Cayman Went
1994 American Thoroughbred by Easy Goer out of Secret Holdings
Owned by Annie Jones
A very well-bred Thoroughbred raced by Annie Jones’ family, Cayman Went retired from racing early, and they ended up putting a pin in his hind ankle as a 3-year-old. Annie sent him to me as a 4-year-old, and he took to eventing quickly. My fondest memory of him was at Fair Hill when he was only 7 years old. My twin daughters were born late Friday night, and the next day, he raced around cross country clean. Unfortunately, I had a rail down to finish second. He went on to be successful at Kentucky and Badminton, but became plagued with back problems, and it became apparent that dressage was a struggle. He’d always been a brave horse but didn’t want to jump off drop fences. He retired from eventing when he was only 12 but became a successful foxhunter. He was an incredible horse; he had three careers and was very good at all of them.
Career Highlights
2003
14th, Badminton CCI4*
2001
2nd, Fair Hill CCI3*
Connaught
1993 Irish Sport Horse by Bromehill Rouge out of Ballysimon
Owned by Bruce Duchossois
Born in Ireland and produced by Carol Gee and Paul Donovan, Simon was imported by Julie Richards. Once he got to the three-star level, she was starting a family and offered to sell him to me, and Bruce Duchossois bought him. Simon always had a huge jump but was quite worried about his jumping, so he’d rush at the fences and had no idea how to get to a deep distance. I started from scratch over low jumps and tried to give him an understanding of the jump holding him. Our partnership still wasn’t great, but I ended up taking him to Kentucky in 2004, with an eye on the Athens Olympics, and we had a pretty bad fall coming out of the Sunken Road. After that, we did start to mesh and ended up having an incredible record at Kentucky. He never had a rail down there and was always highly placed, including winning in 2008. As a side note, in December 2007 when he was 14 years old, we received an offer to buy him; after discussing it with Bruce, we decided to sell him, but he failed a vetting on his x-rays. The following year, he won Kentucky and then went on to the Olympics; I’ve never been happier that a horse failed the vetting!
Career Highlights
2009
7th, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
2008
1st, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
Bejiing Olympic Games in Hong Kong
2007
2nd, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
2006
Member of the Australian World Equestrian Games team in Aachen, Germany
4th, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
Fernhill Fugitive
2005 Irish Sport Horse by Lux Z out of Barnadown Ramiro
Owned by Tom Tierney and Annie Jones
We got Jack a 6-year-old having competed to the CIC1* level with Dani Dichting. He finished 2nd at Jersey Fresh CCI3* in 2014 before stepping up to the CCI4* level in 2015, which was one of the best seasons of his career. He finished 9th at Kentucky CCI4* in his debut at the level and was named to the U.S. Pan American Games team. He finished 10th individually in Toronto to help the U.S. team win the gold medal. He then went on to win the Galway Downs CCI3* that fall. In 2016 he won the Red Hills CIC3* and finished top 20 at both Kentucky and Burghley. After finishing 8th at Kentucky in 2017, his best career result at four-star, we decided to retire him from the upper levels. He is currently competing at the one-star level with Caitlin Tierney and loving life.
Career Highlights
2017
8th, Kentucky CCI4*
2016
18th, Burghley CCI4*
13th, Kentucky CCI4*
1st, Red Hills CIC3*
2015
Team gold, Pan American Games (10th individually)
1st, Galway Downs CCI3*
9th, Kentucky CCI4*
Hannigan
1991-2010 Irish-bred Thoroughbred by Western Promise out of Bleeker Lady
Owned by Bruce Duchossois
Born and produced in Ireland and ridden by Sue Shortt, he was imported by Abigail Lufkin as an 8-year-old and was very successful. He was shipped over to Sydney as one of her horses in training for the Sydney Olympics. In the lead up to the Olympics, he started refusing to jump, and so he was not selected for the team. Once home, Abigail decided to sell him, and Bruce Duchossois bought him for me. He wasn’t a fast galloper, but he was very efficient; since he wasn’t strong, I didn’t need a lot of preparation for each jump, so he was able to make the time at most events, including Burghley, Badminton and Kentucky. Throughout a lot of his career, he was plagued with slight soreness around his knee, which made it difficult to manage his soundness and train him for the upper levels. Because of this, we retired him at a reasonably early age. In lighter work, the soreness went away, and Bruce did jumpers with him; my stepdaughter Lee Lee did her much of her first eventing on him, including her first prelim event; and my wife Evie foxhunted him.
