Based in Temecula, Calif., out of her Next Level Eventing barn, Tamie became the first American rider in 15 years to win the Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI 5* when she claimed victory aboard Mai Baum in 2023. Held the last weekend in April every year, the Kentucky 5* represents the highest level of eventing, with only seven 5* competitions held per year in the entire world.

She accomplished this feat aboard her long-time partner, a then-18-year-old German Sport Horse gelding named Mai Baum, owned by Ellen Ahearn, Eric Markell, and their daughter, Alex Ahearn. Tamie was also the first woman since 2011 to win this internationally prestigious event.

The eventing world has had a keen eye on Tamie and Mai Baum for years as their eye-popping dressage scores and top finishes at major events gained notice. The pair won eventing team gold at the 2019 PanAm games in Lima, Peru, team silver at the 2022 FEI World Championships, and they were selected as reserves for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (held in 2021).

We sat down with Tamie to learn more about what keeps her motivated, the perks of being a mother in the horse world, and the horse that made the big win possible.

On Mai Baum

Mai Baum, or “Lexus” as he’s known around the barn, started off as Alex Ahearn’s ride when she took a post as one of Tamie’s working students. Alex had imported Lexus from Munich, Germany.

“I’m not certain if everybody thought that he would be what he is today,” says Tamie.

Alex competed Lexus through his first Intermediate (3’9″) before coming to ride with Tamie.

“She’d had trouble at Lexus’s first Intermediate, and we worked her through that,” says Tamie. “We got her competing well at [that] level. She was winning.”

After competing Lexus at the 3* event at Fair Hill in Maryland and making the U25 list (a selective list of upcoming young American riders aged 25 and under), Alex decided she wanted to pursue further academic education instead of continuing her riding career.

“After a training session that winter, I remember her coming to me and saying, ‘I want to meet you for dinner and talk,’” Tamie recalls. “She said, ‘I want you to take the ride on Lexus.’ I remember being a little surprised. I said, ‘No, you don’t. You don’t know what you’re saying. You have to do this.’”

Despite Tamie trying to talk Alex out of it, she insisted that Tamie was the right rider for Lexus.

“I remember her saying, ‘America needs a good horse. And you need a good horse,’” Tamie says. “And it was quite emotional, because I knew what she was saying.”

For a while, Tamie thought that Alex might decide to take Lexus back and start riding him again herself.

“I thought I would start riding him, and a few months later she would say, ‘I’m just kidding, I want to ride him,’” Tamie remembers. “But here we are eight years later, and it’s been so incredible to see her vision and what she wanted for me and Lexus actually come to fruition.”

At 20, Lexus is still going strong. Tamie isn’t sure if or when he will be ready to slow down, but thinks he will tell her when that time comes.

“I am really careful every time I get on,” she says. “I feel like I have a good gut instinct and know my horses. It’s a possibility that he could just drop down a level. He absolutely loves the crowd. After he’s done at the top level, maybe Alex could take him and compete him again. It would be an icing-on-the-cake kind of thing.”

Of course, if Lexus tells Tamie that he needs to stop competing, she will happily retire him.

“If he needs to be fully retired, he will be,” she says. “But I don’t know that he’ll want to just stand in a field.”

On Being a Mother

In addition to raising sport horses, Tamie has also raised two children, son Tyler, 21, and daughter Kaylawna, 29.

“[Being a mother] definitely has its struggles,” she says. “You go through guilt because you’re spending time doing something [not family-related] that you have a goal towards. When I travel, it’s been hard to cope with being away and missing a water polo or basketball game for my kids. That was not always easy.”

However, Tamie feels the guilt she and other riders might experience as mothers isn’t specific to her sport.

“Any woman or man in high level careers—doctors, lawyers, and elite athletes—all battle the same struggles,” she says.

To help with any guilt, Tamie tries to look at her time away from her family as a way of setting an example to her kids to go after what they want and to have big goals and expectations of themselves, even if it gets in the way of what tradition might want them to focus on.

In addition to being a mother, Tamie is now a grandmother. When her daughter, Kaylawna, married several years ago and then had a daughter of her own, Tamie says Kaylawna also struggled with her confidence and guilt. Of course, mom was there to help coach her through it. Other professional riders who became mothers have also turned to Tamie for advice on how to keep a healthy balance.

When it comes to coaching her clients and training the horses, Tamie says that she views being a parent as an advantage.

