Hawley Bennett: Riding a Dream

"I remember my first lesson with Pam Arthur," Hawley Bennett recalled instantly, speaking as though it was yesterday. "I was in Pony Club. It was at Emerald Acres. I remember she said, 'I'm going to tell you how to do it right.' I thrived off that."

She really did. Because "doing it right" became a mantra for Hawley, a brilliant Langley, BC rider who, last year, rode her horse Livingstone ("Hank") on the Canadian Eventing Team at the Pan American Games, helping the team to a silver medal. She is now shorted-listed to the Canadian Olympic Eventing Team.

Since that first lesson with Pam Arthur, Bennett knew that dedication to getting her riding and training right each step of the way would help take her to the realization of a dream.

Somehow, that dream had always been there, perhaps even at her birth in May 1977, and the dream murmured in her consciousness as she grew through her kindergarten and juvenile years. Even as a six-year-old, when she started riding her pony with a bareback patch and learned the basics of riding with her mother, there had been a sense of purpose. She was ten when she acquired Ibn, a talented little Arab that would take her to a whole new level; the dream would follow.

"I did 4-H. It was all flat work. But we also did public speaking and demonstrations. That really helped me. I went to the PNE [Pacific National Exhibition] and won showmanship and equitation championships with Ibn."

The dream soon began to crystallize. She adored Ibn and knew he had talent that went beyond the arena. When she was 15, she joined the Canadian Pony Club, met Pam Arthur and went to rally, a team competition in the three disciplines of dressage, stadium jumping and cross country. She was hooked ‹ eventing was her goal.

The dream came sharply into focus. "Ibn taught me everything," she said. "I remember I was not allowed to canter until I could trot properly. I went to rally and did my first event on Ibn."

From pre-training at local horse trials to the higher levels at three-day events, Bennett won numerous awards. She cross-trained in gymnastics and track and field, winning provincial championships along the way. She graduated from Aldergrove Community Secondary School in 1995 and studied Criminology at Kwantlen Community College. But the dream continued to haunt her.

In 1994, when she was 17, she purchased Livingstone, a four-year-old Thoroughbred by Wonderkind and out of Dancing Proud, bred by Dr. Brian Anderson.

"Hešs a trooper," she said with pride. "He knows his job. He knows when it's cross-country day and he loves to go to work. Yet he's the sweetest guy. I can ride all three phases in a rubber snaffle. Itšs a bond. When I sit up, he knows. He listens to my voice. He's the type of horse who, if you push and he doesn't understand, he fights back. But I've had no problems with him. When I got Hank, I started riding again with Pam Arthur. Last year I came home after the Pan-Am Championships at Fairhill, Maryland. I was home for five or six months and rode with Pam. I wouldn't be here without her."

From the North American Young Riders Championships, where she finished fourth individually in 1998, to Canada's Talent Squad, Rolex (Kentucky) and the Pan-Am Championships, Bennett and Hank went from success to success, with some dips and disappointments along the way. At the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event, held in Kentucky on April 22-26, 2004, she advanced her bid -- and her dream -- to represent Canada at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens on August 13-29, 2004. She finished 14th overall and was the highest placed Canadian entry in the modified version of the course that had been patterned on the format for Athens. In the stadium jumping phase, she was one of only four riders to go clean in the heavy rain.

"He jumped the four-star (cross country) course like it was nothing at all," said Bennett.

Success comes with support from others and Bennett has endless praise for her groom, Stacey Thorson, a Pony Club pal and constant show companion.

"Shešs been my groom since 1998.She knows Hank and I can totally trust her to look after him and help me get ready. Itšs amazing. All those years and wešve never argued. We just click."

So did the dream. And, this year, it may come true.

"Hawley always wanted to go to the Olympics, wear a red jacket and stand on the podium," smiled Gerri Bennett, barely concealing her pride in her daughter. "Getting to the top level (means) really wanting it. It comes from within."

"You have to have a goal and a dream," explains Bennett. "If you have drive and you're willing to work for it, it will happen. It's taken me ten years to get here."

Currently, Bennett is living in Corona, California, working with eventer Ann Glaus whose husband, Troy, is third baseman for the Anaheim Angels. Final selection to Canadašs Olympic team will be announced in early July. Only then will Bennett know for certain that shešs on her way to Athens.

The triumphs, the setbacks, and the disappointments have all been a decade-long focused journey that, through the years, have thrived on both routines and rituals. Before an event, " I go with Hank for a while. I have a certain song we listen to. And I have my lucky socks."

And, always, she has her dream.

Read Margaret Evans' column "In The Shadow Of Equus" each month in The Pacific & Prairie Horse Journal