Team #638 Deboran Ann Dickson and Sara

Team #638: Deborah Ann Dickson and Sara
From: Kurtistown, Hawaii
Ages: 76 & 26
Combined Age: 102
Test: Introductory Level Test B
Date: May 7, 2023

I was hooked on horses by age seven and had lessons for a couple of years when we could afford it. We bought a 12.2 hand pony for $55.00 for my sister and me when I was 16. We taught him to jump, and he taught us how to land when he disappeared. After a year of college, I was hired by Audrey Holt to help teach and train jumpers at her thriving lesson barn. I showed jumpers mostly and did some fox hunting and a lot of teaching.

In 1974, I moved to the Big Island of Hawaii, and I was exposed to much more than the Midwest had to offer at that time. I finished college in Hilo and taught in the Hawaii school system for 32 years. We formed a dressage and eventing club, and I had to learn how to ride dressage. I took a few lessons at Lowell Boomer’s in Lincoln in the 80s, and we had some good clinicians coming through Hawaii including Locky Richards, Jeremy Beal, Alex Wortmann, and Michael Rohrmann from Germany. In 2005, ten of us were invited to go to Germany to test for our little bronze medal. I went back the next year for three more weeks of training and sweeping. Competitive driving was also introduced here and my 13-hand jumper pony loved it. At 68, I was talked into taking up polo which was as fun as hunting with a crackerjack group of incredible people.

My friend Lehua had purchased Sara as an unhandled five-year-old in May 2003. No papers, but her color and teeth matched her age of five. She was a 14.1-hand Quarter Horse type that was almost all white, but she still had a dark mane and tail. After a two-week boot camp, Sara became a solid citizen who usually tried to be accommodating to her riders. Lehua went off to Minnesota for veterinary school, so I purchased Sara from her. That was the best move of my life.

Sara loved learning to jump, event, and teach youngsters how to ride, and she was a terrific trail horse at the volcano. She was about 18 when we took up polo together, and we are still playing on the lower two levels that our team offers. Early on it came to my attention that Sara only enjoyed dressage if it was at a show and there were plenty of spectators to watch her. Now at 26, we go out for a hack almost every day, but no way is she going to get forward, round, or on the it unless there is a sufficient audience and show atmosphere. Sunday was our big moment, we were doing our Century Club ride, but I was not worried. When Sara saw all of the trailers, tents, new horses, and spectators, she rose to the occasion, puffed herself up, and felt like a 16-hand horse. We got a 67% and won the class! She beat my younger two horses too. It was only two weeks before that I met Sara Weiss at TDF’s booth in Omaha at the World Cup, and she gave me all the information I would need to do my Century Club ride. I just can’t imagine what my life would have been like without knowing all the wonderful horse people and horses that have blessed my life. We are absolutely the luckiest people on earth.