from racetrack to rolex: hawley bennett and livingstone...

ROLEX KENTUCKY PREVIEW

40 w w w . c h r o n o f h o r s e . c o m T h e C h r o n i c l e o f t h e H o r s e

Hawley Bennett had never ridden above training level w h e n s h e f i r s t s a t o n Livingstone, a gangly 4-year-old racetrack reject. Little did she know he would go on to become her 2004 Olympic partner.

“I thought the horse was too big for me,

and I wasn’t totally sold on him,” admittedBennett, of Langley, B.C. “But my mom, Gerry,told me to wait until we put some weight onhim. And I was in love with his personality.”

Bennett, now 27, was 16 at the time andwinning at training level with her Arabiangelding Ibn. She knew that if she wanted tocontinue improving her eventing skills, shewould have to find a scopier horse.

Her plan was to work for Therese

Washtock and help her sell horses so that shemight eventually buy a horse of her own. Butthings didn’t quite work out that way because“Hank” was the first horse of Washtock’s thatshe rode.

“I just felt like he was such a sweet horse,”explained Bennett. “Even though he was 4,young and green, he tried his heart out.”

But as often is the case with a young riderand a green horse, it took the pair a while toreally click.

“I had no idea what I was doing when I gothim,” she said with a laugh. “It took me a yearbefore I could even ride his canter. I was usedto my Arab, and it was such a different ride.”

So she took her time. She worked withcoach Pam Arthur and slowly began teachingHank the skills he’d need. They spent a yearcompeting at novice level.

“It took him a really long time,” saidBennett. “He was off the racetrack, so going tothe right was non-existent. He had a big can-ter, and even as a 4-year-old he was jumpingme out of the tack because he naturallyjumped so big.”

◗A Steady ProgressionAfter their year at novice, the

pair moved up to training level. “Hewon a couple of events, and when Iwas 18 we moved up to prelimi-nary,” said Bennett. “He did a one-star that year, and that’s when westarted to really click.”

Arthur had been Gerry’s coachand Bennett credits her, and theirfocus on the basics, for making theprogression feel easy.

“She stayed at pre-training levela long time, itching to move up,”recalled Arthur. “When you’re suc-cessful at the lower levels, nobodywants you to stay there. You’ve gotto go and overface your horse. But Ihad a rule. They placed well withgood results, but it wasn’t a matterof winning, it was what the winmeant and who you were competingagainst.”

Arthur has always insisted thather students school a level abovethe level they were showing. Shealso focused on getting her studentsto refine their jumping skills.

“Bennett did all her home-work,” said Arthur. “She was verypatient. She rode for two years inthe amateur-owner jumper divisionon the A-rated circuit when she wasgoing preliminary. I find it disgrace-

From Racetrack To Rolex: Hawley Bennett And LivingstoneAre A Tried-And-True TeamIt’s a rare rider who sticks with a horse from novice to the four-star level.

Sara Lieser

”He’s just such an amazing horse,”said Hawley Bennett of herpartner Livingstone. ”Theyalways say you have one in amillion, and I think I’ve had mine.”(S

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ful that the event riders look soterrible in the show jumping.”

All that patient work paid offbecause Hank was able to keepmoving up the levels with fewproblems. Even today, Bennettrides him in a rubber snaffle in allthree phases.

“We went intermediate anddid [the North American YoungRiders Championship] in 1998,”said Bennett. “He was the onlyhorse to jump around clean andin the time.”

The pair finished fourth andmoved up to advanced in 1999. “Irode him advanced on the WestCoast and did quite well, so Ithought I knew what I wasdoing,” she said.

But she was in for a surprisewhen she headed east to com-pete. Her plan was to run aroundthe Fair Hill CCI*** (Md.).

But when she arrived, shefound that the cross-country was

on a much higher scale than whatshe’d been doing on the West Coast.“I was definitely a little fish in a bigpond,” she admitted. “I had my eyesopened up because I was not ready.”