“I feel like being a mother helps with your level of compassion and your level of empathy,” she says.

On Managing Goals

Tamie says that she initially planned to also take Dutch Warmblood gelding Elliot V to the 5* at Kentucky in 2023—the division that Mai Baum ended up winning. She felt he was on track to meet that goal, but in their last preparatory competition, she decided to rethink her game plan, since he didn’t feel quite ready.

“I’ve learned throughout the years that you can never keep a goal set in stone,” she says. “The slow way is always the fast way, and you only get one good shot at doing this at the top level. I’ve learned that if it doesn’t seem ideal—if I’m going into a 5* and don’t feel like I’ve done absolutely everything I possibly could to prepare for it, or any competition for that matter—I typically err on the side of caution.”

She moves her horses up the levels at the rate she feels is best by staying true to her morals and trusting her program.

“I have a pretty solid opinion about what I think horses are ready to do [and] when,” Tamie says. “I don’t feel like taking a 5-year-old Preliminary [3’7″] is appropriate. I have had 5-year-olds that are probably ready—they’re bored at Training level [3’3″]—but I don’t feel like it’s always in the best interest of their overall development and their minds, and to me it always ends up catching up [to you], so I try to keep things more on a conservative basis.”

On Being a West-Coaster

Tamie says that living in Southern California also helps her to not be influenced by others’ timelines.

“It’s a different atmosphere out here than it is on the East Coast, where everything is showcased in the public eye, whatever you do,” she says. “[Here] I leave the barn and never see anyone that I know, and I’ve found that I really like it that way. Once I leave the barn, I’m just Tamie, and not Tamie Smith-who-is-doing-this-or-that.”

However, sometimes Tamie’s competitive nature does make things a little tricky.

“It’s difficult sometimes to see what other people are doing and then not get caught up,” she says. “But it’s been nice to be focused on my program, believing in it, and then making sure that I’m doing the right thing by my horses.”

On Education

“I’m a big supporter of going to [college],” says Tamie. “I think it’s super important. I know that there are a lot of top riders that don’t believe it’s necessary, so my answer might be a bit controversial. Education is super important for learning how to communicate, navigate through life, and deal with conflict.”

She says that her formal education has helped her navigate relationships with her horses’ owners and all of the different personalities she meets.

“[My education has] enabled me to learn how to communicate and to understand what it’s like in the real world, and working in corporate America,” she says.

Before turning to horses as her full-time profession, Tamie worked in the intake department of a mental health facility.

“I have always been intrigued by mental health,” she shares. “My original plan was to get my degree in psychology.”

However, a mentor encouraged Tamie to pursue other avenues toward her goal of helping people when the flaws of the healthcare system began to wear on her.

Initially, she was a little “bummed about that, because I thought if I went down that avenue [I could] help people navigate through their trials and tribulations.”

Tamie decided that she would strive to help people in other ways, no matter what career path she went down. Now, as a professional rider and coach, Tamie says that her time working in mental health has given her a unique perspective.

“It gave me a different perspective as far as learning what works for different types of people when I’m coaching,” she says. “I bring in an old-school approach where I think it’s very important to be empathetic to your horses. I mean, they don’t choose to do what we ask them to do. They do it because they love us.  They love the sport as well, but they would be fine and happy to be eating grass in a field, too.”

Tamie doesn’t have a lot of tolerance for impatient riders.

“That’s something that all of us have to learn as we grow in the sport,” she says. “It can be frustrating, especially where we have to master three different disciplines. You have to treat your horse with respect, the way you would want to be treated.”

From a competitive standpoint, Tamie adds that the mental element is almost more important than physical talent, and that a lot of counseling goes into producing good riders and horses.

Clearly her background has been perfect preparation for reaching the top of her sport. It takes nerves of steel to put the pressure aside and perform at your best at a 5* event like Kentucky, but Tamie showed the world she is more than capable.

More Tamie Smith Content

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This article about Tamie Smith was the cover story of the August 2023 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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Sabrina has spent her life championing representation, both in the horse world and on the pageant stage. As 2023-2024’s Miss California, she’s building an equine therapy program at Oakland City Stables while completing a graduate degree. It’s clear this beauty queen is just getting started.

Sabrina’s Equestrian Background

Sabrina does not come from a horse-centric family, and says equestrian is not a typical hobby for the African American community in Georgia, where she grew up. But Sabrina’s neighbor Irina was from Russia, and she kept her horses at a nearby stable. Through her, Sabrina was introduced to horses at age 5.

