United States Eventing Association

Eventing Families - Chapter One. The Zeitlins

You should always assume that the next person you meet will become an important part of your life. I was volunteering at the Kentucky Dressage Association (KDA) championship show in September, 2004 and after working alone as a warmup steward in the morning, Volunteer Co-ordinator Meg Upchurch introduced me to a young lady who was to help that afternoon – 15-year-old event rider Rebecca (“Becca”) Zeitlin. We enjoyed the afternoon’s companionship and at the end of the day she introduced me to her younger sister Ali, her mom Marian, and her dad Hank. Nice people, but frankly I didn’t give it another thought.

(Above: Hank & Ali Zeitlin)

Fast forward a few months. Megan has bought a farm in Georgetown and is beginning to develop TeamCEO Eventing. I arrived one day to help with the never ending farm chores, and a man who looked vaguely familiar was at the barn. I introduced myself, and he reminded me that we had met at the horse park – he was Hank Zeitlin. He was looking for a new home for his horses, as their coach was moving away from Lexington. To make a long story short, they became our first long term boarders at TeamCEO and part of our family.

Becca is the academic, scholarly, serious one in the family. She introduced (or reintroduced, as you’ll see later) horses to the family when she bought a 14-hand grey mare “Dapple.” When her younger sister became interested in riding, it was obvious they couldn’t share a horse (if you have kids, you’ll understand!). Dapple was handed off to Ali and Becca bought an off-the-track thoroughbred Perfect Boy Chris (“Chris”). When they moved in, Chris was very green and not an easy ride. Becca, however, persevered with help from Megan (Becca and Megan are shown on the left walking the stadium course at Gemwood HT).

Becca and Ali practically lived with Megan that first summer, soaking up knowledge (as a teen, wouldn’t you have loved to spend your summer vacation at the barn?), and Becca ribboned in the Area VIII Beginner Novice Championships that fall. She moved successfully to Novice and then to Training at the Mid-South Pony Club show in 2006. Chris is shown below at Training at Indiana this year finishing 6th on his dressage score. Megan commented about Becca’s Indiana ride “As an instructor, it MAKES MY DAY when a student comes home and says ‘I was thinking about what you said and I could hear you in my head!’” Becca graduated from Sayre School in Lexington and completed her freshman year at Elon in North Carolina. She will be entering the University of Kentucky this fall and plans to continue competing Chris in USEA Area VIII. We’re very pleased and proud to note that Becca is officially our newest Preliminary rider, successfully completing the Open Preliminary class at Mid South the weekend of 6/27-29/08!

(Left: Becca & Chris at their first Preliminary event at Midsouth; Above Right: They’ve come a long way! Here’s Becca & Chris competing at Beginner Novice.)

Ali is the younger sister and, as usual in siblings, she’s the opposite of Becca – bubbly, giggly, and I’ve never seen her without a smile on her face. She competed Dapple through Novice (pictured below right, at a Pony Club rally), and has been/is a serious Pony Club member. When Dapple’s age and Ali’s ambitions exceeded Dapple’s abilities, we leased “Direct Impact” (Colin) to Ali for a season. Colin is a story of his own – he was a teaser at Lane’s End, and by 6 years old had lost interest in his career. After adjustment of his weight distribution (e.g., gelding), he became one of our favorite horses and Ali rode him through a successful Novice season. When she indicated an interest in upper level eventing and NAYRC, however, we found her a 4 year old Thoroughbred gelding (“Alex,” Spring Loaded). She bought Alex and has never looked back – he’s carried her to her first training and first preliminary, and they’re now a solid preliminary team at 15 and 6 years old, respectively (Top Right: Ali & Alex competing at Prelim at Jump Start Horse Trials) . Ali’s developed a strong riding resume, including riding Megan’s advanced horse Widespread Panic in our bareback puissance competition (pictured left) at 4’9”.

Marian (pictured right on Dapple at Jump Start Horse Trials last fall) is the classic horse show mom, working hard to help her girls achieve their goals. She works full-time for the city government, and drives the kids to all their activities (or at least did before they got their driver’s licenses). When Ali outgrew Dapple, we could almost see her thinking, “Why not me?” Marian had been an exercise rider at Belmont in her late teens before getting married and settling down to raise a family.

Once she got back in the saddle, she’s proven to be the most dedicated rider in the family. She didn’t originally have any interest in showing, but we convinced her to ride in our farm CT. Then she did our farm HT. And then she did a local show (she’s shown below right after her successful XC round, walking back from the finish with Ali and Hank.) And she was a star on our TeamCEO “Howard’s Angels” team (somebody failed the spelling test) at the Mid-South Team Challenge at the Kentucky Horse Park – riding in her first recognized event in what’s usually the toughest Novice horse trial of the year in Area VIII.

It’s a fascinating human interest story to see women who rode seriously in their youth, gave it up through their 20’s & 30’s for family reasons, and gravitated back as their kids grew up. They are particularly sensitive to the value of riding, of horses, and of the special nature of doing it as a family.

Hank doesn’t ride (mostly). But he’s the spirit and the glue that keeps the competition family together – shown here at the 2007 Mid-South Team Challenge with Ali. As the Chief Executive Officer of Jockey Club subsidiary Equibase Company, his travel/schedule doesn’t allow him to come to the barn much during the week but on the weekends you’ll see him either at the barn or at the competition with his family. It’s a family sport, and Hank’s a big reason that the Zeitlins event as a family.

Hank’s also a very perceptive individual; Megan had a fall in 2005 which knocked her out of Fair Hill only a week before the three-day. On the weekend when she should have been competing in the penultimate event of her career, Hank distracted her from depression and the “why me’s” by hosting the TeamCEO family in the Jockey Club box at Keeneland (pictured at left with the home stretch in the background). I owe Hank a big debt for that special celebration. I noted earlier that Hank (mostly) doesn’t ride. We have gotten him on TeamCEO horses but those pictures are classified (aka, blackmail). And if you run into Hank at an event, ask him about the family dude ranch outing this past winter.

Four years later, the Zeitlins are some of my dearest friends who hold a very special place in my life. I believe they are also typical of the eventing families in our sport – a critically important part of the US Eventing family. Who did you meet today who will become a part of your life?

photos courtesy of Team CEO Eventing