By Helen Townes
Portraits by Lauren Ann Wagner
Talent, hard work and never saying no: these have been the key ingredients to West Coast eventer Amber Birtcil’s success as a competitor and trainer. That included saying yes to the rigors of the eventing world when she was 18 and leaving behind a successful Junior career in the hunter-jumper ranks. It also meant saying yes, despite the odds, to returning to competition and training after a catastrophic accident two years ago.
“I’ve had the right opportunities at the right times, and I’ve never said no,” Amber, now 37, said. “I grew up saying yes to everything. ‘Can you set these jumps?’ Yes! ‘Can you ride an extra horse?’ Yes! ‘Can you body-clip this horse?’ Yes! It’s a lot of long hours, but you just say yes and take every opportunity.”
Today, Amber competes up and down the West Coast while running her training barn, Cellar Farm, in Petaluma, California. She specializes in training young imports from Holland, bringing them up through the lower levels, choosing a few to compete with and selling others to hand-picked buyers.
Childhood Conviction
Amber knew early on that she would pursue a career with horses, even growing up in a self-professed “non-horsey” family in Temecula, California. “A lot of young kids who love horses have this fairytale idea of riding horses for a living, but that’s very rare. You need the right opportunities to come along, and the stars must align, especially if you’re not born into a horse family,” she said.
That didn’t deter Amber from setting out early on the equestrian path. “My mom bought riding lessons in a silent auction at my school when I was 4 years old. I really loved it,” she said. “I also had great trainers and horses to teach me. I grew up riding with Dianne DeFranceaux Grod, and then Susie Hutchison. They supported me all along, and I ended up competing in all the Medal Finals and Junior Jumpers until I was 18 with my horses Anna Karenina and Ketel One,” Amber said.
During those early years, Amber rode primarily in West Coast competitions, ultimately placing fourth overall in the USEF Talent Search Medal Final—West during her last year as a Junior. She also traveled east for shows including the ASPCA Maclay Medal Finals in New York, and the Pennsylvania National Horse Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Amber’s success in the hunter-jumper world made her a good candidate to continue as a professional, and she was offered a job as a full-time rider with Hope and Ned Glynn at Sonoma Valley Stables in Sonoma, California. At the same time, she had purchased a horse by the name of Nantucket Red, whom she called Pony—a chestnut Westphalian gelding acquired through hunter and equitation trainer Don Stewart.
“I was planning to sell Pony, but a lot of my friends were eventers, so I decided to try one event with him because he was a very brave horse,” Amber said. “I went Training Level, and it was so fun! I started making a lot of new friends in the eventing world, and began competing in eventing just for fun, all the while working in the hunter-jumper world with Hope and Ned.”
What started as a passing fancy turned into a passion. Amber and Nantucket Red moved up the levels and ended up competing at Advanced, placing well in several FEI events. “I got more and more into the eventing purely based on the horsemanship side of it. I loved the relationship with the horse through eventing,” she said.
The Fork in the Road
In a decision that changed the trajectory of her equestrian career, Amber again said yes when a Petaluma eventing barn offered her a training position. For a time, she tackled this new gig alongside her position in the hunter-jumper world at the Sonoma Valley Stables. “I tried juggling two jobs, but it was a lot,” she said. “I knew I had to decide which direction to go in my life, and I decided to go full time with eventing.”
Not long after, Amber found a horse named Carry On, called Cory, and so began a period of tremendous success for her in the eventing world. “Matt Flynn, of Flynn Sport Horses, helped me find Carry On, and we ended up going Advanced and winning what is now the CCI4*-L at Galway along with several other Advanced and CCl4*-S competitions,” she said.
In the meantime, the Dutch KWPM breeder of Carry On, Maarten Groeneveld, who was successful in Holland, had followed Carry On’s career. “Maarten reached out and invited me to come over to Holland to meet him, and now I get all my young horses from him,” Amber explained. These young horses—2- and 3-year-olds—are moved into early training, turned out in the field all summer, then receive more training as 4-year-olds before they are imported to Amber. “Maarten is always right about the horses he recommends to me. I totally trust him and talk to him several times a week!”
Another special horse during these early days was Cinzano, aka Zane, whom Amber found as a 5-year-old when he was imported from Hungary by her friends Sara Mittleider and Attila Rajnai. “I bought Cinzano and two other horses and planned to get all three into eventing and then resell them,” Amber said. “Cinzano was a little plain, but everything was just so easy for him—he cantered over everything! I decided to keep him because I quite liked him.” She and Cinzano went Advanced in 2016 and eventually went on to win the CCI4*-L at Twin Rivers in Paso Robles, California, in the spring of 2021.
