‘He Is Like ‘Grandpa Benny’ ’: Iconic New Canaan Mounted Troop Horse Turns 30

Benny, a chestnut gelding, made a small circle in his stall on a recent morning, then stepped toward the sliding door and poked his head out into the aisle, as if to catch sight of one of the other 24 horses living here in the New Canaan Mounted Troop’s spacious barn.

According to those who know him best, it’s a gesture typical of this singularly sociable animal, a thoroughbred-quarter-horse cross who has called the Carter Street nonprofit organization’s serene 13.4-acre campus home for more than two decades.

Benny “still gets visits from people who rode him years ago in the program,” according to Anne Dylweski, closing in on her eleventh year as barn manager at NCMT.

“One former student from the late 90s, I believe, still stops in any time she’s passing by. I think it says something about his character that people take time out of their day to come see the horse that helped teach them riding years ago.”

Gregarious, patient, comical and kind, Benny since arriving at NCMT in 1994 has emerged as an “icon” of the unique program here, according to several lifelong riders and fans, serving as both companion and instructor to scores of New Canaan and area kids who have learned the basics of horsemanship and equine care atop and alongside him.

He turned 30 this year.

“Benny has gone from helping advanced adults and kids win at big horse shows like [Fairfield County Hunt Club] to taking care of beginner riders in their first walk-trot classes,” Dylweski said. “It’s never mattered what the skill level of his riders, he always gives them 110 percent. He loves his work. And the people who have been lucky enough to ride him can tell he gives his all and loves his job. They come away with a great feeling from those lessons. I’m pretty sure that’s why folks still come to see him all these years later, to say hi and thank you.”

Organized in 1939 as the fourth regiment of the Junior Cavalry of America, NCMT currently serves 113 children through its youth development or “trooper” program and has an additional 70-odd adults and children with special needs that it serves through its therapeutic program, according to Executive Director Sara Tucker. Supported through fees collected through its wide variety of programs (including summer camps), as well as family memberships, virtual adoptions, donations, proceeds from two major fundraisers and grants, the organization regularly partners with local community agencies and counts a volunteer base of about 100, she said.

Kelsey Allen, 18, a 2015 New Canaan High School graduate who has been involved in NCMT since age seven, said the equine care and horsemanship programs bring camaraderie and teach early lessons in self-discipline and responsibility to participating kids.

A camp counselor this summer, Allen said Benny on a typical day tacks up for a half-hour or so and then gets into the riding ring for an hour-long lesson, where he’s walking and trotting with beginner riders. The horse is used nearly every day.

“He’s very good,” she said outside Benny’s stall, as he nuzzled into New Canaan’s Emma Merrill, 20, co-director of the NCMT summer camp with Margot Tucker, 19, a 2015 NCHS grad, and Natacha Streiff. “If ever something is happening near the outdoor ring—there are kids doing barn chores and sometimes there’s noise—he just looks over at them and he’s fine. He is like ‘Grandpa Benny.’ He’s cool. Again, Margot [Tucker] and I grew up riding Benny. All these kids are going to grow up riding Benny. He’s the best.”

Merrill added: “At the same time he’s such a ham. You’re looking at him right now and he’s licking me and looking over to Margot like, ‘If you are all going to stand here, then I am too.’ ”

Benny’s effect on NCMT riders is such that when asked about his personality they answer through first-person accounts meant to express the horse’s own thoughts and feelings.

For example, Allen said Benny “is like an angel in that he would never do anything, but sometimes, when I rode him I would always have to get Anne to catch him because he would see a rider coming and if you were wearing a helmet, he would know you were coming to ride him so he would start circling in his stall so you couldn’t catch him. He was like, ‘Oh if you can’t catch me then I get to hang out in the stall and be with my friends so I don’t have to go to work.’ ”

Dylewski described Benny as shy to strangers and “super-friendly” to those he knows.

“It’s hard to describe,” Dylewski said of Benny’s personality.

“Benny can be a little bit neurotic, in the best way. In the old barn he had a paddock where he had to go and if he was in there he was happy. A couple of times he decided, ‘It’s time for me to come in,’ and he would run around and scream at top of lungs and I had to run after him. He usually tells me how to take care of him, rather than me telling him what to do.”

Christopher Joyce, 16, a New Canaan resident and King School student in his ninth year at NCMT, called Benny “a really good teacher.”

“He doesn’t have a problem with anyone,” Joyce said. “He teaches the kids whatever you need.”

Noting that Benny’s tongue often hangs out now that he’s older and has lost some teeth, Leena Aronson, 9, a town resident and New Canaan Country School student who is a trooper at NCMT, called her favorite horse a ham.

“He likes to pose in the arena with his tongue sticking out,” Leena said. “It’s hilarious. He looks so cute. He’s really sweet and funny.”

Asked about Benny’s stature at NCMT, Sara Tucker called him ‘an icon’ and said: “He’s the senior dignitary.”

It isn’t clear just what day in 1986 Benny was born, Dylewski said—he came from a local donor (all of NCMT’s horses are donated) but beyond his immediate prior owner his history is a bit muddled—so the staff and troopers celebrate his birthday each year on Jan. 1.

Since his best friend Spunky passed away at age 30 earlier this year, Benny has been turned out in the paddocks each day with Spot, a pinto pony.

At NCMT, Benny is joined by horses that include thoroughbreds, quarter horses, Halflingers, Appaloosas, warm-bloods of different varieties and Mongo, a Belgian draft horse. The animals often come to NCMT because they had previous careers in the show community, Dylewski said, and can no longer do what their owners wanted them to do.

“So they may have to step down a level and come to us,” she said. “They’re still perfectly usable, happy and comfortable.”

When horses age out of the program or are injured in some way—for example, when they no longer can take a rider and need to be retired—NCMT finds them a suitable home someplace else. It’s a very difficult but important process that’s best for the horse, Merrill said.

“We always know they are going to a good place,” she said. “It’s sad. There was a horse, Daisy, when I was little riding here, and I came back this year just to help out and first went to see Benny and then Daisy and she was going into retirement in the next couple of days. Now we get pictures of her out in the field rolling around in mud. It’s sad because we miss them but they are going to such amazing places.”

It isn’t clear just when Benny will end up at such a place.

About six or seven years ago, Benny developed a problem with his tendons where it gave him pain to do strenuous work, so NCMT pulled back for a time, and he made a full recovery, Allen said.

“He’s doing a lot better,” she said. “He’s not at a spry age where he’s leaping over fences, but he still does walk-trot-canter and goes over poles.”