United States Eventing Association

James Baxter Proves Success Doesn’t Require a Fancy Pedigree

There were so many horses and riders who overcame the odds and triumphed at this year's USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena Feeds. While we couldn't tell every story during the event, we'll be sharing some in the coming weeks on useventing.com.

2020 was a year of extreme change for the world as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. After enduring lockdowns and restrictions, people’s priorities changed. For some, it was a year of transformation. Adult amateur Susan Hamblen was one of those people, ready to quit riding until she met a young pinto crossbred of unknown breeding in rural eastern Pennsylvania who would change her life.

Fast forward to 2024, and Hamblen and the now 7-year-old James Baxter earned third place in the Beginner Novice Master Amateur championship at the USEA American Eventing Championships presented by Nutrena Feeds in Hamblen’s hometown of Lexington, Kentucky.

James Baxter was born in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. He was 3 years old when he was picked up by Brittanni Murry, who runs Anchor Creek Farms. “My father bought him privately off a Mennonite farm,” Murry said. “They do use a lot of the draft crosses for driving, for riding, for work in the fields. They make good driving horses out in Ohio, mainly because of the hills. They hold up to the hills a lot better than just a straight Standardbred.”

Murry believes James Baxter was most likely an accidental breeding, as it’s very rare for the Mennonites to maintain formal breeding programs. When the Mennonites or the Amish list these young horses for sale, Murry goes to look at them to see if they could be a good sport prospect.

“For example, there was one instance where they had a young stud running with a Standardbred mare, not even thinking that he was ready to breed. And it was an oops. And, you know, that's just one instance. ‘Oh, there's a crossbred baby,’ ” Murry said. “He'll either make a sport horse or he won't. I mean, you never know what kind of characteristics are going to come out.”

As for James Baxter, Murry said the Mennonites started him under saddle, but she’s uncertain as to whether or not they got as far as training him to drive. After James Baxter arrived at Anchor Creek Farms, Murry worked on plenty of groundwork and prepared him for a future career as a sport horse. Hamblen came across his advertisement online and sent it to her trainer.

“We hopped in a car and drove up there and tried him the first day, and I was just instantly in love,” Hamblen said. “He was just like your typical 3-year-old, kind of going around the ring with his head wagging around and the body left and the head right– you know how they are. But just sweet. Everything about him was just super, super sweet.”

What sealed the deal wasn’t his sweet and honest nature as they trotted over a few logs out in a field or how safe he felt under saddle despite his young age. Hamblen said she knew he was the horse for her when they brought him back to the barn, and he was patiently allowing a young girl to feed him carrots.

“He was maybe 17-hands. There was a little girl, she must have been 5 years old and 2-foot-something tall,” Hamblen said. “He was in the cross ties while we were talking about price. And this little, tiny girl had his halter in her hand and was just like ramming a carrot into his face trying to get him to eat it. And he was standing there, like, ‘OK, fine.’ And I was like, ‘OK, I'm buying this horse. He's gonna tolerate an adult amateur.’ ”

Hamblen was surprised by her decision to buy a young horse, as she had been tentatively looking for a horse around 10. “I really didn't want another young horse; the young horse I had before him didn't work out in a really bad way. So, when we went to get him as a young horse, I was very worried.”

Her prior attempt at getting a young horse was the reason Hamblen nearly quit riding. “Before James Baxter, I was terrified,” she admitted. “[My last horse] was very athletic and a Thoroughbred, and had all the buttons, but he started rearing, like athletically rearing—straight up in the air. And me being me, I couldn't deal with it. I was ready to be done.”

“I felt like a total failure,” Hamblen continued. “My trainer said something along the lines of, ‘Not everybody is made for every horse. Just because you are not being successful with this particular animal doesn't mean you can't be successful with a different one.’ And that helped me, because I just felt like I was a failure.”

Despite his young age, James Baxter was a 180-degree change from Hamblen’s previous horse. “I don't know if it's because of his personality, or if it is because I was like, ‘We're just gonna go slow and not worry.’ But he really has taken to the work,” Hamblen said. “The only quirk we've noticed is the only thing that really spooks this horse are things that show up behind him. So that really makes me think that, as far as hooking into a cart, maybe something didn't go well.”

Creating a sport horse out of a crossbred originally intended for working the fields and pulling carts was not a quick process. “Most of our Starter year, it was me kicking him around the cross-country and, you know, every jump took a little bit of luck, even though he could literally step over it. And then we moved to Beginner Novice. I was like, ‘I'm not leaving Beginner Novice until that [hesitation] goes away, that last piece of the puzzle.’”

Finally, at the 2023 AEC, that puzzle piece fell into place. “We had time faults on cross-country for the first time ever in our whole lives, because he was just flying around the Beginner Novice course. He had such a good time,” Hamblen said. “I never thought I would actually leave Beginner Novice land. I actually started a club called Beginner Novice For Life. Then we stepped up to Novice, and he's taken to it really well. So, my plan is just to kind of linger here for a while and see where that takes us.”

James Baxter’s sweet personality, along with the massive impact he’s had on Hamblen’s life, is what led to his unique name. The idea for his name actually came from Hamblen’s two children, who were tweens at the time, and loved the animated series, “Adventure Time.”

“There's a character in ‘Adventure Time’ named James Baxter, and he's a Palomino, and he goes around on a beach ball—he's standing on the beach ball on his hind legs,” Hamblen said, chuckling. “Whenever he shows up, everybody just says his name, and then he says his own name, which is very funny. It's all he says. ‘James Baxter!’ And then everybody says it back, ‘James Baxter!’ His only purpose in life is just to make everyone happy. So, when I went to look at this horse, my kids said, ‘You have to call him James Baxter.’ ”

James Baxter hasn’t just changed Hamblen’s life, but the lives of her family members, too. “We bought 20 acres because of this horse,” Hamblen said. “He's never gonna leave me. We're building his retirement home. We were gonna do it eventually anyway, but I was just like, ‘We're gonna do it now, because he's got to have a home to go to when he's done being ridden, because he's with me forever and ever.’ There's no math in the world to calculate what he's done for me.”