“After school, she picked me and her kids up from school, and other neighborhood kids, and brought us to the barn after school,” Sabrina says. “It’s funny, because she loved dressage, and her kids weren’t all that into it, but she taught me all she could on her horse. When she realized I was very into it, she encouraged my parents to enroll me in more formal lessons at the local riding school in Georgia.”

Feeling a friendship with horses, Sabrina was head-over-heels—and still is today.

“I’ve always loved all animals, and I was just drawn to horses—I think they’re beautiful, majestic creatures,” Sabrina says.

Show jumping became Sabrina’s equine sport of choice.

“I think I wanted more of a challenge than dressage, and I liked jumping over things,” Sabrina says. “After I’d gotten the basics of riding on the flat down, and caring for horses and grooming, I started jumping, and I loved it. I felt like I was flying. You can go fast around the jumps or go slower, and jump higher. It’s a rush, and it’s super exhilarating.”

Continuing with riding lessons, Sabrina competed on an Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA) team in high school, eventually becoming captain of the team. She credits her coach, Tracy Nininger, with furthering her horsemanship education. Nininger now teaches at Ardmore Equestrian Center in Fincastle, Va.

“That experience with IEA competition and training with Tracy prepared me for the transition to going to the collegiate level with the IHSA (Intercollegiate Horse Show Association),” Sabrina says.

Journey in Education

Sabrina graduated high school with a 4.0 and a resume full of Advanced Placement classes and extracurriculars, such as volleyball and track, along with equestrian. Based on academics, she narrowed her choices of college to two on the West Coast: Stanford University and the University of California, Berkeley.

“I wanted to go to a prestigious school that would challenge me academically,” Sabrina says. “I got into Berkeley, and I visited the campus and fell in love. Eighteen-year-olds don’t really think things through. I didn’t know anybody, but I figured it would be fine. So I just packed my stuff up and left for this big adventure across the country.”

Sabrina joined the IHSA team at UC Berkeley and worked her way up to becoming team captain, as well as becoming a regional-level finalist.

Sabrina went back to Georgia in the spring of 2020, her senior year, due to university protocols for the pandemic. After graduating with a degree in business administration and a minor in Spanish literature, she began pursuing her master’s degree in public administration with a specialization in nonprofits at the University of Georgia. Her schooling is online, however, so she’s back living in Los Angeles, Calif.

Pageants and Volunteer Work

Sabrina has also been competing in beauty pageants at the highest levels, and her community service initiative highlights her nonprofit work in equine therapy.

“When I competed for Miss USA in 2021, and for Miss America in 2023, my community service platform has always been equine therapy,” Sabrina says. “My end goal is to run my own therapeutic center as a nonprofit, with me as the executive director.”

Since 2012, Sabrina has volunteered with several equine therapy programs serving veterans, first responders, inner-city children, and people with disabilities. She currently volunteers as the Director of Fundraising for the Metropolitan Equestrian Preservation Society. She works on social media marketing, paperwork, funding, and grant writing.

Sabrina has also worked with the Compton Junior Equestrians in Compton, Calif. In 2024, she volunteered with the Happy Hooves nonprofit in the East Bay area of Northern California.

“I just want to make equine therapy more accessible,” she says. “I never would’ve known how much I’d love horses, or wanted to go pro and go to competitions, if no one had introduced me to them. If I didn’t have that next door neighbor, my life would look very different. So when I get to interact with kids and they tell me it’s their first time petting or riding a horse, that’s so special to me.”

With Happy Hooves, Sabrina helps bring Miniature Horses to places like children’s hospitals, where kids can interact with them and be introduced to equine therapy.

“The work and the possibilities really are endless,” she says.

Chasing Dreams

Sabrina did not grow up competing in pageants. But in high school, her Spanish teacher, Paige Galt, Ed.D., thought Sabrina would make a good role model for younger students because she was involved in school, was a multi-sport athlete, and participated in community service organizations.

“She thought that would be a great platform to do pageants, especially since being an equestrian was unique,” Sabrina says. “She recommended that I go to her pageant coach, Kim Vaughn, in Atlanta. And the rest is history.”

Sabrina competed in teen pageants throughout college. Her senior year, she tried for Miss California USA. She didn’t win the first time, but the second time, she was crowned with the title.

Many little girls dream of becoming Miss USA or Miss America someday. But for Sabrina, while pursuing these titles, she’s shared her own dreams of competing in Olympic equestrian events.

