Athletes come in many forms. Some devote all their time and energy to one sport, while others blend multiple sports in with other aspects of life, such as academics. Lewes native and University of Delaware student Alex Makowski is an intramural athlete at the University of Delaware; with an up-and-coming young horse he will compete next year in three-day eventing.
A rigorous equestrian sport, three-day eventing requires horse-and-rider teams to prove proficiency at three disciplines that test precision of training and endurance through a dressage test, jumping course and cross-country course. “Out of the mainstream English disciplines, the riders and horses that are good are the best of the best. You must be well-rounded in the three disciplines and be proficient at each,” Makowski said.
He has reached out to some of the sport’s top stars for help, first as a working student at a Grand Prix jumper barn in Pennsylvania at the age of 12. He has interned with local trainers who specialize in developing young horses, and started training his family’s thoroughbred horses before they went to the racetrack to compete.
Makowski got his first horse, Banner, when he was in eighth grade and spent weekends working off board bills. That began a trend that continues to this day – a working rider balancing horses with school and other sports.
As a high school senior, he lettered in varsity cross country, swimming and outdoor track. At the same time, he was riding Banner and waiting for Red, his thoroughbred mare, to deliver the family’s first home-bred foal.
He wanted a foal, but wanted to learn more. During that senior year, while Red was in foal with Grace, Makowski was a first-year lifeguard in Rehoboth Beach. “Your rookie year is the hardest. I had one day off a week and I went to Federalsburg [Md.] to work off Grace’s breeding – baling hay, doing barn work and learning how to manage stallions,” he said.
Through three summers of lifeguarding, he worked to develop a herd of sport horses, breeding thoroughbred mares to warmblood stallions and raising the young horses. Warmbloods are large, athletic riding horses, originating in Europe. They are used in many equestrian sports.
He spent many weekend days at a farm in Chestertown, Md., helping with breed inspections and foals. “I learned a lot about the characteristics desirable for horse conformation and the difference between what a German thinks is a good horse and what an American thinks is a good horse,” he said. From highly discriminating German breed inspectors who arrive in the United States each spring to inspect and approve foals – each animal must display certain physical form and characteristics to win awards – he gained an eye for quality young horses.
Those summer work days earned Makowski valuable contacts with some of the nation’s promising equestrians, including Eiren Crawford, a dressage trainer who has just left the country to work alongside a well-respected German trainer.
As a biotechnology major at James Madison University, he worked at a farm of 30 riding horses, where he established his place training and competing young horses.
Along with the valuable experience gained from many rides on unpredictable young horses, Alex found a new partner in Hope. His first horse, Banner, found another home in Virginia and Hope returned to Delaware with Makowski last winter. He leased a farm in Milford and, during a semester between James Madison University and the University of Delaware, expanded his repertoire with horses. Mixing class work with two restaurant jobs and riding, he also worked at a breeding farm in Ellendale, learning the finer points of breeding management and the latest technology involved in artificial breeding, including lab work and ultrasonography.
Now in Newark, he is balancing his horse life with agriculture and natural resources coursework and intramural sports. He said he is looking forward to competing with Hope in the coming year, but he isn’t ready to pin down riding as a future career.
“If I chose eventing as a career, I would be doing it so I could help change the sport. It can be pretentious, and in some aspects, it’s still an elitist sport,” he said.
Eventing can also be dangerous, and its image has been tarnished by serious rider injuries and several horse deaths in the last year. He said the sport can clean up its act by becoming more spectator-friendly and appearing more like a sport open to the average rider, not only the wealthy.
He is still devoted to young horses. Following in the footsteps of his late aunt, Chris Makowski, one of the first women admitted to the Cornell University veterinary school, Makowski will be volunteering at the neonatal intensive care unit at the New Bolton Center, the large animal hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.
