Partly cloudy skies. High 78F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph..
Partly cloudy skies. Low 54F. Winds NNE at 5 to 10 mph.
Updated: May 24, 2023 @ 12:37 am
Barb Gould Uskup, shown here with polo pony Godiva, is largely known for her work in realty, with Carolina Real Estate Company; and for support of hunter-jumper events at Aiken Horse Park. She started horseback riding at age 2. (Bill Bengtson/Staff)
Illinois native Barb Gould Uskup, shown here with four-legged friend Godiva, has been horseback riding since age 2. She is largely known for her work in realty, with Carolina Real Estate Company; and for support of hunter-jumper events at Aiken Horse Park. (Bill Bengtson/Staff)
Illinois native Barb Gould Uskup, shown here with four-legged friend Godiva, is largely known for her work in realty, with Carolina Real Estate Company; and for support of hunter-jumper events at Aiken Horse Park. She began horseback riding at age 2 and has polo among her particular interests. (Bill Bengtson/Staff)
Barb Gould Uskup, shown here with polo pony Godiva, is largely known for her work in realty, with Carolina Real Estate Company; and for support of hunter-jumper events at Aiken Horse Park. She started horseback riding at age 2. (Bill Bengtson/Staff)
Illinois native Barb Gould Uskup, shown here with four-legged friend Godiva, has been horseback riding since age 2. She is largely known for her work in realty, with Carolina Real Estate Company; and for support of hunter-jumper events at Aiken Horse Park. (Bill Bengtson/Staff)
Illinois native Barb Gould Uskup, shown here with four-legged friend Godiva, is largely known for her work in realty, with Carolina Real Estate Company; and for support of hunter-jumper events at Aiken Horse Park. She began horseback riding at age 2 and has polo among her particular interests. (Bill Bengtson/Staff)
Aiken realtor and lifelong equestrian Barb Gould Uskup grew up competing with the late Bruce Duchossois at horse shows throughout the Midwest and around the country.
Today, Uskup honors her late friend as a sponsor of the annual Aiken Charity Horse Show at Bruce’s Field, named in honor Duchossois, at 931 Powderhouse Road S.E. Organized by the Aiken Horse Show Park Foundation, the Aiken Charity Horse Show I will be May 3-7, and the Aiken Charity Horse II will be May 10-14. The events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit aikenhorsepark.org.
Dedicated to Duchossois’ memory, the shows over the “last few years have translated into $150,000 distributed to a variety of local and national charities representative of Bruce’s pledge to increase public awareness of and support for the prevention and elimination of the abuse of children, elderly and abused persons and for the prevention of cruelty to animals,” according to the Horse Park’s website.
“He was always a great philanthropist,” Uskup said of Duchossois, a prominent member of Aiken’s and the national equine community who bought the 66 acres now known as Bruce’s Field in 2000. Formerly Ford Conger Field, the property was home to the Aiken Steeplechase.
Although he never saw it fully realized, Duchossois’ dream “was to nurture the property into South Carolina’s premier equestrian facility yet maintain its historic character,” according to the Horse Park’s website, in addition to preserving it from residential development.
“His idea was to bring back our good old days of horse shows,” Uskup said. “Horse shows have become almost like a business, almost like a factory these days. He wanted to envision the old-fashioned horse show where you had a reasonable number of horses. You competed, and at the end of every day, there was time to kick back and have a cocktail with your fellow competitors.
“There was a party every night or a reception. There was a great exhibitors party, great entertainment, hospitality, great prizes, great trophies. He wanted to make it historic and really sort of a family-oriented horse show rather than a factory.”
Uskup said the Aiken Horse Show Park Foundation has done a good job of realizing Duchossois’ dream.
“I take my hat off to the organizers because I think they’ve done a great job,” she said. “They do a great job with hospitality. They do a great job with their sponsors.”
But Uskup, who moved to Aiken about 20 years for the polo, supports all of Aiken’s varied equestrian activities. She became even more involved in sponsorships after getting back into the real estate business about five years ago. Before moving to Aiken, she sold real estate in Chicago, focusing on horse farms.
“I saw this as an opportunity to market myself and market my business,” said Uskup, whose brand is Find Aiken Homes and Farms at FindAikenHomesandFarms.com and is licensed by the state of South Carolina through the Carolina Real Estate Company.
“I support all of the horse shows. I support a lot of the three-day event facilities. I support polo clubs. I pretty much have my hand in a little bit of everything horse related because my specialty in real estate is horse properties.
“My slogan is: I sell houses and farms to horse people. That’s my ideal. I’m the horse property specialist and the horse people specialist. Horse people are their own breed. No matter whether we do Western horses, whether we do English horses, whether we do any discipline, we’re all the same breed. We all love our animals, and our lives revolve around our horses and the lifestyle. That’s what Aiken is wonderful for: we promote and support the equestrian lifestyle.”
