Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, June 21, 1994                   TAG: 9406240031
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By RAY COX STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

COUPLE'S LOVE OF HORSES BECOMES A FAMILY AFFAIR

The ransom was a glass of lemonade.

With a cross 5-year-old and a sauna of an afternoon, the beverage was the only suitable currency that Carroll Chopping could try on little Sydney Chopping one day this week at the Roanoke Valley Horse Show at the Salem Civic Center.

As if by magic potion, little Sydney's good humor was shortly restored. The curiosity in all this was not that a little girl far from home (the Choppings operate out of Rougemont, N.C., just outside of Durham) had a spot of ill humor on a hot afternoon; it was that she was cranky at all.

As she certainly partially understands now and will do so fully at a later date, there are worse lives than traveling with one's parents on the horse show circuit.

The Choppings are a family that comes as closely as it gets to being born in a barn. Harold Chopping, 30, met Carroll, 33, when he was a professional rider of hunters and jumpers and she was an amateur riding the loop that goes through Florida during the winter. That was 1984. They were wed in 1986.

A business partnership followed (teaching, training and sales are the specialties of their operation, Solo Show Stable), then Sydney a few years later. When they go 10 months out of the year, the little girl often goes too.

``I think she enjoys playing with the other children who are around at the show and I think she enjoys being with us,'' Harold Chopping said.

Harold, himself a rider since age 6, is an accomplished man in the saddle, the veteran of numerous national and international competitions and a member of the Canadian national equestrian team. He rode for his country in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona.

Carroll, a North Carolinian, reckons she was aboard her first mount at either age 3 or 4. Her mother, a German native, was a horsewoman.

No denying, it's been a good life for the Choppings. From January through November, they're traveling the country (counting international competitions, sometimes the world) and Sydney goes wherever it is practical.

``It's not like we're off, going town to town, though,'' Harold said.

For instance, they often return home before going back out on the road. When it does not suit for Sydney to go, then Carroll stays home with her.

``I'm Harold's ground person, anyway,'' she said.

She handles the administrative details of the training and teaching and also runs the tack shop.

``He's the better rider of the two of us,'' she said.

The two of them don't want to be pushy parents, but it's clear they'd love to see little Sydney become interested. Already, she's in the Lead Line Division for children, entry level in show circles.

``It will be an advantage to her to have parents in the business,'' Harold said. Added Carroll: ``Many professional riders had parents who were in the business.''

Still, nobody knows at this stage with this particular child.

``At this age,'' said Harold, ``it's just important to enjoy the animals and enjoy the sport.''