Career Highlights
2004
2nd, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*/Modified
2003
8th, Badminton Horse Trials CCI4*
2001
3rd, Foxhall CCI3*
House Doctor
1992 American Thoroughbred by Inca Chief out of Night House Rock
Bred by Tim and Nina Gardner
Bred by Tim and Nina Gardner on their farm in Maryland and broken in by their daughter Julie, House Doctor came to me as a 3-year-old. He was the most classic, beautiful Thoroughbred type: about 16.1 hands and naturally balanced and well put together. We took him to Blenheim in 1999 and had a pretty unlucky fall on cross country. In 2000, he was second at the Foxhall Cup CCI3* and selected as my backup horse for Sydney along with the Gardner’s horse Show of Heart. I never really thought of him as going to the Olympics that year since he was still so green and only 8 years old, but after an untimely lameness with Show of Heart, House Doctor was selected for the Australian team. I’d never been so nervous on cross-country day as at the Sydney Olympics, but he stepped up to the plate and helped secure a team gold medal. Two years later at the World Championships in Jerez, Spain, I had a chance to get him to be a World Champion. He was in second place going into show jumping but was very sore after cross-country, so we didn’t have a great show jumping round and ended up fifth. It was still a great effort. He had a long recovery, and then I mainly did horse trials with him until his retirement.
Career Highlights
2002
5th, World Equestrian Games in Jerez, Spain (highest-placed Australian horse)
2000
Australian Team Gold Medal winner at Sydney Olympics
2nd, Foxhall CCI3
Icabad Crane
2005 Thoroughbred by Jump Start out of Adorahy
Owned by Graham and Anita Motion
Icabad raced through 2013, winning nearly $600,000 in his career on the track and placing third in the 2008 Preakness Stakes. He raced 33 times and retired sound. He moved up to Training Level in 2014 and won the America’s Most Wanted Thoroughbred contest at Pimlico that October. He won his very first CIC* at Plantation Field in 2015 and finish fifth in his first CCI* at Hagyard MidSouth. He is now competing with Phillip’s daughter, Olivia.
Mr. Medicott
1999 Irish Sport Horse by Cruising out of Slieveluachra
Owned by the Mr. Medicott Syndicate
Cave joined our team in 2013 already a legend in the sport, having won a team gold medal for Germany at the 2008 Olympics with Frank Ostholt and finishing as the highest placed U.S. horse at the 2012 Olympics with Karen O’Connor. We want to Pau CCI4* in 2013 in our first four-star together, and he finished 4th. He aggravated an old tendon injury at Kentucky the following spring and did not complete the competition. We tried several times to bring him back, and after three years of rehabbing he returned to the CCI4* level at Kentucky in 2017. His fitness was underdone and he had hardly competed during the three years prior, but this horse loves cross country and has the heart of a lion. He finished in 4th place to become the the 2017 USEF National CCI4* Champion in the final upper-level competition of his career. Cave is now competing at the Preliminary level with my daughter Olivia and still gets wound up when he goes into the start box.
