Taking it to the Extreme!
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Competitors Take the Thrill of Competition and Their Sense of Adventure Outside the Show Ring!
By Delores Kuhlwein
You jolt out of bed, fumbling to find the button to quiet your alarm. Realizing it’s still dark, you groan with exhaustion while rubbing your eyes. Your tired muscles from the last few months of drills cry out as you swing your legs over the bed, and you wonder for a moment if you can really do this. Then, you remember today is the big day you have been preparing for. Your body is filled once again with the familiar call to ride or show your horse in-hand, to share that incomparable bond with your equine and demonstrate what you have practiced to perfection.
We are equestrians, and competing with our equine partners is like nothing else. It’s an unquenchable thirst that fills us with pride and a sense of accomplishment. For some exhibitors, that call for adventure extends outside the show arena. Surprisingly, equestrians who enjoy other extreme sports are in our midst, and we might not even be aware of it. They race cars, ride dirt bikes in motocross, compete as body builders, and scuba dive.
Meet the Athletes
John Lewis
AQHA Halter Horse Exhibitor and Sprint Car Enthusiast
For Lewis, racing was in his blood due to his dad’s guidance to begin racing quarter midgets at the age of five, winning 100 events by the age of 12, the same age he discovered horses. He showed 4-H until age 18, when his father bought him a sprint car. “I was the Cavalcade of Auto Racing Rookie of the Year in 1974. I was the first person to win that honor in a sprint car. My daughter Amanda was born in 1983. By then, we were an established two-car sprint car team, with my brother ‘Spank’ Lewis. He drove the #18 racecar, and I drove the #81 racecar. In 1985, I lost my brother in a racing accident, and we quit racing.”
However, the call beckoned once more and Lewis started another wildly successful racing team in 2013, which expanded in 2014 with Lewis as the owner and his friend Lee Jacobs as the driver. Because Lee is the cousin of Randy Jacobs, Lewis’ horse trainer, the link between family, racing, and horses is strong. “The significance of my brother’s car being number 18, and the car I drove and now own being 81, is that the team is owned by 1881 Racing. Spanky is always first, and in all our ads for our stallion, MAXXAM, you will find the numbers 1881,” Lewis explains.
Lewis describes his sport as open wheel, dirt track racing. “It’s typically run on tracks that are between 3/8th to a half-mile. Sprint cars are known for the wing on the top of the car. A-Main Feature event is typically 30 lap races.”
Sara Bayer
AQHA All-Around Exhibitor, Scuba Diver,
Underwater Explorer and Photographer
Bayer grew up showing horses and scuba diving with her dad; she quickly found herself addicted to both. “I live to scuba dive!” she says. “I try and dive whenever I can. In October, I spent three weeks on a wooden ship sailing around Papua, Indonesia, and Papua, New Guinea diving and photographing wildlife. There was no electricity, no plumbing, and no refrigerators! What an adventure!” Bayer also owns Oso Del Mar, LLC, a film and photography company.
Cole Compton
AQHYA Youth All-Around Exhibitor and Motocross Racer
Even though Compton doesn’t jump his horse, he rides his dirt bike on exciting obstacle courses. Right now, he is racing at local events, but has experienced the allure of the top level of motocross racing, too. “When I was growing up, I was always around it because my dad and brother rode. I started going to pro races, and the guys at the top level are super cool to all the fans. They make you want to be a part of it,” he explains.
Chris Filippelli
AQHA and ApHC All-Around Exhibitor, Bodybuilder,
and Personal Trainer
Filippelli was once the overall winner (the equivalent of being Grand Champion) of the North American Bodybuilding Championships for men over age 50 in 2010, and the All Age Master’s Division Winner of Mr. America in 2006. He was drawn to the sport because, in his words, he was a “very skinny kid.” Even though bodybuilding is now just a hobby, he still trains five to six days a week, is a personal trainer, and an International Federation of Bodybuilding professional athlete. He describes bodybuilders to horse people in this way. “It’s very similar to the halter classes. It’s about conformation, muscle, symmetry, conditioning, and genetics. Anybody could compete, but only a certain group are going to compete at a certain level. Bodybuilding has a level for everybody, but only a few will get to the elite level.”
