THIS FEBRUARY WILL mark the third anniversary of Putin’s large-scale war on Ukraine. His warring atrocities have proven his flagrant disregard for human and animal life.
Thankfully, there are folks like Port Townsend’s Rebecca Cushman who’ve found ways they can help. To date, the owner of Paradigm Sporthorse Training has rescued 18 of Ukraine’s top show horses from war zones, and from anguished owners who are no longer able care for them due to the conflict.
When I interviewed her a year ago, she’d already imported 11 horses. Since then, she’s imported seven more. She couldn’t do it alone. She looks to people willing to partner with her, who can help pay the $1,800 up-front cost to transport horses to the U.S. from Ukraine, and then, hopefully, to share in the profits when resold.
The top-level Grand Prix rider and a U.S. Dressage Federation (USDF) bronze, silver and gold medalist said she looks for “well-trained, talented and good-looking horses, with good temperaments”, that “will appeal to buyers and can be resold at a reasonable price; a highly trained horse that will be a good fit for amateurs riders here in the U.S.”
Once sold, she’s able to search for another horse to rescue.
One recent import, Artist, was showing at the Prix St. Georges —an international level of dressage competition — before the war struck.
“He was in rough shape when he got here,” said Cushman. “When I rode him, he knew all the tricks [maneuvers], but it was like he had three flat tires, his body was so worn down.”
After he settled in, she took him to shows and entered him in Prix St. George events. She was elated when he qualified to be in the finals next year.
“That FEI class was a proud moment for me,” she said. “I am enjoying developing my partnership with Artist.”
She said most of these horses come in with issues caused by the war, but what they have in common is they are all heart; they want to give their rider their best.
One of her latest imports is Shamber, a 3-day event horse from Dnipro that’s competed at the FEI international level 4. “He’s a little ribby,” said Cushman, “but in better shape than most new arrivals; he’s looking pretty good.”
She pointed across the property to a back pasture where a very tall and thin black horse was grazing. She said his Ukrainian name was Zart, which rhymes with a non-flattering word in English, so she changed it to Tux. Personally, I love the name Zart! I vote to keep it, breaking winds be damned.
Hot zone
Tux was evacuated two months ago from the Sumy region, which is west of Kharkiv, right on the Russian boarder, and is currently a hot war zone.
“He literally was in the war zone, and it was clear that he was not getting food,” said Cushman. “It’s one of the reasons why he arrived in such bad shape. What struck me about him was, in spite of the fact he was quite thin, and his hooves worn down so short they hurt him just to walk, is when the people were riding him [to showcase for the video], he was looking spectacular, and I could see he was trying really hard to make the right moves.” She said it was going to take Tux many weeks of rehabilitation to get him back into show condition.
Earlier this year, Cushman and her imports were the subjects of an article in the Chronicle of the Horse, “The Sport Horse In War; one Washington trainer is making it her mission to import warmbloods out of Ukraine’s danger zones.”
“I’ve had people read the article and then reach out, and I’ve imported one horse for a person based on that article. He referred me to others, and I’m now in the process of vetting some Ukrainian horses for them.”
Vetting involves getting a licensed veterinarian to certify the horse has a clean bill of health.
I asked her about Carcare, the 17.1-hand Warmblood gelding I featured in my Nov. 11, 2023 column.
“He’s doing really well and living in Missouri with a gal who liked his story and bought him sight unseen. Her husband was in the military, which kind of tied the three of them together.”
My attention turned to Kommuna Lux clarinetist Volodymyr Gitin. Age 35, he speaks more English (not fluently) than his bandmates —Sergei Zhuravel, Bagrat Tsurkan, Oleg Vasianovych, Sergei Poltorak and Yaroslav Besh —and serves as interpreter when manager Jeanine Renee (who’s from Oregon) isn’t around. The group calls the Ukrainian Black Sea port city Odesa, home. Since the conflict began, the entire region’s been an active war zone with Russian bombardments —including hundreds of drone and missile strikes — becoming part of daily life.
I asked what it felt like to live in a war zone. He said Odesa was bombed a lot, but life’s been easier since the country was given anti-missile systems. Still, the problems, the destruction of businesses and homes, injuries and deaths, continue. “I think everybody is feeling it’s not like a usual situation, but we try to go about living our normal lives. Some people hear the [air raid] alarm and think, ‘oh well, OK, another alarm.’ Some hear it and are nervous. But when there’s a ‘boom’ people become more afraid, and maybe try to check on one another to see if others are okay.”
He said the only time life is difficult is when they’ve been without electricity and water. Where he lives it hasn’t lasted too long, so he was glad when they were able to help the neighboring city of Nikolaev when in “a very, very hard situation without water,” he said.
Asked what he notices most about the people here he said, “People are very kind and supportive to what’s happening in Ukraine. I think people know it’s not only about Ukraine. It’s a question about how it effects the whole world.”
With the help of Renee, the band has formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, called KMLX. Its stated mission is to support the people of Ukraine during wartime, and then, when the war ends, to help rebuild the massive damage from the war.
In 2023, they received $1,600 in donations at their concerts. “During our Summer 2024 tour, we raised roughly $20,000 and sent $5,400 to the Rotary EClub of Ukraine. That was enough to buy two Burn Unit specialized hospital beds, each cost roughly $2,500,” said Renee.
Other donations have helped purchase additional hospital supplies, vehicles, including vans that were converted to ambulances to help transport the wounded. “Cars and vans have a lifetime of about two weeks before they get shot or bombed, or just break an axle driving over the terrain,” said Renee.
They also helped purchase an industrial truck that was turned into a Mobile Drone Factory for building drones on the spot to send off for reconnaissance or whatever’s needed to protect and defend.
For now, there’s no end to the war in sight. Even if peace comes tomorrow, it will take years before the citizens can rebuild their lives, homes and livelihoods, and even longer before they can focus on the luxury of horse showing.
For more information about the band, visit KommunaLux.com. To donate, visit its website at kmlx.org
To learn more about the horses in Ukraine, contact Cushman at Becky@ paradigmsporthorse.com, www.paradigmsporthorse.com or on Facebook Paradigm Sporthorse Training.
________
Karen Griffiths’ column, Peninsula Horseplay, appears the second and fourth Saturday of each month.
If you have a horse event, clinic or seminar you would like listed, please email Griffiths at kbg@olympus.net at least two weeks in advance. You can also call her at 360-460-6299.
Paradigm Sporthorse trainer/owner Rebecca Cushman on Artist, one of her Ukrainian rescues. Prior to the war, he was showing at the Prix St. Georges dressage level. He’d arrived to her facility undernourished and downtrodden. After re-conditioning him she took him to a FEI show, where he qualified for the Prix St. Georges finals for next year. (Submitted photo)
