Dara Rip and Nicole Perry are in Nicole’s newly renovated office at the prestigious Portola Valley Training Center in Northern California. The amateur rider and professional trainer are surrounded by reams of ribbons ready to be draped on a freshly painted wall. Across the room, another wall is already filled with magazine covers and photos of winning moments.
Dara and Nicole, along with Violet Jen, Ada Koransky and a network of professionals at the top of their collective game, formed Golden Oak Farm with the goal of producing top dressage, hunter and jumper prospects. As the office décor attests, the partners have made great strides toward that goal.


Golden Oak Farm is a virtual business. Dara was looking for a way to bring consistency to the look and brand of the business. She came to the idea by looking at the well-known DG Bar Ranch, a family operation where everyone helps each other.
Sue Curry, of Fairwinds Farm in Santa Rosa, was another mentor for Dara when she was building her business. The way Golden Oak Farm is structured, each partner has incentive to do well.
“True professionals cooperate at this level of the sport,” Dara says. “We’ve found people to be incredibly supportive, informative and helpful.”

Golden Oak Dressage
Nicole Perry runs Golden Oak Dressage, the training arm of the collaboration. As Dara says, “We breed the horses and Nicole campaigns the horses who make the breeding successful.”
Nicole is an extremely accomplished rider and trainer. A USDF bronze, silver and gold medalist and a USET Developing Rider, she has trained with some of the top dressage professionals: notably Olympian Steffen Peters, Pan Am Games gold medalist Jan Ebeling, and the legendary Conrad Schumacher of Germany on an ongoing basis. As a member of the Young Riders Team (1996-1998), Nicole trained with team coach and six-time Olympian Robert Dover. She also works regularly with USET coach Klaus Balkenhol.
In addition to earning a team gold and individual silver and bronze medals on the Young Riders teams, Nicole was long listed for the Olympic trials in 2000 on the celebrated stallion Batido. She has taken several horses to either champion or reserve champion at CDS/USDF annual championships every year from 2001 to 2006.
Nicole successfully competed Violet Jen’s stallion, Rubino Bellissimo, at the 2004 United States Olympic Selection Trials in San Juan Capistrano, where she placed third in the country at Intermediaire I. Nicole has been working with “Ruby” since he was 4 and their many accomplishments also include double championships for CDS Horse of the Year and USDF Region 7 at the Intermediaire I Freestyle.
Nicole has a long string of successes with Adara Partner’s up and coming stallion Contester. She brought him to the West Coast FEI six-year-old Championships, garnering an invitation to the World Breeders Championships in Germany. Their resume also includes Second Level champion at both the CDS HOTY and the Great American/USDF Annual Championship.
And Golden Oak Farm’s Adagio, a Contester colt, is one of Nicole’s promising prospects.
Nicole grew up among dressage’s top competitors and, as the youngest member of this elite group, she bears a bit of good-humored ribbing in addition to ongoing guidance. When she had a serious accident as a teenager and recovered after a long period of physical therapy, a group of Southern California dressage riders contributed to a new saddle for her. Her old one had been crushed in the fall.
Dara cites Nicole’s comeback from such a serious injury as proof of the young trainer’s strength, resilience, commitment and love of the sport. “Her character is courageous, honest, warm and ethical,” says Dara. “You know that every day she gets up she’s going to do the right thing.”
Really Good Riding Horses
The Golden Oak team has a super eye for young horses and they are realistic about each horse’s potential and strengths. Their Dutch Warmblood stallion Victory, for example, was showing a lot of natural jumping talent, so Dara placed him with Peter Breakwell, a Portola Valley Training Center-based professional who specializes in preparing A circuit jumpers.
“Horses are like children, you have to let them be what they are,” explains Dara. The team believes in the European method of cross training on the trail, jumping, dressage, and long-line work to explore the strengths of each individual. And like children, Dara keeps track of where they go in the world. This is not “just a business” for Dara, Nicole and their partners. “It’s important to make morally good decisions every day,” Dara notes.

Bringing Up Babies
It’s also important that the foals be handled a lot as youngsters. To achieve this goal Golden Oak Farm partnered with Jeanne Williams of Williams Ranch in Woodside. Jeanne foals mares bearing Golden Oak babies, imprints them and teaches them good ground manners from day one. Jeanne runs a draft horse business as well.
Williams Ranch is an idyllic spot with fields full of content mares and babies whiling away the day. The barn is spotless and comfortable. Massive heads of Shires, Clydesdales and Percherons hang over the doors to greet visitors and big liquid eyes watch every move.
Born three weeks prior to this reporter’s visit to Williams Ranch, Cache is a Contester filly out of a mare from Sue Curry’s Fairwinds Farm breeding program. “She’s the ideal package,” Dara says with a huge smile. The long legged filly shows off a floaty trot across the pasture, alternately following and leading mom.
Cache is living proof of Dara’s breeding beliefs. Personality and temperament are as important as look and build among the traits a stallion passes along, she says. Contester is an affectionate animal and his daughter is a heatseeking missile for attention.