Katie Beaumont
APHA All-Around Amateur Exhibitor and Motocross Racer
Showing horses since she was a little girl, Katie Beaumont was looking for another sport to fulfill her need for adrenaline and to suit her busy lifestyle. She’d always wanted to try motocross but didn’t have any real opportunities. Suddenly, she was presented with an invitation last year, when her boyfriend offered to show her the ropes. “I do a lot of riding in the desert, and I ride dirt tracks at specific facilities designed for competition. It’s a timed event, so when you compete, it’s a race. On the tracks, there are a lot of obstacles like tabletops, step-ups, and whoops (like a series of smaller jumps. You don’t really jump them; you skip over the top of them). There are beginner and novice events; that way people can compete in the event to the best of their abilities.”
The Adrenaline Rush
For these thrill-seeking athletes, the allure of the adrenaline rush and going to the extreme are just some of the elements that draw them to their hobbies.
“Aside from big mountain skiing and riding horses, I spend my vacations traveling the world to discover and film our planet’s most remote oceans on scuba. It’s about as extreme as it gets, being 200 miles from the nearest village and 60 feet underwater,” explains Bayer, who obtained her SCUBA certification at age ten. Her dad dove with Jacque Cousteau and the Cousteau Society, which inspired their love for underwater photography. “Diving is both my adventure and release. I enjoy going off grid, getting out of my comfort zone, and taking the plunge.”
Motocross competitors Compton and Beaumont both say the speed element is an obvious factor providing thrills and challenges. “With motocross, everything is 100 miles an hour the entire time, and it has a very high risk level,” explains Compton. Beaumont agrees, “I really like it because it’s so challenging, especially getting into it as a new sport. I guess I want to go fast because I’m an adrenaline junkie!”
When Filippelli competed in bodybuilding competitions, he explains adrenaline is a real presence, depending on the personality of the athlete. “There is an adrenaline rush to go up on stage and know you’re pretty much going to need to be in the top one percent. When you’re standing up on stage being judged on how you look – there’s an objective side to it. I like posing and being compared, so it’s the thing that kind of gave me a charge on stage.”
“With racing, we’re running for money every night,” reveals Lewis, who enjoys the sport with both daughters, Amanda and Ashley. “Both sports are very similar in the nature of competition. The rush with both sports is winning. We’ve been lucky enough to have multiple World Champion and Congress Champion horses, and both girls have won national titles with AQHA. It’s the same with the races. Our first win was at Lernerville Speedway, in Sarver, PA, which was very special because I had won so many races there when I raced. This past season, Cody Jacobs and Lee Jacobs wanted to go to Knoxville, Iowa for the Knoxville Nationals, which is the Daytona 500 of sprint car racing. There were 112 entries, and only 24 cars make the A-Main Feature. I wasn’t able to go due to work, but my daughter Amanda traveled with the team. Lee and Cody worked hard all week out there and we were fortunate enough to be one of those 24 cars in the A-Main Feature. That was one of the biggest highlights of our season. Nothing can compare to the feeling of winning a race or having your horse win a major show.”
How They Do it:
Dividing Time Between Two Passions
Horse enthusiasts probably know better than anyone that excelling means a big-time commitment. For those who might be hesitant to take on another hobby, take heart. These athletes are so passionate about their interests that they find time for both.
Loving a busy life is normal for full-time student Katie Beaumont, so juggling both hobbies doesn’t present a big problem at this point. “There have been a few times where I have chosen to come to a horse show instead, but we try to schedule so we can attend both. My boyfriend will come to a show and watch if he’s not racing and vice versa, since we support each other. We make sure to budget so we have enough to spend for both. I’m not competing at an upper level, and right now, it’s a fun hobby. I’m not as devoted to it as I am to the horses, because I’m still learning.”
Compton, who took a break from motocross, recently started racing again. “As of right now, I’m just racing at the local races. So far, there has only been one or two races that I’ve had to miss for shows. There are some pro camps that I’d like to go to this year, but I might have to miss them due to schedule conflicts. I’m keeping motocross more of hobby, and I’m just there to enjoy it and get better.”
Bayer explains that it’s all about making choices to figure out how to get the most out of both pursuits. “There were many times growing up when I was juggling school, showing horses, playing four high-school sports, and going diving. I was making sacrifices left and right, mostly staying up late and waking up early to fit it all in. As I have gotten older, adding in a work schedule and budget has made my juggling act quite impressive, but when you’re committed to a sport, you do anything to get the rush!”
