By MARLEY LIEN-GONZALEZ
When The King of Hearts, known in the barn as Romeo, walks into the show ring, he turns heads. Not just because he’s a medium pony-sized adorable package with plenty of chrome, but he’s also kind of Instagram famous.
At least his rider, Harlow Bottarini, is–even though she’s never been on social media.
Harlow’s parent-run IG account, @harlowbottarini, has over 11.5k followers, and her business handle, @harlows.heavenly. horse.treatss, has 3.5k supporters. While 13-year-old Harlow is the face of her platforms, she doesn’t even have a cell phone.
“I learned my lesson watching my two teenage boys get cell phones,” says Harlow’s mom, Michelle Bottarini. “She’s a super creative kid, and she still jumps on foot and plays at the barn. She’s not hiding in the tack room on her phone, she’s grooming and grazing her pony- (have you seen his dapples? Those are all her own currying!), and I think that phones take that away from a lot of kids.”
Harlow’s concentration on horsemanship and riding pays off well in the arena with Romeo and the many ponies she catch rides for more experience and time in the saddle.
In 2024, Romeo was USHJA’s Green Medium Pony Hunter Champion of the Year in Zone 10. The pair’s first time at the USEF Pony Final National Championships, he achieved a high score of 88–the overall Welsh Pony high score—and was second over-fences out of 90 ponies, fifth overall in the Medium Green Pony Hunter division, and Harlow won the Owner/Rider Championship.
Recently, the duo has earned the Champion or Reserve title at almost every competitive outing, but it wasn’t always such smooth sailing. The Bottarinis bought Romeo as a 5-year-old green pony prospect when Harlow was just 10, and she’s put the miles on him herself while juggling a business, riding aspirations, and her passion for the performing arts.
Outside of the Ring
Harlow is a singer, actress, and dancer who loves musical theater. Sometimes that means arriving at the barn for a lesson at 7:00 in the morning because she’ll have activities running into the evening. Harlow’s extracurriculars complement her riding, Michelle says, “Going around a course is all rhythm, which music helps with. Everything with riding comes from rhythm, pace, and track.”
“I sing while riding,” says Harlow, “And I also sit in Romeo’s stall and sing to him while I pet him. It’s like our special routine.”
Harlow doesn’t have a string of competitive ponies like many of the riders she competes against at upper-level shows, so her skill growth is contingent on riding as many ponies as she can, sometimes, really inexperienced ones. To keep up her fitness, three days a week Harlow finds the time for dance lessons—supplementing her core strength and balance in the saddle.
“Sometimes just riding isn’t enough when you’re on really challenging animals,” adds Michelle. “But there are ways to be inventive and get stronger.”
While not many young riders keep themselves as busy as Harlow, her motto is, “If you really want to hone in on your craft, you have to be the hardest worker out there.”
Creative Solutions With Help From the Community
Before Romeo even entered the picture, a budget for buying ponies, horse showing, and paying for lessons wasn’t on the table for Michelle. Especially when the pandemic put the world on hold and Michelle, who works in film and television, had all her projects paused. Creativity was necessary if Harlow wanted to continue to ride and compete.
It was from an experimental school project where students had to create their own imaginary business that Harlow birthed the idea of Harlow’s Heavenly Horse Treats.
“I started drawing out a bunch of cookies for a bakery concept and then showed my mom. We ended up designing a horse cookie that looked like an ice cream cone; sugar waffle, scoops, and all. We even had to come up with a logo—the whole thing had to be very realistic, as if we were opening up our own business.”
Then, the idea came to physical fruition. Michelle recalls how they baked their ice cream cone horse treat concept to life; “Our friend said, ‘Let me take you over to Archie Cox’s farm, Brookway, so I can introduce you to Ecole Lathrop from Valencia Sport Saddlery and she can see your cookies because they’re phenomenal.’”
A couple of days after connecting, the Bottarinis received a phone call from Lathrop asking for 55 boxes of Harlow’s Heavenly Horse Treats to be delivered to the tack store. “I remember we were like, ‘Oh my god!’” says Michelle. “We cried because it was so emotional to have our product in a store. It was such a kind thing from the community, and they helped us out immensely.”
The cookies sold out during the Thermal Horse Show circuit that year and continue to be a big hit, directly helping to fund Harlow’s riding and competition goals. “We still provide 75 to 100 boxes every two weeks for the Valencia store at Thermal, and it completely pays for our entries. We found a path to do this,” says Michelle.
