“I Couldn’t Exactly Pull a Horse Saddle Out of My Pocket and Propose at a Fancy Dinner…”
8/30 Update: You loved our article about Adam Kilian and Laura Upton’s amazing Phil Harris-inspired proposal. Be sure to check out the link to their complete video which can be viewed on YouTube by clicking here.
A week spent cozied up in Haicenda Zuleta, a picturesque estate located high atop the Andes Mountains. A romantic horseback ride aboard native-bred mounts through the mountainous terrain of Ecuador. A hand-crafted marriage proposal, complete with a stunning Harris show saddle, that took months to prepare and organize. Sounds like the stuff of fairy tales, doesn’t it?
In this case, it is the real-life fairy tale that APHA amateur exhibitor, Laura Upton, suddenly found herself in the center of last week thanks to her very creative fiancé, Adam Kilian. Recently, we had the opportunity to speak with the newly engaged couple to discover all of the intimate details about this elaborate and tear-worthy proposal.
“I guess it all began not to long after Laura and I started dating,” Kilian says. “Her birthday was coming up, and I asked her for an idea for a birthday present. Something unique and special about her is that she doesn’t like wearing jewelry. She even shared with me the fact that when someone proposes to her in the future she wouldn’t even want an engagement ring, she would want something else…”
“I asked her what that was and she said a very beautiful Phil Harris horse saddle. That was not a surprise for me, because from the moment I met Laura I knew that she was not like any other girl I had ever met in my life. She loves to do things her own special way. I love that she never really feels like she needs to follow the status quo. It didn’t take me very long to realize that I wanted to marry her and that I would be buying a Phil Harris saddle in the upcoming months.”
Upton has been a fixture on the APHA show circuit for the past fifteen years and has accumulated twelve World or Reserve World titles on six different horses including Zipped From the Heart, Roses In Chocolate, and Reflection of Charisma. On the other hand, Kilian has no background in the horse industry. It wasn’t until the pair’s first date that he took his first, proper, riding lesson with “the best teacher” he could’ve ever asked for.
“Prior to meeting Laura, I hardly knew anything about horses,” he says. “Deep down inside I had always wanted to ride horses, but it wasn’t part of my life. She really showed me how to fall in love with horses. I felt like it was a dream of mine that came true.”
Photo Credit: Kay Garcia
Kilian admits that at the onset of this elaborate plan he knew nothing about show saddles, not to mention the specific variety made by Harris Leather and Silverworks. In order to create the most special engagement saddle he could imagine, Kilian sought a bit of advice from Upton’s former horse trainer, Tim Gillespie.
“I knew he was someone who was very special to Laura,” he says. “I knew he was a very influential man in her life who taught her a lot about how to ride. I felt very comfortable calling him up. I told him, ‘Tim, I want to marry Laura Upton, and I need your help. I need to propose to her with a Phil Harris horse saddle, and I know nothing about horse saddles!”
Gillespie was overjoyed to be asked to participate in the creation of the saddle’s initial design. For several months, he and Kilian collaborated with Phil Harris on overseeing production details and fine-tuning what would become the centerpiece of a very elaborate proposal.
“I really have to give those two guys credit,” he says. “They worked together to design this saddle. I know [Phil and his crew] put countless hours into making this saddle something beautiful and special. I really had a very little role in actually designing it. For the most part, I just let them work their magic!”
Photo Credit: Coastline Studios
“But, I couldn’t exactly pull a horse saddle out of my pocket and propose at a fancy dinner, if you know what I mean. So, I spent a long time thinking about how to propose and to make it as fun and special as possible.”
Because Kilian’s family originates from Europe, he spent the majority of his childhood traveling the world. Upton, on the other hand, has spent most of her life traveling around the United States while competing at horse shows. For this very special proposal Kilian decided it would be a fun opportunity to show Upton the world by planning a trip to an exotic location. After considerable research, he settled on Ecuador.