“For Miss America, my talent is ‘Her Story,’ a monologue that I wrote myself,” she says. “I talk about being an equestrian and wanting to compete at the highest level, maybe trying out for the Olympic team in 2028. It’s going to be in Los Angeles, California.”

Sabrina has a unique opportunity in her role as Miss California. Choosing equestrian as a talent for national pageant competition is highly unusual. And Sabrina is only the third Black woman to receive the title of Miss California; the last Black woman to win was 25 years ago.

A Place for Athletes & Animal Lovers

“I’m hoping to break barriers in a lot of different facets,” she says. “I’m being authentic to myself, wearing my naturally curly hair, and not pretending to be someone I’m not. I’ve had people say, ‘Why don’t you just learn to dance or sing something for your talent?’ I have to politely say no. That’s not me. I’m not a singer, I’m not a dancer; I’m an athlete. The thing that is most authentic and true to me is my passion for horses and how much I love animals. So that’s what I want to bring to Miss America.”

A little girl told Sabrina once that she didn’t think she could be Miss California because she didn’t sing or dance and she wasn’t a performer. But seeing Sabrina wear that crown opens doors for girls like her.

“It’s nice to hold space with Her Story, saying you can be an athlete, you can be an animal lover, you can be unique, and you can still be successful,” she says. “That’s very important to me. No matter what your skin color, no matter what you’re interested in, I think it’s important. It’s hard to fathom accomplishing something if you’ve never seen someone else do it.”

What’s Next

Being both an equestrian and Miss California has intertwined in surprising ways, according to Sabrina. As Miss California, she’s encouraged to connect with her community at the state and especially the local level. Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in Del Mar, Calif., hosted Sabrina’s Miss America sendoff party, and named one of the races at the track the Miss California Invitational.

Sabrina competed at Miss America in January 2024, and although she didn’t win the title, she completed her reign as Miss California. Now, she hopes to compete at the professional level in equestrian competition, with Olympic-level dreams.

In January 2023, Sabrina placed second in her division at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla. For 2024, she’s looking to get a horse sponsored and move up to a higher jumping division.

“I want to keep competing to the highest level and to the best of my ability,” she says.

Her mom, Sylvia Allen Lewis, says Sabrina’s devotion to horses and pageants have shaped her character. She and Sabrina’s dad, Richard, are proud of the path she’s pursuing.

“I think the whole experience, from the very beginning, has taught her compassion and patience with herself and with people and with animals,” says Sylvia. “She’s intuitive with animals, and with the pageants, she just gives away her knowledge so freely. She has a sweet spirit, and a strong work ethic. She’s always willing to help people.”

When asked what guidance she’s taken to heart over the years, Sabrina says the best advice came from her parents.

“They tell me to never let anyone tell me I can’t do something,” she says. “They’ve always encouraged me to dream big and follow my dreams, and I’m very grateful for that.”

If you’re interested in supporting or learning more about Sabrina’s journey, reach out via Instagram @bribrisweet.

This article about Sabrina Lewis appeared in the April 2024 issue of Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

The post Sabrina Lewis and Her Crowning Achievements appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.

But in 2024, Maynard was in for a surprise.

“It was the most stressful thing I’ve ever done in my life,” Maynard says.

As a first-time competitor, he competed in—and won—2024 Road to the Horse, the World Championship of Colt Starting. His partner was an American Quarter Horse gelding named TomCatt.

“There were moments when I didn’t know if I would get through it. I learned a lot about myself and what I can handle,” Maynard says.

Although feeling the crushing weight of stress, Maynard realized it would be detrimental to pass it on to TomCatt.

“I had things I wanted to accomplish and goals, but I didn’t let my horse feel that. I had to be very present in the moment and process-oriented so that I could always go at the speed he needed to go,” Maynard says. “It made me think about the importance of the process and not getting caught up in the goals. You can have goals, but you have to leave them behind once you are working with the horse.”

And Maynard is ready to do it all over again—with a new colt and up against new competitors at the 2025 Road to the Horse, which will take place March 27-30, 2025 in Lexington, Ky.

Growing Up With Horses

Maynard’s love of horses started early and was nurtured by his father, Rick, a Grand Prix show jumper, and his mother, Jennifer, a Grand Prix dressage rider and judge.

