Chronicle of the Horse | Untacked | July August 2018

JULY / AUGUST 2018

THE SUMMER TRAVEL ISSUE Morocco, Argentina, Australia, Ireland And The Hamptons … With Horses

Cool Solutions For Your Hot Weather Problems

OTTBS & PREDATORS: UNLIKELY PARTNERS

TIPS FOR TOP-NOTCH TAILGATING A SUPPLEMENT TO THE CHRONICLE OF THE HORSE

S LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS

eeing The World WITH LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS

34

JULY/AUGUST 2018 | U NTAC K E D

Contributors to the “Life Between The Ears” social media accounts transport us to the world’s most interesting and beautiful places—all viewed from the saddle. Each issue, we share a few of their images.

MERZOUGA, MOROCCO “This was a magical day on my stallion Kheops through the soft golden dunes of the Merzouga desert in Morocco, where I’ve left a part of my soul of horse rider, traveler and dreamer,” says Joanna Bink.

Merzouga is part of the Sahara Desert. One of its distinctive features is Erg Chebbi, a stretch of sand dunes about 31 miles long and 3 miles wide.

Bink helped organize the 2018 Gallops of Morocco ride, a race with 80 riders

Joanna Bink/@eyelikelight Photo

from 15 nations, and she also served as a photographer for the ride. The race goes in a nearly 125-mile loop. Teams of five rode for six days, and a team of French riders, the Ch’tis team, won. A previous edition of the race took place in 2014 in Oman.

Bink is originally from Poland but has lived in Paris since her childhood.

“When I’m not riding wild rides around the globe, my horse discipline of choice is polo at the Polo Club de Chantilly,” she says.

COTH .CO M | JULY/AUGUST 2018

35

LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS

PATAGONIA, ARGENTINA This is the view Daisy Soames

the Jakotango trek. The ride through

in the world, jumping more wire and

had through the ears of Avispa, a

Patagonia, located in the southern

cattle-grids than I want to remember

Thoroughbred-cross mare, as she

Andes Mountains, incorporates deserts,

and meeting some of the most

guided a trip in the Andes for the

pampas and grasslands in addition to

charming and bizarre characters I have

Jakotango Riding Safaris.

the mountain range.

ever had the pleasure to meet,” she

“Her name means wasp, but she

Soames grew up in England riding

says. “I didn’t think I could get much

is named only for her color, not her

Welsh and Exmoor ponies, eventing

luckier with what I had experienced

temperament,” says Soames. “She’s the

and Pony Clubbing. But it was

on a horse until I had the opportunity

most beautiful buckskin with black-

foxhunting that “gave me the buzz I

to spend a summer from university

tipped ears, and she is utterly fearless.

have since been chasing on horseback,”

helping on a riding safari in Kenya.

With the routes we ride, I literally have to

she says.

From the first elephant charge, I was

trust her with my life, and I do, implicitly.”

During her four years at Trinity

completely hooked. I decided there

College in Dublin, Soames hunted

and then that spending my days on

Balquier, the wife of polo star Nacho

fervently, sometimes twice a week. “I

horseback in the bush was exactly what

Figueras, who was participating in

crossed some of the maddest country

I wanted to do.”

Daisy Soames/@daisysoames Photo

Seen between Avispa’s ears is Delfina

36

JULY/AUGUST 2018 | U NTAC K E D

So Soames would hunt during the school year, then hang up her hunt coat and go to Kenya to work at Offbeat Safaris for Tristan Voorspuy. “Tristan and his rides were legendary, and I was uniquely privileged to get to spend so much time riding behind him,” says Soames. “I owe him, his family and the people I met in Kenya for the direction my life has since taken.”

After graduation, Soames returned to Kenya and worked for Offbeat Safaris and Safaris Unlimited in the Maasai Mara National Reserve and also helped at the Sosian Ranch in Laikipia, where she got her first opportunity Dave Thew/@zephyr_horses Photo

to guide rides herself. During this time she studied for and attained her qualification as a safari guide in South Africa.

