In June of 1982, Kim Walnes, a mother of two young children, stunned the eventing world by winning the Rolex Kentucky Advanced Three-Day Event on a gray gelding she had bought in Ireland and trained herself. The young mother, who hadn’t started eventing until the age of twenty-eight, was suddenly National Champion. Three months later, at the World Three-Day Championships in Luhmühlen, Germany, Kim and The Gray Goose earned the individual and U.S. team bronze medals.

Kim Walnes and The Gray Goose on the Advanced course of the 1981 Blue Ridge Horse Trials   /   Elizabeth Preznikoff photo

In 1983 I made my dream of competing in the Three-Day Event at Badminton a reality by writing letters for donations, holding bake sales, and soliciting sponsorships. We arrived in England several weeks early to get used to the different climate and footing; England in April was very different from Connecticut in that month!