Kendra Zartman is a poster girl for the idea that you don’t have to compete to thrive within the horse world.
What started as a way to stay out of her daughter’s way — volunteering – became the hub of a happy life that revolves around eventing long after her daughter Kaleigh stopped riding.
“I just love being around three-day eventers,” says Kendra. “They are my kind of people.” A resident of the Seattle area’s Gig Harbor, WA, Kendra is a bronze medalist and climbing on the USEA’s Volunteer Incentive Program’s lifetime ranking with 591:56 hours.
Many of those hours come from her home turf in USEA Area VII. Kendra is a regular at Area VI competitions, too, including this month’s Galway Downs International Horse Trials.
Volunteering was the first step to a much bigger dive into the sport. Kendra won’t become a competitor – ever. “I’d never do what you guys do!” But she is an owner of two competition horses for Washington-based professional Anni Grandia-Dodson and she recently bought a Quarter Horse for trail riding and fun.
One of Kendra’s competition horses, HHS Cellesto, aka “Cornflakes,” will make his Preliminary debut at Galway Downs with Marc Grandia in the irons. Anni had a femur-breaking fall late last year, so her brother and fellow professional Marc Grandia is taking over until she’s fully healed.
Going All-In
Since retiring from her career in business management and customer service, Kendra has fully indulged her passion for the horsey life. She sold her home and bought a mobile home that’s located on Grandia-Dodson’s Grand Farms Eventing in Tacoma and Vaughn, WA.
Much of the year, Kendra is on the road with “Team Chaos,” the trainer’s crew of riders and supporters. Competitors and enthusiasts alike volunteer at every show from a special favorite at Aspen Farms in Yelm, WA., to Twin Rivers in Central California’s Paso Robles and south to Galway Downs.
Kendra and Team Chaos drove south to Temecula in early March, settling in for schooling at Kingsway Farm three weeks before the International Horse Trials. Coming out of the Pacific Northwest, Kendra loves the heavy Vitamin D dose from the California sunshine. Plus, it never gets old watching and helping the horses and riders progress in their development and prepare for competition.
Reconnecting with the California-based members of her eventing family is a major draw of the trip, Kendra adds. “I get my fill of horse time and hang out with a lot of my people who I haven’t seen for a while.” She also loves Temecula, shopping in Old Town and visiting other sites that have made it an increasingly popular tourist destination.
Scribing Savvy
Dressage scribing is Kendra’s hands-down favorite role. “It’s a role that volunteer coordinators always need to fill, and many people are scared to do.”
Kendra was scared, too, when she first stepped into the booth alongside a dressage judge. “But the judges I’ve worked with have been amazing.” If she’s scribing for a judge for the first time, Kendra asks their preferences in advance. For example, “Do you want me to write the numeric score or the comment first?”
In Area VII, Kendra has often worked with the judges before, but the mindset of asking for and honoring their preferences always pays off. Most are happy to answer any questions – when they’re asked at an appropriate time — and to share insights that enhance Kendra’s enjoyment of scribing and of being part of the sport in general.
Scribing feeds Kendra’s constant quest for knowledge. “I like to know about the movements, the requirements and what the judges are looking for.” It’s especially interesting because she can apply that perspective to watching Anni develop her own horses.
Notetaking is an important scribing skill, but Kendra emphasizes there’s no one way to do it. “I have my own little tricks – like ‘ST-8‘ – when the judge says ‘straight entry.’” The bottom line, Kendra stresses, is ensuring that the rider can understand the notations. “As the mom of somebody who used to ride, I always want them to understand what I wrote in hopes they will actually read it!”
She also loves timing at the cross-country finish line, watching the exuberant riders, and jump judging the FEI divisions’ most challenging points on course. However, Kendra is happy to go wherever the coordinators ask her to go. Having recently served as Volunteer Coordinator for the Twin Rivers Horse Trials, she knows how valuable a willing and flexible helper is.
Calling all Volunteers
Like most in the sport, Kendra worries about the shrinking volunteer base. This contingent is critical to the smooth-running and affordability of any event. Sign-up sheets have gotten progressively harder to fill, especially on Sunday when competitors want to head home after they’re done riding.
“It’s become intensely more difficult to find people in the last decade or so,” Kendra observes. A positive side always emerges, though, whenever she walks the barns and finds that mom sitting on a tack trunk. “When you ask them if they can jump judge and promise them you’ll talk them through it, they get out there and can’t believe how much fun they’ve had. It’s just a fear of the unknown, I think, that goes away once they really start doing it.”
She’s encouraged about the new volunteer requirement for applicants to the USEA’s Emerging Athletes program. As of 2025, applicants need to include 10 hours of volunteer time. “That should be very easy to do, and it should help.”
Kendra loves the range of incentives West Coast organizers offer their volunteers. From “amazing” lunches at Aspen Farms to Galway Downs’ credits for entries, schooling and/or swag, everything helps, she says.
None of those incentives, however, outweigh the enjoyment and gratification that come from being an essential part of a wonderful sport that attracts wonderful people, Kendra asserts.
