Color on the East Coast

Photo by Terri Miller

Dressage judges in the East are seeing spots, and Laurie Phillips couldn’t be happier. In a sea of solid warmbloods, Laurie’s Appaloosa sport horses really stand out. “The judges definitely remember you,” says Laurie, a professional Appaloosa breeder and trainer in Glenville, New York, just outside of Saratoga Springs.
But her horses’ spots aren’t the only thing that capture the judges’ attention. Laurie’s Appaloosas are outstanding performers and have earned her recognition at the top dressage shows in the country against some of the best horses to be found.

Starting young
Laurie began her riding career as a very young girl. By age 10, she was completely hooked on jumping, and rode with Neil Shapiro, a 1972 Olympic silver medalist. Her early success came on the hunter/equitation circuit with 5-year-old Appaloosa mare Winsome’s Spintan. “She was the first horse that I totally trained myself,” Laurie says. “I remember jumping her over five foot fences and she took them like they were nothing.”

Determination and hard work create leaders in any discipline, and Laurie was nothing if not determined. “I took every clinic that I could when I graduated from high school,” she says.

She landed a position that led to her first job as a professional rider. After finishing college in 1990, Laurie opened her own business of boarding, training and hunt seat lessons.

By that time, she’d sustained an injury that kept her from jumping big fences, and it was then that she became interested in dressage. “I started taking dressage lessons from a few different people before I met Rick Albertson,” Laurie recalls.

Rick is a USDF bronze and silver medalist. Under his guidance, Laurie showed Faith In Plaudit up to Prix St. Georges Level.

Growing and winning
The next step was to breed “Faith” to her stallion, Bear Paw Confetti, and the mare threw a beautiful leopard colt, Bears Spark Of Magic. She lost the mare during a second pregnancy, but kept “Magic,” the first foal.

Laurie’s proud of Bear Paw Confetti, a grandson of Chocklate Confetti. “He’s a gorgeous, loud, tri-colored leopard stallion that I showed everywhere and did everything with,” Laurie says. His most outstanding accomplishment came at the world-class Dressage at Devon event in 2000.

“I took him to Devon to the breed show and he was reserve champion in the Appaloosa sport horse class,” Laurie says. And “Bear” didn’t just excel among Appaloosas at Devon. In a meteriale class, where horses are judged under saddle at all three gaits for suitability for dressage, Bear placed eighth against 42 warmbloods. The following year, Magic won best 2 year old.

Although Bear did well in dressage, Laurie felt his heart was in jumping. She sold him to a hunt seat rider who shows him successfully on the Appaloosa circuit. Her new dressage mount is Appaloosa mare Audacious Chocklate. “I showed her in Training and First Level very successfully this year, and I’m hoping to get my USDF Bronze Medal in 2009,” Laurie says.

A love of color
Laurie currently owns seven horses, all foundation-bred Appaloosas or Appaloosa crosses. She does all her own training and is concentrating exclusively on dressage. She uses the natural horsemanship ground training methods of Pat Parelli and Clinton Anderson to train her horses before she gets on their backs.

But not all horses of any breed are suitable for dressage, and Appaloosas are no different. Laurie advises anyone looking for a dressage horse to look carefully at conformation.
“Appies that are successful [in dressage] are horses that are built more compact and uphill,” she explains. “Horses that have higher croups than withers are going to have a harder time, especially when it comes to riding at upper levels that require a tremendous degree of collection and sitting on the hindquarters.”

For 30 years, Laurie’s ridden and trained just about every breed of horse. “Appaloosas will always be my favorite,” she says. “I love their great minds, their sweet temperaments, and they tend to be hardy and have good feet. And I love their brilliant color! If I’m going to have an Appaloosa, I want color. It’s what attracted me in the first place.”

Editor’s note: To learn more about Laurie, visit http://www.appysporthorses-hartshorncreek.com