58 SIDELINES SEPTEMBER 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
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By Holly Hugo-Vidal
When talented and beautiful Joie Gatlin enters the jumper ring,
she commands attention. She is not only one of California’s elite
hunter/jumper riders, but a striking picture on a horse as well.
Adding to it, colorful announcer Davin Malmqvist introduces her as
“Jooooo Eeee Gatlin” stretching out her name as far as possible!
Joie is a native Californian, born and raised in Burbank. She
grew up in a horsey family and began riding at the age of two.
Her father had roping horses and was an old-fashioned cowboy,
moving cattle, riding saddle broncos and bareback. Then, he
became a stuntman. Her mother, who was from Colorado, was
Miss Rodeo America, as well as a trick rider and a barrel racer.
“Horses were always in our back yard,” smiled Joie.
When Joie was 10-years-old, a friend of the family suggested that
she might like jumping. So she began taking lessons and, indeed,
fell in love with jumping. It all started from there, snowballing into
a successful and lucrative career. Her first teacher was Barbara
Eldred, then Randy Redmer. “A great horseman,” Joie said, with
a smile.
“I rode with Richard Keller for several years after that. He gave
me the most knowledge and encouragement of anyone. He was
incredible! He had professional riders with him at that time, such
as Kenny Nordstrom and Will Simpson. It was the summer of
1984 when I was 17-years-old that he gave me the ride on one
of the grand prix horses! I won my first grand prix on Hometown
Hero, owned by one of his customers. I was his rider from then on
and he was a true mentor to me. What a fabulous horseman!” Joie
went on to say, “That same day, I won an equitation class in the
morning and the Grand Prix in the afternoon. It was quite a day!”
When Joie was a junior she showed in the hunter and equitation
divisions. While that was typical for juniors at the time, riding the
California Girl Joie Gatlin
same horse in both divisions was not! During her junior career,
Joie won the United States Equestrian Team Medal Finals, was
named the Rhulen Rookie of the Year and won several national
championships.
In 1987, Joie rode with Rodney Jenkins, as a working student
doing everything from rolling bandages to riding. At that time
Rodney was at Montpelier Station in Orange, Virginia. “It was an
incredible experience. He occasionally gave me lessons on my
own horses. I also helped at the ring as well as hacked some
of his horses. I learned so much from watching. He was a man
of few words and when he did say something – I listened. But I
watched as much as I could. Subconsciously I picked up a lot of
knowledge. It was an honor to be in his presence!”
In 2004, Joie acquired two Olympic caliber horses and with the
owner’s urging, she asked Katie Monahan Prudent to come out to
California and help her. With Katie’s reputation of helping riders
attain their goals, she seemed a natural. She agreed and, as Joie
said, “She thought we were a little crazy for having just gotten
these horses to be doing this, but never the less, she came out
and helped us. It was an incredible experience! I had SunCal’s
King and Mogharebi’s Luna for about two or three weeks prior to
Joie, sitting on Kistler, waves at the camera while waiting for the
$500,000 Hunter Derby at HITS Saugerties in 2012.
Photo by Josie Driscoll
Joie and SunCal’s King in the Nations Cup in Gijon, Spain in
2006.
Photo courtesy of Joie Gatlin
Continued on page 60