Career Highlights with Phillip
2017
4th, Kentucky CCI4* – USEF National CCI4* Champion
2013
4th, Pau CCI4*
Mystery Whisper
2000 Australian Warmblood by Richmeed Medallion out of Socialite
Owned by Jim and Arden Wildasin
Heath Ryan bred, broke, trained and competed Mystery Whisper to the four-star level, and I flew to Australia in November 2011 to look at the horse for Arden Wildasin. His original goal had been to get someone who was in contention for the London Olympics to buy the horse. He has Mystery Whisper’s dam and also many of his brothers and sisters whose value would increase if Whisper went to the Olympics. We decided to structure a deal so that I would ride Whisper in the spring events to try to qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team. If we were able to achieve this and he was selected, I would then have the opportunity to compete him in London before returning him to Arden at the conclusion of the Games. We clicked right from one day one. In the spring of 2012, Whisper and I won the CIC3* at Red Hills in Florida, the CIC3* at The Fork in North Carolina and the CCI3* at Jersey Fresh in New Jersey before going on to represent the U.S. at the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Career Highlights
2012
Member of U.S. team at London Olympics
1st, Jersey Fresh CCI3*
1st, The Fork CIC3*
1st, Red Hills CIC3*
Nova Top
1991 British-bred Thoroughbred by Ra Nova out of Expo Topic
Owned by Shannon Stimson
Mimi Combs imported Nova Top from the UK, but they didn’t get along, and he was stopping at the Intermediate level. When I tried him, I really liked him; he was a nimble Thoroughbred type, a bit nervous and really jumped over himself, but was very careful. I took a chance on him, and Shannon Stimson bought him for me pretty cheaply. I got him to the four-star level pretty quickly, and he placed second at both the Blenheim CCI3* and the Rolex Kentucky CCI4*, and then went on to the Athens Olympics, where he finished 10th. He was a tough horse, which really showed through at the Olympics, where conditions were very hot. The night before his dressage test, Tucker had a pretty painful gas colic; any drugs would have meant disqualification from the Olympics, so my groom Sara Sadler, myself and the two Australian vets, Denis Goulding and Graeme Potts, stayed up walking him most of the night until it passed. He recovered and put in a decent test the next day, and we were swarmed by drug testers as we left the arena! After Athens, we sold him to Susanna Bordone from Italy.
Career Highlights
2004
Member of Australian team at Athens Olympics
2nd, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
2003
1st, Foxhall CCI3*
2nd, Blenheim CCI3*
1st, Red Hills CIC3* (World Cup Qualifier)
Sky’s Prospect
1987 American Thoroughbred by Tank’s Prospect out of Third and Ten
Owned by Nina Gardner
A spotted grey, Sky’s Prospect was a steeplechase horse bought by Tim and Nina Gardner, the first horse of many that I’ve ridden for them. He was incredibly honest on cross country and had quite a high knee action on the flat. The main area we had to work on was his show jumping, where he was quick to go flat and low, like he’d been taught racing. He did very well, including winning the Fair Hill CCI3* and a top-10 finish at Bramham. He also jumped around clean at Burghley, representing Australia in the Open European Championships.
Career Highlights
1997
Represented Australia at Open European Championships at Burghley CCI4*
8th, Bramham CCI3*
1996
1st, Fair Hill CCI3*
Simply Red
1988 English-bred Thoroughbred
Owned by Carl Bouckaert
Imported from the UK by Kelli Temple and Carl Bouckaert, Simply Red was sent to me to sell because he had lost his confidence in jumping. I remember the first day I tried to jump him, he stopped at the first crossrail. He had quite a long back, so his canter was long and hard to put together, and he was another one I took back to basics and taught not to get worried about getting close to the jumps and getting a deep distance. We did a lot of figure 8s, circles and teaching him to relax on the approach to the jump. I took him to the Fair Hill CCI3* that year, and he placed well. He went on to Kentucky the next year and to my dismay ended up a close second to Giltedge. He was always cautious and not very brave, and as it turned out, he had quite bad cataracts in his eyes. The next year, he landed in the middle of an apex corner with me, and we decided to retire him early. He’s now at Carl Bouckaert’s farm in Georgia.
Career Highlights
2003
1st, North Georgia Beaulieu Classic CIC3*
2001
2nd, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
True Blue Girdwood
1983-2009 Australian Thoroughbred by Loosen Up out of Paramel
Owned by Phillip Dutton
True Blue Girdwood came over with me to the U.S.; we literally flew over together. I’ve sometimes heard people say that there are certain things that happen in your life — like going to college or meeting someone — that change your life forever. For me, Jug is one of these cases. If I hadn’t had a good horse like that when I started in this country, I’m not sure my career would have been as successful. He first represented Australia at The Hague in 1994, and then was on the Australian team at the Atlanta Olympics, where he was second-best horse and won team gold. Later, he competed at the 1998 World Championships in Italy and had a couple of great finishes at Badminton — an incredible feat for me early in my career — and he was third at Rolex. After the ’98 WEG, we didn’t compete too much; he competed at the lower levels for several years before he retired at our house in Pennsylvania to live out his days.
