Article about Diane Monroe from the Virginia Horse Center’s
“Over The Rail” newsletter.
Virginia Beach-based amateur, Diane Monroe, has made horses an
intricate part of her life, from her early years in Potomac,
Maryland to the present, where she is a top competitor in the Older
Amateur Owner Hunter Division. Diane’s success is no secret.
With the help of well-known professionals, her dedication to the
sport and to her horses,
her lifelong passion, she “sculpts” her horses into amateur mounts,
selecting young horses without experience, making them into
competitive 3’6 show hunters along the way.
Riding has always been a part of Diane’s life. As a young girl she
rode at Meadowbrook Stables in Rock Creek Park (Washington,
D.C.) with Colonel Studler and even hunted a bit with the Potomac
Hunt. “Back then things were so different,” adds Diane. “ We
galloped our horses over huge fences on outside courses, there was
no counting strides.”
When she went to college at William & Mary in Williamsburg, the
horses went with her and she’s been on the saddle, non-stop, ever
since.
When Diane married, she relocated to Virginia Beach where she
trained with Pam Baker’s Hillcrest Farm for over 20 years until
Pam’s relocation to north central Virginia. “Back then we all had
thoroughbreds, no one had heard of a warmblood. Pam found this
great little thoroughbred, Storm Watch. She was maybe 15’2 but
she was a great jumper
and had a great mind.” In the early 1980’s Diane and Storm Watch
became quite a pair and qualified for all the indoor shows,
Harrisburg, Washington, and the National which was held in
Madison Square Garden at the time. “She was a perfect mare and
she’d stand by the rail and watch another horse go so that when we
went in the ring she already knew
where she was going. She’d walk in the ring and acted like she
owned the place, she never batted an eye at anything.”
Once Diane and Storm Watch mastered the Amateur-Owner ranks
, Diane sold the small mare and she and Pam began their search for
their next project, a pattern that Diane would follow through the
years. In fact, she often had a young horse in training, so she’d
have one ready once she sold her more seasoned horse. “I see
horses as a creative process, that’s the part I love the most, buying
young unproven horses, developing them into competitive horses,
then moving on to the next one. That’s my thrill.”
Diane’s “program” works for her and her horses and the ensuing
success is a testament to her ability to “sculpt” the right horse into
an ideal amateur mount. The pattern continued with To the Max,
an “off the track” thoroughbred that she and Baker found. Max
followed in the steps of Storm Watch, qualifying for all the indoor
shows. Diane sold Max once he reached a pinnacle of success and
he is retired and living on a farm in Virginia today. Lexington was
her next successful project, found by Chris Wynne, a successful
Virginia Beach based trainer. Even the best laid plans can go awry
as Diane discovered with Breezy, a former hunt and eventing
horse. “He was too slow and lazy to be an eventer and he became
an incredible hunter. He was just a great horse, “ adds Diane. “ He
had a great mind and we took him almost immediately into the
Amateur Owner division.” That year, in 2002, Breezy was second
in the Founder’s Cup at Upperville with Diane aboard, a class for
horses bred and foaled in Virginia. He was chosen by the panel of
judges as the best horse at Upperville that year, quite an honor for
any show hunter. But two weeks later Breezy injured his stifle and
he was not able to make a full recovery and had to eventually
retire.
Diane’s horse career was sidetracked the next few years as she
battled injuries with her horses and just some plain bad luck. Her
creative genes had to wait a few more years for her next talent to
make its way into her life with trainer Chris Wynne. Wynne helped
her find Legendary, her first warmblood project, a 6-year old
Holsteiner who had been a dressage horse. Success is back in the
air and the pair is picking up ribbons at some of the country’s best
shows. The pair had a remarkable Devon this year, top ribbons in
the 3’3 Amateur Owner Division including a second in the Stakes
Class. “You would have thought he had lived at Devon his whole
life,” says Diane, as the proud owner/rider.
Their winning ways have continued this summer as they have
stepped up into the competitive 3’6 Amateur-Owner Division in
Virginia. They have been in the ribbons at top shows like Keswick
and won tri-colors at recent A shows in North Carolina and at
Deep Run in Virginia. As a seasoned Amateur who has been
showing longer than most, Diane likes what she is starting to see in
the “hunter world.” “We’re returning to basics. There used to be a
great joy in riding, there was a lot of horsemanship. Big business
came in and we computerized the ride. The handy classes are
coming back, the Hunter Derby is a step in the right direction.” As
someone who has always helped care for her horses, getting to
know each one, returning to real horsemanship is a positive
development that she has practiced all along. Diane clearly loves
her life and relishes the time she spends showing and training her
horses. “I am constantly learning, there is always something you
don’t know and I find I learn as much from watching someone do
something wrong as I do from watching a top pro in action who
rarely makes a mistake.”
We can all take a page from Diane’s playbook – her hands on, no
nonsense approach is clearly a winning strategy that many would
like to emulate. It’s refreshing to see an individual who has been
horse showing her entire life, still loves it, has avoided burn out
and hasn’t allowed a bit of bad luck to derail her passion of
finding, riding and developing young horses. Look for Diane on
the rail in Virginia. She’s likely to be a fixture for a long time