Bethany Hutchins-Kristen headed into 2023 with hopes of earning the SmartPak USEA Stallion of the Year award for a second year in a row on her homebred Geluk HVF, and after a stellar season, including a top-10 finish at the TerraNova CCI2*-L (Myakka City, Florida), she took home the top prize with an 18-point lead.
“The 2023 season was great,” she said. “It was everything I hoped it would be. I wanted to get the Stallion of the Year again, and he achieved that. We had some really great placings throughout the season.”
A fourth generation homebred, “Geluk,” is a Dutch Warmblood by Jazz out of Hutchins-Kristen’s former eventing mare Bronte HVF.
“He’s just a good friend,” she said. “I know him in and out, and he knows me, and we have a very good partnership because of that. For the most part he’s just always very level-headed. He’s very much the same horse each and every time he goes out, and I think that gives us a lot of confidence in each other.”
With help from coach Karen O’Connor, Hutchins-Kristen moved the stallion back up to Intermediate in 2023 with their best finish coming at Rocking Horse (Altoona, Florida) in November where they finished third in an open division.
“Every competition I was just really thrilled with him,” said Hutchins-Kristen. “At Chatt Hills [Fairburn, Georgia] in the CCI2*-S he was really great from start to finish. Both the TerraNovas he was super from start to finish. Those are both great, super hard courses. It was great to feel like I could now get him out and about off to different courses and not just be in Ocala. With the kids being a bit bigger, I felt like I could leave Florida and get out to different venues, and he was just as great as he was at the venues he’s been at the past few years.”
Hutchins-Kristen balances a busy business in Ocala, Florida, with raising two young children with her husband, Nico Kristen.
“My daughter is 5, and my son will be turning 3 in March,” she said. “I kind of feel like I have a little more freedom finally. When they’re babies you’re constantly needed by them. Now my daughter will come home from school and go play in the barn by herself, and my 3-year-old has somebody to watch him during the day, but I don’t need to be constantly on top of him, so it allows me to focus on the horses. I’m much busier this winter—I have eight horses I’m riding and competing in eventing and dressage and lower-level jumpers. I have another foal that’s due in March, a 3-year-old I need to break and get started, and a couple 2-year-olds that will be started six months from now. It’s exciting. During that pause when I was having children, I did some breeding and acquired some young horses. I see myself and my program just continuing to grow.”
Geluk hasn’t bred a lot due to his competition schedule, but Hutchins-Kristen did welcome his first filly last year named First Lady. She has a 2022 colt by him and out of a Thoroughbred mare in the barn as well. Hutchins-Kristen has also bred Geluk’s dam again, and she’s due with her third foal next month.
“I think it’s pretty spectacular that as a stallion he’s been in this sport with more than 60 starts,” she said. “Most of those starts have been at Preliminary level and spanning over a period of about eight years. I don’t know any other stallions who’ve had that longevity in the sport—Windfall was a phenomenal stallion—but a lot of the stallions eventing in the United States are doing it for a couple of years, and then they just disappear from either loss of confidence or not wanting to move up the levels, so I think he’s a pretty special stallion in that he continues to come back and play in the sport year after year. He’s an all-around good boy and very competitive.”
As he was finishing tacking up his horse in preparation to navigate the cross-country course at the 2024 Twin Rivers Summer Horse Trials, James Alliston expressed concern about navigating the 101 Freeway. That’s because as soon as he crossed the finish line aboard Intermediate level winner Addyson (Ampere x Nickerbocker) at 10:38 a.m. on Saturday—his fifth cross-country round of the morning with three at Preliminary and two at Intermediate—the West Coast-based five-star rider had to drive 185 miles on the 101 Freeway from Twin Rivers Ranch in Paso Robles, California, to San Francisco International Airport to catch a 4:35 p.m. flight to Frankfurt, Germany.
There is so much more to proper grooming than keeping your horse picture-perfect for the horse inspection. Good grooming practices are critical to proper horse management, no matter if you are planning for your next FEI appearance or your Starter level debut. To help you maximize your knowledge of grooming practices, we opened up the opportunity for USEA members to submit any questions they might have on our Instagram and Facebook stories. In this week's episode, Host Nicole Brown sits down with three of the highest-regarded grooms in this industry, Max Corcoran, Emma Ford, and Stephanie Simpson, and asks them all of your questions and more to help you perfect the art of grooming.
Despite our best plans and organizational efforts, life with horses can very often mean we are cycling through Plans B through Z when we start the day with Plan A in mind. If your summer schedule includes your first horse trials or your hundredth, it’s always helpful to check-in with your own organization methods to stay prepared and ensure competition day runs as smoothly as possible.
The United States Eventing Association, Inc. (USEA) is pleased to announce Equestrian Team Apparel as a “Bronze Level Sponsor for the 2024 USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC)” taking place at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky, Aug. 27- Sept. 1.