78 SIDELINES FEBRUARY 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Hillary achieved a great deal of success competing both
horses in 2011 and 2012. She had numerous ribbon-winning
performances in the grand prix ring, several successful starts in
some of the biggest classes on the East coast, and competed
in many FEI World Cup Qualifiers, and CSI*** Grand Prix. She
finished 2012 with a win on Arkansas in the Duke Children’s
Benefit Grand Prix in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Hillary added to her record of grand prix success in 2013.
Riding Nopus du gue Joubert, Hillary placed sixth in the $100,000
Woodlea Farms Grand Prix at the I Love New York Horse Show in
Lake Placid. Less than a month later, Hillary piloted the 10-year-
old Thoroughbred gelding, Arkansas, to victory in the Mount
Equinox Grand Prix in Vermont.
It is with Arkansas, on whom she narrowly missed repeating
her win at Duke last November when Hall of Famer Joe Fargis
edged her out in the jump-off, that Hillary is making a lot of things
happen. Last October, she and Arkansas participated in the
Retired Racehorse Training Project’s
Thoroughbred Makeover
and National Symposium
at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore
and then a month later Arkansas won the Leading Thoroughbred
Award, presented by The Grayson-Jockey Club Research
Foundation at the Alltech National Horse Show.
“Arkansas is a very special horse,” said Hillary. “He has a good
brain and plenty of power and speed. He believes he can do
anything and he gives you 100 percent every time he goes in the
ring.”
Hillary predicts a bright future for Arkansas. “Originally,
Arkansas was brought in to be a fun project. I like having a few
Thoroughbreds in the barn,” she said. “He’s a really good match
for me and I think he’s going to be a really special horse for me for
a very long time.”
Hillary’s sights are set on moving Arkansas, and her other
mounts, into the international levels. She also has plans for finding,
training and competing a new set of grand prix horses as well as
teaching clients and acting as a buying and selling agent for show
horses. Her growing success is proving that she is absolutely on
the right track.
Hillary and her mom, Christina Schlusemeyer.
Photo by Marty Bauman/Classic Communications
Hillary and Arkansas at the Retired
Racehorse Training Project’s
Thoroughbred Makeover and National
Symposium at Pimlico Race Course.
Photo by Isabel Kurek
Arkansas won the Leading
Thoroughbred Award, presented by
The Grayson-Jockey Club Research
Foundation at the 2013 Alltech National
Horse Show. Hillary joined Arkansas’
owners, Robert and Maria Kogen, in
accepting the award.
Photo by Mary Adelaide Brakenridge/Phelps Media
Group