A Late Entry
Dara dealt with illness as a youngster, which kept her close to home while her sister was spending all her free time at a local ranch. Dara was a little jealous and she put “learn to ride a horse” on her life’s to-do list.
At 44, Dara took a lesson at Fremont Country Club stables on Casper. She fell in love with riding and Casper, went to the barn daily for hours, and eventually bought Casper. One of her next horses was Dutch, a Warmblood, who, at 22, is still a schoolmaster.
Dara’s friend Violet, a lifelong horsewoman, called one day to tell her about a young trainer she’d discovered and invited Dara over. Both Dara and Violet were so taken with the Nicole’s talent and personality that they began sponsoring her. When they branched into the breeding business, Nicole was the choice for training the stallions and promoting the youngsters.
The stallions are in transition right now, making good progress, and the team agrees that the priority is to know just the right timing for each athlete.
In addition to training the horses, Nicole has been giving clinics this year. She believes strongly in giving back to the sport and in developing young riders. “We need more kids in the sport,” she says. Her training philosophy is to combine hard work with fun. Nicole currently has 16 horses in training and her students range from teenagers to adult amateurs. She plans to compete Calypso, her Grand Prix prospect, at Pebble Beach this summer.

THE GOLDEN OAK STALLIONS


Contester
This 1998 Holsteiner son of Contender is a stunning 16.3hh mahogany bay and has the look of a sire with a powerful appearance and naturally uphill conformation. Imported by Willy Arts of DG Bar Ranch at only 18 months old, Contester is clearly built for dressage and destined for FEI level success.
“The best thing about Contester is his mind and willingness to work,” says Nicole. “He’s the whole package.” He has a kindness in his ground manners and a steely work ethic. Although just 8 years old, Contester is already a proven performer. He has been a USDF champion young horse from ages 2 through 7, and holds Stallion and USDF/Cosequin Breed Show championships at the prestigious Devon Breed Show in 2003, in addition to be being the Reserve Grand Champion for Devon that year.
“Contester and Nicole have similar work ethics, which makes them a great team,” says Dara. “Whatever it takes to get the job done, they’re going to do it.”
The pair’s latest accomplishments are topped by 2005 AHHA Horse of the Year Reserve Champion and, in 2006, AHHA National All Breeds Champion Fourth Level Open. They are currently schooling Intermediaire I through Grand Prix. “He shows extreme promise for the piaffe and pirouette to be spectacular parts of his test,” explains Nicole. Additionally, Contester and Nicole have been invited to participate in the USET training sessions with coach Balkenhol.
Contester’s offspring prove that he consistently passes along his strengths. Winchester (Polimbria/Farrington) was the 2004 USDF/Cosequin Breeders Series Champion and the 2006 KWPN-NA Keur Top 10 3-year-old. What About Me (Scandalous/Juventus) was ranked second in the U.S. for the 2004 NAWPN 2004 Kuer. Woodwind (Muziek/Uniform) is the 2006 KWPN-NA Keur and National Champion USDF Breeders Series and is now winning under saddle with DG Bar’s Willy Arts. Contester is an approved Holsteiner, Dutch Warmblood and Oldenburg stallion.

Rubino Bellissimo
“Rubi” is a 1996 Hanoverian son of the legendary Rubinstein I and from a mare line that includes the Olympic silver medalist three-day eventer, Volturno. The16.1 hand chestnut is considered to combine the best Thoroughbred and Warmblood traits with his refined, uphill body type.
His competitive record speaks for itself and his babies are doing the same. Several of his offspring are already champions in their own right, including two inspection champions and dressage and hunter breed show champions. One 3-year-old offspring earned the Elite Mare candidate title. Rubi earns high marks for rideablity and trainability and is a charming character.

Montserrat
“Monti” is a perfect example of his versatile sire, Metternich, who is known as the best son of the Anglo-Arab refining stallion Matcho. Champion at his Hanoverian stallion licensing in Adelheidsdorf, Montserrat earned high marks for both dressage and jumping potential. The brown/black stallion was born in 1996 and stands 16.3 hh. His build combines leggy proportion with a bigger frame and compact body, making him a suitable sire for both Thoroughbreds and the more traditional Warmblood mares. “Monti’s movements are extravagant, but he is so uphill and elastic that riding him is extra comfortable,” says Violet.“That is great for my old bones.”

Victory
This tall, black, elegant 4-year-old brings the Dutch Warmblood Burggraaf bloodline into the Golden Oak family. He is highly trainable and athletic and is in training for jumping with Peter Breakwell.

Wonderful
Wonderful was ranked top young dressage sire in 2000 by the German National Federation, based on his babies’ under saddle show results in Germany. This 16.1 hand chestnut is by “Stallion of the Century,” Weltmeyer, out of a States Premium dam by Bolero, who was well known for his refinement and dressage ability. Wonderful sired five horses selected for the prestigious Verden auctions, and in 2005, three of his grandchildren were selected for Verden Elite Foal/Mare auction.
For mare owners interested in breeding to one of Golden Oak Farms stallions, there are beautifully presented DVDs available that show off the movement, conformation and personality of each horse.
For more information please visit
www.goldenoakfarm.com, or call 650-868-0175.