The Lewis family does the same, often fitting both racing and horse showing into one weekend. “The races typically occur in the evening,” Lewis says. “There have been many days that Amanda and I have been at the horse show early in the morning, and then we leave the show to travel to the race track. Our racing season typically ends in October at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. We always leave from the track late that night and head to Columbus for the Congress, because the halter events always start the next day.”
Filippelli found himself at a crossroads in 2002 when he started competing in bodybuilding and learned it wasn’t conducive for riding. “I actually didn’t do both for several years; it got to be too expensive to keep a horse in training and to eat what I needed and do everything I needed to do for bodybuilding. Judging the horses still kept me involved, however,” explains Filippelli, who was a PtHA and APHA carded judge. Eventually, it came full circle for the athlete because he retained bodybuilding as his hobby and became a personal trainer. He is now back to riding horses with a full-time commitment as of 2012.
The Surprising Connections
“There are a ton of similarities between bodybuilding competition and showing horses,” Filippelli says. “Bodybuilding is an objective sport, where you’re getting scored, even though there’s a subjective side, just like showing. There are probably more politics in bodybuilding than the horse industry will ever have. Just like the need to use a great horse trainer to achieve a high level, there’s also a necessity to have the right trainer for bodybuilding. It’s the same level of commitment, too; if you want to compete with the best, you have to put everything into it. As far as training, you have to train the horse and learn to ride. It’s the same with your body; you have to train and fit properly. Diet, exercise, rest, and nutrition are all essential. My experience with horses made me better with bodybuilding, because I had that similar background with those same elements for so many years.”
With the level of physical activity required for motocross, Compton can easily parallel the posture used in motocross to equitation. “In both you need to have good posture and technique. When you’re riding motocross, you have to squeeze the bike with your legs and pressure the pegs. When riding horses, you have to squeeze with your legs and spurs and pressure the stirrups,” he explains. Compton notes, however, that the intensity is the biggest difference. “The training for motocross is much more physically demanding. With horses, you have to be patient!”
Beaumont finds the physical athleticism of motocross takes a transformation from her riding form at times. “All my reflexes are backwards from the horses, in comparison. On the dirt bikes, you keep your elbows up and keep your hips back. Because I have jumped on horses, jumping a dirt bike seems totally backwards.” She finds the cost unrivaled, however, and notes that her horse hobby is by far the more expensive of the two. “You don’t have to feed the bike!” she laughs.
Another unexpected perk that makes Beaumont feel at home in each realm is the camaraderie she finds both at the show arena and the track. “A lot of motocross competitors will help each other get to the races on time, and everybody will offer to help with parts and are willing to share. It’s nice to see that teamwork. Just like in horse showing, it’s individual, but everyone helps each other out. When I went to my first race, I left my boots at home and someone loaned me a pair.”
The competition is part of what drives the Lewis family in both sports. “The parallel between the sports is the competitive nature,” Lewis says. “At the races, typically the fastest car wins the race. Showing the halter horses, your placing is determined by that judge’s opinion. In parallel with the horses, we have been blessed to make many friends in both sports. Whether it’s at the racetrack or the horse shows, those friends become family. I’ve been so fortunate to make such good friends in the horse industry, such as Randy and Holli Jacobs, Bill and Ann Lanning, Craig and Janice Watson, and Ross Roark.”
“Jacobs was a fellow racer that I met when I was 18, and he became a close friend of mine. Through Kenny, I met his cousin, Randy Jacobs. When I wanted to start showing in AQHA with my daughters, I contacted Randy. Through the years, we’ve not only had a lot of fun together but a lot of success with the horses as well.”
Even though underwater photographer and explorer Sara Bayer says showing horses is her social network, she still sees connections between her two almost opposite worlds. “Scuba diving takes you to places on this planet you never expected to be, but so does showing horses! I have been fortunate to spend weekends in Texas, Ohio, California, Oklahoma, and Georgia, as well as Bimini, Tahiti, Raja Ampat, and Cozumel! Let’s just say I consider myself an expert traveler and a frequent-flier, thanks to my hobbies.”
For Bayer, there’s a larger picture that links the two pastimes she loves. “As a conservation biologist and wildlife manager, I have dedicated my life to animals, above and below water. For me, both of these sports are about the animals, first and foremost. That’s why I take photos and share them freely. I want people to get excited about sea creatures and love our planet’s wildlife just as much as they love their pets.”
