28 SIDELINES JUNE 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
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Sidelines Spotlight
By Marrisa L. Quigley
Z
eitgeist theory suggests that great leaders are not just
born or created by accident, but rather they are made.
Zeitgeist Equestrian, therefore, is aptly named. When
Phoebe Lang and Sanjay Bagai set out to develop a state-of-
the- art equestrian facility and training center, they did not leave
anything up to the fates. Instead, the husband and wife team
dedicated years of study into the world of show jumping before
creating the beautiful Zeitgeist Equestrian facility in Northern
California.
Sanjay says that the inspiration for their enterprise came from
his wife Phoebe, who grew up riding feld hunters in Virginia. The
pair began at the start: with young horse development, stallion
judging and mare licensing. Nine years ago, Phoebe and Sanjay
spent two years in Germany working in the stables of the top
show jumpers and breeders in the world, such as the Hanoverian
Verband, the state stud program at Celle, Germany and Paul
Schockemohle’s farm in Lebitz, Germany.
Phoebe and Sanjay then studied the top sport horse dealing
operations, including those of Karten Huck and Heinrich
Ramsbruck. Sanjay says that they wanted to establish a sales
barn like those in Europe, and needed to understand why the
European model works: how European dealers decide which
horse goes to a show, how long they keep the horse, and how to
recognize a good sales horse. As a former investment banker, it
was important to Sanjay to understand the proft and loss margins.
With this understanding of what makes a top quality performance
horse, Phoebe and Sanjay then switched their focus to riding and
training. They purchased four well-bred jumpers and trained for a
total of eight years with the world’s best trainers in Europe and in
the U.S., including Herbert Meyer, Eddie Macken, Bernie Traurig
and Bjorn Ikast.
This dedication to learning the sport has paid off. Sanjay is
currently the top ranking show jumper representing India at the
FEI level. But when pressed about the team’s success in the
ring, Sanjay admits that they don’t even keep their ribbons. He
says, “We don’t rest on anything we’ve achieved in the show ring,
because for us it’s a constant journey. We go in the show ring to
demonstrate our practice, and winning is not the goal, it is merely
a result. Our goal is that our horses are always happy, always
healthy, always sound and willing to go to the other side. To us,
that’s winning.”
When designing the Zeitgeist Equestrian facility and program,
Phoebe and Sanjay took pieces from each of the best practices that
they studied, applying those that appealed to them. The Zeitgeist
facility boasts a two-acre grass derby feld complete with natural
obstacles, miles of manicured trails, a huge outdoor jumping
arena with footing imported from Germany, a custom-designed
horse walker, and even state-of-the-art pastures engineered for
year-round green grass.
When designing the Zeitgeist training program, they asked
themselves, “How do we get there? So we drew a pyramid.”
Inspired by the human nutritional pyramid, the design begins with
soundness, which Zeitgeist studies using special software that
compares x-rays, with thermal imaging scans. The next “brick”
A – Z With Zeitgeist Equestrian
A view of the outdoor jumping arena at Zeitgeist Equestrian.
Photo by Sanjay Bagai
Cantaro in the pasture at Zeitgeist Equestrian. The state-of-the-
art pastures are engineered for year-round green grass.
Photo by Sanjay Bagai