“My parents both rode,” Maynard says. “It was instilled in us at a young age what a privilege it was to have horses in our lives. When I was young, what I loved most was the sport—mounted games, show jumping, and eventing. But I never thought I would do it as a career. The turning point was in my mid-twenties. I discovered the world of horsemanship and horse psychology. That was when I started to think of it as a mental thing and not just physical.”

Maynard still enjoyed the excitement of jumping, but realized that delving into the psychology of horses could “become something I could do for the rest of my life. It’s like a puzzle you’re trying to work on and get better.”

Maynard spent years as a working student, learning from Olympians, prominent equestrians, and trainers. He observed what is needed to transform a good trainer into a great trainer, particularly the ability to be an effective, compassionate communicator.

“I think you have to be a good person to be a good trainer,” Maynard says. “Some people are good with horses, but you see them with people, and they are rude. It matters how you interact with people. If a person lacks emotional balance and maturity, I don’t think they have that inner thing that will eventually make them a great horse person or trainer.”

Understanding Horses

Everyone has a different take on what natural horsemanship is.

“Depending on who I’m talking to, I might say natural horsemanship, or horse psychology, or groundwork. It’s how you interact with the horse. For me, that involves trying to work with the horse in a way that is natural for the horse, how they learn and play… Trying to bring out behaviors that a horse does naturally in the wild,” Maynard says.

When it comes to groundwork, Maynard explains, “I do groundwork with every horse I work with, and most of what I do with horses is working on myself. But everyone has a different relationship with their horse. Some want to be a mentor and teacher, a passive leader or a dominant leader; others look for a codependent relationship with their horse. While I think a few of those ways might be unhealthy, I think a lot of those could be good. Depending on which of those things you are looking for, groundwork may not be essential in every situation, but it can help you learn more about yourself and your goals. We all need a little less guilt, a little less judgment, and a little more gratitude.”

Maynard is often asked to help a “spooky” horse.

“Spooky and anxious are quite different things when you think about the horse,” Maynard says. “Spooky can be sharp, in the moment, and then it ends. Rather than acute, an anxious horse is more of a chronic thing. A chronically anxious horse can turn into a physical thing. Horses have evolved to deal quite well with a spook or mild spurt of adversity but do not do well with chronic stress, so I look at the whole horse.

“I think the number one thing that causes a horse stress is confusion. In training, when you have a flag or a stick, it’s not usually one of those items in isolation that causes the horse stress; it’s the not understanding what those things mean. Communicate with your horse. When your horse does something, like get on a trailer or do liberty, see that the horse has the look of understanding in their eye and not that they are just moving around out of stress. There are various ways to get there. Encourage curiosity—curiosity is a great bridge to confidence. Every horse is curious about things. Allow, encourage, and direct that curiosity, and the horse will get less and less spooky. If your horse is scared of the dark corner of the indoor arena, put some cookies on a barrel over there, and every once in a while, give your horse a break and go over and give him a cookie off the barrel. Over time, he will be more curious, relaxed, and associate good things with what he previously spooked at.”

How Tik and Sinead Maynard Work as a Team

Since 2008, Maynard has focused on training horses full-time. In 2016, he and his wife, Sinead—a highly respected eventing rider—merged their equine businesses into Copperline Equestrian in Citra, Fla., and together they are raising their two young children.

Maynard explains what he appreciates most about working with his wife as a partner in a multi-faceted horse business.

“When it comes to the emotional, financial, and time output, if you don’t have a spouse that gets it, that can be stressful to a marriage,” Maynard says. “You need someone who understands that you might have to call off a vacation because you have to go to a horse show. We are both really supportive of each other’s careers. At the end of the day, you can talk about the stuff you’re going through with a horse, bounce ideas off of each other. Sometimes we ride or do demos with each other’s horses; my weaknesses might be my wife’s strengths or vice versa, so it works well for us.

And when I’m at home with my wife and 2-year-old and 6-year-old, I see the need to be fully immersed in the present. If I’m distracted by my phone, then I’m not paying attention to them; I need to be present.”

Learn from Tik Maynard

A gifted communicator, Maynard loves sharing his deep understanding of horses. He is an online instructor for The Horseman’s University and a NOËLLE FLOYD Equestrian Masterclass Instructor. He is the author of the bestselling memoir In the Middle Are the Horseman (published by Trafalgar Square Books) and the highly-anticipated follow-up Starting in the Middle (coming March 2025).

This article about Tik Maynard is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine. Click here to subscribe!

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