Uskup sponsors most of the hunter-jumper shows at the Aiken Horse Park. She also does sponsorships for J.P. Godard’s Equs Events, Bob Bell’s organization and the Split Rock Jumping Tour, which all host events at Bruce’s Field. She also sponsors other local horse show venues, including Highfields Event Center and Stable View.
“The list goes on and on,” Uskup said. “Supporting the horse sports is definitely a good way to give back to the community, but it’s also an excellent way for me to gain recognition. I just got a phone call over the weekend from a young man who said I see your jumps at all the horse shows I go to, so when I wanted to talk to someone about real estate, I called you.”
Selling horse properties is a natural fit for Uskup, who grew up in Illinois. She started riding when she was just 2 years old.
“My father put me on a pony named Cookie, who was a little Shetland pony who he bought for me for my second birthday,” Uskup said. “It really fostered a lifelong passion for horses.”
For many years, Uskup focused on hunter-jumper horse show competitions and rose to the top of the sport, competing in major Grand Prix and World Cup qualifiers.
After marrying a polo player in the late ‘90s, Uskup embraced polo.
“I jumped from the show jumping world to polo and have had a wonderful time in polo, made great friendships as I did in the show jumping world,” she said. “I’ve had some major victories and won some very, very prestigious tournaments.”
Uskup achieved success in both show jumping and polo as an amateur, not a professional.
“I’ve led a really privileged life in the equestrian world in both show jumping and in polo. You look around and see all the silver and all these trophies,” she said, referring to trophies that fill the bookcases in her office. “They’re a combination of horse show trophies and polo trophies. I’ve been fortunate enough in show jumping to do it myself and in polo to be able to be part of a winning team.
“I was an amateur who had the privilege to have horses that were good enough to compete at those levels and have very good training and be associated with some really good people.”
Antonio Galvan is one of those people. A native of Colombia, he is a former eight-goal polo player.
“He helps me with my horses now and has been my teammate for the last 20 years of polo,” Uskup said. “He, in his heyday, competed in the Queen’s Cup and all kinds of amazing tournaments all over the world. He actually won the Queen’s Cup one year. In fact, there’s a picture of him with Queen Elizabeth presenting the trophy. It gives you chills to see it.”
Uskup still plays polo and competes, but she added her involvement now has become “less of a lifestyle and a little bit more of a hobby.”
“Unfortunately my real estate career doesn’t allow me to devote as much time to the horses as I’d like, but I try to make a point to ride almost every day. And I spend a lot of time with my kids,” she said, referring to the nine polo ponies in her barn.
And, although she doesn’t compete in show jumping, Uskup supports her friends who do and compete in other equestrian events.
“I sponsor and go to many of the competitions; I have friends in every single discipline; and I like to go out and watch them compete,” she said. “With my extensive background in show jumping, it’s really fun to see some of my friends in eventing and to be able to support them. I stay active in pretty much all of the different disciplines just through associations and through people.”
Uskup said the market for equine properties “has never been stronger in Aiken than it has been in the last three years.” She said the market was similar to when she and her former husband moved to Aiken and almost no horse properties were available.
“Now, we’re facing the same situation,” she said. “If you’d talked to me five or six years ago, we had an 18-year supply of subdivision horse properties that were already built. Now you can’t even find them. It’s just crazy.”
Being able to work remotely, a byproduct of the pandemic, and Internet accessibility is bringing many horse lovers to Aiken.
“Many of my clients who move down here are really excited because it used to be they could come for only two or three weeks to compete or for one tournament or for a month or for two horse shows or on the weekends,” Uskup said. “Now, they can actually live here and be here all the time, and they’re delighted because they can work from home and enjoy the sport they love.”
The mild winter weather, as it has for more than a century with the original Winter Colony, also attracts equestrians to Aiken.
“If you’ve ever had a horse up north, it’s not fun,” Uskup said. “But, look at today. It’s an absolutely stunning day, and yet in Chicago, a day like today would be rare in April. Most of the time in Chicago, we didn’t even get to have our first polo practice until mid-May or early June. Whereas here, we’re playing tournament polo. In show jumping, you’re stuck in an indoor arena until June. It’s just a blessing to have this wonderful weather.”
Aiken, with other attractions including Hitchcock Woods and a thriving arts community, has become an equine melting pot, Uskup said.
“It doesn’t matter what you do with your horses. We all play nice in the same sandbox. That’s what I tell people,” Uskup said. “Go to the Willcox on a Tuesday night. You’ll find equestrians of every flavor. Go anywhere in this town, and you’ll find equestrians. We all have the commonality of that creature called the horse.”
Aiken also offers equestrian activities for everyone: competitors, retirees, semi-retirees, the young and the not so young.
“That’s one of the things that’s so fabulous about Aiken,” Uskup said. “You can choose to just be a spectator, or you can choose to compete or be a part of any equestrian discipline at whatever level you want. Where else in the world can you do that? Nowhere.
“The horse is the great equalizer. I have friends who are in their teens, and I have friends who are in their 80s. Where else in the world can you do that, and in what other sport do you see that? Maybe golf. You grow young in Aiken. You don’t grow old in Aiken.”
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