Equestrian center opens near Whitefish

As a young girl, Amy Ericksen always dreamed of riding her own horse. So for her, it hardly seems real that she now owns a ranch with an indoor arena where other children can pursue their own dreams. 

“Sometimes I have to pinch myself to know it’s real,” Amy said, while looking east over her property on Twin Bridges Road as horses dot the fenced pasture. “This has been my lifelong dream — since I was a little kid. I never thought I’d run my own ranch.”

Last summer, Erickson and her husband, Kirk, purchased the 40-acre ranch outside Whitefish formerly known as the Diamond B Ranch. They’ve renamed it the Whitefish Equestrian Center and have brought on a staff to create what they hope will be a top-level training and event center focusing on the hunter and jumper discipline of horse competition.

Ericksen remembers grooming horses as a young girl while earning enough money to ride.

“I would tag along, working my way up until I had my first horse,” she said.

She continued to ride and it eventually became a family interest. The couple owns four horses and their daughter competes with the University of California San Diego equestrian team.

Until last year, the Ericksens lived and worked in northern California, when Kirk was ready to retire from a career in technology and Amy in real estate. Kirk had plans of playing golf and Amy had plans of owning their own horse ranch.

When they drove through the Flathead Valley they kept coming back to the same property on Twin Bridges Road and in July they made the purchase and then began remodeling the indoor arena, building horse shelters and fixing fences, and renovating a small cabin planned for use as a meeting and event venue.

Georgia Dillon, of Deep Creek Farm, brought her training program to the facility, and Alissa Palmer serves as barn manager.

Dillon competes professionally herself throughout the U.S. and Canada. She also trains a group of horses and riders that she takes to competitions. Dillon works with students ages 7 to 70, training six days a week.

Dillon, who grew up in Lakeside, knows how important it is to have a proper training facility at home, and one specifically dedicated to hunter and jumper competition. As a high school student, she would spend weekends driving with her horse to Seattle just to train. She eventually worked in Seattle and Florida before returning to the Flathead Valley to run her own program.

“Calgary is the closet competition,” she said. “There’s more opportunities to compete for those in the big cities, where there is a show every week. We have to be more prepared at home in training because we don’t have the same opportunity. When we get to competition we have to be ready — we don’t get extra shows that can be used for practice.”

The Ericksens says the goal for the Whitefish Equestrian Center is to host hunter and jumper competitions, along with clinics and other events, beginning this summer. Eventually, they would like to host shows with an AA rating, which is considered the highest level.

“We want to have winners and competition at the highest level,” Kirk said. “We want to make sure that happens.”

They estimate that a show of 100 competitors could bring in at least twice that many people to the show. The location of the center, with its proximity to Whitefish and Glacier National Park, they says is an added value for riders and their families who look for nearby activities when they’re not competing.

For those not familiar with horse competition, Dillon likens show hunter competition to figure skating with the focus on making the rider and horse movements pretty and rhythmic, while being judged for style and consistency as the horse and rider move through the course. Show jumper, by comparison, focuses on speed and higher jumps with the goal of competing for time.

Dillon says she prefers the speed of show jumper competition.

“I like the time and effort that goes into training my horse,” she said. “I like to feel like my horse would jump over the moon for me.”

Palmer, along with her staff, are primarily in charge of the day-to-day care of the horses, which she and Dillon point out are professional athletes — some worth $150,000. Right now there are more than 20 horses at the ranch with the hope of having 60 by summer.

The horses are cared for 24 hours per day, seven days per week by the staff. All the horses are given individual-specific feed, supplements and medication, as necessary. When they’re sent outside for the day it is with blankets that ensure their comfort based on the weather. Nights are spent inside the heated barn.

“We know when one of them is not feeling good,” Palmer said. “We know how to read them. I got a phone call the other night at 11 p.m. from one of my staff letting me know about a specific horse.”

Kirk is the one who turns off the lights at bed time.

“Every night I have to say hello to each horse before I turn off the lights,” he said. “They know if you don’t say it to one of them.”

Palmer says Whitefish Equestrian Center is different from other barns where she has worked.

“There’s a family atmosphere,” she said. “When something is wrong with a horse, we’re all there trying to help. When someone is having a bad day, we’re all there trying to help them.”

For more information on the Whitefish Equestrian Center, call 862-6400.