“Every time you are around a horse, especially riding the horse, you are having a conversation. You may be training the horse, or he may be training you,” says USDF Gold Medalist Linda Alexander Walton of Brookside Equestrian. “Horses have taught me to slow down and feel, to listen, and to be careful of what I say and how I say it. That is a great responsibility.”
Since bringing a 16-hand Lusitano stallion named Pensamento from Brazil to the United States in 2005, Linda’s thoughts on the art of conversation with horses and riding, have evolved. Like many chapters of her life with horses, it’s brought surprises.
Born in Charleston, W.Va., Linda was captivated by horses as a child and dreamed of winning a pony when the local Esso gas station held a raffle. It was after she had her own children that she got a horse. A competitive swimmer in her youth, Linda earned Masters degrees from Marshall University in learning disabilities and special education, and in behavior disorders, long before her first dressage show. When a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred gelding named Mr. O’Riley was bought as a “family horse” and didn’t interest her sons, he launched her dressage career via a roundabout route when she started eventing in West Virginia.

“When my family moved to California in 1986, I met Guenter Seidel and became seriously interested in dressage,” recalls Linda. The fact she’d begun eventing at Preliminary Level was a factor. “I’m not by nature real brave. It was getting a little scary.” She decided it was time to improve her dressage phase. “I always felt like dressage was just something to get through to go jump.” A referral led her to the now three-time Olympian who put Linda on a real dressage horse and she experienced her first piaffe. “Guenter explained I could do something else with horses and feel power and get a thrill and I didn’t need an ambulance there. I thought OK—this is great!” She made the switch to dressage.
As an active competitor, Linda took part in numerous West Coast CDIs with her Warmblood mares, Daula and Bijou. Silver and bronze USDF medals preceded the gold. She trained with Guenter consistently for 17 years and currently rides with both Guenter and João Oliveira. Instruction from the late Deitrick von Hopffgarten also influenced her riding and she still regards the book Dressage Formula by Erik F. Herbermann, which Deitrick recommended, a favorite.
An Unexpected Business
Linda started an unplanned training business in 1998 when a project she was doing with Guenter Seidel to interest children in dressage at Show Park, started attracting adults. “The next thing I knew, I had quite a big business and ended up importing a lot of horses from Holland.” Some of her students progressed from First Level to become FEI competitors. “One of the most rewarding experiences was teaching a blind student to ride on a generous mare named Evita. I would not have trusted any other horse with this girl,” says Linda. When Linda relocated to Brookside, Evita did too.
A training facility for the USEF Olympic dressage team competition training programs, Brookside hosted USEF-sponsored clinics with Klaus Balkenhol since 1998. The U.S. Olympic dressage coach is also a personal friend of Linda and her husband Keith Walton. They’ve vacationed with Klaus and his wife Judith in Austria, where they visited the Spanish Riding School and Lippizzaner stud farm. They traveled to the Alps where the 3 year old stallions are pastured. “There were probably 100 of them and it was just the Balkenhols, us, and the guide. The man who lived there whistled and the horses started zigzagging down the hill. The lead horse had a big bell around his neck. When a couple stallions started fighting, this horse went up the hill, broke up the fight, and brought them down. It was unbelievable. They all stay in an open barn at night. No stalls!”
A Worldly Horse Lover
A longtime fan of Iberian horses, Linda got interested in Lusitanos after meeting legendary classical riding master João Oliveira in 2004 at Brookside. “João’s an amazing guy. He has this gruff, gravely voice, but he has this huge, kind softness in him. You watch him with the horses and see how the horses respond to him. He’s a very gifted trainer.”
João put Linda on her first Lusitano. “To ride these horses is a joy. The Lusitano is physically and mentally created to do dressage without force. They are so talented and willing,” remarks Linda. When she met Pensamento in Brazil, it was love at first ride. “He can really power. He has a great extended trot, a fabulous piaffe. He’s taught me to be much more sensitive, to ask in a more gentle way, not to push,” explains Linda. “To me, riding the Warmbloods was a little more physical. You needed to create the energy a lot of times. Pensamento has taught me to ask in a softer way and not to do so much. You can point his shoulders in the direction, give, and he will go. He’s a confidence builder. I can just drop the reins, go on the trail, and trust him not be silly.”
Shopping for horses in Brazil has been different than in Germany and Holland, Linda admits. “They bring out all their horses and they want you to ride their good horses. It may be their top stallion. They don’t say, ‘This one’s for sale.’ You don’t know. It’s a little unnerving.” But since she and her husband Keith partnered Brookside with Oliveira Dressage to import and train top Lusitanos as Oliveira Dressage Brookside with João, she’s come to better know the Brazilians.
“The people have such a love for their horses. They have parties in the evening and bring their horses out! They might have a band and dancing and the horse comes out piaffing and people are throwing flowers! It was a whole different world than what I was used to in Holland and Germany. You would never throw a flower at a horse!” she exclaims. At one memorable party at Manuel and Teresa Tavares De Almeida’s, Rocas do Vouga Lusitano breeding farm in Brazil, not only were the people doing the samba, a stallion named Samba was brought out and began piaffing amidst the crowd. She smiles, “It’s a different mentality.”
So is the stallion emphasis for a rider whose major achievements were on mares.
“With mares, there’s a bonding that happens,” remarks Linda. “I always felt like both Bijou and Daula were with me. Like OK, we’re a team here. I had very little experience with stallions before the Lusitanos, but I’m finding similar things. There’s a special feeling that they’re working with you. It’s more of a partnership.” She’s bonding with all the Lusitanos now at Brookside (one’s a mare!)
An amateur photographer, who loves classical to country music, Linda lives five minutes from Brookside in Walnut. Brookside, which has been the filming location for several movies—notably, the 1944 classic film National Velvet starring Elizabeth Taylor—reminds Linda of the East Coast. “My favorite parts are the trails down by the stream.” Yet she’s often horseback in the dressage arena.
“I haven’t competed for a couple of years, but I hope to again. I like the camaraderie. I’m not by nature a competitive person, so when I ride a dressage test, I have to imagine that no one is there. It’s just the horse and myself. I also like the judge’s comments. I like to take that and look at the video and see what I can make better. I like competing with myself.”
She reflects, “I have huge admiration for competition riders, particularly Guenter Seidel, Sue Blinks, Debbie McDonald. They’re really artists. Some riders are workers; they get the job done. They get through the test. That’s not to say they’re doing it wrong. But, you watch some people ride and it’s art.” Blending beauty, artistry, and sport is a commitment she’s made with João in Oliveira Dressage Brookside. And always, to remember the art of the conversation.
“Every time you sit on the horses there’s training and conversation going on. You want to make it positive and you want to make it good. Don’t put yourself in situations where you have a bad conversation,” notes Linda. “Horses give so much. They take us away from our problems, our cell phones, and computers for the period of time we spend with them.”