to read the 2015 article about Hap Hansen, featuring Sir Caletto.

FEATURE RIDER SPOTLIGHT
Artist Sharon Lynn Campbell painted an oil portrait of Hap and Sir Caletto, a Hanoverian stallion owned by California breeder
Barb Gualco of Silverhorne Sporthorse, LLC.
Photo courtesy of Barb Gualco
Sometimes Nice Guys
Do Finish
First
Times
And
Counting
T
By Kim F. Miller
99
hings have changed since Hap Hansen entered the
professional equestrian ranks in the 1970s. What was
a sparsely populated West Coast show circuit now
has evolved into supporting Grand Prix show jumping
and big-money hunter derbies almost every weekend
of the year, often several on the same weekend.
At 61, Hap has kept up with the times.
He’s ridden jumpers to $2 million-plus in prize money,
including over $1 million against the world’s very best at Spruce
Meadows. He’s a threat in the Grand Prix ring, where his
next win will be his 100th. In the hunter rings, he’s developing
and campaigning horses to success at every level and his
students are winning in every division. He even has a website, a
Facebook page and a Twitter account.
Not Done Yet
Hap seemed a little taken aback when awarded the California
Professional Horsemen’s Association Lifetime Achievement
award in 2006. “I’m not done!” he said with a smile and a twinkle
in his bright blue eyes. Sure enough, he won his 99th Grand Prix
title in 2012 and came close in early 2014 with a clean round at
Thermal aboard Archie Bunker, with whom he finished fifth after
the jump-off.
But in the ways that really matter — the ways that make him
a touchstone for all that’s right and good in equestrian sports —
Hap hasn’t changed one bit and he doesn’t plan to.
“I love horses and I love competition and that’s always been
the case,” he said. “What makes the competing special is that
you’re working with another living being. It’s not a baseball
bat or a piece of equipment. It’s an animal that you’re trying to
understand and communicate with the best you can. They’re
always trying to tell us something and we’re always trying to
learn what that is. It’s a shared responsibility between living
beings.”
Programs like the United States Hunter Jumper Association’s
Trainer Certification Program exist to preserve and promote the
horsemanship lessons of the masters. Hap has always been
a voluntary conduit, sometimes on purpose and sometimes by
virtue of what and how he does what he does with horses.
His years with “the grandmaster” Jimmy Williams at the
Flintridge Riding Club provided an enduring foundation over
these last 40-plus years. “Whether you’re 20 years old or 60, you
learn from every horse you get on that they’re all individuals with
something to teach you,” he said. “Every horse gives you a new
experience and something to learn from.”
He hasn’t limited those learning opportunities to the hunter
and jumper rings. Saddlebred successes dominated Hap’s first
professional foray as a trainer. Later, he owned and enjoyed
watching the top reining stallion, Shine On.
Lessons from the cowboy-hatted, cowboy-hearted Jimmy
Williams were rarely easy to ride out. “My first open jumper class
was at Santa Barbara on Hale’s Pride,” Hap recounted. “The
horse had become so hot that Jimmy made me get on the horse
in the barn aisle. Back in those days, you used to warm up in the
barn aisle, but Jimmy wouldn’t even let me warm up. I rode right
to the ring; no trotting, no cantering, just right into the ring. I was
scared to death. But, it worked out fine and it was on from there.”
One of the Greats
To this day, it’s pretty much universal thinking that Hap is
remarkable for being equally successful with hunters and
jumpers at the highest levels. “There aren’t many professionals
that can say that over the decades,” observed Bernie Traurig.
“He rides both equally well, and at the World Cup level for
jumpers or the highest level for hunters, and with thousands
of horses.” A versatile and veteran competitor himself, Bernie
attributes Hap’s gift to his softness with horses. “Owners love
having Hap ride their horses because he interacts with them so
well. He has a great empathy for every horse and a really soft
way with them, too.”
Hap led Silverhorne’s Sophia Loren to IHF Champion 2 year old Hunter Breeding in Del Mar with Barb Gualco and friends.
Photo by Silverhorne
George Morris is one of Hap’s biggest fans. “Hap Hansen
rides simply beautifully,” the longtime USET show jumping chef
d’equipe wrote in his 1993 manifesto, The American Jumping
Style. “He also rides very simply and naturally; nothing is made
complicated. Horses jump particularly well for him, even on short
acquaintance. He combines strength and power with softness
and finesse.”
As his coach for a nail-biter of a Nations Cup in 1986 at
Spruce Meadows, George told Hap, the team’s anchor rider, that
the only way to win “was to do the impossible.” And that’s what
Hap and Juniperus did, George recounted in a tribute for Hap’s
2012 induction into the U.S. Show Jumping Hall of Fame.
Along with many Nations Cup outings, Hap earned Rider of
the Year honors from the American Horse Shows Association
and the American Grand Prix Association. Among many World
Cup Finals appearances, he was the highest placed American, at
sixth, at the World Cup Finals in Sweden in 1988, with Juniperus.
He owned the Los Angeles World Cup qualifier every year from
1992 to 1995, each time on different horses. Sail Away, Zulu,
Juniperus, Amerika 7 and Pikadero are just a few of the jumpers
Hap campaigned to fame over the years.
