Home & Hearth

GREG SCHINDLER/The Daily Inter Lake

Kalispell's Natascha Eickert has found both a haven and a mentor at Rebecca Farm

Rebecca Farm's stunning landscape and plush facilities make most visitors comfortable. For Kalispell's Natascha Eickert, it's the venue's people that make her feel at home.

Eickert, 19, isn't just one of the top young riders competing at The Event at Rebecca Farm this week. She's also a Rebecca Farm resident, living in an apartment above the farm's business office with a priceless view of her workplace and playground.

"It's fun," Eickert said. "I love living on the farm and just being here all day.

"I like being up there because everybody always comes into the office downstairs, and it's always fun seeing everybody every day."

Some of eventing's biggest names have graced that office this week. And with the support of event secretary/co-organizer Sarah Broussard Kelly and Rebecca Farm owners Rebecca and Jerome Broussard (Kelly's parents), Eickert hopes to someday join her sport's elite - and she's getting there quickly.

Eickert is a veteran to The Event, but she's competing in the CCI* long-format division for the first time this year. She soon will advance to Intermediate, and her sights are set on riding in the CCI** division at next year's USEA Young Rider Championships.

That's where Kelly - and Wink - come in. Wink, formally named Paddy Winkler Lad, is the 9-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding that Kelly bought with Eickert in mind.

Wink is just one example (albeit a big one at 1,250 pounds) of the generosity that awaited Eickert when she returned to Kalispell last year.

A Kalispell native, Eickert finished her coursework at Flathead High School a year early and moved to Altoona, Fla., in 2006 to train under esteemed rider/coach Ralph Hill. But Hill was severely injured in a cross-country accident, prompting Eickert's return to the Flathead Valley in April 2007.

"I came back home to Kalispell, and they (the Broussards and Kelly) just kind of took me under their wing," Eickert said. "I needed a place to say and a place to keep my horse, so they really kind of just let me be a working student."

Eickert is taking online classes at Flathead Valley Community College so she can train and compete year-round before pursuing a business degree through the University of Montana. She also does plenty of homework around the farm.

"I train some ponies and the horses, and I'll exercise horses for people," Eickert said. "And then I just take care of her (Kelly's) horses that she has out here.

"I just do whatever needs to be done. I'm [even] working this weekend."

Thanks to her short commute, Eickert often is riding by 8:30 on summer mornings after feeding horses and cleaning stalls.

And Eickert's duties at The Event have yet to impede her performance. She and Wink sit in ninth place out of 16 entrants in her division following Friday's dressage. Up next are today's cross country and Sunday's show jumping.

"I felt really great about it (Friday's dressage test) because dressage is definitely our hardest phase," Eickert said.

"We [typically] struggle with our dressage, but we always make up for it and move up in the placing with our jumping phases."

A veteran rider, Kelly was well aware of Wink's ability when she purchased him. She also thought he and Eickert deserved each other.

"My feeling was that he was the kind of horse that didn't need to play around with me," Kelly said. "I don't want to do the big stuff anymore, I just want to bebop around; Novice Training.

"I have absolutely no desire at this point in time to go Preliminary or Intermediate again. I've been there, done that; I'm done with it.

"I'm a mom with two kids now, and its time to settle down a little bit. I just felt that he could educate someone else and he could go a lot further with someone else."

Eickert grew up with horses and began riding at Herron Park. She started jumping at 9, but has only been eventing for five years.

Wink is the first horse Kelly has bought for someone else to ride, and Kelly enjoys watching Eickert and Wink develop together.

"Natascha has always struck me as a driven, dedicated young woman," Kelly said. "She's had a few horses that she's ridden in the past - horses that I did not really feel could help her reach her full potential.

"She's been riding him (Wink) just for this season and been doing well. They definitely have some homework to do, but they've been fairly successful, and I think they have the potential to go there (CCI** at the Young Rider Championships)."

Eickert hopes to eventually ride at Rolex Kentucky - the only CCI**** event in the United States. Living at Rebecca Farm can only aid her goal.

"It's a great facility to train on, and Sarah helps me a lot," Eickert said. "She kind of guides me, and she's helping me move up the levels.

"She's basically like my idol. I kind of want to follow in her footsteps because she went through all this."

Many of The Event's approximately 400 riders spend just a few days at Rebecca Farm each year. But Eickert dismisses the notion that she and other locals have a home-farm advantage, particularly when it comes to cross country, where the immaculate course designed by United States Equestrian Team coach Captain Mark Phillips is off limits most of the year.

And Wink's girth ("He's really round," Eickert said) won't make today any easier.

"I think it might be a little difficult for us to make time because he's a big, heavy horse and he's competing against all those thoroughbreds," Eickert said.

"Normally a Warmblood or an Irish Sport Horse wouldn't do the steeplechase because they're so much heavier and slower … and that takes a lot out of them."

Eickert has plenty of role models in eventing, including Advanced standout Cindy Marvin of Kalispell, who sparked her love for the sport.

John Camlin of Onalaska, Wash., is Eickert's Young Riders coach, and serves as her long-distance mentor, dispatching tips via telephone.

Eickert says her family is "very supportive" of her pursuits, and spending time with them is a refreshing reprieve from equestrian activities. For awhile, anyway.

"Sometimes I think [I need a break], and so I'll go visit my sister (in Seattle), who does not do the horses at all," Eickert said.

"And then it's like I go three days and I just miss it, and I miss the lifestyle and I miss my horse."

The Event is one of three American qualifiers for the the HSBC FEI World Cup Finals, and Rebecca Farm is one of 13 Adequan USEA Gold Cup Series venues in the country. The admission-free competition continues at 8 a.m. today and wraps up Sunday.