58 SIDELINES NOVEMBER 2014
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Brother Versus Brother
Lucas shared his thoughts on competing with and against his
brother in jumping. “It’s a cool experience because he can help me
with my riding and I can give him some tips on his riding. We also
share a few horses, so he can explain to me how he rides a horse
and I can apply that to my riding of the horse. He pushes me to be a
better rider and I push him to become better. We’re competitive, but
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is when we’re competing in two different places; since we share the
same trainer, we can’t both be coached by John at the same time.”
Wilton added his own take on their sibling rivalry and support
system. “I love competing with my brother. Even when we’re
competing against each other, there’s never a moment when I’m
wishing him to not do well. I was so excited for him when he won
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my own, to be honest. We know each other so well that we can help
each other calm down when we’re in the heart of a competition. We
push each other, but always in a friendly way.”
The European Edge
The brothers have competed on the show circuit in Europe for
two years. “It was a really, really good experience,” said Lucas. I did
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so it makes the classes very competitive. It’s really good for a junior
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in your riding. It also gave me a look into the riders in my same age
group coming up in Europe. This gives me a heads up for the riders
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doing Grand Prix competitions.”
“Competing in Europe is very different than competing in the
United States in my opinion,” said Wilton, while on his trip to
Texas Beginnings
Lucas, 16, and Wilton, 20, hail from Bartonville, where the Porter
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three family dogs (Chili, a toy Australian Shepherd; Chulo, a Golden
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Porter household.
While their Florida property is now home base, the family built
their Texas ranch six years ago when the boys’ riding got more
serious. The property boasts a full course of natural fences and a
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Southern Methodist University Equestrian Team.
Lucas and Wilton inherited their love of riding since both of their
parents love horses, too. BG had grown up on a ranch in Texas and
played polo on the Stanford University Team and Suzanne competed
pony jumpers as a girl while her family lived in England because
of her father’s job. “We had horses at our ranch in Texas so they
[Wilton and Lucas] began riding Western,” said Suzanne. “Wilton
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was hooked. Lucas enjoyed jumping from his pony to the fence in
the round pen more than he enjoyed riding lessons. He saw rodeo
cowboys get off their bucking broncs in this manner and he wanted
to practice doing the same. It was totally a rodeo move. I was only
familiar with show jumping, so I was interested in getting them to the
jumper ring as soon as possible. The boys preferred the adrenaline
and objectivity of the jumpers as well.”
Both brothers spent a short time in the pony hunter and equitation
rings, but moved quickly into the jumpers. “Wilton competed on
ponies for about one year and Lucas for two years,” recalled
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Hunter classes, mainly when we had a hunter to sell. He’s very good
at it, but doesn’t particularly enjoy the hunters. They each did one
year of equitation with Frank Madden. It was good background, but
they weren’t interested in pursuing it for longer than that.”
“It’s pretty unbelievable for one of us to get a
gold medal, let alone both of us. It’s a dream
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Lucas Porter
Wilton Porter