Winning a 100th Grand Prix title is on his agenda. “That
would be a really nice milestone,” he said. “If people would stop
bugging me about it, I’d really like that part of it!” Of course,
he’ll only go for the century mark if a Grand Prix go fits into
his horse’s best interest. Hap’s had a good season so far with
Geraldine Bidwell’s Acer, and his veteran Grand Prix mount,
Linda Smith’s Archie Bunker, will hopefully rejoin the string next
year.
Fans in Every Arena
California breeder Barb Gualco from Silverhorne Sporthorse,
LLC, is among the legion of owners very happy to have had Hap
show her horse. In her case, it was the Hanoverian stallion Sir
Caletto, imported from German Olympian Paul Shockemohle
in 2002. Caletto’s bloodlines — Sandro and Caletto I — spoke
for themselves and Barb sought a rider who could bring out
Caletto’s best at the Indio HITS series. Hap did that and went on
to be an influential spokesman for the horse.
“Hap’s place in the industry played a significant role in
Caletto’s acceptance in the States,” Barb said, reflecting on the
lasting impression created by the gray sire’s success with Hap
in the Regular Working Hunter ring in 2004. Hap describes Sir
Caletto as “one of the nicest horses I’ve ever ridden.” But his
jump was so big it popped the buttons off the coat worn by his
first rider and it needed some toning down for the American
hunter ring. “The rhythm and the step were so consistently there,
but Caletto was a jumper and he’d go right to the base,” Barb
explained. “Hap smoothed out his jump a little bit and got him to
stand off from the fence.”
The pair definitely made an impression. While out to dinner
one night during that Indio circuit, Hap ran into two judges.
One had pinned Hap and Sir Caletto in the hunter ring that day
and the other had been officiating in the adjacent arena from
the berm where both rings’ judges sat. “They told me that the
judge watching Sir Caletto told the other judge to turn around
and watch this horse,” Hap said. “That judge said, ‘I can’t, I’m
watching this horse.’ Forget about that horse,’ the Caletto judge
insisted. ‘You have to watch this horse.’”
And it wasn’t just judges. The end result was a horse “that
people were lining up to see in the hunter ring,” Barb remembers.
“And who rushes to see horses in the hunter ring?”
Now nearing 20, Sir Caletto stands at Silverhorne and Hap
is still his owner’s go-to guy if anybody wants to know what his
disposition is like. “Unabashedly I just give them Hap’s number!”
Barb’s ongoing appreciation of Hap and Sir Caletto’s
memorable show run prompted the recent commission of an
original oil portrait of the pair by accomplished artist Sharon Lynn
Campbell. A year in the making, the painting is large scale and
detailed, capturing the intensity of concentration on Hap’s face.
The Madison, Virginia-based artist was well aware of Hap’s
ongoing legacy and her thrill in the assignment was enhanced by
her own experience with him. It happened in the mid-80s when
Hap was racking up Grand Prix wins with Juniperus and Maybe.
Sharon was heading to a horse show in Tampa with her family
when they came across Hap walking along the side of the road
because his truck had broken down. “He was very well known
already as a Grand Prix rider and we really felt like we had a
celebrity in our car when we offered him a ride,” Sharon said.
“But he was so nice and normal. You wouldn’t have known he
was a big deal and he must have thanked us a thousand times.
To have a chance to paint his portrait all these years later is
really quite something.”
“He’s one of the most genuinely kind, caring and giving
individuals and always willing to give back to the sport,” added
top trainer and longtime friend Karen Healey. “Caring about
people and animals is just part of his character.”
Asked to describe Hap’s best qualities in the 2012 tribute,
Hap’s contemporaries echoed Karen’s words. 2008 Olympian
Will Simpson said, “Consistency: Hap is always the same as a
rider and as your friend.”
2012 Olympian Rich Fellers said, “Kindness — extreme
kindness toward his horses.”
Fellow Grand Prix rider Joie Gatlin said, “Calm, cool,
collected.”
And owner Linda Smith replied, “honesty and integrity.” That
list just scratches the surface of how colleagues feel about Hap.
Few if anybody know Hap better than his friend and barn
manager of 26 years, Lisa Baldassari. The Hap the world sees
and admires is the Hap she sees day in and day out. “He’s a
really good guy and a nice boss,” she said. Simple, old-fashioned
horsemanship keeps horses sound and successful and a dramafree barn environment makes for long-tenured staff members
and remarkably loyal clients.
They say nice guys finish last. Not so for Hap, as he’s been
quietly proving in the professional horse show world for 40-plus
years and counting.
About the writer: Kim F. Miller has been editor of California Riding Magazine for 16
years and freelances regularly for national and international equestrian publications.
She lives in Newport Beach with her husband and two teenage boys, but
unfortunately, no horses at the moment. Kim hopes to return to the hunter/jumper
ring as a competitor at some point!
Top: Hap on Silverhorne’s Puccini S in the 1.30 class at Spruce
Meadows, claiming first place out of 60 entries.
Photo by Jumpshot
Bottom: Hap on Sir Caletto— Indio Regular Working Hunter
Champion, Week IV.
Photo by Todd Sutherland