As I look back on 2025 and all the things I am grateful for, I find myself thinking about our horses and the life Barry and I lead because of them. While it’s difficult to condense the broader story of our shared lives with horses down into a thousand words, I can do so anecdotally with a touching story about two of them—Tiki and Reve.
Barry and I met in 2000 when he bought an endurance horse named Kann Sam Count from me. Seven years later, we declared ourselves a couple. I moved to California with two young endurance prospects, M Dash Czoe and M Dash Stellar. Barry had five endurance horses at the time: LV Cambridge, Jotyr, MV Mac Tiki, BA Bearcat, and Dreamm On (Reve). We merged our lives and our horses into one herd. All seven horses went on to have notable endurance careers that included national championship titles, international medals, and Tevis buckles. Our lives were centered around endurance racing and these horses.
Tiki was Barry’s primary endurance horse that he competed on from 2007 until Tiki’s retirement in 2016. Although Tiki’s competition days were over, he was far from ready to be relegated to the pasture. I knew he needed a second career, so I contacted Giant Steps Therapeutic Riding Academy in Petaluma. “I have a very special horse for you,” I said of the 16-hand gray gelding who I described as having “the heart of a lion and the head of a wrecking ball.” Tiki went on to serve at the academy for 8 ½ years as the preferred mount for the most severely disabled adults and children—those mostly wheelchair-bound—for whom a steady, unflappable horse was imperative. Tiki loved his job at Giant Steps, and all the students and staff loved him. He became the poster horse for the Giant Steps program.
Fast forward to August 2025. Tiki was diagnosed with a heart murmur, something not uncommon in horses. Tiki’s lesson load was reduced as a result, and his health was monitored closely. By August 2026, the murmur had worsened, and so the veterinary staff at UC Davis advised Giant Steps to pull him from the program for liability reasons. Although we all understood the logic behind this decision, we also felt that Tiki was being forced into retirement when he wasn’t yet ready. Giant Steps threw a retirement party for him, and I brought him home to Tamber Bey in September. He will live out his life here, which, at the age of 23, could still be a long life. He has settled into his old home, has new friends, and enjoys interacting with visitors and trail riding around the vineyards.
Back to Reve. This spunky, intelligent chestnut Arabian gelding was an elite endurance competitor in his heyday. In 2007, he was competing at the top of his game, winning 50- and 100-mile races. Barry rode him only occasionally because he had Tiki, and so I had the pleasure of competing on him for a few years, with great success. Hall of Fame Endurance Rider Hal Hall contacted Barry about purchasing Reve. Barry was still competing on Tiki, and my own horses were coming of age to compete, so we agreed to sell Reve to Hal.
Reve went on to have a long and successful endurance career with Hal and his wife, Ann. They retired Reve in 2018 at the age of 19 and found him is forever home.
I hadn’t thought about Reve in years. Then, in August, while Barry and I were vacationing in Iceland, I got a text message from Heather Reynolds. She had come across a community ad for him, which read, “Free to good home. 26-year-old Arabian named Reve.” Heather sent me a screenshot of the post. Reve didn’t look good, to put it mildly. With Heather’s help I was able to get in touch with the woman who had posted the ad. Turned out she was a caring neighbor who had offered to take Reve because his current owners were struggling financially and couldn’t afford to feed him. While her heart had been in the right place, it turned out to be the wrong place for Reve. Barry and I looked at each other in dismay, and he said, “Oh my God, we have to go get him.”
Reve arrived home on August 27. I didn’t know what to expect as he was unloaded. I feared the worst, and I couldn’t have been more wrong. I can tell you unequivocally that the horse who walked off that trailer was the exact same horse that had departed 16 years earlier. He was alarmingly thin, but his eyes were bright and his head was high. He looked around and whinnied as if so say, “Hey everyone, I’m home!” I was so happy and relieved to see him that I cried.
Tiki and Reve had competed many miles together before parting ways so long ago. When Tiki returned a month after Reve, the two greeted each other like old friends and picked up where they left off. Horses remember each other. There is no doubt about that.
I am beyond fortunate and grateful that we were able to give Tiki and Reve the retirement home they deserve. As I look back on our collective life with horses, only one other horse from the original seven is still with us, and that’s M Dash Czoe, who is 22. All three of these horses hold a special place in our hearts.
There are many horses out there who are not as fortunate as these three retirees. Fortunately, there are individuals and organizations out there dedicated to doing what they can to help them. The moral of this story is to give back whatever you can, whenever you can, to the horses who have made your life so fulfilling.
