Kimberlee Barker, a rider, competitor, and coach who trains out of her own farm in Corvallis, has been named to the USA Working Equitation team heading to Spain this fall. She is one of four horse and rider pairs who will represent the US in its inaugural international team.
“I am so excited to have made this very first U.S. team,” said Barker. “We have the unique opportunity to set the stage for future teams and future competitions. We are relatively new to the sport compared to teams in Europe, which makes us part competitors and part ambassadors.”
Barker also said, “We will give those all-important first impressions of what it means to be an American team in Working Equitation. There will never be another first American team! I’m confident that we’ll make a strong showing with our skilled riding and magnificent horses – and hopefully in the scores and placing.”
Barker has been ranked as one of the top riders in the country since she first started in the sport of Working Equitation, transitioning from Dressage in 2019. She’s used that background to bring several horses to the highest levels, including non-traditional breeds, like Morgans, a Half-Arabian, Dales Pony, among others. Her consistent performance aboard those horses and top scores in qualifying events earned her place on the team.
Barker qualified with Nairobi, an 8-year-old Lusitano gelding imported from Portugal in 2024. She formed a syndicate with other enthusiasts of the sport who wanted to support her dream of representing the U.S. in international competition. Nairobi is classically trained in Dressage, but Barker says his natural athletic ability and bravery make him well-suited to Working Equitation. She has trained him to Masters level, the highest of the seven levels of the sport, in their short partnership.
“I’m proud of my partner, Nairobi,” said Barker. “He is very new to the sport, but he had a solid foundation in Dressage and is so smart and trainable that he made the transition to Working Equitation faster and more smoothly than I hoped. It doesn’t hurt that he is stunning to look at and a total ham in the show ring. He loves an audience.”
Barker also rides two other Lusitanos that are new to the Masters level – they will continue to train and compete in hopes of making their own international debuts someday.
No stranger to equestrian teams, Barker coached the Oregon State University Dressage team from 2013 to 2023. OSU is a land-grant college with an equine science program and vet school. She continues to coach riding to youth, adult amateurs, and professionals in Oregon and Washington.
Working Equitation is a growing sport in the United States. With its roots in the ranch work of Spain, Portugal, France, and Italy, Working Equitation is well-established in Europe, where the leaderboard is topped with riders from those countries and many of the horses there are bred to excel in the movements required for the discipline.
A Working Equitation competition consists of four phases, called trials:
Dressage is a test ridden in a pattern at all three gaits (walk, trot, and canter) where each movement is judged and awarded a score.
The Ease of Handling course is made up of obstacles that might be encountered on a ranch, like a bridge, gate, and jump. Each obstacle must be ridden in order. The horse and rider demonstrate how they navigate each with harmony and finesse; they receive a score for every obstacle and their route between them.
In the Speed Trial, the obstacles are reordered and renumbered and the pair must ride them as fast as possible without going out of order or crossing the path of an obstacle that hasn’t already been ridden.
The final phase is a Cattle Trial, which is similar to the Western event of team-penning. Four riders take part in the Cattle Trial. Each rider draws a cow that they must separate from a small herd. With help from their teammates, they move the cow down the arena and hold it in a pen for 30 seconds. The World Championship is held every four years in Europe. Riders from dozens of countries take part in the competition, which will be held this year from September 10 to 13 in Jerez, Spain.
To contact Chris Evenson about this story, email office@corvallisadvocate.com
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com