TRAINER SPOTLIGHT by Erin Gilmore
Rudy Leone
How one NorCal trainer turned a longtime interest into an additional business “I’m a footing freak,” says Rudy Leone,
when explaining how he became the West Coast’s go-to source for ultra high tech Geo German Textile (GGT) footing. Over 35 years of running Leone Equestrians, his training, breeding, and sporthorse import business in Sacramento, he made tinkering with the footing material in his rings an ongoing hobby. But it wasn’t until the last five years that he finally found the ideal footing material he’d always been searching for. Just six years ago, fluffy white “European footing” was a fairytale as far as West Coast riders were concerned. But in 2008, Leone became a GGT dealer, and his name is now so synonymous with the high tech riding surface that many in the state of California now refer to it as “Rudy footing.” As his services as a GGT installer become more and more in demand, Leone continues to operate his 50 horse training and sales barn with partner Jill Humphrey, manage a series of A and B circuit hunter/ jumper shows each year, and import jumpers from Europe on a regular basis. But to him, success in all of those areas begin with what’s under those all-important hooves. “It’s about bettering the industry,” he adds. “The fact is that I’m still an exhibitor, and if I can go to shows with better footing, I’m just as happy as everyone else.” Horse & Style: How many facilities in California now have GGT footing installed? Rudy Leone: It is taking off like crazy, it’s amazing now. My facility has it, and the Sacramento International, where I actually take the footing out and put mine in, was the first facility in California to have it. That’s what made the footing famous and made my footing business take off. Now the grand prix ring and warmup at Sonoma Horse Park have it, the two jumper rings at the Woodside Horse Park, the Los Angeles Equestrian Center had it for their World Cup class last fall, and most recently we installed it at the Flintridge Riding Club in Southern California. I’ve also done 15 – 20 private farms in California.
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H&S: What makes it “your” footing? Do you actually mix it, or just oversee it? RL: I did not invent the footing, it’s something that was invented in Europe and branded as German Geo Textile. What I have been able to do is find the best mix possible. We put the materials in a mixer, and we actually weigh the poundage, put the same amount of sand to the same amount of textile in the mixer so it comes out 100% mixed together, and that’s why it’s so good. Other people put both parts on the ground and try to rototill it down, but that’s not as good a way to do it. H&S: What is actually in the mix? RL: It’s polyester fabric mixed with the correct percentage of polyester fiber. The secret is to know the right percentage of fiber to use. And then, in order to get the fiber to connect you need to mix it with a fine sand. It’s very important to use the correct sand; there’s even a difference between a round sand and a square sand if you look at it under a microscope. Coarse sands don’t work because the fiber will separate from it. H&S: What are the benefits for the horses that regularly compete on GGT footing?