The 40-year-old Olympian and coach has rebounded from some setbacks and is now directing some very talented young horses and riders to the winners’ circle.
Chris started riding at seven and was competing on the “A” circuit by the age of eleven. As a youngster he had the opportunity to work and train with top coaches including Torchy Miller, Missy Clarke, and Jeffery Welles. With Harp, he dominated the high amateur jumpers for years at Bromont, Collingwood, Spruce Meadows and the Royal Winter Fair. A talented pianist who “still dabbles away on it,” Chris was also a competitive swimmer in his youth who went on to earn degrees in psychology and biology at Queen’s University in Kingston before deciding to focus his energies on a riding career. He purchased the grey gelding Silent Sam in 1994 in Germany and after a string of grand prix successes, the pair was named to the Canadian Show Jumping Team for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Silent Sam was subsequently sold in 1998 to the US, and Chris continued to develop a number of horses to the grand prix level including Harley, Double Diamond and Solisco.
Chris and his wife, Candice, established Chris Delia Stables in Oakville, ON, a training and sales facility on the old Firestone property, in 2000. About four years ago, they began developing a new endeavour, Havencrest Riding Academy, on the site. Explains Chris, “Once we had a family, Candice wasn’t in a position to be travelling so much. We had 20-25 horses on the road – it was just too much. So after a lot of thought we decided to get into the riding school business.” Candice runs the operation, which boasts about 200 students. “It’s great for Candice, as she can work out of our home, which is great for the kids (Cadence, 7, and Jayden, 4).”
He calls Havencrest “unique in many aspects. I used to do a lot of clinics and I found myself always repeating all these basics that needed to be corrected. I thought it would be nice to have a school where a student graduating from it would have a solid foundation for an A-circuit trainer to build on. We wanted to give it a lot of structure and support the EC rider level system. Not a lot of schools adhere to that too strictly, but we tried to make it the driving force so we could standardize everything.
“Havencrest has its own set of requirements that are a bit above and beyond the EC. We’re trying to infuse A-circuit standards. We’re not just trying to entertain the kids; we’re trying to get them started on the right foot.” Stable management courses are also encouraged for all their students. “One of the things I really dislike about the A-circuit mentality is that everything is done for them. That’s not what it’s all about; it’s about understanding and having a relationship with your horse.”
Chris and Candice have some very talented riders under their tutelage. A-barn stars include Lisa and Michael Balaz (Mark Samuel’s niece and nephew and the children of the late Tammy Samuel-Balaz). “They’ve been wonderful clients and great students. They’re so humble; they understand the ups and downs.” Lisa has Athens and Komanche de Fontenis in the adult jumpers, and Mike is also doing well with the young Ruffino and his medium amateur horse The Air Up There, who was previously ridden by Miranda Travers-Cavill. “I fell in love with the horse when I was the chef d’équipe of the Young Rider team in 2009 and she was part of the team,” says Chris. “He was relatively unknown and he was just amazing the whole week. I told Rick (Mike and Lisa’s father) “We really have to look at this horse seriously.”
Another one to watch is Stephanie Pride, who is competing in the one-meter-20s. And their Havencrest grads are also making waves: Lexi Ray, Anna Bremermann,Olivia Love – and the list goes on.
Things were clicking along nicely for Chris until a freak accident on a beautiful spring day in 2009 brought things to a screeching halt. He was riding Arwen, his talented grey grand prix horse, in the ring at home when he took a call on his Blackberry. “I was sort of fumbling around to get it out of my pocket. I pushed the “send” button to talk and I didn’t realize that she’d been looking for a place to roll. She went straight down on her knees; I was completely taken by surprise and I gripped my legs so hard that it snapped my pelvis apart.”
A titanium plate was installed, and a long recovery loomed. “It looked like I wasn’t going to have a riding career after that.” But seven months later, Delia was back in the saddle, and rode Arwen in a grand prix the following February.
Just when things were getting back on track, another disaster. Arwen had just jumped around the 2010 Lake Placid Grand Prix with one rail down. The following day she came up lame. An MRI at Cornell revealed a bone cyst on her navicular causing an aggravated tendon; subsequent surgery saw vets giving her a 50/50 chance of a return to the ring. “You never know with these things,” says Chris. “She was phenomenal – we really felt she was the next Olympic star.”
Now Zilona, an eight-year-old Dutch warmblood owned by Chris and the Balaz family, has stepped in to fill Arwen’s shoes. The bay mare is by Clinton, who has a reputation for passing on feistiness. “She’s a pure Clinton!” admits Chris. “She’s the type of mare that if she doesn’t like what’s going on, she’ll let the whole world know. But when you get her right, she’s unbeatable.” During the final weeks at WEF, Zilona won four out of five eight-year-old classes. “That was nice after a bit of a struggle the last few years to end a season like that,” says Chris.
Another exciting recent development has been Chris’ new company, Alternative Feeds Inc., which is marketing Cool Sport, a gluten-free, stabilized rice bran feed developed in Australia. He is working toward having it approved for import to Canada next year.
Looking ahead, Chris predicts, “My dream is to continue to grow Havencrest, and as far as the A barn goes, I want to focus on the equitations and the jumpers. I’d love to always have a couple of nice horses for myself to ride; and do our thing with the sales and keeping students going.
“You do this for so many years, you try to reinvent yourself to figure it out, and I think we’re getting close to finding what works for us.”
