Team #659 Raymond Denis and Neokolis

Photo by Susan Irene Photography

Team #659: Raymond Denis and Neokolis
From: Georgetown, Massachusetts
Ages: 70 & 30
Combined Age: 100
Test: Training Level Test 1
Date: June 10, 2023

Neokolis had 30 racing starts and was in the money six times. From there, his career path took him into the world of hunter/jumper competitions. After a successful second career, Neokolis went on to a third helping special needs students through a therapeutic riding program. When it appeared that Neokolis was no longer useful at the age of 23, he was turned out to pasture and found by his current owner, Jonathan Hall, who took him on a “free lease.” Jonathan took Neokolis to Atkinson Riding Academy in New Hampshire for recovery, and restored him back to working condition with the help of Crystal Little, owner/trainer of Atkinson Riding Academy. Jonathan and Neokolis continued together with a kind and inspirational therapeutic riding program of their own, assisting those individuals in need, including me!

I began my riding career as a professional in 1971 at a Myopia Hunt Club polo night game. A polo player came galloping off the field to change mounts, tossed the reins to me, and said, “Go walk this horse in a circle!” He repeated this process throughout the night with his three mounts, paid me for “hot walking” his ponies, and invited me to work for him. My involvement included polo groom/trainer, fox hunting, and later combined training when Neil R. Ayer brought the sport to the U.S. from England. In 1977, I apprenticed with John Pingree at Huntington Farm Horse Trials, Vermont, at Neil’s request. It was a fantastic experience and following the event I was given Combined Training Technical Delegate status and later Dressage Technical Delegate status by the American Horse Show Association (now USEF).

My accomplishments in the field of humane equine welfare blossomed from my work as a Technical Delegate to included presenting the first equine ambulance in the U.S. to the FEI Event Officials at the Fair Hill Three Day Event in 1994 in preparation and inclusion at the 1996 Equestrian Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. This Equine Ambulance Project was under the direction of the MSPCA and is still the prototype in the U.S. today.

While officiating at the Groton House Farm (GHF) Horse Trials in Hamilton, Massachusetts, during the same period, it became apparent that the “excessive use of the whip” rule for eventing was not defined or effectively applied by officials during competition. As a result, through the GHF Events Committee, I worked with them to establish the “three slap rule,” as an addendum to the existing rule. The rule was adopted by the GHF Officials for the final selection of the Olympic Equestrian Team that year. Within five years the rule became officially a USEF rule change, and currently, it has been modified to be no more than two consecutive hits to the horse per incident. In 2012, I was given the task to address equine abuse on the polo field, I had come full circle from where I started my career! Through the Myopia Equine Welfare Committee, we drafted Equine Welfare for Polo Guidelines. These guidelines were adopted and effectively put in place immediately at the Myopia Hunt Club in Hamilton, Massachusetts, and in 2013 I received a request from the United States Polo Association (USPA) to include the Equine Welfare for Polo Guidelines as part of the USPA rules governing all 350 polo clubs in the U.S. and U.S. Territories. I currently officiate an average of 20 dressage shows and events each year and I am the voice for the horses in competition, because they cannot speak for themselves.

I thank The Dressage Foundation’s Century Club for the opportunity to re-test my equine skills with Neokolis and I thank God for the ability to do so after four major surgeries during the year 2021. I had not ridden a horse for 10 years before the Century Club ride on June 10, 2023, and Neokolis and I are both very proud of each other!