.”
Riding Poulin’s horse, Caprice, a Westphalian warmblood, Yap recently won his Prix St. George class at a Tempel Farms show in Wadsworth. “That’s an international class, just two levels below Olympic level at this competition,” explains Poulin. “Ryan has a very good future. We’re aiming for the very top.”
For Yap, it has taken five years to get to this point, but there’s more to learn every show season, he says. “It’s just an ongoing thing.”
Horses can also be expensive. Sound steeds can still be bought for $1,200. Well-trained show horses generally start at many times that, and, though prices appear steep, spending a little more is often a wiser investment, advises Erene Vrba, owner of Equestrian Activities near Plainfield.
Most of the 17 horses she owns or boards at her western and English riding stable, including quarter horses and thoroughbreds, cost between $5,000 and $25,000. “They’ll do the job,” Vrba says.
Boarding fees typically range between $200 and $450 a month, and some stables border on the luxurious.
Willoughby Farm owners JoRean and John Hoffman of Elburn have nearly 70 acres of available land for their boarders, complete with cross-country and steeplechase jumps, which are used for combined training, a discipline involving dressage, cross-country and stadium jumping. They also have an indoor arena many other stable owners would give their best horse for.
“I’m not saying this to brag, but this is considered one of the premier stables around,” John Hoffman says. “We have some features here that others don’t (like shredded leather spread on the floor of the indoor arena). There are only a couple of those out east.”
Daughter Jill, who taught combined instruction at Willoughby for 10 years, recently relocated, but two new trainers there now focus on dressage.
The Hoffmans’ children were once involved in high-level competition: Jill was headed for a national championship before her horse blew a tendon, and son J.R. won a Young Riders championship in 1991.
JoRean Hoffman sympathizes with those who can’t afford today’s prices. It is difficult for the average person to afford to buy a horse and pay board, she agrees, “unless they have a facility at home where they can keep their horse, or a friend who has a farm.”
Many people on limited budgets can still enjoy a ride now and then, however. Lesson prices range from $15 for group lessons to $60 for private lessons. Trail riding is another option. Skylite Stables, west of St. Charles, rents out trail horses for $20 an hour, says owner Chris Parker. Riders typically are guided through local forest preserves.
In fact, trail riding is relatively cheap, even for horse owners, and it’s rewarding as well. Pat Hartman says she does it just to relax and enjoy life. A former English and hunt seat show rider, 54-year-old Hartman, who lives and owns a small 10-horse boarding stable in Winfield, made the transition to a western saddle 10 years ago.
“The English was more work than I wanted,” she says. “I wanted to enjoy the trails instead of going to the horse shows. I wanted to take time to see the wildlife and just slow down.”
Steve, Laura and Anna Wesseln of Warrenville have witnessed plenty of wildlife on their many trail rides. Thanks to 6-year-old Anna, who started taking lessons first, the family began learning together at Sunset Knoll. Now they incorporate horseback riding into their family holidays and have even ridden in England.
“(Riding in an open forest) gives you a different perspective,” says Laura.
So does taking lessons as a family, a trend Vrba said is becoming increasingly popular: “I have a lot of families. My funniest one is a grandma and grandpa who ride with their granddaughter. They have a ball.”
To Vrba, though, it really doesn’t matter whether her greenhorns are young or old. “I enjoy the beginners. You watch them come in, and they’re bright and cheery and all excited. It reminds me not to get so dogmatic, like the world’s going to end if they don’t get (it right). They remind you to keep it fun.”
FROM THE HORSE’S MOUTH
Horses are indeed a popular commodity, both as a pastime and a business venture. According to a recently completed year-long study, commissioned by the American Horse Council Foundation, there are now 6.9 million horses in the United States.
While 725,000 are involved in racing and racehorse breeding, 1,262,800 horses are used for work-related activities such as farming and ranching and for contests like polo and rodeo. However, the majority of horses are shown or simply ridden for pleasure, 1,974,000 and 2,970,000 respectively.
And, while 7.1 million Americans are involved in the horse industry, whether it be as owners, employees, volunteers or service providers, only 1.9 million people actually own horses.
