The Catch Ride Kid Carries On

Before she was a World Equestrian Games veteran, before she was an Ariat model, and before she ever jumped a grand prix, Nicole Shahinian-Simpson was a catch rider.

Growing up on the East Coast, Shahinian-Simpson made her career on the backs of catch rides. She spent her junior years winning every best child rider trophy available, and it was with a catch ride that she became the youngest rider ever to compete in the American Invitational. A year before that she etched her own place in history when she netted dual wins in the ASPCA Maclay National Championship and AHSA Medal Championship, one of only 11 riders ever to accomplish that feat.

So it’s little surprise that she’s a household name in the industry. If your memory doesn’t stretch as far back as those junior wins, you probablyknow her from 2008, when she nearly made the Olympic team with SRF Dragonfly, or when she won the 2010 World Equestrian Games Trials with Tristan.

Based in California for years, Shahinian-Simpson is happy to be spending the colder half of the year in Florida. And if you saw her stable, you’d know why – it’s a standout gem of a facility on 180 acres in the already bucolic equestrian mecca of Wellington.

She couldn’t ask for more in terms of a place to train, and she’s got a strong stable of up and comers to make full use of the amenities.

She still catch rides from time to time, and has passed on her riding genes to her daughter (she has two children with Olympic show jumper Will Simpson), 15-year-old up and comer Sophie Simpson. Sophie competes and catch rides here and there with all the passion for the sport that her mother has, and last fall, she competed in the 2012 Maclay Final in Kentucky, making it to the second round on a catch ride, naturally.

A Standout Stallion
In this gap year between championships, Shahinian-Simpson has a young stallion in her corner that, if all goes well, will be primed for top championships in 2014.

Virginia-based Hyperion Stud, which stands an impressive line of stallions, is dedicated to producing high quality, American-bred sporthorses. It has several competing stallions on the circuit with various top riders, and Shahinian-Simpson was approached last August by Hyperion sales and training manager Craig Yates to take over the reins on one of their up and coming stallions.

Imothep (Indoctro x Calvados,) a 10 year old German bred warmblood, was ready to make the move up to top level grand prix classes with the right rider.

Shahinian-Simpson was already experiencing consistent success last year with Picturized, a 9 year old Hanoverian gelding by Contendro that was essentially a grand prix catch ride. The two gelled so well together that she’d simply meet him at the ingate before classes (in November, he was successfully sold to grand prix rider Francie Steinwedell-Carvin.)

With Imothep added to her string, she spent the late summer and fall season in Southern California, where she introduced him to his first World Cup Qualifier classes. Their results showed a little bit of getting-to-know-you rails, but they notched excellent results, too, picking up two top two finishes in Qualifiers in Orange County and Del Mar.

Shahinian-Simpson and Imothep jumping in a World Cup Qualifier Grand Prix, Florida 2012. 

“He’s a very easy stallion in the sense of his temperament,” Shahinian-Simpson describes. He’s lovely to ride and broke to death.”

Imothep goes in a happy mouth bit or a hackamore, and Shahinian-Simpson’s been enjoying the progression of introducing him to the next level of show jumping. With all the potential to shine under the big time Saturday night lights at WEF, she’s looking forward to what the season will bring.

Familiar Faces
Shahinian-Simpson had a special bond with Dragonfly, the horse she qualified at the top of the Beijing Olympic short list with. Her success with that mare is especially memorable because, showing shades of her catch riding skills, she had only begun riding her in January of the same year that she finished 2nd to Laura Kraut in the overall Selection Trials standings. When Dragonfly’s owners sold her in 2009, Shahinian-Simpson kept in touch. During off time in 2006, they had bred three full sisters by embryonic transfer from Dragonfly, and Shahinian-Simpson is thrilled to now have two of them in her stable.

The Dragonfly mares in Wellington. 

Their age is the only similar thing about the two sisters, Shahinian-Simpson attests. She describes one as an old soul who acts like she’s done it all before, and the other as a sporty, compact, sportsmodel. Both five-year-old mares jump fantastic, she adds, and are great movers. Dragonfly is still in work with owner Karina Johan Peter, and on a recent buying trip to Europe, Simpson was overjoyed to visit with her old mount.

Right now, Shahinian-Simpson’s day to day routine is busy; while Sophie attends online school in order to ride full time, her 11 year old brother Ty is enrolled in the 5th grade at a local elementary school, and plays basketball. He’s a regular face on the sidelines at horse shows, but would rather play team sports than ride.

That’s ok with Shahinian-Simpson, who proudly points out that Ty has a knack for any sport he tries. Meanwhile, Sophie competed in her first 1.45m grand prix in California over the summer, and will be concentrating on the Junior Jumpers and equitation this season. Much like catch riding, talent is hereditary in the Simpson family.