Ms. Wendy Wipperman
Wendy first fell in love with horses and riding at a summer camp in Western New York at the age of 12. When camp was over, she was determined to continue riding. She asked her parents for a horse for her birthday but knowing that it wasn’t likely her parents would agree, asked for riding lessons as a backup plan. Wendy’s parents agreed, and weekly riding lessons soon grew to include a pony for Christmas. The pony was boarded at a small backyard barn owned by a retired man who Wendy’s father knew. Mr. Fred Rinker had high standards for his young boarders, who were expected to care for their own horses including cleaning their stalls daily. “We girls were a little afraid of Mr. Rinker, who inspected our stalls. I still remember him demonstrating how to properly sweep the barn aisle!” recalled Wendy. When the pony Rusty was outgrown, Wendy was given her first horse Bonnie, followed by Sundance, a Morgan Pinto cross. “We girls rode unsupervised, and in the summer had sleep over parties in the barn hay loft,” Wendy recalled. “Those were the days!”
After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Wendy was able to continue riding again, taking lessons at Switch Willo Stables in Austin, a hunter jumper barn. She acquired her horse Jonathan, an off the track thoroughbred while at Switch Willo. “Back in the 1980’s, most hunter jumpers were thoroughbreds,” Wendy recalled. When Wendy relocated to upstate New York, Jonathan went with her. While living in the Hudson Valley, she and Jonathan spent hours hacking out, even in the snow. “It was magical!” she recalls.
After moving to the Fort Worth/Dallas area in the late 90’s for a job opportunity she started showing hunters. She bought “Jackie”, a Hungarian Warmblood who was known to be a bit difficult. She showed in the hunter divisions for a while but noticed that Jackie was starting to get sour in the ring. She and her husband, Tom Kaufman, had a small farm in Texas that had riding trails within the subdivision. Jackie loved to hack out. It was then Wendy realized that Jackie preferred trails to the show ring. A good friend of Wendy’s and long-time fox hunter Scot Litke suggested they should try fox hunting. Wendy was concerned: neither she nor her mare had ever fox hunted before. What could possibly go wrong?
At her friend’s urging they decided to give it a try. They arrived at their first hunt with the Hickory Creek Hounds. It wasn’t five minutes off the trailer and into the saddle when the cry of “Tally Ho!” was shouted out and they were off at a full run chasing a coyote! Wendy and Jackie loved the thrill of the wide open spaces. Wendy noticed how Jackie watched the hounds, studying their movements. Oftentimes while just the two of them were hacking out in a neighbors’ hayfield they would spot a coyote crossing the field. Wendy would lean in and whisper in Jackie’s ear, “Go get ‘em!” and Jackie would take off after the coyote like she was a fox hound in a warmblood’s body! They had found their sport.
The territory in Texas was open with little cover. Game was mostly coyote and wild pigs were a danger as they would attack the foxhounds. One time Wendy and Jackie were hacking back to their trailer after a hunt when Wendy noticed a puppy nestled near some scrub brush. She stopped Jackie to get a closer look. “It was absolutely the ugliest puppy I had ever seen,” Wendy said, screwing up her face. “I took a second look and realized it was a piglet. Where there is a piglet there is a wild mother about to charge! I kicked Jackie and we high-tailed it to the trailer.”
As the Dallas/Fort Worth area exploded with development the hunt was losing more and more territory. It took Wendy nearly an hour to get to their hunt fixtures. “It just wasn’t the same any more. Tom and I realized we didn’t want to retire here. I wanted to move somewhere where there was more of a hunt culture.” They knew Tom and Jolene Eizember who were living in Texas but were building a house in Tryon where they were going retire. Wendy had heard of Tryon but didn’t really know much about it. Wendy had an upcoming finance conference in Charlotte and decided to stay for another few days and explore Tryon, which was only 90 minutes away.
When she reached Landrum she saw Stone Soup Restaurant which looked cute and decided to try it out. When she walked into the restaurant, the owner, Suzanne Strickland, threw her arms around Wendy and said, “When did you move here?” Wendy said you must be mistaking me for someone else to which Suzanne replied, “You look like you belong here.” A warm feeling came over Wendy as she looked around and saw all the photographs of people riding horses who now called Tryon home. “And then she said to me that people were “called” to come here,” Wendy said. “I felt tingle run down my neck. I don’t believe in coincidence, but I do at times feel that I see a “sign”."
While rambling around the area, Wendy found herself in Columbus at one of the round-abouts. The beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains were shining beneath a startling blue sky when she saw a book mobile coming towards her on the round-about. “My mother was a book mobile librarian in Erie County “, Wendy said in a whispery voice. “It’s so rare to even see a book mobile these days. The whole area was reminiscent of where I grew up in upstate NY and the Hudson Valley area. I called Tom and said I’m buying property here. To his credit, he didn’t question my sanity!”
They looked for a couple of years looking for the right property. During one visit Wendy went to the 2018 Field Hunter Trials at the Tryon International Equestrian Center. There was a lady from Southern Pines, Shelly Talk, who was riding a horse that Wendy instantly fell in love with. She asked Shelly if she would sell her Welsh Quarter horse cross. “She said I will never sell Clementine. We whip for the Moore County Hounds.” Hmmm – a horse that was a whipper in…no wonder Ms. Wipperman couldn’t get that mare out of her mind. It took 3 years before Shelly agreed to sell Wendy the mare. She is still hunting 23 year old Clemmie with the Tryon Hounds. They finally found a farm which they bought. It was a very telling sign that a Tryon Hounds hunt fixture was adjacent to it. Wendy moved to the farm during the Covid Pandemic since her work could be done remotely. Tom didn’t move until 2023. While Tom had enjoyed trail riding he wasn’t at all sure he
wanted to hunt. Wendy found Tom a horse in Aiken that had hunted 3 seasons named Ivan, a Gypsy Vanner cross “who is wide as he is tall.” After some lessons, Tom is now hunting with Wendy.
Wendy said her favorite memory of the Tryon Hounds was when they first came and joined as a social member before they moved here. “I was having a conversation with Louise Houston and I told her that Tryon Hounds made me feel so welcome. I’ll never forget what she said: ‘Well, we just love each other.’.”
The Tryon Hounds is off to a great start, thanks to Piper Close, who is chairing the committee. Many Tryon Hounds members stepped up to chair or serve on a committee to create a tribute to the various aspects of our sport; art, fashion, and music will be mixed in with our usual special events. Everyone who attended the Sporting and Country Life Art Gala agrees that the bar was set high and is looking forward to a memorable year. Piper is proof that being a social member with the Tryon Hounds is a valuable asset to the Club. After moving to Tryon with her husband, Jeff, from Palm Springs, CA, they joined the Tryon Hounds. It’s a wonderful way to meet people by becoming involved in the Tryon Hounds' many activities and events.
Her research has taken her to the “living rooms” of Tim Brannon, Nancy Mahler, Ann Allen, Gerald Pack, Chris Bartol, Lisa Walker, Madelon Wallace, Betty Reynolds Oare, and more than a few hours in the archives of Anita Williamson, Libby Johnson, The Daily Bulletin, and the National Sporting Library and Museum in Middleburg. “And more hours than I can count asking Bonnie questions,” Piper quipped. “A true highlight was meeting Betty Reynolds Oare, the daughter of our first professional huntsman. Aside from all the historic family photos made available to me, Elizabeth Sher and Don West shared their finest work of members, horses, hounds, our beautiful hunt country, and social events. A very special gift came from Chris Bartol, who offered the historic photographs of our earliest events shot by Hansel Meith for LIFE magazine. “