A Window Through His Eye to His Soul

Arnie, the 2024 Heart Horse Award winner, is a former eventer and jumper who is now changing lives at Great Oak Assisted Programs in Aiken, S.C.
By Debbie Elliot

Horses in all walks of life deserve to be celebrated, whether they are a hard-working trail horse, a loyal first pony, or an Olympic jumper. In 2024, US Equestrian created the Heart Horse Award, to honor the valuable work carried out by therapeutic horses in our Community Outreach Organizations. From helping an inner-city child through their first ride, to being a calming influence for those who need it most, these horses have each made an immeasurable difference to their communities.

“We honor horses at all levels of competition who are cherished and loved by their owners and fans. However, there are many horses that are not competing anymore, and there are organizations under the USEF that are recognized as Community Outreach Organizations that are using horses who have transitioned from competing to a non-competition life. We wanted to recognize the great horses in these programs because they do so much for people,” USEF President Tom O’Mara said, when describing the inspiration behind the Heart Horse Award.

“These are hero horses. They are not doing their original job, but they are doing a very dignified job.” - Tom O'Mara

The 2024 award was presented during the USEF Pegasus Awards Dinner on Thursday, January 23 in Lexington, Ky., as part of the 2025 US Equestrian Annual Meeting.

In order to decide on the recipient of the 2024 Heart Horse Award, USEF Community Outreach Organizations were invited to nominate horses that they thought were deserving of the award, the nominees were then narrowed down to four finalists that members voted on.

“This is the first time we’re doing the Heart Horse Award,” O’Mara went on to say. “We are very proud that the Community Outreach Organizations are under our umbrella, and this is the perfect opportunity for us to recognize their horses for the great work they are doing for so many people, which might be going under the radar of our general membership.”

The winner of the inaugural Heart Horse Award found his way to Great Oak Assisted Programs in Aiken, S.C., via a very unconventional route for a therapy horse. Kilcarna French Fancy, known to all as Arnie, came from a storied career as an eventer and jumper, having previously been ridden by Olympic gold medalist, Phillip Dutton, and Olympic and Pan Am Games team member Doug Payne. Arnie doesn’t look like a typical therapy horse either – at 17 hh, the 17-year-old Irish Sport Horse towers over his herd mates at Great Oak.

However, what does make Arnie the perfect candidate for his latest career is his sensitivity.

“I think he really understands the students who he works with, he has a connection with them,” said Great Oak barn manager Debbie McWhirter, who believes Arnie’s greatest asset is his empathy.

“Arnie has just got the most incredible presence ... he’s the gentle giant,” agreed Great Oak program director Eva Finnan.

Arnie’s Road to Great Oak Assisted Programs

British eventer Laura Cocking originally bought Arnie as an unstarted youngster from Ireland and competed on him in the U.K. in 2013.

“I think everyone had high hopes for this 17 hh Irish Sport Horse and thought he was going to be an amazing eventer and an amazing show jumper,” McWhirter explained.

Arnie went on to be imported into the U.S. by Augie Vettorino, who later sent him to Dutton. In the spring of 2015, Dutton competed with Arnie at the Novice level, then moved him up to Training that summer. After campaigning Arnie, Dutton asked Matthew Ulmer to continue his training. Ulmer showed him but was convinced that eventing was not Arnie’s sport. Arnie then transitioned to the jumper ring and was shown by Payne after Vettorino introduced him to the horse.

“Arnie was a pretty tall, leggy horse. I thought of him as quite a rangy, athletic horse ... a good jumping horse,” recalled Payne, a member of the gold medal-winning eventing team at the 2019 Pan American Championships. “He was always super competitive. Having a willing, benevolent partner certainly makes your job a lot easier. That, paired with his athleticism, made him a formidable competitor for sure.”

Payne agreed that Arnie’s temperament also makes him a good candidate as a therapy horse.

“I think the personality traits that would suit him well at a top level very well could translate to therapeutic riding,” he said. “There are certainly some [competition horses] that are kind of hard wired to be sharp, quick, and jumpy, and obviously that wouldn’t work. But in his case, he was always one that would try super hard to make it work and did it in a comfortable, soft way. For horses like that, I think it translates very well.”

Following his time with Payne, Arnie was acquired by Emily Smith, a young professional who competed with him at the Grand Prix level.

“He was just a sweet horse,” she said. “But he was getting older, and it seemed he didn’t want to continue his jumping career.” Smith knew about Great Oak, and she thought Arnie might be a good fit. “I was really hopeful that it would work out,” she said. “I wanted to be sure he went somewhere he would be loved.”

From the Show Ring to the Therapeutic Riding Arena

When she was first approached about Arnie three years ago, Finnan asked herself, “‘Are we mad? How are we going to use a 17 hh horse in a therapeutic riding program? You have to find side walkers, and the students are going to be too intimidated,’” she said, but she was soon sold on the idea. “We went out and watched him and he had the most incredible presence. He had this really soft eye.”

Finnan and her colleagues simulated a therapeutic riding session with a side walker (someone who walks alongside the horse to physically and emotionally support the rider), and Arnie didn’t bat an eye.

“Everything that we asked him to do, he did. He was just so very willing,” Finnan said. “We’d heard the stories about how he was being ridden by the Olympians and how he was jumping, and they didn’t think he liked it ... he wasn’t enjoying what he was doing. I kept looking for signs of him saying he didn’t like this, like ‘get away from my right side,’ but he never did.”

