November 2007 • VOLUME 27 • © HORSES For LIFE™ Magazine

[HFL]: So that’s about seven years now. So were you recruited? Did you apply?

[Amanda]: Yeah, actually I did apply, but I applied back in ’97. And I had done a tour. I had done a short tour with them. And I was finishing school. I finished school and I came back out again in 2000.

[HFL]: So you have actually done a tour with them already.

[Amanda]: A couple of months, not really a tour. It was like a leave of absence from school.
[HFL]: So what attracted you to the training versus touring, just curiosity?

[Amanda]: Well, I was on the road for four years. So I did tour with them for four years. The travelling….just seemed one-sided.

[Amanda]: I loved it. Don’t get me wrong. But everything has a time limit. Travelling for four years is a long time and it’s eleven months of the year. But I did love it.

[HFL]: So you were on the road eleven months of the year with the horses? How many did you have all together?

[Amanda]: Oh, I have no idea. I’d say at least 50. I think there were 34 in this barn, 12 on the road, and one with Michael Poulin. Probably close to 50 if not at least 50.

[HFL]: At any one time, how many do you have on tour?

[Amanda]: Anywhere between 12 and 14 usually.

[HFL]: So out of 50, you have 12 or 14 on tour. How long does a particular horse stay on tour?

[Amanda]: It depends on the horse. It depends on the needs of the horse. Actually, it totally depends on the horse.

[Amanda]: Well, one that was out, Caricema, he went out probably when he was eight and he stayed out until he was 19. He is retired now at the farm. And we have his father, Magnum, who refused to retire. Every time he came home he would get real thin and weak and depressed here at the farm. And he did much better on the road. He was actually 29. [It] really depends on the animal.

[HFL]: Really? I had animal like that that I tried to retire from lessons but it just didn’t work because, like you said, they get weak and depressed. They’re not happy, are they?

[Amanda]: No no. Carice, his son, wasn’t. His son is fat. He goes out every morning before it gets too hot. Caricema, his son, just loves being retired. He harasses the groom. He’s a 25 year old stallion now. But his father hated [retirement]. His father loved being on the road.

[HFL]: So how long would one horse stay out on the road and not come back for a break or retraining?

[Amanda]: Well, it depends. Sometimes they are out there for a long time. If they are finished, they can be out there for the whole eleven months. But it’s not like they work for eleven months straight. There are enough horses out there on the road that if they need a break on the road, they might not necessarily need to come all the way back, all the way home to Florida, depending on where they are. You can give them a break on the road. They don’t need to come back here.

[HFL]: How would you do that? How do you give them a break on the road?

[Amanda]: They can stay out of the show if they need to. There are enough horses to cover it out there. Gary, the owner, sometimes what he’ll do is that when they come back to the States, he’s going to switch a couple out. We’re going to take a couple home and send a couple of different ones out. Well, you’re a horse person right? I mean, they tell you when it’s time. They tell you when it’s time for a breather.

[HFL]: So you have horses that are quite happy to stay out there for that long.

[Amanda]: Oh yes. The horses are out there for eleven months. At the same time, the people are out there for eleven months. And they are not treated like the horses where you groom it for half an hour and ride it for an hour and cool it off. These horses are handled all day long, every day. They love their people. And the people love their horse. They are like our children. It’s more like a relationship you have with a dog as opposed to a relationship you have with a horse. They are handled all the time and they are spoiled and we love them. And they enjoy their lives with us, hopefully.

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