54 SIDELINES OCTOBER 2011
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Jane Gaston:
Artist’s Light Called Lumiere
By: Lauren R. Giannini
Jane Gaston, an equine artist from Middleburg, VA, has
earned bragging rights with her Lumiere. Their partnership
has been pretty much win-win since she purchased him six
years ago when he was just four. In 2010 Lumiere added
HOTY to his résumé as USEF’s Amateur Owner Hunter
over 35 Horse of the Year.
The momentum continued at WEF in March when they
garnered the Amateur Owner 36 and over championship.
They couldn’t be beaten at Devon and took home a trailer
load of blue rosettes and tricolors as they annexed the
Amateur Owner Hunter (over 35) championship and the
Grand A/O Hunter Championship, plus the leading A/O
hunter rider title for Jane. It was more of the same at
Upperville: they won the Amateur Owner over 35 reserve
championship and scored an impressive win in the $10,000
Paul and Eve Fout Go As You Please Handy Hunter class.
At HITS Culpeper (VA) in July the duo won the $5,000
Devoucoux Hunter Prix, their third of the season. Jane and
Lumiere are among the top contenders for the Diamond
Mills $500,000 Hunter Prix Finals held September 10-11 at
HITS-On-The-Hudson, Saugerties (NY).
“I think it’s intriguing because for the fnals, if you qualify
for it, all professionals, juniors, amateurs – everyone is
jumping the same course, so it’s not like the USHJA Hunter
Derbies where there’s high options and low options,” says
Jane. “Every horse jumps the same course and also each
qualifed rider only gets one horse. So, for the professionals
who might have fve or six horses, it levels the feld because
they can take only one to the Finals.”
A Passion for Horses
Jane started riding when she was seven. She grew
up in North Carolina, but wasn’t involved in pony club or
foxhunting. Her frst pony came from a business partner
of her father’s: he had a farm and the ponies were turned
loose and Jane got to ride on the weekends. “I started there,
loving it,” she recalls. “I went to camp – I think I was 11 or
12 – and they were jumping. I thought, well, that looks like
fun. It really captured me and then I started having more
lessons. I started competing when I was seven, because
we went to the County Fair once a year, but I got serious
about it when I was 13 or 14. I had a pony called Lollipop
and took her around a little bit. My frst horse was Tootsie
Pop and I had him in the jumpers. That was actually quite
a good horse: Frances Rowe bought him for a rider from
Puerto Rico and he went to the Pan Am Games.”
As an artist, Jane is self-taught and she admits she
always liked to draw. It allowed her to live out her fantasies
and have a new pony every day. Over the years, the art
and riding have pretty much gone neck and neck as her
priorities. “I ride in the morning and paint in the afternoon,
and pretty much continue to juggle the balls,” she says.
“My paintings are mostly commissions. I’m backed up
for several months and things keep coming along. I do
a lot of horses, dogs, hounds and foxhunting. Right now
I’m blessed with great show horses and I’ve gotten away from
hunting, but see myself getting back to it at some point.”
Lumiere Lives at Home
Lumiere stays with Jane and she takes care of him. Her other
horse, Clearly, has been doing some of the Hunter Derbies with
Kelley Farmer.
“Lumiere is an Oldenburg – he’s just a super horse, a super
individual to be around and he’s a very talented competitive
horse,” states Jane. “My trainer is Larry Glefke, and when I’m
on my own, I just do it on my own. I know Larry’s system and we
talk on the phone. Philip Bourassa goes with me and knows the
things to watch out for, too. It’s a matter of staying on top of your
homework.”
For Jane, preparation is the key to a successful show. She tries
to arrive at every horse show totally prepared. She likes having
her horse tip-top, physically ready and fresh.
“When you get there, it’s a matter of walking through the course
in your mind, how you want it to feel,” says Jane. “These prix
The 2010 Buffalo International Horse Show set the stage for
Jane Gaston and Lumiere to win their frst USHJA International
Hunter Derby, worth $10,000 in prize money.
Photo by Lauren Fisher/Phelps Media Group
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