(PHOTO - KIM STIPE and CHIPS AHOY flew successfully through many shows)
A special horse can come from anywhere, just ask Kim Stipe who has worked her way up from a teenage show rider to co-owner of a successful training business in Innisfil, Ontario.
Kim, who has galloped and been a pony outride at Ajax Downs, has had many wonderful horses cross her path in the last two decades but admits that it was the first one she owned, the aptly named Chips Ahoy, who made the path for her career.
Chips Ahoy is a spotted Appaloosa pony who was a resident at Meadowlarke Stables in Mississauaga where Kim took riding lessons. When she could splurge and buy her own pony at the age of 13, with the help of her parents, Kim was told Chips Ahoy was for sale.
“I was not really interested at the time,” she said. “I looked around at other horses until I decided to take Chips Ahoy for a test ride and I fell in love with him.”
Kim and Chips Ahoy both learned about horse shows together.
“We showed each other the ropes,” said Kim. “He had never been in a show, nor had I. He gave me confidence and it was a great learning experience.”
The pair had successful runs in Trillium and 'A' circuit shows until Kim turned 18 when she no longer qualified to ride a pony in events. She turned her attention to re-training racehorses and then went to Woodbine racetrack to work with Thoroughbreds. She worked her way up from hotwalker to exercise rider and then met her husband, jockey Cory Spataro. With her husband, Kim worked with horses at Ajax Downs on training days and as a pony rider in the afternoon (see photo).
These days she helps raise the couple's young daughter, prepares horses for clients for the races and re-trains former racehorses. The couple own S & S Equestrian Centre in Innisfil.
Kim had to sell Chips Ahoy but keeps in touch with her important pony and his new owners frequently. “I just talked to them the other day, they are in King City. He is doing great and is being ridden by a someone who is learning to show.”
Chips Ahoy already changed the life of one young rider, perhaps he will do it again.
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