Finnan initially started working with Arnie on the ground to get him used to the students, and vice versa, and said there was an instant connection.

“It was really like one of these aha moments and I thought ‘he actually wants to really try this job.’”

Kerry Rains was a volunteer at Great Oak when Arnie made his grand arrival in 2022.

“I remember thinking when he first arrived, ‘Oh my, he’s huge!’ We had talked about him, and I knew about his background as an eventer and jumper, but I don’t think I was quite prepared for his size,” she said. “I walked up to him, and he put his head down and greeted me. I took a deep breath, and he took a deep breath, what’s so remarkable about him is how easily he bonds with people. He just seemed really curious and interested in what we were doing and what we were asking him to do.”

“It still amazes me that he is with us considering his background. The fact that he worked at that caliber of eventing and jumping and is now able to have an unbalanced rider on his back,” Rains marveled. “Normally you would think a horse of that level would be too hot to be a therapy horse.”

Despite his success on the competition circuit, Finnan believes that Arnie has found his true calling. “He is so much happier in this job than when he was competing, without a shadow of a doubt,” she said. “We do pole work to help the horses with their top line and Arnie looks at the poles and goes, ‘Wait a minute. Are you prepping me to start jumping?’ I just have to reassure him that I only want him to walk over them.”

Flourishing in His New Career

Arnie quickly settled into his new life at Great Oak and, not surprisingly, became a favorite among the riders, staff, and volunteers. His adaptability means he can be used for students who need to walk or do upper body exercises because they are off balance, or he can be ridden by more advanced students who can walk, trot, and canter.

“He’s very tolerant, forgiving, and kind, even when the riders make a mistake,” Finnan explained. “If they pull a little too hard on the mouth, he gently corrects them and brings his head back around and then just stops - it’s very endearing to watch. He’ll slightly adjust himself for each rider,” she added.

While the Irish Sport Horse’s impressive size is the first thing most people notice about him, it is his temperament that instills trust in all those who meet him.

“People come in and they marvel over how tall he is, if he lifts his head up for any reason, he looks like a giraffe! But the students look right past that, I literally think that they look into his eyes, and they see his soul. He sees them, and they love him,” Finnan continued. “I think that he really does have a window through his eye to his soul. The students pick up on that.”

McWhirter agreed, saying “even the smallest kids aren’t afraid of him.” She describes Arnie as having “a very peaceful, calming, and caring nature ... he’s also a bit goofy and playful.”

“Everybody who comes here always wants to see the ‘big horse’ after lessons,” Rains said “They pet and scratch him and he loves it, he eats it up. He’s very happy.”

Arnie can still leg yield and do other moves from his dressage days, “he’s push button easy. He is very responsive to the leg and to the reins,” stated Rains. But more importantly is the confidence that he gives his riders, which passes over into other areas of their lives.

“We have a rider named Kaleb Ross, who was non-verbal when he first came to us,” Rains said. “Then one day I was leading him around and I heard this voice, it was Kaleb who had finally gained enough confidence to speak. He’s really come a long way and absolutely adores Arnie. Some days he will ask if he can just hang out with Arnie. Kaleb talks to him and Arnie lowers his head and they breathe together. It’s like Arnie takes away all his problems.”

Rains describes working with Arnie as “leading around a feather pillow. You don’t really know that he’s there,” she said. “You start, he starts. You stop, he stops. He’s the epitome. of what you want in a therapeutic riding horse and does everything perfectly.”

“We are lucky to have a horse like him and we are very thankful to Emily Smith for thinking of us as the last career for him,” McWhirter said.

Purposeful “Second, Third or Fourth Careers”

While none of their pasts are quite as distinguished as Arnie’s, all of the horses at Great Oak had productive careers before landing in their current, and final, home.

“All of these horses come to us for a reason,” McWhirter said. “It’s their second, third, or fourth careers ... it’s just wonderful to watch them flourish in this environment because not all horses are suited for it.”

Seeing Arnie have that longevity of career instead of being retired to a pasture is especially rewarding to her.

“He’s serving a purpose for us. I get great joy out of watching him. I think that he has found his true calling here at Great Oak as a therapy horse … this huge gentle giant who was trained to do big things has found his home here.”

Finnan agrees that being at Great Oak gives horses a soft landing in their later years.

“They aren’t ready to just go and retire. They still want to be given a job and asked to do things, and to be needed,” she said. “These horses give themselves to us wholeheartedly.”

Finnan said she hopes by reading Arnie’s story, it will encourage more people to think of new places for their competition horses after they retire from competing.

“Unfortunately, I do think in the horse world that horses are still considered a commodity. When they are no longer doing the job that the human wants them to do, the humans can be quite callous and brutal,” she said.

“Even if just a handful of people think, ‘I saw a horse who used to be a jumper and now has a job at a therapeutic riding center and he’s loving it,’ will plant the seed and show there is a step between a big career in the jumping and retirement,” Finnan continued.

For people who are looking for the next career for their horse, O’Mara recommends consulting US Equestrian’s directory of Community Outreach Organizations. “We have approved them already and they are legitimate organizations that have been vetted,” he said, therefore donors know the organizations will provide a safe place for their horse.

Please visit youtube.com/watch?v=76JHbWtRQmU to watch a special video celebrating Arnie

PHOTOS: Mikhail Proctor/US Equestrians, Great Oak Assisted Programs, and Leslie Potter/US Equestrian