Career Highlights
1998
Member of Australian World Equestrian Games team in Patroni del Vivaro, Italy
2nd, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
1997
USCTA Advanced Horse of the Year
1996
Australian Team Gold Medal winner at Atlanta Olympics
1995
6th, Badminton CCI4*
1994
Member of the Australian World Equestrian Games team at The Hague
TruLuck
1997 American Thoroughbred by Maha Baba out of Grayfully
Owned by Annie Jones and Becky Broussard
A Thoroughbred bought off the track by Dave Harris from Oklahoma, TruLuck was sold to a student of mine, Amy Smith from Texas. When Amy had to go to college, Annie Jones and Shannon Stimson bought TruLuck for me to ride; eventually, Becky Broussard took over Shannon’s share. He was an incredibly honest horse; I never had a cross-country fault with him in his whole career. He was a good mover; though his conformation was a fraction downhill, he moved very uphill and had a great gallop, though he did struggle with the flying changes. We had some great performances, including fourth at Burghley and won individual silver and team gold at the Pan Am Games. He had a lot of bad luck and injuries, including a broken hind coffin bone, a punctured tendon and a crack in his shoulder, so he missed a lot of competition time. He now foxhunts with Annie and loves his new life.
Career Highlights
2009
4th, Burghley CCI4*
6th, Jersey Fresh CCI3*
2007
Team Gold Medal at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro
Individual Silver Medal at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro
The Foreman
1996 Bay Thoroughbred by Across the Field out of Four Flora
Owned by Annie Jones
Bruce Fenwick, a steeplechase trainer in Maryland, brought him over for me to try, and Annie Jones bought for me. Chip had a great trot for a Thoroughbred and a big, airy jump, but he jumped over himself and didn’t have great technique. He was also somewhat nervous, as most horses off the track can be. He was always a nervous type of horse and didn’t fare well in horse trials since he got tense in the dressage, but in the bigger events, he had an incredible record, winning or placing near the top in every three and four-star he went in. He placed second at both Burghley and Kentucky in one year. The next year in Aiken, SC, he came in from the field with a splint, which seemed pretty minor at first. There was always some restriction of the movement of that leg after that, which made him hard to manage and train for the upper levels. He did go on to win Fair Hill after the injury. He was named The Chronicle of the Horse Horse of the
Year in 2005.
Career Highlights
2010
6th, Rolex CCI4*
2007
1st, Fair Hill CCI3*
2005
2nd, Burghley CCI4*
2nd, Rolex CCI4*
Woodburn
1996-2011 New Zealand Thoroughbred by Herewood the Wake out of Princess Heights
Owned by Jess and Sharon Sweeley, Annie Jones, and Maddy Fawcett
Woodburn was imported by Liz Milliken and sold to Jess and Sharon Sweeley from Acorn Hill Farm. After a couple of years, they decided to sell him, but he failed a vetting, and they sent him to me to ride. I loved the horse from the first time I sat on him and thought he had the makings of a world-class horse. Annie Jones and Mardy Fawcett bought into a partnership with the Sweeleys so that I was able to keep riding him. Over time, he developed into a phenomenal cross-country horse and jumped around some of the toughest courses in the world, including a very wet Burghley and the WEG in Kentucky. He was pretty high strung and naturally nervous, which took constant management of his feeding and focusing on keeping him relaxed and quiet. Unfortunately, his career was cut short when he died suddenly in 2011 from a ruptured aorta while turned out in his field.
Career Highlights
2010
World Equestrian Games team horse
2nd, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
2009
3rd, Wits End CIC3*
12th, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
2008
9th, Rolex Kentucky CCI4*
More information on our Hall of Fame horses can be read in Modern Eventing, by Phillip Dutton and Amber Heintzberger.