50 SIDELINES AUGUST 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
during the 10-minute compulsory stop, my team didn’t keep track
of time accurately so I was late getting to the start box [of the
cross-country]. The clock had started before I left! I had to leave
the box 100 percent on speed right from the get-go to make up
for lost time. Gray flew around that course so gracefully and never
broke his rhythm, he was full-on speed the whole way around and
we made the time. It was an amazing feeling, that total unity of
purpose and will. He really rose to the occasion and he did well in
the show jumping, too.”
That year, the show jumping phase was a strange mix of show
jumping and cross-country fences, more like a hunter derby of
today. It required competitors to canter through water and out over
a vertical, and other unique cross-country-type combinations. “It
was a really tough course and Gray tended to get flatter, and the
last fence was going toward the out gate. He ticked the last fence
but he won it.” With that win, she had reached her goal of being
selected for the World Championships.
During the 1982 World Three-Day Event Championships in
Luhmuhlen, France, a partially healed injury of broken transverse
processes in her back gave Kim serious trouble on the cross-
country, and she lost strength in the whole left side of her body.
“The bones in my back came loose and Gray carried me through
the whole second half of the course,” Kim recalled. “The next day
during show jumping, that pain was extraordinary. I couldn’t help
him in any way. I couldn’t support him, I could just point him and
hang onto the mane.” The Gray Goose again rose to the occasion
and they placed third, both individually and with the team.
Kim and The Gray Goose went on to place second at the
Boekelo CCI***, compete at the World Championships in Australia
and were named as one of the alternates for the 1984 Olympics.
Challenges to Come
More challenges were yet to come. A year after Kim and Jack
divorced following 20 years of marriage, her 18-year-old daugh-
ter, Andrea, was abducted and missing for four months before a
hunter found her bones in the woods of West Virginia. Not long
after that, Kim had a bad car accident that resulted in a near death
experience, and she struggled to recover from deep depression.
Through those extremely difficult times, Kim turned to her hors-
es for support, remembering that The Gray Goose had carried her
safely over the solid cross-country fences at the World Champion-
ships, clinging to his mane for balance when she was in extreme
pain and had lost the strength of her left side. Following her car
accident, Gray was again patient with her unsteady balance and
gave her the encouragement to make her way back to physical
and mental normalcy.
Gray has passed on and his ashes are buried at the Head of the
Lake in the Kentucky Horse Park. Kim now rides Gideon Good-
heart, who is related to Gray. “Gray taught Gideon everything he
knew about me — how to carry me safely, and how to be steady
when I wasn’t,” Kim said. “When I was at the lowest point of my
life, Gideon found the way to kick me out of the deep emotional
hole where I was self-destructing.”
Inspired after putting her life back on track, Kim completed a
two-year Spiritual Life Coaching course. Gideon helps her in ses-
sions to support others in their efforts to reclaim their lives. Kim
now actively teaches and conducts clinics around the country,
combining the heart and science of riding where she focuses on
communication between horse and rider. Kim says her skills are
“gleaned from a lifetime of studying learning styles, biomechanics,
alternative techniques, successful competition, confidence coach-
ing, and — always — listening to the horses.”
Kim says, “At 66, I no longer fly over fences. Instead, my stallion
Gideon Goodheart and I dance in the art of dressage and together
our hearts fly with joy as we support others in emotional healing.”
To learn more, visit Kim at thewayofthehorse.com.
About the writer: Doris Degner-Foster rides with Harvard Fox Hounds when she is
not interviewing interesting individuals in the horse sport. She enjoys writing fiction
and is working on a murder mystery where a horse appears in different people’s
lives to help them through a crisis. Look for Doris’ blog, Notes From the Field on the
Sidelines
Magazine website.
Gray and Kim had a bad accident at Badminton, England, in
1983, when Gray slid in the mud before the jump and stepped on
his own foot. Both horse and rider ended up with concussions,
but no broken bones.
Photo by Michael Milne
“This was taken when Gray was 26,” Kim said. “I had been in
a bad car wreck and was recovering.” Gray, who was quite a
character, lived to be 30 and continued to win the hearts of many
people until the end.
Photo courtesy of Kim Walnes
Gray has passed on and his ashes
are buried above the Head of the
Lake in the Kentucky Horse Park.
