T
he first time I met Curt was in 2011 after my
performance in Cavalia in Atlanta. I remember
attending a showing of horses at Talaria Farm.
Curt introduced me to TF Knight Hawke. Here stood
this gorgeous black stallion, ears back, tail up, full of
himself, a little sassy and giving a serious attitude to the
handlers around him. Curt smiles, his nickname “The
two-headed monster” or as Ally would say, “Bastardo!”
“That’s my boy,” said Curt as he petted him. Curt then
proceeded to tell me his story and why his behavior was
so intense. As a foal he had been in the clinic due to an
ulcerated eye from the Ladyhawke’s tail. After returning
to the farm, he was too old to be turned out with the
mares and therefore received no manners.
After the showing Curt asked, who is your favorite? I
replied, Knight Hawke. We both smiled before returning
to his stall for another look.
A few weeks later, I had a clinic in Alpharetta,
Georgia, and asked Curt if I could use Knight Hawke
for a demonstration. Curt replied, absolutely! When Curt
saw us working together, he was filled with joy and said,
“That’s his calling, he is going to be a star.” Weeks later
he gifted me with Knight Hawke, and the rest is history.
person’s vet, and sometimes the feed store. He didn’t go as far
as the person’s preacher, but close!
“He did love the journey. He loved the spring. I
remember when Shahbaz’s sister TF Kestrelia lost her filly
due to a dystocia, and they called him from the farm. Curt
drove the 45 minute drive in 20 minutes to be there with her
in the middle of the night. It was real for him. A passion.”
Before Curt became ill, one of his great joys in life
was to take one of his mares running in hand. They’d run
through the woods and down the shady pasture lanes. “He
would spend hours and hours running and walking with
his horses,” says Allison. “And that was the great sadness of
what happened to him. Of all the people I know to have
ended up as crippled as he was ... it was a terrible injustice
for this man.”
Curt was an urban man with a love for the land – the
wilder the better. The horses were part of his love for nature.
“The fact that Arabians are the closest you could ever come
to owning a wild thing ... that was important to him,” says
Allison. “The horses he could actually put his hands on ...
but they were like wild creatures ... who kept a bit of their
wildness inside.
“The future – I haven’t worked it out yet,” Allison says.
“No, the days aren’t hard, because we always did our separate
things, our own careers and interests. But at night, at the
picnic table at our little place in Mendocino, where I am
now, he’d bring a glass of wine and we’d sit out there until
‘bat’ hour.
“I’ve had some teary times out at that picnic table this
week. I’ll never find that kind of companionship again ... or
a man who runs with horses.”
“
This was the only time I
saw Curt bargain. He said,
‘Alright Sheila I will pay it, but
on one condition. You’ve got
to come to Talaria and do a
seminar.’ She said, ‘OK, I’ll do
that, Curt, but I need to have
a business class ticket since
my legs are so long.’
”
TF Kestrelia (Falcon BHF x
TH Maya Naufali), full sister to
TF Royal Shahbaz.
Remembering
Curt Westley
AHW > 38 < 08 .19
sharon
(sharon)
#1