26 SIDELINES JUNE 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Alice Does It All
By Dani Moritz
Alice Sarno grew up on an Appaloosa breeding farm called
Coon Appaloosa Ranch in Las Vegas doing English and Western
shows, which she was content with, until she discovered jumping.
“My neighbors invited me over to watch a dressage clinic and that
was interesting to me, but they also had built some cross-country
jumps in their backyard and that looked like more fun,” she said.
From there, she was hooked. She began riding with the
neighbors and competed at two events called Ram Tap Horse
Trials each year in Fresno, California on Easter and Thanksgiving
weekend - which were the only two horse trials in the area. She
also built jumps in her free time.
Alice also competed in hunter/jumper shows in Nevada and
Arizona because it was another opportunity to jump. She went to
a high school that only had half-day classes and by the time she
was a junior she was teaching and training. “From early on, I knew
I wanted to teach and ride and put on horse shows,” she said.
In 1975, she moved to Oregon with her husband, who had
a farrier business, and she taught English riding at Rogue
Community College for two years. They also broke and trained
teams of ponies and mini mules to drive and pull one-horse
farming equipment. Alice says they got tired of the rain and
decided to move back to the desert. Moving to Phoenix in 1983
they established what is now called Desert Sport Horse. She
currently operates her business out of Carefree Farms – a facility
encompassing more than 17 acres with two show barns, two full
court dressage arenas, two jumping rings, a quarter mile galloping
track and cross-country course.
As a part of Desert Sport Horse, Alice specializes in teaching
and training eventing, but also offers hunter/jumper and dressage.
She is a level III USEA certifed instructor and what she loves
most about eventing is the well-rounded education. “You learn to
really have to take care of your horse and be good at all three
phases, dressage, show jumping and cross-country,” she said.
“The eventing tends more toward people who love the feeling of
Alice schooling Buckwheat, one her client’s horse’s, at beginner
novice.
Photo by Karen Bjorn
e
Alice schooling her horse Charisma training-level
cross-country.
Photo by Karen Bjorn
a gallop cross country. You must also be more involved with your
horse because it simply is not a weekend sport.”
Alice has a wide range of students, from the very beginner
to the adult amateur to seasoned competitors, but she believes
all eventers need to learn to be independent. “I want people
to work with their horses and develop their skills and become
independent,” she said. “It’s very important that we are creating
riders who are going to be future horsemen, well-rounded and I
think the sport of eventing does that. My goal for riders is they
become confdent, competent and enjoy the sport. Some of my
riders just ride dressage. It is so important that you love what you
do.”
Although Alice does do some training rides, she says she prefers
to teach the riders how to work through problems themselves. “We
do take horses in for training, though,” she said. Alice is currently
competing with one horse at the training level. “I enjoy competing
on my own horse and thoroughly enjoy working with my students
and bringing them along with their horses,” she said.
She also puts on three USEA recognized horse trials each year
in Flagstaff called the Coconino Horse Trials. “Because it’s in
Flagstaff and it’s July, it’s a wonderful place to go and vacation
in a cool climate,” she said. “It’s a really nice place to enjoy your
horses.”
Two of the horse trials are in July on back-to-back weekends and
one of them is held in the fall. During the back-to-back weekend,
the frst horse trial is held in conjunction with a USDF dressage
show and the other hosts a training and novice three-day event
and the other hosts as a young event horse series.
She also manages two unrecognized jumping competitions in
Flagstaff in June and September in conjunction with Desert Sport
Horse and Copper State. And if riding, training and managing
shows wasn’t enough, she is also working on obtaining a course
design license for designing show jumping courses in eventing.
Even though Alice may not ride as often as she used to, she
is constantly giving back to the eventing community through
teaching, training and organizing shows for the sport she fell in
love with so many years ago.