56 SIDELINES MARCH 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Ali and Krunch competing at the Winter Equestrian Festival.
Photo by Arianna Delin
Ali and Velinta
Photo by Emily Riden
Ali’s selfies show the fun she has with her second family.
just train us and not really know who we are. They know us all on
a personal level.”
Ali continued, “We have a lot of fun. At [WIHS] Medal Finals
we were all done walking the course, and we were just kind of
nervous I think, but we took a bunch of selfies with Timmy, Molly
and all of the kids. It’s just stuff like that that is so much fun.”
And while Timmy, Molly and Chris have helped shape Ali’s
riding, she credits the biggest impact on her riding successes to
her mom.
“My mom has had probably the biggest impact on my riding,”
Ali said. “The reason I started riding is because she was riding,
and I just wanted to do whatever she did. Then, she brought me to
the hunt club and to Abbi and then to Timmy and Norfield. She’s
always really helped to point me in the right direction.”
Not only has Ali’s mom, Libby, helped figuratively point her in
the right direction, she’s made sure to be there every step of the
way to literally drive her in the right direction.
“Generally, the best rider is the one who has the ability to get
in the ring more than anyone else,” Libby explained. “So literally
every day after school except Monday, we would leave from
school and drive 45 minutes to Rabbit Hill Farm and then hop
over to Greenwich to Jill Shulman’s farm. She’d ride five horses
at Rabbit Hill, ride two at Jill Shulman’s, sometimes come down to
Norfield, and she’d be coming home at like eight at night.”
“I couldn’t do it without her,” Ali explained.
With such a strong team of support behind her, the future looks
extremely bright for the rising star. Watch for Ali this year at the
Winter Equestrian Festival, Old Salem, Lake Placid and beyond!