“I decided that I was going to plan a trip somewhere fun and exotic. Somewhere rich in culture and very different, but relaxing, and obviously some place with horses,” he says. “After doing research online, I found a place in Ecuador tucked away high up in the Andes Mountains called Hacienda Zuleta. It was absolutely perfect. I’ve never been to Ecuador, so I thought it would be fun to explore a new place together.”
“It is a beautiful horse ranch, and they have lots of horses of the Zuletan breed. It is a mixture of Andalusian, Quarter Horse, and Thoroughbred, and they are bred for the mountainous terrain.”
Once Kilian had settled on a location, and construction of the engagement saddle was well underway, there was one more detail he needed to take care of. He needed to improve his riding skills.
“I was always pressuring Laura to go ride, and she really didn’t know what all of my intentions were,” he says. “Once it started getting closer to the trip, it was harder to find time to go to the barn. I had to take some secret horse riding lessons the week before we left. She had no idea, except for two days before the trip when she went to her car and it was covered in dirt. I took her car to the barn one time and forgot to give it a car wash.”
Photo Credit: Coastline Studios
However, it wasn’t until the ride to the airport when Kilian presented Upton with a photo album and a letter that she discovered they would be vacationing at a horse ranch in Ecuador. She still had no idea about the elaborate proposal that was already underway.
After flying to Ecuador and spending a night in the capital city, the couple headed to Hacienda Zuleta. Thanks to a bit of help from the manager, who distracted Upton by showing her the estate’s newborn foals, Kilian sneaked off to get mic’d up and meet with the videographers from Coastline Studios, who he had flown down the day before to capture the whole event on camera. Meanwhile, local villagers played their part by creating a beautiful, winding pathway of rose petals that would lead Laura to her engagement saddle, which was placed underneath a native embroidered cloth below an archway in the stable’s garden. The experience wouldn’t have been complete without the customary flutes of champagne and musicians singing Ecuadorian love songs in the background.
“After the proposal, we had champagne, listened to music, and thanked everyone in the community who came out and had a role,” he says. “It really touched both of our hearts to see all of the people so happy to play a role in this. I couldn’t be more grateful to all of them for the work that went into this. This goes so far beyond just me.”
“The next thing was to saddle up their finest horse with Laura’s saddle, and we went off into the mountains for a ride. She said she had never ridden in a more comfortable or better fitting saddle. We had an incredible time.”
For Upton, the most special part of this experience was not the exotic trip to Ecuador, nor the stunning Harris show saddle, it was that Kilian had remembered a little comment she’d made so many months ago.
“I was so excited when I saw the saddle,” she says. “I was really happy that he remembered that in the first place, because I only told him about it once. My favorite part is the plate on the back that Adam requested that Phil put on the saddle, which says, ‘Laura, you are the love of my life, will you marry me?’ ”
Photo Credit: Coastline Studios
Until Upton has completed medical school, the engagement saddle will serve solely as a decoration piece and a memento of the beginning of an exciting new chapter in her life. However, when her studies are over, she plans to be back in the saddle.
“Adam and I have talked about the wedding and we think next May or June for sure,” she says. “Adam starts his residency in internal medicine to be an oncologist at the end of June next year. We have two places we are debating on, either Saint Joseph, Michigan, or Grand Rapids, Michigan.”
In closing, Kilian and Upton would like to thank the countless people who were so instrumental in making this event such a memorable one. In addition to Phil Harris and his crew, Tim and Shannon Gillespie, and the videographers at Coastline Studios, they would like to thank all of the villagers of Zuleta for their generosity and hospitality.
If you would like to learn more about this incredible proposal, Coastline Studios is creating an engagement video for YouTube entitled When an Engagement Ring Just Won’t Do… The video will be completed at the beginning of September. We would like to wish this charming couple the best for a very long and happy life together.
Photo Credit: Coastline Studios
