20 Questions for Chester Weber

Check out our featured athlete of the week, Kentucky Cup Driving contestant, Chester Weber. Watch Chester and other World Equestrian Games veterans at the official driving test event of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games, Kentucky Cup Driving, this weekend (October 1-4) at the Kentucky Horse Park.

CHESTER C. WEBER

AGE: JUNE 3 1975 (33)
DISCIPLINE: DRIVING
COUNTRY: USA

1. When did you start in your discipline?
In 1989

2. How did you get into driving?
I first started to compete with draft horses, specifically with Clydesdales, and when I went off to Boarding school at Blair Academy in Blairstown, NJ I was introduced to Combined Driving by Jimmy Fairclough

3. Do you have any lucky driving attire?
Not really, I joke some times that there is magic in my old top hat

4. Do you have any advice for younger riders aspiring within your discipline?
Concentrate on the details and remembers winners train and losers complain

5. Who is your equestrian idol?
Michael Freund

6. If there was one other discipline you could compete in, what would it be?
Jumping

7. What characteristic or quality do you value most in a horse?
Temperament of a winner, without that training is for nothing

8. Where will you be in 5, 10 years?
At Live Oak Stud with my wife and family

9. What are 3 things you are most likely to find in your refrigerator?
St. Pellegrino water, limes and fresh fish

10. What is one thing you always take with you to horse shows/on the road?
Movies for amusement

11. What is the coolest place in the world driving has taken you?
Aachen during the CHIO

12. Given the chance, what horse(s) other than your own would you like to compete with?
Chardon’s team from 1998

13. What is your favorite horse show?
CHIO Aachen

14. What is the best/worst part about driving and competing?
Best, the travels. Worst, packing

15. What have horses and competing taught you?
“Winners train losers complain” all good horsemen and women can cull ruthlessly, and with horses you need humility

16. What have been the biggest rewards of your career?
Getting to work with fabulous horses

17. What are you most likely to be doing if/when you’re not driving?
Skiing on the snow or in the water or playing tennis

18. How do you unwind after a long day?
Glass of French Burgundy

19. How do you juggle your driving career with your life as a mom/dad?
I am neither mom nor dad that I know of

20. What excites you most about the 2010 Games in Kentucky?
Competing in my backyard aginst the world’s best

21. Have you ever ridden any other disciplines?
Not really

22. What music are you currently listening to?
Country

23. What do you think when you think about possibly riding in next year’s WEG?
The challenges of tomorrow’s training

24. What are you doing to try to get there?
Training and keeping focused

25. What impact do you think having WEG in the US will have on horse sports in this country?
It will have a great impact on bringing our sport to the masses of horse lovers in the US.