Yes to Renovations and Recovery
In September 2020, Amber also said yes to Sean Birtcil, a major in the Army Reserves, whom she married during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The couple had already bought 80 acres in Petaluma, now Amber’s training facility Cellar Farm, during 2019. “The wedding venue we had reserved cancelled because of COVID, so we got married on our new property in the eucalyptus grove across from where we eventually built our home. It was perfect,” Amber remembered.
Cellar Farm had been a Quarter Horse facility for many years and required a lot of renovation and updates to become a top-notch eventing barn. “It was about a year before we could get the business started,” Amber said. “We redid the existing house, renovated a farmhouse for staff and tore down and replaced the barns. Grading took a long time and there were delays with the county and due to COVID.”
By 2021 they were able to move Cinzano and a couple of sales horses into a temporary shed-row barn, and course builder Zane Webb completed their cross-country course. “We didn’t have an arena yet, so we just trained out in the fields. When we went to shows, it felt like a real privilege,” Amber laughed.
Today, Cellar Farm is fully outfitted with a barn and indoor arena, in addition to the outdoor course; the property is flat below, where the barn is, and a hill leading to their home “is great for the horses’ fitness.” However, just as Amber, Sean and the horses began to settle in at Cellar Farm, Amber faced a tremendous challenge. She had just been named to the shortlist for the 2022 Eventing Development Program when disaster struck while competing in the USEF CCI4*-L Eventing National Championship at Galway Downs in November 2021.
While on cross-country, Amber and Cinzano fell after clearing a brush jump, and Cinzano landed on Amber. The fall resulted in an open-book pelvic fracture and breaking both of Amber’s hips. Amber was in a hospital in San Diego for a month, in a wheelchair for three months, and it was February of 2022 before she could start walking again. Fortunately, Cinzano wa
s not hurt in the accident.
It was nothing short of miraculous that Amber was able to get back in the saddle four months after the accident. Her rapid recovery was undoubtedly due in no small part to her fitness level; among Amber’s routine are Bikram hot yoga classes at the aptly named Yoga Hell in Petaluma. “I started riding Zane in a round pen, and was able to return to competition that summer,” Amber said. “I took it slow but was able to compete in some FEI competitions later that year.”
Today, three years after the accident, Amber is resolute about not letting the aftermath of that accident get in her way, either physically or mentally. “It’s something that will always be there, but it’s not something I focus on,” she said.
Promising Young Horses
Today, Cellar Farm is bustling with activity, with monthly schooling jump shows and frequent clinics with top veteran clinicians including Erik Duvander, Lilo Fore, Tamie Smith and Sharon White. “I don’t keep my barn full—I have my own horses, some sales horses, a small select group of clients and stalls open for clinics,” Amber explained. “I’m trying to bring more value to the Sonoma County community with educational opportunities and affordable schooling shows.”
Her passion continues to be the young horses she acquires from Holland through Maarten, getting them ready to move up the levels whether for new eventing owners or with Amber in the saddle. “Right now, I have two 7-year-olds that I’m keeping, Mississipi—the second p is left out and he’s called Pi—and Milagro, whom we call Mike,” Amber said.
Over the past year, Amber has ridden both Pi and Mike with a lot of success at the one-star and two-star level—Pi was third in the CCI2* at Twin Rivers in September and Mike has won six events in recent months. Amber aims to move them up to three-star competitions in 2025, primarily showing in California and at Rebecca Farm in Montana, and hopefully travel east in the next one or two years for some of their big FEI shows.
Two other Cellar Farm horses in training, Orpheus and Zippety Doodah, placed in the top five in the 2023 USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) West Coast Championships at Twin Rivers. This past September, they placed first and second in the 2024 Twin Rivers Fall International’s 5-year-old qualifier.
Amber’s “yes” attitude extends to an eclectic array of horses rather than one type. “The one big thing that all my horses have is a great attitude and an uphill, athletic build,” Amber said. “They are all different shapes and
sizes, but they all have a great work ethic and are really nice to work with every day.”
Her priority is always finding the right buyers for the horses she brings along. “I like the horses to find the right match and be successful, whether that’s at the lower levels or moving up the levels,” she said. “I want what’s best for the horse, and if they’re happy, I’m happy. It’s good for my business to have the horses I’ve sold doing great at all the shows!”
For more information, follow Amber on Facebook or Instagram @amber_n_birtcil, or visit cellarfarm.com
Photos by Lauren Ann Wagner, laurenannphoto.art
