The Guardian Interview

Working together as team spells success for Montague rider, horse
By Charles Reid, The Guardian

Picture by: Mark MacDonald

Saturday November 26, 2005

Winning usually stems from teamwork, whether teammates be human or animal.
Just ask Montague equestrian rider Harma Germs, who, with her horse Battle Times Boy, won the eventing competition at the Bromont horse trail near Montreal recently.
“It’s a joint effort,” Germs told The Guardian. “(Horses) need to be willing to work

and you need to be sure on what you want to do, where you want to go.

You have to work together. It’s kind of like a team.”
Germs, 22, is the first Atlantic Canadian to win the Bromont event, considered

one of the top in Canada.
“It’s still hard to believe. My goal was to go for a top 10 spot, but then it turned out to be the number one. It was quite the surprise,” she said.
“Without the help of the owner (Gary Evans) of the horse and my coach (her father, Jakob) it probably wouldn’t have happened.”
Germs started riding horses at age six in her native Netherlands and continued after moving to P.E.I. with her family six years ago.
She had been to Quebec before, competing in dressage, but eventing was a new to her when she began competing in it this year, encouraged by Evans and a friend, Amber Tweel.
“It was something I actually never thought I would do, but once I started it I got hooked,” said Germs. “With the eventing discipline I didn’t really know what to expect, (but) I knew that there'd be pretty good competition (at Bromont).”
Battle Times Boy, a 12-year-old, 165-centimetre tall thoroughbred, had a good idea of what to do, she said.
“The horse had some experience with cross country so the horse showed me a lot of it. This horse is designed and bred for cross country. He’s not super big, but he’s not small, either. He’s just a medium size and that makes it easy for the cross country.”
Bromont highlighted Germs’ year, which included 36 first-place finishes in 48 Equine Canada-certified events.
Along the way, she earned the Dressage P.E.I. title, was the show jumping champion of P.E.I. during Old Home Week in Charlottetown, took home the Atlantic Canada dressage, show jumping and eventing championships and finished first at Blainville and Bromont events.
Next for Germs, who works at a Charlottetown Internet company and teaches riding on the side, is a return to Bromont, perhaps at a higher competition level.
And although she’s tops in her event in Canada right now, she is hesitant about appearing on an international stage, like the Olympics.
“I don’t know if those goals are realistic,” Germs said. “I’d just like to take it step by step.”