Bigfork equestrian Kelli Blair has a passion for horses

Keli Blair’s new horse, “Pink” did quite well last week.

The young gray brood mare was adopted from a racetrack, and Blair has spent the last five months working with Pink at her Bigfork horse facility. Last week Blair rode Pink in the horse’s first Montana equestrian event: the Event at Rebecca Farm.

It was a cold, windy day at Rebecca Farm near Kalispell for the opening day crosscountry event, but the horse and rider made it through the grueling novice course without incident or infraction.

“We’re on our way,” Blair said with a smile after the crosscountry race. “But this wind is scary.”

Blair has trained and ridden in Europe, Portugal and England, and moved to the Flathead Valley because of the top level of equestrian competition. The Event at Rebecca Farm is an internationally renowned, three-day equestrian event. The competition brings in over 500 competitors — locally and from around the world — to compete in dressage, stadium jumping and crosscountry.

Blair trains with former U.S. Olympian Jill Walton. Blair had seen Walton compete in Spain in 1992. She was surprised to learn that Walton was in the Flathead Valley also when Blair moved here.

“The level of competition and training available in the Flathead Valley is unheard of,” Blair said. “A show of this proportion is amazing.”

Blair has competed at high levels of equestrian competition, but with a novice horse, she must compete at the level that the horse can handle. She and Pink finished in the top 15 at the Event at Rebecca  Farm. After what she saw last week from the mare, Blair said Pink has potential. “This is one of the best grounds to work a younger horse to the upper levels,” she said.

At her Bigfork training facility on Swan River Road Monday, Blair worked Pink through a few obstacles, such as a fences, barrels and ditches. Blair’s next project grazed nearby. He’s a race horse from Del Mar, Calif., which she bought recently and hopes to train.

Blair has time to work with the former race horses, which are often less expensive than a trained horse. “Some of the top horses you get are free,” she said. “Then the bills start adding up.”

Walton’s horse, which she rode at the Event at Rebecca Farm last week, is a former race horse also.

The three events in three-day eventing are patterned after the French military’s horse-training methods during war time. Dressage is performed in a small arena, and the horse and rider must ride several patterns. The test shows the rider’s and horse’s precision. Crosscountry asks the horse and rider to gallop over streams, lakes, and dozens of obstacles and fences. It tests a horse’s stamina and endurance. The stadium-jumping portion was meant to test a horse’s ability to perform after battle.

Blair’s training facility is next to Swan River Road. Cars and trucks whiz past, while she and her horse are concentrating on jumping tall obstacles. The commotion helps the horse learn to focus.

Passersby can also help when Blair gets thrown from her horse. She remembers a situation where she had gotten thrown from her horse and a car pulled into their driveway to tell her husband, Joe, “There’s a lady lying on the ground out in the field.” Blair has been thrown many times, but nothing too serious. That incident cost her a concussion, though. “I’ve come off the back, off the front, and underneath like a cartoon character,” she said.

Blair works her horse through the paces, and builds up the jumps to get progressively harder and more complex. “I strip my house of everykthing scary and put it out here next to the jumps,” she said. “Plastic bags, stuffed animals — anything to get the horse’s attention.”

One of the jumps is fashioned out of an old Subway restaurant sign. She and her husband own the Subway in Bigfork.

Blair has been competing in English eventing for nearly 40 years. With her new project, Pink, and another gelding waiting to be fixed up, she has her work cut out for her until next year’s Event at Rebecca Farm. She was pleased after Pink’s first performance last week.

“We didn’t get eliminated and there were no broken bones,” she said.