Bennett rode in the dressagebut withdrew before cross-country.

“She was young and bouncy andvery keen. She was very big-headed atthat time,” recalled Arthur, who’dmade the trip too. “Really and truly,she wasn’t ready. I think it was over-whelming for her. She was just a yearearly. She quietly withdrew, took abig gulp and got herself ready.”

◗Discouraged, But Not DefeatedBennett moved Hank back down

to intermediate when she returnedhome. Then she had her first majorwin with him at the Chase CreekCCI**(B.C.) in 2000.

“He was spectacular there andfinished on his dressage score,”remembered Bennett.

She headed back east, but thistime to spend some time as a work-ing student for Stuart Black, theCanadian team’s most experiencedrider. She made her second attemptat a three-star at the MBNA Foxhall

A clean round at Rolex Kentuckyearned Hawley Bennett and

Livingstone a spot on theCanadian Olympic team.

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Cup (Ga.) and this time she jumped aroundclean on cross-country, only to withdrawagain, this time because Hank’s feet were sorebefore the final veterinary inspection.

Bennett stayed on the East Coast and wasmaking plans for Fair Hill in the fall whentragedy struck: Hank was kicked and received

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hairline fracture on his leg. She had no choicebut to stick him in a stall for six months andhope for the best.

Meanwhile, she went to work for Bruceand Buck Davidson in Pennsylvania.

“It was the best thing I’ve ever done,” saidBennett. “I learned so much there. I worked

super hard, but to have the opportunities to ride anything from babies in the field toEagle Lion was remarkable. I got to jumpEagle Lion, and not many people that can saythat.”

Bennett also struck up a longstandingfriendship with Buck, and he has continued



As a rough-looking 4-year-old, no one knew what Livingstone wouldgo on to accomplish.

”I thought the horse was too big for me, and I wasn’t totally sold onhim,” admitted Hawley Bennett after her first ride on Livingstone.

F r i d a y, A p r i l 2 2 , 2 0 0 5 47

in the role of coach, mentor and friend.But all that improvement wasn’t going to

be useful unless Hank could recover from hisinjury. “He stood in his stall for six months. Hewasn’t allowed out at all,” rememberedBennett. “When I brought him out he wasskinny and his coat was gross. I thought he’dnever jump again. It was scary. But I did therehabilitation just like I was supposed to.”

Her hard work and patience were re-warded when she was able to take him toFoxhall again, and this time he finished on aclean show jumping round.

Bennett was back on track and ready togo. She ran Fair Hill in October 2002 and was the top-placed Canadian pair, finishing14th. And then in 2003 she ran him in thefour-star at Rolex Kentucky. “That had beenone of my big goals,” said Bennett. “I wasn’tnervous or scared because we’d done every-thing right.”

That fall they represented Canada at thePan Am Games, finishing 15th. “I finally gotmy red coat,” said Bennett. “Hundreds ofthousands of dollars and hours later! It wasreally special to do that, and we won team sil-ver there.”

◗It Was Worth The Wait

In 2004 Bennett ran Kentucky again andwas the top-placed Canadian rider in theshort-format CCI (14th). That earned her aberth on the Canadian Olympic team for theAthens Olympics.

“I remember being in grade 2 and sayingI wanted to ride in the 2000 Olympics,”recalled Bennett. “That didn’t quite hap-

pen, but we did it, and I feel very lucky.”Bennett, Gerry, and her long-time groom

and friend Stacey Thorson made the tripacross the ocean together.

Although they finished near the bottom, itdidn’t take away from the fact that the pair hadgone through thick and thin to reach thesport’s highest level.

Bennett continues to credit her earlypatience for their achievements. “It wasn’t all



Hawley Bennett and Livingstone accomplished their first big win at the

Chase Creek CCI** (B.C.) in 2000.

