The genesis of 18-year-old equestrienne Danielle Rosenbaum’s 13 national championships extends back to decades before her birth, to the summer her grandfather Carl Rosenbaum fell in love at camp – with horses.
Danielle won her first two national championships at the tender age of 11 at the Arabian Horse Youth Nationals in Albuquer- que, NM, riding her purebred Arabian hunter in pleasure and equitation. After that she shifted to western-style riding and began competing in reining, reined cow horse and horsemanship classes, in which she has won the balance of her national cham- pionships, in addition to 12 reserve national championships and numerous top 10 honors.
Last month, in preparation for the derbies put on by the NRHA (National Reining Horse Association), she rode her new Quarter Horse, Coronas in Hollywood, at the Sun Circuit reining show sponsored by the Arizona Quarter Horse Association at West World in Scottsdale. She returned to West World Feb. 14-24 to compete in the 58th annual Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show, the largest event of its kind in the world, drawing more than 2,200 horses from across the country. Though results for this year weren’t available at press time, last year her father, Kevin, won the non-pro Half-Arabian reining futurity on Tina Turnaround, who also was a top 10 Scottsdale Half-Arabian junior horse.
Two years ago at the famed Scottsdale show, Kevin won the non-pro Half-Arabian reining futurity on Jackie O Whiz (Rita), the first horse the family bred and raised. Rita was the daughter of a mare the family bought as a broodmare. But when Rita was just 6 weeks old, the mare died. Fortunately another nursing mare on the farm allowed Rita to nurse alongside her own foal.
It was the first time any of the Rosenbaums’ horses had even been seriously sick, and it hit them hard. As successful as Danielle and Kevin have been in the show ring, they say they consider their horses family pets. “They know us when we get to the barn,” says Kevin.
“It’s about loving riding. Showing is fun, but on Saturday it’s about sitting around on a horse talking with your friends for three hours.”
It’s a natural progression from Carl’s love affair at camp long ago.
Carl’s love for horses led him to buy an Appaloosa gelding when Kevin was about 6. Kevin spent many summers at the same camp his father had attended – Greenwoods Lake of the Woods in Decatur, MI. He says it was popular with his Jewish friends in Chicago who enjoyed getting out to the country for water sports and horseback riding. “From that point on I loved horses and did shows all over the Midwest,” says Kevin. His bar mitzvah gift was a hunter/jumper that he showed till near the end of high school. But Kevin quit riding for about 20 years while he helped run his family’s record store in the Chicago area, where his dad also worked as a concert promoter for 27 years.
The family enjoyed escaping to Phoenix for vacations every year, and Grandpa Carl started to tell Danielle he would buy her a horse. When technology changed, Carl and his wife, Joanne, closed the record store and moved to Scottsdale. The Rosenbaums are still in the music business, selling CDs and DVDs to big retailers from Top Hits, their family business head- quartered in Chicago. When tech- nology enabled the family to run the business largely online, Kevin and his wife, Marianne, brought Danielle and her older brother, Matthew, to Phoenix. At Grandpa Carl’s urging, the two youngsters began to take riding lessons when Danielle was about 6. Kevin says that as soon as Matthew discovered horses involved mucking out stalls, he turned his attention to baseball. Meanwhile, Carl fulfilled his promise and bought Danielle her first horse, a small Arabian named Form VanRaf. The first time Danielle showed “Peanut” in a big show, her legs were so short they didn’t reach below the saddle pad.
“I was kicking the entire class,” says Danielle, noting Peanut just calmly carried her 7-year-old rider through the class at a slow walk.
Through the years Kevin has divided his time between aiding his daughter’s riding career and coaching his son from T-ball through high-school baseball. The family also found time to join Temple Solel in Paradise Valley, where Danielle and Matthew attended Sunday school and Hebrew school until Matthew’s bar mitzvah. Danielle says she enjoys celebrating all the holidays, especially Passover, when the family gathers for the seder at her grandparents’ home.
Though Danielle’s mom, Marianne, is afraid of horses, she enjoys watching the shows and every year accompanies Danielle to Nationals for a 10-day mother-daughter getaway. While Danielle was competing on her Arabian hunter, Kevin became interested in reining horses. Danielle was riding at one stable, and Kevin had his reining horse at Crystal McNutt’s Performance Horse barn. Soon Danielle was tagging along
and riding the reiners too. Now all eight of their horses are at Crystal’s barn.
They still own Eddy, an 18-year-old that Kevin calls his first really good horse. Kevin bought SR Desperado (Eddy) nine years ago, after Eddy won the Half-Arabian reining national championship that year. Soon Eddy became his daughter’s horse, and, though Eddy is now retired from showing, Danielle says he is still the first horse she rides when she gets to Crystal’s barn. “Had I not been with Crystal, I probably wouldn’t still be riding,” says Danielle. “Crystal makes it so much fun.” Kevin agrees: “Crystal has made the entire experience fun and enjoy able.”
Crystal specializes in Arabians and reining horses. In 2011 she was inducted into the Arabian Profes- sional & Amateur Horseman’s Association’s Hall of Fame the same year she was named APAHA’s Horsewoman of the Year. Crystal says Danielle, who was nominated for APAHA Junior Working Western Rider in 2011 and 2012, has earned all of her victories. “Danielle is a really genuine person and a hard worker,” says Crystal. “Every time she comes out, she wants to get better. She works hard for what she has … that’s nice in a young person.”
Crystal also praises Kevin: “He’s a very supportive person. They got into it so they could ride together. They ride for the love of the horse.”
Crystal took 40 horses to this year’s Scottsdale Arabian show. “Scottsdale is the highlight of the year for Arabians,” says Crystal. “It’s an event. The Arabians put on a great show.”
According to an article by Linda White in the Arabian Horse Times, the Scottsdale show is “the largest equine event of its kind in the world, with more than 2,200 horses coming to town to compete for over $1 million in prize monies. And if that isn’t enough, some 300,000 people from 50 countries come to Arizona’s Valley of the Sun to participate, to spectate, buy and sell horses, make new friends and have even more fun than they ever imagined. Arabian horse enthusiasts everywhere plan far in advance for the annual pilgrimage.”
So if you missed the show this year, be sure to put it on your calendar for next February. The 11-day extravaganza also in- cludes Shopping Expo, featuring one-of-a-kind sculpture, jew- elry, artwork, footwear, hats, clothing, tack and fencing as well as real estate agents knowledgeable about equestrian properties in the area. And you’ll be able to see Danielle compete in her final year as a youth competitor next year. After considering three colleges, she chose to attend Arizona State University in Tempe so she can keep riding and showing. She received an academic scholar- ship and plans to major in biology, with thoughts of medical school or veterinary school in the future.
