If you ask Tracy Bowman why her Welsh gelding, Albrecht's Hoeve's Lars, is such a good fit for para-driving, she answers that he really isn't; instead, she says the 2023 US Equestrian Federation International Horse of Honor isn't a horse "for the faint of heart." He's strong. He's reactive. He's spooky. The first time Bowman approached him in his stall, he pinned his ears back, bit the air, and acted like he wanted to attack. During one of their first drives together, he bolted.
"I have an extremely horsey background," explains Bowman, a former eventer turned Grade 1 para-driver, and co-owner of Kismet Farms in Martinez, California, a 120 horse eventing facility. "I just happen to know what I'm doing."
But then she laughs.
"Once you get to know him, you find it's all fake," says Bowman. "He has got a presence in the stall that says he's rabid. I'm not sure where that comes from, but that's his style. He looks like he wants to savage you, then he wants a cookie. Or anything edible-he loves bananas with the peel. Don't ever peel it for him-he wants the whole thing."
Bowman got her first taste of combined driving about a decade ago, and she made her FEI World Championship debut in 2018 with her Welsh pony mare, Taylamor Laurabelle. At the time, she thought it would be a "one and done" experience, but instead, she was hooked. In 2019, she quietly put out word to her European connections that she was looking for a new driving partner. Just a few weeks later, she received a phone call from one of her Dutch trainers, Ijsbrand Chardon, a multi-time combined driving World Champion.
"He was giving a clinic literally in downtown Amsterdam on the city streets," says Bowman. "Lars was there, and [Chardon] immediately recognized the quality."
Lars had won the FEI Para Driving World Championship the previous year with a Grade 2 driver, and as it turned out, was currently for sale.
"I bought him, sight-unseen, off a video and on the Chardons' recommendation," says Bowman, who also trains with Ijsbrand's son Bram. "But as an eventer, I'm not going to argue with Phillip Dutton if he tells me to buy a horse-- that is the level the Chardons are at in the world of driving."
Bowman and her navigator/Kismet Farm co-owner, Jolie Wentworth, made it to the Netherlands to meet Lars for the first time in January 2020. They spent a few days getting to know one another, set a goal for the season of qualifying for the World Championships, and headed home, with plans to return a few months later. Of course, the COVID pandemic altered their program significantly, and in April, Lars came home to California instead.
"I spent an entire year getting to know him, and that ended up being very fortuitous," says Bowman. "As things slowly opened, I took him schooling, and did a few play days with him. That was making lemonade out of lemons."
In 2021, the pair returned to Europe to train and compete, ultimately qualifying for the delayed FEI Para-Driving World Championship. There, they were the only American entry, and were such underdogs that when they went on to win, organizers had to quickly scramble to find both an American flag and a recording of the anthem.
"It was the beginning of me thinking, 'he's really special,'" remembers Bowman.
In 2023, Bowman flew Lars back to the Chardons, and divided her time between running her business in the U.S. and training with Bram in Europe, with the goal of defending their title in Exloo, Netherlands, in August. Lars and Bowman won every prep competition and amassed quite a fan club. Unlike their first trip to the Worlds, this time, Bowman felt the pressure.
"There were nerves, expectations, the Welsh Pony and Cob Society was following him," she says with a chuckle. "I felt it this time-it was a different experience."
But Bowman now has so much faith in Lars's talent and their partnership, she was able to set those concerns aside-and the pair led from start to finish, earning individual gold and leading the US team to the silver.
"People say, 'it was such a shock, it was so unexpected, to win,' but I have so much confidence in Lars that I feel the opposite," says Bowman. "He's that special, and he is just super duper quality. I feel I have my decked stacked for me-like I'm cheating-to have Lars. He is the real thing."
