The horsey life
Mother, daughter focus on pursuit of shared passion
Kate Connor would live in a shoebox. And if a shoebox wasn’t available, she would happily bed down in a stall. When Connor and her daughter, equestrian Emma Connor, had the opportunity to buy new property, it wasn’t because they sought better lodgings for themselves.
The women moved with their horses in mind and for an opportunity for Emma to build a boarding and training business she hopes will keep her close to horses for years to come.
Kate Connor is a lifelong horsewoman. She grew up in Dutchess County, learned to ride when she was 7 and started teaching others to ride as a young adult. She started her daughters - Sophie and Emma - on horses early. Emma, now 22, became a competitive rider. For the last eight years, Kate has been the owner of Cross
Creek Equestrian Center in Sloansville, a hamlet west of Esperance, where she gave riding lessons. Kate boarded horses, including some rescued equines with special needs. Kate’s farm is currently home to two horses owned by Little Brook Farm, a rescue organization in Old Chatham.
One of them, Commander, a senior horse who is nearly blind, gets loving care from Connor along with his “eyes,” a horse named Mattie, who Connor said naturally stepped into the job
of looking out for Commander.
Kate’s lesson horses are what she calls “solid citizens who do their job quietly and well.” Kate has students from age 3 to 70, and said she teaches in a riding in a way that includes the horse, rather than encouraging riders to have dominion over their mount.
Emma Connor grew up participating in Pony Club and Dressage4kids and showing horses in competitions before she went to college for computer engineering. In 2018 and 2019 she lived in Marion County, Fla., where she trained horses as a student for Katie Ruppel Eventing. She came home in March to spend more time with her family and help her mother run the farm. Kate also works from home as an office manager.
Emma was in charge of the horse boarders at Cross Creek: Caring for them and, in some cases, giving lessons to their owner-riders. The women weren’t looking to move before Ann Sanders, the owner of Topline Dressage — four miles away in Sloansville — put her farm on the market.
“I was over here within a day or two, talking to Ann,” Kate says.
Kate and Emma bought the property and renamed it Topline Sporthorses. Cross Creek is currently on the market.
The farm is roughly the same size — it has 18 stalls, an outdoor arena, paddocks and about the same acreage — but it had a nicer indoor riding arena and a different layout, one that gave the women the opportunity to separate their missions while still helping each other. Kate has a cozy barn to herself where she keeps her lesson horses. Emma has a higherend barn attached to the riding arena where she keeps her competition horses and the horses she boards and trains for her clients. She has capacity for 10 and has four currently. The house on the property — a modest ranch — allowed Kate and Emma to live on the farm with their horses.
On a cold day last week, Kate and Emma showed off the handsome stables and 150-feet-by-70-feet indoor arena, built seven years ago that they share for their respective businesses and riding lessons, horse training and special events. The floor is carpeted with a mix of rubber mulch and sand and lined with mirrors so riders can check their body positions in the
saddle. The Connors will host clinics in the arena, including one scheduled for Dec. 4 and Dec. 5 by equestrian David Thind.
Outside, horses whose thick winter coats were starting to grow in grazed in the paddocks. The dressage horses
have their coats clipped, so outside they wear special blankets to keep their necks and bodies warm. A tall paint named Boomer and a little black horse named Nyx came to the fence line looking for treats when they spotted Emma.