Arbor Hill Closes Out Devon With Best Young Horse Title
By: Emily Riden

A year ago Kenneth Wheeler Jr. purchased Arbor Hill as a birthday gift for his father, Kenneth Wheeler Sr. and on Sunday, Kenneth Wheeler Sr. celebrated his 87th birthday with Arbor Hill's claiming of the Best Young Horse title at the Devon Horse Show.

The presentation of the Best Young Horse award marked the end of the 2015 Devon Horse Show and Country Fair and part of an impressive story for Arbor Hill (Redwine - Paisley), handled by Richard Taylor.

Arbor Hill's story started in California before he came to Taylor's base in Virginia in February 2014 via a spot in a stock trailer dressing room.

"He came to us on a stock trailer with a retired, blind in one eye racehorse, a retired equitation horse, a miniature mule, three pregnant miniature mares, and this horse rode from California to Virginia in the dressing room," Taylor said. "He's had a lot to overcome. Getting him ready to [compete as] a yearling looked hopeless, but we made it."

Taylor continued, "He had hair so long we called him Fluffy, and it blew in the breeze like a buffalo's. I said: 'what have we gotten ourselves into?' We made great progress with him last year."

The 2-year-old Hanoverian/Oldenburg colt lives with and is cared for by Taylor, his wife Patsy Taylor, and his daughter Drew Taylor, who are also responsible for the care of the 2015 Devon Horse Show's Best Young Pony, Naughty or Nice, owned by Hannah Hieber.

"I'm very, very pleased to say that the Best Young Pony and Best Young Horse live in the same barn," Richard Taylor said. "They're taken care of and prepared by my wife and daughter. That's the key. That is the key to how they look and why they're able to compete at this level."

Seeing similar success on Sunday was this year's Leading Handler, Oliver Brown. Brown, a prior winner of the Leading Handler title, has been showing at the Devon Horse Show for more than 30 years.

"To do it at this stage of me doing this, it means more. I've done this a long time," Brown said. "Anywhere you go in the country, [Devon] is still considered the premier horse show. I equate it to steeplechasing and the Maryland Hunt Cup. If you win nowhere else and you win the Maryland Hunt Cup, you've had a good year. A lot of people look at it like that. I look at it like a special show."

Brown continued, "Two of the horses that I showed came from Florida just for this show. It meant enough to them to come up here and spend that money. One of them has been up here two weeks at my place in Virginia preparing. It meant a lot."

While Sunday marked the conclusion of the 2015 Devon Horse Show, the horse show returns May 25 through June 5, 2015.