Family builds hunter/jumper facility

Gleaming copper-topped cupolas poke up from the sleek green roof of a tidy white horse barn at the foot of a wooded slope. A matching hay barn and caretaker's house book-end the barn.

Out front, a pair of brick pillars guide traffic from Schrade Road onto the entry lane as it loops around a wood-fenced practice ring blanketed in diamond-glinted snow.

Bolted to one brick pillar, a bronze plaque announces Larkspur Farm.

It's the Flathead Valley's newest hunter-jumper equestrian boarding and training facility, about five miles north of Kalispell.

Larkspur Farm boasts an 80- by 204-foot indoor arena with overhead viewing balcony and heated viewing gallery, 24 boarding stalls, two turnout yards, and a sand ring and space for a future grass ring to run show-jumping horses and riders through their rounds.

Show jumping is the specialty of Bryna Finch Closson, the resident trainer whose family built the new facility.

Sutton and Betsy Finch and their daughters, 23-year-old Bryna and 21-year-old Cara, will host an open house from 1 to 7 p.m. Feb. 2 at Larkspur Farm, located a quarter-mile west of Whitefish Stage Road on Schrade Road.

A family hosted public welcome is fitting for a passion that from its inception has been a family affair.

Sutton Finch was raised by parents who ran a dude ranch, and was himself on horseback from his earliest days. Bryna got her first pony when she was 5. Cara started riding when she was 9. Betsy doesn't ride, but handles everything it takes for the rest of her family to pursue their horse fancies.

It was Bryna, however, who couldn't get Herron Park jumping competitions out of her mind since first watching them as a child. She started show jumping 14 years ago and motivated the family to follow suit.

Since that time, they have trailered their horses - they have bought eight horses from Ireland, the king among them being her own, Toby - to shows in Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Vancouver and Calgary.

When it came time for college, Bryna chose George Fox University, in no small part because of the opportunity to meet and work with Rich Fellers, the West Coast's premier trainer and international show jumper. He's a veteran of several international teams and the Pan American Games.

"At that level it's all about the quality of the horse," Sutton said. It was through Fellers that the Finch family made connections for buying Irish sport horses, a blend of thoroughbred and smaller Irish draft horses.

They're perfect for Closson's goals and personality.

"They're bold, they're feisty," Sutton said. "They're a great amateur horse because they have a lot of 'try' in them."

Bryna nodded. "They have a lot of heart."

Bryna learned well under Fellers, who has a spirit and fire well-suited to the young woman's determination to succeed on the show-jumping circuit. A video resume she compiled after graduating from college in 2005 shows her precise guidance but light touch as Toby, her Irish sport horse, flows over jump rails with grace and power.

Fellers arranged for Bryna to take part in clinics presented by George Morris, the Olympic coach, a trainer and judge of hunter/jumper horses and riders, a founding father of hunt seat equitation and, in Bryna's words, "the best of the best."

"It's important to me to keep learning from the best people I can," she said. She continues to work with Fellers and other top amateur riders. She and her family watch and correct each other as they ride.

"The best riders never stop learning," she said. "They're always getting help from others."

Now Bryna wants to offer what she's learned to help others as they move through the show-jumping world.

She has been giving lessons for the past two years, working from her family's own six-stall horse barn at Paintbrush Hill Farm in the wooded hills between Columbia Falls and Whitefish. It has been a commitment to haul rails to each student's home, set them into jumps for a course, spend time with the horse and rider for the lesson, then disassemble the rails and do it all over again for the next student.

Now, she will have a permanent arena and full facilities.

So far 12 horses are boarded at Larkspur Farm, with room for 12 more. Each day Bryna rides each horse and gives lessons to riders.

That regularity is critical to successful show-jumping horses.

"It's a trust thing," she said. "You've got to trust your horse, and your horse has to trust you."

But she welcomes haul-ins, as well, giving lessons to those who keep their horses in their own barns. The Finch family works alongside Rusty and Lexie Trzpuc, the on-site caretakers, as they wash, groom and feed each boarded horse rations customized for its health and activities.

"That's what we're striving for," Bryna said, "happy, healthy horses and happy, healthy riders."

A tack room is being finished for each horse owner to store saddles and other needs, with tack trunks to go at the front of each stall. Horses run their courses on an inside arena, covered with sand mixed with ground-up Nike shoes.

Bearing in mind that the parents, not the young riders, pay for lessons, the Finches give the whole family a space in the windowed viewing gallery upstairs with soft seating, a kitchenette, television, play area, restroom and changing room.

In the end, the Finch family has three goals with their new facility:

"We want to have a good, positive influence on boys and girls who ride," Bryna said. "We want to give them good life skills."

The hard work, perseverance, determination, ability to deal with failure as well as success that comes with working with animals should serve them well in life.

"That idea of not giving up," Cara explained. It's humbling, her sister agreed; "there's always a lot to learn."

Second, they want to promote the hunter/jumper sport in the Flathead Valley. With a strong Western riding tradition already well-entrenched here, they hope to work alongside their friends in other hunter/jumper facilities to broaden a rider's options.

And finally, "We want to continue our own pursuit of the sport, and have people go along with me to shows," Bryna said.

"We would like to see several thriving hunter/jumper barns all across the valley."

Call Larkspur Farm at 755-LARK (755-5275).

Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com