Now Soames works as a guide for Jakob von Plessen at his Jakotango Riding Safaris in Patagonia. “For several months of the year, we scale mountains on horseback, navigating sheer passes and precipitous ledges in the most dramatic scenery I have had the privilege to ride in,” Soames said. “The rest of the year I work for riding safaris all over the world, mainly in Kenya. I am

BELONGIL BEACH, AUSTRALIA

currently helping to look after a herd of

This photo was taken during one of the Sunrise Experience rides that the Zephyr

horses in Botswana. The next stop is a

Ranch in Byron Bay, Australia, offers in its equine tour business. On this ride, “We

season in Wyoming and then back to

travel through the woodlands and tea tree forest in the dark and then come out

Argentina to rejoin the gauchos.”

onto Belongil Beach just as the sun is coming up over the Pacific Ocean’s horizon,”

But Soames still calls Oxford,

says guide Dave Thew. “Byron Bay is the most easterly town in Australia, so we are

England, home, and she has a retired foxhunter waiting for her there.

“He was my once-in-a-lifetime hunter who could go all day and jumped anything and everything,” she says.

the first to see the golden rays of light hit Australian shores. It’s pretty magical!”

Zephyr Ranch, founded and owned by Byron Bay native Kate Noller, houses a herd of horses, and these ears belong to Zarli, a 5-year-old Australian Stock Horse who was bred specifically for the Zephyr Horses trail business.

“She has beautiful, soft movement and a gorgeous, smart personality,” says Thew.

“He’s now retired from hunting, but

“We are hoping to breed her next year and have some beautiful foals just like her.

there are adventures to come. I have

She also has six brothers here at Zephyr.”

plans to take him as my pack horse and

Belongil Beach is a 1.5-mile stretch of beach to the south of the main beach at Byron Bay.

walk the West Coast of Scotland when I

The southern end of Belongil Beach is a nature preserve that includes a colony of rare little

next get a long stint at home.”

terns that nest near Belongil Creek. The northern end is a “clothing optional” beach.

COTH .CO M | JULY/AUGUST 2018

37

LIFE BETWEEN THE EARS

SAN JOSÉ, CALIFORNIA This is one of eventer-turned-trail rider Leah Deffenbaugh’s favorite views, from the hills above Silicon Valley at Ed R. Levin County Park.

“The hills of Ed Levin Park are very special to me—it’s my escape from the hustle and bustle of the Bay Area,” says Deffenbaugh, who lives in San José, California.

“They’re thousands of acres of open space that I feel like I have all to myself. I grew up in the rural coastal mountains and spent most of my free time lost in the hills on my first horse, an Appaloosa gelding. Riding out in the park takes me right back to being 9 years old, galloping hill and dale with my best friend. It’s my fountain of youth, my time to get away from it all, my time to see ‘life between the ears.’ I feel very lucky to have the lands I do to ride on; it’s a beautiful corner of the world.”

Deffenbaugh spends 12 to 13 hours a day commuting and working in commercial real estate and finance in San Francisco. Her time on Riley, her 10-year-old Appaloosa-Thoroughbred cross, is her escape from the routine, and she tries to ride five days a week.

“I am often amazed by the juxtaposition—in the same day I can be on the bustling streets of San Francisco and crowded commuter trains, and then 30 minutes later Riley and I are off to the solitude of the hills,” says Deffenbaugh.

Deffenbaugh has had Riley since the mare was 3 weeks old. “She is the epitome of versatile,” she says. “We do everything from rugged trail riding, to jumping, to dressage, to working cattle, to running barrels. And we can do all of those bridleless too.”

Sharing Life Between The Ears

Rick Dahms Photo

S

ince 2008, Life Between The Ears founder Kristine Dahms has posted stunning photos shot by riders in all corners of the world with one hand on the reins and the other on the shutter. Dahms mines photos with the hashtag #lifebetweentheears, contacts the original poster of the image, then features the photo, complete with educational details about the place that’s portrayed.

Life Between The Ears photos appear on a LBTE Facebook page, an Instagram feed, a dedicated website (lifebetweentheears.com), a Twitter feed and a Pinterest page (all under @lifebetweentheears account names).

Dahms—who lives in Vashon, Washington, with her Welsh Cob, mini horse, pygmy goats, two dogs and two cats—rides dressage and takes quite a few photos herself on the picturesque Vashon-Maury Island.

Dahms has taken some of the Life Between The Ears images from cyberspace to print, creating three lines of greeting cards with selected photos from her social media pages. A portion of the proceeds from the card sales goes to the Equine Land Conservation Resource (elcr.org). Cards are available at lifebetweentheears.com/retail.

38

JULY/AUGUST 2018 | U NTAC K E D

COTH .CO M | JULY/AUGUST 2018

39

Leah Deffenbaugh/@coastallocal Photo