Riding Champ Blossoms in the Garden
It was not just any horse show but the big one--Madison Square Garden--and 14-year-old Tamar Howard of Arcadia was ready. It had taken months of preparation and hard work.
Tamar and her horse, Canadian Club, were among the best 15 teams in the United States, invited to participate in the Wimbledon of horse shows on the basis of her record. This year she won 72 blue ribbons in 26 horse shows sanctioned by the Pacific Coast Horseman’s Assn.
She is ranked No. 1 in the association for ages 14 and under in the hunter and equitation categories. Hunter competition is designed to show the horse and equitation ratings are based on the rider’s form, position and control of the animal.
“I knew through the whole year I had qualified for the Garden from the point standings,” Tamar said. “I knew I was definitely in and it was really fun to be there.”
She traveled to New York with her mother and her grandmother but explored the show grounds by herself.
“When I got to Madison Square Garden,” she said, “I was lost--I was very lost. There were tons of people walking around.
“I had to walk a long way to find my horse. The barn was on the fifth floor.”
She found Canadian Club, also known as C.C., and went through her checklist. Had her riding equipment arrived? Were her bridle, saddle and the rest of her tack there? Did she have the peppermint Lifesavers that C.C. loved?
Tamar went back to her hotel.
“I was excited and found it hard to relax. I got only three hours of sleep.”
“Tamar does better with less rest. Maybe she was working off nervous energy,” her mother, D.D. Howard, said.
At 4:30 a.m. Tamar was back at the Garden, riding C.C. into the practice ring and giving him a chance to become acclimated to the new environment. After a warm-up, a groom cleaned him and braided his mane and tail for the show, only hours away.
Then came the waiting.
Tamar returned to her hotel and dressed in the classic manner: beige britches, black boots, blue riding coat. She stuffed her hair into a hair net and put on a close-fitting riding hat.
She brought her spurs and riding crop and C.C.’s Lifesavers--a reward for a good performance.
Tamar was ready.
“I wasn’t too nervous,” she said, “because I knew that I was either going to do well or I wasn’t. It was as simple as that.”
“I could tell by the look on her face she was determined to be good,” her mother said. “Tamar has incredible concentration and drive, and when she wants something, watch out, because she is going to get it.”
Tamar rode into the ring. The last words were from her teacher and horse trainer, Karen Healey, who wished her luck.
“I felt a little weak in the knees,” Tamar recalled.
She and C.C. cleared gates, fences and jumps, and by the end of the show Tamar had won the designation of 17-and-under hunter reserve champion with her second-place finish.
She won a saddle, two bridles and a gold, horseshoe-shaped ring with a diamond and a blue sapphire.
Canadian Club won a roll of Lifesavers.
“Tamar outrode the others,” Healey said. “She has a cute, nice horse but her riding was superior.”
Tamar said: “I never expected to win. C.C. knew it was an important show. He knew it was time to really pull, and he did. I was excited and knew we had a chance to win, but it was up to C.C. to come through.”
“This year has been phenomenal for Tamar,” her father, Bobby Howard, said. “She will have
ups and downs, but winning the Garden has taken the pressure off because now she knows she can win anywhere. It has helped her confidence and her outlook.”
At times it looked doubtful that she would make it to the Garden.
“Tamar told me it would be OK if we didn’t go to New York because we had qualified, and that was our goal,” her mother said. “I am sure underneath she was thinking, ‘I want to go,’ but she made me feel like it was all right if we didn’t. We felt it would be tough to beat the big guns, but then to go and do so well is mind-boggling. It was fun too. We went to parties and had the best time.”
Mother and daughter share an interest in acting as well as showing. D.D. appears on television’s “Hill Street Blues,” and Tamar started performing in television commercials when she was 7 years old.
The New York show brought back memories to D.D. Howard. “I rode when I was a little girl and showed in Madison Square Garden when I was 9 years old,” she said. “It was so exciting to go back to my old stomping grounds, and to have Tamar do so well was a thrill. It was hard to believe.”
Tamar’s father, Bobby Howard, also has strong connections to the equestrian world. He was a jockey for 14 years and rode in the 1969 Kentucky Derby.
“I think Tamar is talented, but she was exposed to it early,” her father said. “I don’t know if it is in her blood because some people are great and their parents had nothing to do with it.”
The Howards bought their daughter her first pony when she was 2.
“Both my mom and dad encouraged me to ride and told me I was going to have fun,” Tamar said. “I started out riding bareback and jumping little jumps in my backyard, and things progressed from there.”
Showing has taught Tamar concentration and the ability to deal with pressure, lessons she has applied to her acting career.
“Tamar concentrates well and it helped her in the movies,” her mother said. “She was able to learn scripts easily.”
Tamar’s performances in horse shows have been financed by income from her performances in television commercials.
“She did Polaroid commercials with James Garner,” her mother said.
Today, Tamar’s parents, though separated, pay her showing expenses.
“Financially, it is tough. I don’t earn enough, but it is hard to say no to her,” her mother said. “It has called for refinancing the house about six times.”
A good horse costs about $30,000 and a really good one $100,000, and it costs up to $100,000 a year to show a horse, D.D. said.
The total costs for each show run from $1,000 to $2,000, and it is necessary to perform in one almost every weekend to qualify for New York, Tamar said. “It is definitely expensive--but worth it.”
It also takes a lot of energy to show horses, something Tamar has an unlimited supply of.
“There are days when it is late and Tamar wants to work off this energy and she’ll run up and down the halls,” her mother said. “She’ll put up hurdles or anything she can find. Then she lists the horses’ names and scores each one. She pretends to be all these different horses--and then comes the work-offs until she decides which horse won.”
Tamar often stages imaginary shows.
“Sometimes I think she is utterly exhausted after a horse show, and I think she’ll go home and go right to sleep, but up go the fences and out come the lists and I am in for hours of (her) running,” her mother said.
Tamar’s enthusiasm has caused her family concern, because she has a meager appetite and lives on little sleep.
“I used to worry about her and think there was something wrong, but the doctors tell me she is fine,” her mother said.
Showing has not affected Tamar’s health, but it has cut into her education. She is a freshman at Viewpoint High School in Calabasas and often misses one or two days of school a week.
“I miss a lot of school and do my homework between horse shows,” Tamar said. “Most of my teachers don’t understand, but some do. I have to stay up late at night, or I try to work ahead, but it is easy to fall behind.
“There is not enough time to get everything done and some things just don’t get done. My dog has eaten my homework, or I’ve left it at the horse show or I have spilled tomato juice all over it.”
And showing teaches failure, success, patience and tolerance of other people.
“You have to think for yourself and be one step ahead of your competitors. It means know a little more, work a little harder, be a little better and concentrate a little harder,” Tamar said. “I have learned to deal with other people and to work with animals, and both take patience.
“I think anyone could do what I have done. I am no better than the other kids--we are all about even. I am sure some think they are the best, but I think we are all about even. Look, even Secretariat got beat.”
