Groomless husband and wife team land Grand Prix win
Presentation over, it was straight back to the barn with Ophelia for German Carmago after his ESP June II $29,999 Grand Prix win – there was work to be done and only he and his wife to do it.
“No grooms,” said his wife Paula who met her husband through horse showing in Colombia some 30 years ago. “We just have somebody that helps us muck the stalls, but everything else we do ourselves,” she said.
Twenty entries for the Grand Prix over a course on the Equestrian Village Derby field in Wellington designed by Hector Loyola, saw a quarter of them ridden by Colombia’s Alejandro Karolyi. He made it to the jump off with three of them and took second place aboard Tenural LS – a half a second off the pace of 41.985 seconds set by German – and third place with Cool as Fly. “I am very happy to win,” said German, who felt the pressure from his fellow countryman. “[Alejandro] had five horses – and he’s a super fast rider,” he pointed out.
Based in Loxahatchee – close to Wellington, Florida – Paula and German moved to the States in 1999 and now have a training business featuring six or seven clients that sees them care for 14 horses on a daily basis. That means work starts for the couple at six in the morning and ends at nine-thirty at night. “We are busy. We have everything, all types,” Paula said of their clientele. “Right now we have mostly amateurs, but we’ve had others that have become professionals.” Paula no longer competes after back surgery, but while she says she takes it easy on the riding, she does not let up elsewhere. “She’s my trainer, my boss, my groom, my everything,” said German.
The couple have had Ophelia in their care for a long time. “The most amazing thing is that the mare is bred by the owner,” Paula said, referring to Laurie Vanwynsberghe. “She has had her since she was a baby and she was sent to us pretty much to start her. We’ve had her since the beginning. German has been the only rider.”
But even German does not rider her that much as Ophelia has the unusual distinction of only being ridden at the showgrounds. “I don’t ride her at home,” German said. “I lunge her and she goes out in the paddock. Then she comes to the show and I get on her and go in the ring.” It is an unconventional approach but one that Paula sees as beneficial. “She likes her do her own thing,” she said. “We like to get the warm up when she’s five out and then she goes in the ring. It’s actually really good for them [horses]. Because they don’t waste their bodies. Only a few jumps they do.”
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