Team #543 Judith Streisand and Cartujo VIII

Team #543: Judith Streisand and Cartujo VIII
From: Wellington, Florida
Ages: 77 & 26
Combined Age: 103
Test: Intermediate I
Date: January 20, 2022

This ride is dedicated to my best friend, psychiatrist, physiotherapist, and the most amazing horse ever, Cartujo VIII. I can’t believe that we have been together so long and survived to do a Century Club ride! It has been a wonderful journey that we have both enjoyed. After several unavoidable delays, we finally did it at the combined age of 103!!

I was born a crazy horse and dog person. It must have been a mutation because I didn’t inherit the disease from anyone in my family. I have pictures of myself at age two on a pony, a donkey, and a llama in Argentina. I also loved a merry-go-round pulled by a horse. All I ever wanted as a gift was a horse. 

While young, I galloped horses on the streets of Caracas for $1 per hour, went to a horse camp, and rode at a boarding school in Maine with Skipper Bartlett. I had a little three-year-old mare that I rode on the streets in Mexico City for a year, rode a horse belonging to my high school principal in Miami, taught Girl Scouts how to ride in Long Island, and learned dressage on an ex-racehorse, "More Than Somewhat" (Studley), with trainer Karen Peterson up to Third Level. 

Thanks to my husband, Shelly, I got my first warmblood, Dominique, who finished my USDF bronze medal, and then my first “horse of a lifetime,” a five-year-old Westphalian, Foxi, who finished my silver medal. He retired at 18 due to an injury and lived to be 28 years old. 

In 1999, I met my second “horse of a lifetime.” Cartujo was a cute little three-year-old, barely started PRE. Growing up in Latin America, I always wanted a Spanish horse, but at the time, he was just too young. Two years later, when he was old enough, we bought him. With the help of my trainer, Holger Bechtloff, we started at First Level (and got a performance certificate) and gradually went up the Levels. He was hot, but willing, and always did his best. Holger showed him at Grand Prix and got another performance certificate. 

When we retired him from showing I continued riding him, but I didn’t have a goal. Then I remembered when Max Gahwyler started the TDF Century Club and wondered if we would ever last long enough to do it. I never thought we would be this old! I am now 77 and Cartujo is 26! Riding is physical therapy for both of us. 

I am grateful to IDA Farm for providing a great place to train, and to Marisol Burssens for taking such good care of my horses for almost 25 years!

But most of all, I thank my best friend and husband, Shelly Streisand, for being so supportive of my incurable habit, even after he stopped riding.