The Road To The Horse With Tik Maynard
The ever intrepid Tik Maynard is an all-around horseman. You may know him as a three-day eventer. Or as a horsemanship and groundwork expert. He’s a horse trainer. He’s a former pentathlete. And most recently, he’s a colt starter.
Tik is the 2024 winner of the Road To The Horse, where he took an unstarted colt and in just days, was able to gain his trust, saddle him, ride him, and perform basic gaits and obstacles all in front of a live audience at the Kentucky Horse Park. Tik, the author of “In The Middle Are The Horsemen” sat down with Heels Down to catch up after his exciting run at The Road To The Horse, and just before he set out on the four-star course at the Defender Kentucky Three Day Event.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Congratulations on an amazing finish at The Road To The Horse. It was incredibly exciting to watch. What made you want to do it? And what was the experience like for you?
Well, I’ve been interested in The Road To The Horse since 2012. The first year I saw it, I was living in New Jersey and some friends of mine were having a get-together to watch it one evening, and I went over there. And I was hooked ever since. Even before the competition started, they have demonstrations, clinics and educational seminars. There’s just so much to see and learn. I knew I wanted to give it a try one day.
What stood out to me while watching was your style was quite different from the other competitors. Can you talk more about your approach with the horses?
Some people do a better job than others. It’s not an easy thing to do. But I learned so much from watching the event over the years. I’ve tried to watch it every year since that first time in 2012. For me, one of the best ways to learn is by watching.
Even in a lesson, I’d often prefer an instructor ride my horse and I watch them. When people have done things well at The Road To The Horse I learned something, but almost moreso when things haven’t gone according to plan for people. I watch where they make the mistakes – if they go too slow or too fast. I really feel like every time I watch somebody make a mistake in a situation like that, that’s one less mistake I have to make. It’s been really fun and educational to watch.
I think it really showcases colt starting. There’s so much emphasis on the five-stars, the futurities, the derbies all these things that bring fame and fortune to riders and trainers in the horse world. But one of the most important aspects of having a horse that is trained is his first few experiences with people on the ground, and his first few experiences with people under saddle. It’s been an overlooked part of the horse world. I mean, there’s so many people that are good at horse starting, and they don’t have a place to showcase that. It’s almost like a trade. So now there’s a place to highlight some of these people who are really good at it, I think that’s pretty cool.
In 2023 I went to The Road To The Horse with my dad and I watched it live for the first time. And it was unbelievable, walking into that building and feeling the buzz and the electricity in the air. There’s a lot of prize money on the line, there’s a saddle and a belt buckle. There’s judges, there’s maybe 10,000 people watching the livestream. Everything you do with the horse is in front of an audience. There’s no moment where you’re behind the scenes training that horse, unlike the Thoroughbred Makeover or the Mustang Makeover, where you’ve got the horse at home and you just show the finished product. This is you every second that you’re training that horse or interacting with that horse is in front of an audience. And watching it live really showed me how much it is about staying grounded, having a plan and staying true to your principles.
Even more than the competition, it’s about your skill, timing and feel. There’s so many people that can start horses at home, but to start them in three days and in front of a crowd, it took a lot of preparation, thought and a lot of planning to be able to do that.
It’s unbelievable. I feel like the the pressure on both you and the horse to do that and such to short time and around so much noise, it’s amazing.
Yeah, and these horses are really good horses for it. I don’t know if you could do this competition with every horse or every breed of horse. All the horses in the competition are Quarter Horses. They’re all three years old, they’re all from The Pitchfork Ranch in Texas. They do surprisingly well in this atmosphere. The first few minutes of each day, I think the biggest anxiety they feel is when they’re separated from the other horses, but you have four round pens going at the same time with four horses, so they do get a little comfort from each other. It’s amazing how fast they will tune into their people and get on board with it. It’s really incredible what these horses can do.
Obviously there are different cultures to every discipline and even Western riding versus English riding. It’s different worlds. And you had a different approach. It was obvious just watching you and the others that you didn’t come from the same school. What was that like for you?
Yeah, it was incredible. Everyone was really welcoming. The staff and volunteers were really kind, everybody that had a booth setup was really nice. And the other competitors were great. We all chatted a little bit behind the scenes, we all got along, we all supported each other. It’s almost felt a little bit like eventing the way that people will talk and support each other. And they’re really trying to do what’s in the best interests of the horse.
We all inevitably make mistakes. There’s moments where the pressure gets to us, when we make a decision that we might not have made at another time, but we’re human. And that can happen. Everybody was really trying to do the right thing. And I was really happy to be a part of it and make a lot of new friends.
What do you want to do now Tik? That’s a pretty hard thing to top.
I had a couple days at home and then I went to Terra Nova and competed with a horse there. And then I had a clinic in Vancouver. And then I’ve got a clinic in Lexington, Kentucky. And then it’s the four-star in Kentucky and I’ve got a horse running there. It feels like I haven’t actually had time to properly come down or take a breath yet. So I’m hoping at some point here in the next couple of weeks.
Tell us more about your horse running in Kentucky.
So I’ve got a really nice Irish horse, SKM Lux Sonata. He had been imported for a young rider who did a great job with him. I picked up the ride on him about three years ago. He’d already done some FEI stuff. But with almost all the horses that come into my program, I usually spend six months where I make life a little easier for them and I either don’t compete them or I drop them back down a few levels. It gives me a chance to get to know them. And then I brought him back up again.
We’ve done a few four-star shorts. This will be our fifth or sixth one I think. He’s a challenging horse for me. I love his attitude, but he can be a little grumpy sometimes. And then physically, there’s some stuff that he struggling with, he gets better every year. But the flying changes is one of them.
Even though there’s flying changes in this test, I’m planning on doing simple changes. So right away, I’ll probably get like a zero or one out of 10 on those two movements. With a horse like this that just gets 1% or 2% better every month, and he’s young enough that I’ve got probably four or five more years with him, I think we’ll see the best of him in a year or two.
I think that’s really interesting that you are you’re coming to Kentucky with a plan knowing what’s best for your horse and where he’s at in this moment.
I want his experience in the dressage arena to leave him with a good feeling. That there’s never a moment where he starts to dread or get antsy or anxious as he goes into that arena. I’d almost rather in some ways that he have a harder warm-up and he goes into that dressage arena and feels like he can take a deep breath.
So any thoughts on writing another book soon?
I do have a really exciting plan for something that I’ve started working on already. But I don’t think I can share what that is yet. I think it’s a little too early. But I definitely think towards the end of the year or in early 2025. I’ll be able to share some more news about that. So stay tuned.
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