March 2021 Issue

Page 10 March 2021 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN Email: eschfence@gmail.com - Fax: -- WHOLESALE & RETAIL Phone -- By Jennifer A. Sheffield Kim Walnes pulled her Chevrolet 250-diesel, double-cab truck she calls Wave Dancer up the short hill to Harvest View Stables in Manheim, PA on a bit- terly cold, beautiful January day. As she unpacked the supplies she would use for her clinic, which included a bucket of essential oils, it was clear her methods are different. Walnes reached the pinnacle of eventing success as a bronze medalist for the US team in the early 1980’s. Decades later, her focus is on refining the conver- sations riders have with their horses. “Most competitive riders are not paying attention to a lot of what is going on in the environ- Kim Walnes Was Talking to Horses Long Before It Was a Thing ment that their horses are picking up on,” she said. “They don’t have any awareness of energy, and they miss out on the real relationship and deep bonding with their horse that can occur when they take everything into consideration.” Her classical approach based on bodywork and focus on listening to what horses need from riders in order to perform at their peak has been aggressively challenged in some circles. Andrea Datz, founder of the slow integrative approach called, “Tango with Horses,” managed several large barns in Colora- do where Walnes visited as an instructor, but for a period of 12 years, she had trouble filling clin- ics. "She was talking to horses, back when talking to horses was not a popular idea, and she was working with communicators when nobody did," she said. "It freaked the barn owners out." Datz was a horse manage- ment student at Colorado State University when she learned about Walnes. “I had finished my colt starting class, and had serious doubts about my career choice,” she said. “I thought if this is the only way to train a horse, then I didn’t want any more to do with it,” she said. “Kim calls herself a rebel, but I found a kindred spirit who is as sensitive as I am to recognizing trauma in horses and people. She was saying to me, you can be true partners with your horse. “There are a handful of us openly talking about stuff that really talented equestrians know and experience on a multi-sen- sory level,” said Datz. “They are just afraid to say it.” Goose Games As an eventer, Walnes was paired with a difficult, unruly iron gray gelding called Gray Goose who early on, threw her almost every day and expertly escaped from fields. Improving her equine communication skill was critical to bonding with what she calls a “super being.” “If you can’t have a rela- tionship, you can’t compete,” she said. “I’m still learning that the horses have so much to teach us, but they will always raise the bar.” This mindset served the pair in 1982, when they won two selections trials and were crowned National Champions at the Kentucky Three-Day Event. Despite breaking several bones in her back and competing with a partially healed injury, she was third individually and a team bronze medalist for the US at the World Three-Day Eventing Championships in Luhmuhlen, France that year. She and Gray Goose went on to place second at the Boeke- lo CCI*** and were named alternates for the 1984 Olym- pics. Retired in 1987, Gray was inducted to the United States Eventing Association (USEA) Hall of Fame in 2012. His ashes are buried at the Head of the Lake in the Kentucky Horse Park. Self Taught Walnes came from a military family and learned to ride in the northern Virginia woods, riding double and jumping bareback with her friends. She had no formal lessons and depended on books to learn the basics. “My mom would drop me off at the barn,” she remembers. “So, it was just the horse and me, and I’d ride down the shoulder of the main roads until I got to the open fields.” Walnes got a horse at age 16, and since has worked with Jack LeGoff, George Morris, Sally Swift and Linda Tellington Jones. Filmmaker Sybil Miller began producing a documentary about Walnes before the pan- demic. “The intention was to do a brief profile of Kim. Her story, though, is complex and while a short piece is still my goal, there is more. I have interviewed sev- eral of Kim's friends, fans, and students. Each touches on a dif- ferent aspect of what she means to them,” Miller said. “The deep admiration and affection they hold for Kim would make anyone want to keep going.” Harvest View owner, Cindy Gilbert, wishes she’d had a Kim when she was learning so she wouldn’t have had to relearn so much in her later years. “She’s been really helpful with my hunting horse, Patrick,” she said. “If I’d had Kim, maybe my body would not be so beat up. He likes that I have Kim, now. All the hors- es do. She understands them.” Gilbert hopes that since the world has slowed down, “Maybe now, people can be open to trying something new, which is also old,” she said of Kim’s classical style. Rebuilding Riders Rebuilding has become part of Walnes’ DNA. In 1990 Walnes and her husband of 20 years divorced. A year later, her 18 year old daughter Andrea was abducted and was missing for four months before her bones were found in the West Virginia woods. A car accident in 1996 that resulted in a near death experience left Walnes with a traumatic brain injury and in a deep depression. She turned to Gray who was patient with her (Continued on page 30) Team and individual eventing bronze medalist Kim Walnes has turned her attention to helping riders communicate with their horses. A half decade of tragedy led her to obtain a spiritual life coaching certifi- cate and apply that knowledge to helping horses and riders. © Patti Klein Photography

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