‘A really special horse’
16 years after the death of her beloved Dynasty, Cindy Ishoy has found Proton Together, they’re making some dressage magic, Gail Swainson reports
Most equestrians harbour a deep- seated wish to just once in their lifetime have a truly great horse.
For Canada’s top dressage rider Cindy Ishoy, that once- in- alifetime partner was her 1988 Olympic bronze medal mount, Dynasty. In their heyday in the late 1980s, the pair danced dressage and won big at competitions around the world. They finished second — unheard of for Canadians competing against the dominant Europeans — in the 1988 World Cup Dressage finals. The same year, Ishoy and Dynasty also anchored Canada to a team bronze in Seoul, Canada’s only Olympic dressage medal ever.
In 1989, as Dynasty at 16 was to enter his top competitive years, he died of colic, an often- fatal horse ailment. The death of her “ best friend” sent Ishoy into an emotional and professional tailspin. “ I just lost my heart after that, it was all too hard,” she said.
“ I tried to never get so emotionally attached again.” She went on to compete on other horses and also trained horses sold by Ishoy Enterprises, a business run with husband Neil, another top- ranked dressage rider. But she was just going through the motions. That special horse with the temperament and ability to catapult her once again to the top was nowhere to be found.
That is until Proton came into Ishoy’s life. Now, 16 years after Dynasty’s death, Ishoy is back at the top of her game. She and Proton are scheduled to compete at today’s Canadian League World Cup final at the Royal Winter Fair. The fair, which wraps up Sunday, features international show jumpers, the RCMP musical ride and a carriage racing derby.
Proton, an 11- year- old Baden Wurttemberg gelding, is the first horse since Dynasty to give Ishoy that “ feeling” again.
“This horse has brought me back,’’ she said. ‘‘ He’s a really special horse.”
Ishoy and Proton will perform a Grand Prix Kur, or musical test, at today’s World Cup event and, should they win, the pair will represent Canada at next year’s World Cup final in Amsterdam. They will compete against Evi Strasser and Quantum Tyme, Nancy MacLachlan on Ariston, Jacquie Brooks with Gran Gesto and Whitney Harris on Nektor.
Dressage, from the French verb dresser — to train — is an assessment of the horse and rider’s ability to achieve lightness, impulsion, suppleness, rhythm and obedience. Success is measured with a dressage test.
It takes at least six years to train a horse to the Grand Prix level, where Proton and Ishoy are competing. They performed at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, where Canada’s team finished out of the medals, but was a respectable ninth.
“ He did well at the Olympics, but as an 11- year- old he is just coming into his own,” she said.
“ We’re really starting to work as a team, to trust each other.”
Proton has a much different personality than the ebullient Dynasty, she said.
“ He had issues when I got him as a 5- year- old — he had real attitude, to be honest,” Ishoy laughed. “ Whereas Dynasty and I just clicked right away.”
Sixteen years after Dynasty’s death, the memory of the grand Hannoverian gelding with the crooked blaze is still very raw. Mention the Bette Midler song Wind Beneath my Wings, and Ishoy’s voice quavers.
“ I still cry when I hear that song, because that is what Dynasty was to me,” she said.
“ But this horse, Proton, and I have started to really click.”