The Whittaker family of Massachusetts is making a difference in WDAA.
By Holly Clanahan
For the Whittaker family of Norwell, Massachusetts, this was a family year at the Western Dressage World Championship Show. Every year since 2016, trainer Kristen Whittaker has brought clients to the show. But in 2022, they decided to make it just about family, even taking (gasp!) a day off from showing to tour the beautiful Lazy E Ranch in Guthrie, Oklahoma, where the show is held and spend precious time making memories together.
So it was especially fitting that the Whittaker family as a whole received the 2022 Top Hand Award from WDAA for their efforts to promote the discipline. Interviewed on their day off, before they knew about the surprise award, Kristen and her family expressed the sentiments that made them the perfect top hands.
Being at the show as a family, “It means harmony,” Kristen said. “I’ll steal from Western Dressage. For me, Western Dressage really speaks to me because of the harmony aspect. And for me, it’s harmony in our family. We are a hard-working family, and everybody’s pitching in.” Kristen’s dad, George Whittaker, the founder of Whit Acres Farm, was at his very first World Show. Mom Jean was there, too, having road-tripped with Kristen pulling the horse trailer, while other family members flew to Oklahoma. Kristen’s husband, Sean Sutton, was there with daughter Riley, 13. Her niece, Haley Whittaker, was there, too, with her parents, Kristen’s brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Tammy. Kristen’s son, George, was at home, taking care of the farm.
“Everybody comes together as a family, and I get to stand back as a trainer, as an aunt and a mom, and watch all the magic happen. I guess it relates to the discipline itself for me. It's about the horses, it's about us being one with our horse, and it's kind of one family. I mean, we are really one family under this discipline,” Kristen said.
The Whittaker family spearheaded the “Meet, Greet and Treat” event at the 2022 World Show, where after the opening exhibitors meeting, there was a horse sundae bar, sponsored by Purina Feeds and Hansen Grain of Massachusetts, at Kristen’s request. Intended primarily for youth exhibitors but actually open to all “big kids at heart,” Kristen and family gave exhibitors a scoop of Purina RepleniMash, a hydration mash, as their healthy sundae base. They could then top it off with apples, carrots or peppermints supplied by WDAA.
Whittaker family members also typically sign up as World Show volunteers and work to make sure all the behind-the-scenes jobs get done.
Away from the World Show, they’re still volunteering. Kristen has twice traveled to the urban riding center Ebony Horsewomen Inc. Equestrian and Therapeutic Center in Hartford, Connecticut, to put on a Western Dressage clinic, courtesy of a U.S. Equestrian grant provided to WDAA.
And they’re also putting in the work on their horses, none of whom came “ready-made” for the ring.
Riley has been riding her horse, LNR Gambling Smart, for about two and a half years, after getting him from a lesson program where he liked to buck off his riders. “But when I got him, me and him started to have a special bond, and we got into Western Dressage together because it made us have a connection and a bond together,” Riley said.
The horse nicknamed “Bootsy” struggled with his right lead, and that’s something Riley has worked to strengthen this year. Obviously the work paid off, as the two of them ended up with nine world championships, the high score of the entire show (82.955), high-point junior rider, high-point Intro Level junior rider, high-point Basic Level junior rider and breed high-point for Quarter ponies.
For Riley, who has been coming to the World Show since she was 9, “This is like the best vacation you could ever ask for. There's a lot of hot days, a lot of long days. But overall, looking back on the experience, everyone here feels like a family to me. Everyone here is so nice to me. Everyone's awesome. I love being here. I love being in the show office. Everyone's wonderful.”
Her cousin, Haley, echoed those sentiments. Now 21, she has a 5-year-old named Al Clear that she’s bringing along. The mare called “Pepperoni” was handling the hot weather and the horse-show environment like a star, although it was a big change for Haley from the top Level 2 horse she had shown previously.
“She has definitely challenged me,” Haley says, “and kept me on my feet, but it's starting to pay off. We won our Suitability class on rail day.”
Like the whole family knows, horse showing has its ups and downs, with plenty of challenges along the way. But there’s always family.
“It’s like Riley said, it’s the best vacation ever to have all of us together,” Haley says. “And then everyone here is like family, Dini and Jen and Vivian. It’s exciting to see everyone, rather than just seeing them on Facebook.”
Kristen showed her beautiful grulla mare, Sweet Blue Honey Dew, aka “Paisley.”
“She’s a big, hunky horse, and she has found Western Dressage really hard,” Kristen says. “But I’ll tell you what, she is floating with me now, and we went reserve yesterday in one of our tests in Level 1. Paisley has been a really cool horse for me. She was a horse that I basically paid a dollar for because she wasn’t going to fit someone’s training program at 18 months old.” After the interview, Kristen and Paisley went on to win two world championships in Level 1 and Basic.
She knows that her story isn’t unique, as most everyone at the show has had to make a journey with their own horse. “Everybody has a heart horse,” Kristen says, “and you can take those horses and go out and dance in the ring and go down centerline and be proud and ride with your heart. And that's really what I try to promote in WDAA as an organization.”
For George to see his family’s success, and their attitudes of giving back to the community, makes the family patriarch pretty proud.
“To have this go on from generation to generation means a lot to me,” George said. “It means that I built something that the Whittaker name and Whit Acres will be there long after I'm gone.”
And Sean, a police officer who didn’t grow up around horses, also sees how special his family’s involvement is.
“WDAA is all encompassing,” he says, “coming to these shows and seeing everybody just work hand in hand. It doesn't matter who it is, you help them out, and you meet people from all over the country.” And he notes, even though everybody is at a horse show to be judged, within the ranks of the exhibitors, “there is no judgment. It is very nice to see that.”
Kristen sums it up: “I couldn't be more proud of my family, couldn't be more proud of Whit Acres Farm. It's everything I ever wanted it to be and more.”
