THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, October 21, 1994 TAG: 9410190151
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY JANIE BRYANT, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 153 lines
THE HORSE'S TAIL dances behind him like a braided silk scarf, one more note of elegance in a sort of equestrian ballet. The majestic animal leaps fence after fence, gracefully and effortlessly.
Or so it would seem.
But Alex Johnson, the 36-year-old lawyer riding that horse, can vouch for the effort.
He and Max - or Woodsman as the horse is called in show competition - have spent more than two years perfecting this vision of beauty and ease.
After a journey to 30-some horse shows in two states, the pair are on their way to the big one - the Washington International Horse Show.
Johnson and Max are among 10 horse and rider teams who qualified in Region II for the Miller's League Adult Hunter competition this coming Monday.
Only 30 riders in the country are invited to compete in the adult hunter competition. Johnson and Max are ranked sixth in the 10-state region.
The competition offers some of the show's ``glamour and glory'' to non-professional equestrians who don't have ``time to devote five days a week to the sport,'' said Donna Vale, of the Miller's League.
While Johnson's law practice and family life do not allow for a full week of training, no one accuses him of lack of devotion.
Once a week, while most people are just getting up, Johnson has already made the trip from his Churchland home to the Hunter's Way barn in Smithfield.
There he works with Peg Seals, a professional trainer and part owner of the show barn that specializes in hunters.
After a workout with Max, Johnson still makes it to his office at the law firm of Mays and Valentine, between 8 and 8:30 a.m.
The trips to Smithfield increase when he and Max are preparing for a show - something that takes Johnson away from home one or two weekends a month.
Fortunately the interest in the sport is a family one.
``My wife rode in college a lot,'' he said. ``She rides a little bit now, but she doesn't compete or anything.''
Johnson likens his enthusiasm for the sport to an addiction - something that took hold of him as a child in Danville about 27 years ago.
``I had some siblings that had ridden a little bit - nothing serious,'' he said. ``So as a child I began taking lessons and it kind of escalated from there.''
Johnson continued competing during undergraduate and law school at the University of Virginia. He was state champion in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association and second in the national competition.
He met his wife, Lucy, daughter of local architect John Paul Hanbury, at the university and the couple moved to Portsmouth after Johnson finished law school.
About seven years ago, they became neighbors of Laurie Gellman.
Johnson introduced Gellman to Hunter's Way, where he had been riding and training. But he was already leasing and working with Max when Gellman purchased the horse from Hunter's Way about two years ago.
Gellman at the time owned a smaller quarter horse, which she and a son rode. But she was looking for a larger horse for her daughter, who is 6 feet tall.
``Being she wasn't an intermediate rider, I needed a safe horse,'' Gellman said. ``Max fit the bill.''
Max, is a warmblood, or part thoroughbred or Arabian, Gellman said. Warmbloods originated in Europe and are typically larger horses and very athletic, but not as hot-tempered as thoroughbreds.
Gellman describes the horse as a gentle, patient animal that one could ``put a baby on'' if it weren't for his size.
``He's so polite if he weren't a horse one could invite him for dinner in a formal dining room,'' she said.
While Max was perfect for Gellman's daughter, the horse needed a skilled rider.
``He needs a rider like Alex to keep up his skills,'' Gellman said. ``It was a fine match - just what you're looking for - a partnership where the horse can make the most of the man and the man can make the most of the horse and those two just click.''
So Gellman's neighbor continued to lease Max, helping her defray the cost of boarding the horse while keeping the horse in shape and maintaining his value.
Max came to Virginia from California where he was trained from an early age as a jumper. So the three-foot jumps of the hunter ``is pretty easy stuff for Max to do,'' Gellman said.
Jumping the fence, yes. But jumping the fence in the graceful style of hunters, no.
Judging for jumpers is ``based on how high they jump,'' Johnson said. ``It doesn't matter what their form is. Jumpers can be basically a little bit wild.''
For hunters, he said, ``form is very much the name of the game. It matters very much how you go over the jump. You have to be a lot quieter.''
Patterned after the fox-hunt, judges are looking for the ``ideal of the perfect horse and rider, the perfect movement . . . a very fluid, effortless journey around the course,'' Gellman said.
Behind those effortless-looking jumps is a horse with strength and talent and a skilled rider, she said. Max takes his cues from Johnson, who Gellman calls a perfectionist.
``He's very easy-going and very self-effacing, but I have watched Alex plant flowers, for example, and everything is just right,'' she said. ``Aesthetically, Alex strives for perfection.
``I think (riding) is probably an art for him,'' she said. ``He obviously has immersed his whole life in this sport. But I do think it's a striving for beauty.''
The week of the long-awaited competition, Johnson might be the only one with a case of jitters, but a lot of people are in on the excitement.
Gellman is taking her two younger children out of school and picking up her daughter from college to see Johnson and Max compete at the horse show.
They'll join Johnson's wife and a large group from Hunter's Way at the arena in Landover, Md.
``It makes it a little more exciting when you know the rider as a friend and neighbor and you own the horse,'' Gellman said.
Gellman is proud of Max, even though she concedes that, trotted out with other smaller and leaner thoroughbreds, the large, big-boned horse is not ``an eye-catcher.''
``The best you can say about Max is he's noble-looking,'' she said.
A judge at one horse show in Northern Virginia, where there is a decided preference for thoroughbreds, was overheard saying, ``I didn't want to do it but I had to give (first place) to him.''
``There was just no one who could touch him,'' Gellman said.
Bias toward thoroughbreds aside, Max has nothing to apologize for in the looks department once Johnson has given him that formal show polish.
Some time this week Max's whole body will be clipped and Johnson will spend hours before the competition, braiding Max's mane and tail and brushing his chestnut coat until it gleams.
The horse, about 16 years old, will be one of the older horses in the competition, but that adds to his experience.
``A lot of the better show horses have some years on them,'' Johnson said.
That will be important at a glitzy show where horses used to pastoral settings find themselves in a a large indoor coliseum.
Sheri Williams, an instructer at Hunter's Way, describes it as ``decorated to the hilt.''
``There are flowers and lots of islands and trees and mulch sitting in the middle of the ring,'' Williams said. ``Jumps are especially nice. Some have wagon wheels in front of them. There's lots of width to them, lots of foliage.''
But, she added, ``the more you decorate it, the more the horse has to look at it too. It sort of separates the men from the boys.''
``Some horses it doesn't matter. There are some out there that will jump fire if you want them too.''
If Gellman's summation of Max is on the mark, he belongs in that die-hard league of performers.
``He's very willing,'' she said. ``He tries hard. Some horses are stubborn and lazy. Max always wants to please.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover
Alex Johnson
Staff photo by MARK MITCHELL
Lawyer and rider Alex Johnson puts Max out to pasture in Smithfield
after an early-morning workout.
by CNB