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peaches and cream,” she admitted. “I remem-ber one cross-country lesson specifically. All Ihad to do was jump this one fence out of strideand I couldn’t do it.”

She continued, “But he’s the type of horseyou can’t get mad at, you just have to bepatient. If you keep at him, and he doesn’tunderstand, that’s when he’s going to freak outor rear. It taught me that instead of being madand beating the horse up over it, to take a deepbreath and think of another way to showthem.”

Bennett also had some confidence issuesalong the way. “She had two years of problemswith water,” recalled Arthur. “It was her own fears. But you have to work on that, andit’s a problem when you’ve only got one horse.You can’t go jumping your own horse all thetime.”

Arthur encouraged Bennett to start gal-loping race horses. “She needed to develop alittle strength because she’s small,” explainedArthur.

Not only did Bennett gain strength fromgalloping race horses, but she also earnedmoney that she desperately needed to con-tinue in the sport.

“I’ve been working since I was 15 to dothis,” she explained. “I made decisions not goout Friday night because I had to gallop racehorses the next morning.”

She’s had numerous other side jobs alongthe way, including bartending, teaching ridingand Pony Club lessons, as well as working atMcDonald’s for five years.

Despite her money worries, Bennett neverthought about selling Hank. “I was offered aton of money after I won my two-star on him,”she remembered. “But I couldn’t do it. I’d had

him so long, and it would have been like sell-ing my best friend.”

Bennett and Hank have been competing atadvanced together for almost seven years.Hank, now 15, is still going strong, andBennett hopes she will be able to compete for



The “Neigh-sayers”Not surprisingly, not too many peo-

ple thought it was a great idea for a 16-year-old girl to event a 4-year-old horse.

“My biggest inspiration was peoplesaying I couldn’t do it,” admitted HawleyBennett. “I wanted to prove themwrong.”

And the criticism didn’t end whenshe reached advanced. Bennett had twostops with Livingstone at the GalwayDowns (Calif.) World Cup qualifier in2003 before she headed to the four-starat Rolex Kentucky for the first time.

“Everyone wanted to know if I wasstill going to go,” recalled Bennett. “Theydidn’t think I should. What I’ve realizedis there are very few people that aregoing to believe in you and trust you,while there’s a million people sayingyou can’t do it.”

“It was almost a given that she wasgoing to try to go all the way,” said coachPam Arthur. “She certainly has the deter-mination and the right spirit. She worksreally hard at it, and she’s very focused.She enjoys a challenge.”

It was the culmination of 10 years of partnership between Hawley Bennett and Livingstonewhen they competed at the 2004 Athens Olympics together.

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a spot at the World Equestrian Games in 2006.She’s back on the West Coast, living at

Kingsway Farm in Temecula, Calif. She worksthere for owners Terry and Linda Paine,who’ve been able to provide her with somehorses to ride as well. Terry is the master andhuntsman of the Santa Fe Hunt.

“Terry and Linda have been like angels inthe sky for me,” said Bennett. “They’re so sup-portive of what I’m doing and have helped meout in so many ways.”

Bennett is definitely on the lookout for hernext big-time horse, although she hopes to keepHank happy and sound for as long as possible.

“Now it would be easier for me to bring ahorse along more quickly,” she said. But thatdoesn’t mean she regrets all the time spentwith Hank.

“He could easily have been pushed andgone intermediate at age 6, but I don’t know ifhe’d be the same horse today,” said Bennett.

And while she’s looking forward to start-ing some new projects, no one will replaceHank. Together, they’ve started nine CCIs,from the two-star to the four-star level, com-pleting eight and winning one.

“He’s just such an amazing horse,” saidBennett. “They always say you have one in amillion, and I think I’ve had mine.”


”I remember being in grade 2 and sayingI wanted to ride in the 2000 Olympics,“said Hawley Bennett, shown here aboardLivingstone at the 2004 Olympics.

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from racetrack to rolex: hawley bennett and livingstone...

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