United States Eventing Association

This is the 38th entry in the USEA’s Member Story Series. Help us reach our goal of over 300 stories – email your story to Leslie.

My name is Leah Raheja and like most adult amateurs, balancing my equestrian life and the real world can be quite a challenge. My ‘real world’ includes just completing my PhD and currently finishing my third year in the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California at Davis. I am fortunate enough to have a supportive spouse (he calls himself an enabler) who helps to keep me in the saddle and competing even through the my school curriculum.

With my first words I began harassing my completely horse naïve parents for riding lessons. After moving within walking distance to a stable when I was seven, they relented. As a preteen, and then the child of a single mom, I spent every hour not in school at the barn, working off lessons and time in the saddle. I was fortunate enough to be able to work off different lease arrangements in my teenage years that allowed for my introduction to hunter/jumpers, dressage and eventing. My first owed horse was not necessarily what I would have picked but I think that’s a story familiar to most. Tsuche, a 16h Shagya cross, started off as a catch ride as just coming four-year-old. A bottle baby and otherwise problem child, he had (and still does have) a bigger than life attitude. The horse I had been leasing had just been injured and I was looking for something to keep me in the tack. Tsuche’s then owners needed help and an arrangement was made. I began riding him in lessons and to our surprise, fancy gaits, and a love for jumping emerged. When I left for college, Tsuche came along. Over the next few years, his owners ended up giving him to me and we played at shows in addition to and a few horse trials.

After starting graduate school, my now husband and I moved to a location more convenient for his job and the hunt for a new barn began. After a life time of occasional lessons and clinics, I wanted to find a trainer with a program to help me buckle down and start working toward some of my more serious riding goals. That was when I found Natalie Rooney Pitts and Four Star Farm.

Since then, Tsuche has been retired due to soundness issues (he is a fat and happy 17-year-old enjoying the pasture life) and I have purchased and or leased three other amazing horses. The first to come along was Aidyn, a coming three-year-old red-headed Trakehner mare with all the fire and attitude for which her coat color and breed are known. To be honest, we were not looking for a baby, but my budget was limited, and the market was at it’s peak. After three failed pre-purchase exams, I somehow found myself at a breeding farm watching a gangly filly effortlessly navigate through a jump chute and literally over the head of Natalie (who was in the chute trying to set up an oxer). Needless to say, it was decided unanimously that a horse that jumps people should become an event horse- correction, MY event horse. Aidyn was, and continues to, amaze me with her intelligence, grace, and jumping ability. (She also continues to jump things other than ‘jumps’- stall doors, pasture fences etc.) I have never enjoyed working with, and bringing along, a horse as much as I have with her and can say that our first horse trials together was nothing short of perfect. There is nothing quite like the feeling of taking a horse from a halter broke baby to their first horse trials. Aidyn is now six and stands a regal 17h, she is currently out to pasture with a devastating, and most likely, career ending injury. As many equestrians understand, the premature retirement of a horse is a dark moment in any riders career. After taking a few months to allow the dark cloud to dissipate, I received a call from Natalie telling me about a potential lease situation. Cautious to get back ‘on the horse’ and purchase something, a lease sounded great. And along came Herbie . . .

Herbie was owned by an old friend and client of Natalie’s who was looking to lease him out for the show season. A just barely 16h, Irish Sport Horse, Herbie had evented through Preliminary with Natalie as a youngster. My husband and good friends often mock me (in good humor I think) for my comments about kharma, but Herbie seemed to come along just in time to balance out the bad that had happened with my mare. Although things started off a little bumpy, Herbie and I had a stellar season this past year. We were ranked eighth in the nation for Training level for the summer, and travelled to shows in Oregon, California, and Arizona. The plan was to run Preliminary this past fall but due to the nature of horses it was not meant to be. Through a lot of tears, I said goodbye to Herbie in November. He renewed my love of riding and passion for eventing while reminding me, on a somewhat regular basis, the necessity of remaining humble.

I began planning for my next mount when Herbie’s departure date had been set. My budget, as before, was limited, but to my good fortune the market was soft this time around. Horse shopping had in some ways lost some of it’s charm. I think when you have lost horses, in one way or another, in a short amount of time, you approach the possibility of taking on another one with a more guarded attitude. It was hard not to compare anything I sat on to Aidyn’s movement or incredible aptitude for jumping, or to Herbie’s steadiness and reliability. How could any horse fill either of their shoes? Sitting in class one day, I received an email from a friend (ironically sitting a few rows ahead of me): “Horse for Sale”. I somewhat reluctantly opened the email to find conformation shots of a darling little bay sportscar, a jump picture that included knees at chin height, and, most importantly, a price tag I could afford.

It has been a few months since Gilly came home and everyday since is a new day. He has a bit of Tsuche’s problem child history, at times seems to channel Aidyn’s firey attitude, and often surprises me with a Herbie like calm about the scariest of situations. He simultaneously tests my patience and amazes me on a daily basis. I am extremely grateful to continue to have horses be such a large part of my life and to be entering a career that will allow me to work with them on a daily basis. The next year promises to test my time management skills with graduation looming, potentially a little Aidyn on the way and trying to fit horse shows in on the weekends! I look forward to the challenge of fitting 30-hours worth of “to do list” in a time efficient 24.

Photos courtesy of Leah Raheja