There is a hidden treasure in the horse country of New Jersey. Nestled into the rolling hills and forest east of the charming town of Oldwick, four-star event rider and trainer Kadi Eykamp has set up a training business out of Dana Hart’s fabulous facilities at Hart Farm. Kadi has taken over the nine-stall original stables at Hart Farm, and has the use of several grassy paddocks, the huge new indoor arena, an outdoor jumping arena with brand-new show jumps, and extensive trails.
(Left: Kadi Eykamp at Hart Farm in New Jersey with Double Rivers Basil Brush, Amber Heintzberger photo)
A little over a year and a half ago Kadi relocated from her home in Australia to New York City with her husband Mark, who works in finance in Manhattan. A graduate of the esteemed Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Mark’s foray into international business prompted Kadi to sell most of the horses that she owned in Australia and start over again in the U.S. with a couple of young prospects.
The couple lived in downtown Manhattan for the first eighteen months, but as Kadi began developing her business with the horses they relocated to the town of Whitehouse Station, about six miles from the farm, and Mark now commutes to the city by train. This makes it easier for Kadi to more time to spend at the barn and focus on developing her business.
Back in Australia, Kadi grew up a horse-crazy kid in the countryside in Northwest New South Wales, about ten hours from Sydney. Her father farmed cotton and the family lived on about 5,000 acres, plenty of room for Kadi to ride. She had a couple of horses as a child, but at age 13 she purchase Coppertop from Australian dressage rider Jules Anderson, now based near Atlanta, Georgia, and her career in eventing was launched.
While at boarding school Kadi trained with Jules’ mother, Libby Anderson, and she and Coppertop started winning everything in sight, from the local to regional and finally the national Pony Club championships. A member of the Tamworth Pony Club in Zone 5, she became an “A” level member and has also been a qualified instructor since 1990. Under Anderson’s instruction she also sat on a dressage schoolmaster and learned what piaffe and passage felt like.
Also at age 13 Kadi began working with her mentor, eventing and dressage rider Heath Ryan, during the summer holidays. Ryan has competed for Australia in dressage and eventing, has coached the eventing team in dressage, and was recently selected for the dressage team heading to the Olympics in Hong Kong this summer. His brother Matt Ryan is a triple Olympic Gold Medalist event rider.
As member of the “A List” training group, Kadi participated in training sessions with such notables as Wayne Roycroft, Heath Ryan and the Unites States’ very own George Morris.
Kadi has trained three horses to the four-star level: Seal, Maximum Overkill and Isabella Rossellini. Seal and Kadi won the Olympic trials in 2003. Also that year she won the prestigious Anna Savage Medal for the Best and Fairest Rider, and placed in the top ten with two horses at the World Cup Finals. Her mare Isabella Rossellini was in the top twenty qualified to go to the Athens Olympics, but due to soundness issues Kadi retired her as a broodmare. A half Trakehner mare, Isabella Rosselini is related to Timothy Holekamp’s Windfall, the stallion that Darren Chiacchia rode at Athens. Seal was sold to a Young Rider and Maximum Overkill went on to become second reserve for New Zealand’s World Equestrian Games team.
“I do purpose breeding for eventing with Isabella Rosselini, who is by Cocktail out of a New Zealand thoroughbred mare from a bloodline that produces show jumping horses and has also produced several four-star eventers. Isabella is a freak – she is an amazing jumper. She silences the crowd. I also have a surrogate mare and a half-sister to Isabella bred to Vivant, who was first reserve for the show jumping team.”
Though she still has a couple of broodmares, boarded with a friend in Australia, Kadi sold all of her competition horses before she made the move half way around the world. “It’s hard to gain recognition when you start from scratch with horses that are green at this level,” she acknowledged.
So far things are going well with her two new protégés. Double Rivers Basil Brush finished fifth at the Bromont CCI* in Canada, and Double Rivers 2 Cool finished eighth in the CCI** at the same event. At the recent Stuart Horse Trials in Victor, New York both horses competed in the CIC** in which DR Basil Brush finished seventh and DR 2 Cool was ninth. At least one of these horses will compete in the CCI** at the Fair Hill International this fall.
With both of her horses on the fast track to the top, Kadi hopes to make a name for herself in the U.S. She will spend the summer in New Jersey and then follow the eventing circuit to Aiken, South Carolina for the winter, as she did this past winter. (She notes that the charge for training is the same whether she is in Aiken or New Jersey). She also enjoys training horses and riders at all levels, and in dressage and jumping as well as eventing. Last year she trained and showed a sales horse, Top Hat, to third level dressage. Riding Noble, a green Oldenburg gelding owned by Beth Rall, she won the Aiken Circuit Championship at the beginner novice level.
Kadi is enjoying the challenge of training and competing in a foreign country. “There are a lot of Australians over here now – it’s snowballing!” she said. “Those that have come have had success – I think the country lends itself to it. I didn’t come for the same reasons as the others but I’m happy to join in. The concentration of events is higher here, and the quality of the courses is better. I think the quality of horses here is very good. Also in American the top five per cent of riders are skillful and hungry to win – the top five per cent in Australia are the same, but that’s all our top riders! If there are ten people in an advanced class there, you can bet they’re good ones and likely to be on a list somewhere.”
As her horses gain experience and move up the levels, Kadi is looking forward to making her mark on the U.S. eventing scene. She is also excited about teaching new students and training more horses. For more information and to contact Kadi, email [email protected] or call 646-288-1390. Also be sure to check out her website at http://www.kadieykamp.com/
(Other photos by Emily Daily from the 2008 Cosequin Stuart Horse Trials)
