124 SIDELINES APRIL 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
By Dani Moritz
USDF Bronze and Silver Medalist Stephanie Pair Kavitz has
spent her life pushing past boundaries and becoming the best
rider she could be and now she helps young riders do the same.
With a mom who was as a trainer and a dad who was a farrier,
Stephanie started showing when she was seven years old.
Because her mom also worked with racehorses, Stephanie was
exercising Thoroughbreds at only 10 years old. “I was galloping
three-year-old stallions for the track, trying to get them ready,” she
said. “When I was a kid I was pretty fearless.”
When Stephanie was 17, she applied for a working student
position with Isabelle Judet, former Chef d’Equipe of the French
Olympic Dressage Team. She was also able to train with Bernard
Scottsman to improve her jumping while in France. Stephanie
enjoyed it so much she says she never wanted to come home.
As a working student, Stephanie was constantly on the move.
“I had to go back and forth quite a bit to help on the farm so I was
constantly rotating back and forth.” She did, however, manage to
earn a business degree during that time.
After being in France for four years, Stephanie decided to come
back to the States. “I didn’t take my own horse there and that’s
the only reason I kind of got convinced to come home,” she said.
“I wanted to fnd somewhere in the States where I could train and
take my horse with me.”
She headed to New York to work and ended up getting a grand
prix horse whose owner thought the horse was lame and thought
about sending it to be slaughtered. “I thought, oh please don’t do
that. Just give him to me. My family has acreage and we’ll turn him
out, just please don’t sell him to the killers.”
The woman ended up signing the horse over to Stephanie who
then competed him through Intermediaire 1. He is now offcially
and happily retired at 30 years old.
After being in New York for about a year, Stephanie moved
back to Georgia and soon after started Revelry Farm. The farm,
located in Alpharetta, Georgia, is a multi-discipline facility that
offers training, sales and lessons. She recently moved to a new
facility, Staples Farm, in order to continue to grow her business.
“This year will be 10 years that I’ve had the farm in operation,” she
said. “It’s been fun.”
While managing the farm, Stephanie continues to show her
Georgia Peach Stephanie Pair Kavitz
e
Special Section - Georgia
Stephanie riding one of her sale horses, Galahad, at the First
Level Championships.
Photo by WNC Photography
Stephanie and her students hanging out at a horse show.
Photo by Jayne Stine
personal horse, Lavida, at Prix St. Georges, with hopes of one
day competing internationally for the United States. Stephanie
has owned, trained and ridden Lavida since she was three years
old. Lavida will be nine in August.
Often alongside her best friend and fellow USDF medalist
Amber Clark, Stephanie coaches South Forsyth High School and
Alpharetta High School and one middle school team. She is a
former coach of the Georgia State University Intercollegiate Horse
Show Association (IHSA) Equestrian Team.
She has been involved with the Interscholastic Equestrian
Association (IEA) for eight years. “One thing I really like about
the high school program...is it gives the chance to ride,” she said.
“They don’t have to own a horse to go to horse show with IEA. It’s
wonderful.” Stephanie is currently trying to get the IEA to introduce
dressage competition.
She also sponsors several riders because she knows what it
feels like to want nothing more than to ride and not necessarily
have the means to do it. “I have several kids that I sponsor,” she
said. “There’s no way they could afford to ride and do all that stuff
that they do, so they come to the barn and they work for me. They
groom, they clean stalls, whatever they’ve got to do they do it.”
Sponsoring riders is Stephanie’s way of giving back to the
industry that gave her so much. “I had a lot of really great trainers
who did the same thing for me,” she said. “They knew I had no
money and they let me come and ride and train anyway.”
For more information on Stephanie’s farm, visit http://www.
revelryfarm.com.
About the writer: Dani Moritz is a senior at William Woods University and is a
writer/producer and creative director for RateMyRiding.com. She is also the 2012
American Horse Publications Student Award Winner and a staff writer for Sidelines
Magazine.