When Romeo’s original owners wanted to pass him onto Harlow, Michelle had her doubts about whether the pony who had never horse shown would be suitable. She weighed the risks, but saw right down to his untapped potential.
Taking out a loan to purchase Romeo, Michelle and Harlow went all in. They believed in him and had the patience to move back to square one. Phrased as nicely as possible, he could only be described in his early years with Harlow as spirited.
“It was a crazy ride,” Michelle says. “He was a lot. I mean–we laughed, we cried, we continued to bake cookies.”
Harlow showed Romeo in the Children’s Pony Hunters for a year to little success while he was preparing to make his Medium Green Pony Hunter debut. Harlow’s group of ever-supportive barn friends encouraged her not to give up easily. She credits them with helping her laugh through the struggle until her and Romeo’s performance breakthrough.
“He started getting better,” Harlow says, “I think it was my first classic in the Children’s Ponies where he got an 83, and we were so excited. Finally, after about 18 months together, it started to click, and he kept winning.”
In January 2024, Harlow and Romeo stepped up to the Medium Green division, qualifying for Pony Finals their very first time out. Determined to achieve their dream of bringing their very own pony to Pony Finals despite financial obstacles like the immense cost of shipping from California to the Kentucky Horse Park, Michelle hosted fundraisers, and once again, the horse community stepped up to the plate to support Harlow. To make their goals more possible, once arriving in Kentucky, Harlow did all of the grooming and care for Romeo.
“I was the one picking his stall, taking his temperature, grooming him, tacking him up, making his feed in the morning and evening, and I think he liked it. Those weeks together strengthened our bond more for the Championship,” says Harlow.
Learning to Grow With Green Ponies
Michelle Decker Romanes from Liberty Lane Farms has always been in Harlow’s corner—Harlow is close friends with Decker’s daughter, Stella–and usually has a few green ponies in her program who need a brave young rider to bolster their confidence.
Those rides give Harlow the experience she needs to grow more capable, especially when working with unseasoned mounts. “Some of the green ponies are really green- they don’t understand speed, straightness, and what we are expecting them to become. But they have some good moments; some really good moments,” says Harlow.
“With the Greens, you celebrate the small victories,” adds Michelle.
Harlow is used to taking things slowly to give ponies the time to develop. Her unconventional entrance to the competition world was on a very remarkable pony. Peter Pan, or “Peter,” was an older, very practiced pony who was perfect for a 5-year-old Harlow to build a foundation of horse showing on. Except for one problem:
“Peter was a division pony who was older,” says Michelle, “He was a great teacher, but in the succession of showing, Harlow was starting in the crossrail division, and Peter had never done the crossrails, and hated it. He would go around just getting faster and faster. Because of how unhappy it made him, Harlow skipped the Short Stirrup entirely.”
As a six-year-old, Harlow was competing in the Children’s Ponies with Peter, jumping full courses and even often winning. “Everyone would stop and watch because she was this tiny little girl, and it was hilarious,” says Michelle.
“He was the best pony,” Harlow says, “a total dream.”
When Peter’s age started to slow him down, the Bottarinis kept him in their care. The financial strain of owning a retired pony limited the options when it came to finding Harlow’s next mount.
However, a surprise from Ginny Planke of Everwood Farms awaited Harlow, Olaf. Inexperienced and needing some miles, Harlow was ready to take on the challenge.
Harlow stepped down from the division Pony Hunters and unraveled her progress to meet “Olaf ” at his level. “I spent at least a year in the Children’s Ponies losing over and over again, but I couldn’t give up because I really loved him and believed in him. Eventually, that started to show, and our bond kept growing. He began to get better and better, and then he actually started winning a little bit,” she says.
Harlow and Olaf would go on to win the West Coast Children’s Pony Finals together before he moved on to teach another young rider. The repetition of not succeeding, learning, and growing from mistakes taught her the skills and composure necessary for reaching the peak of pony competition. Harlow currently rides with Morning Mist Farm under the careful guidance of David Josiah. Josiah has been instrumental in Harlow’s development and will continue to help her work towards her goals.
Harlow and Olaf would go on to win the West Coast Children’s Pony Finals together before he moved on to teach another young rider. The repetition of not succeeding, learning, and growing from mistakes taught her the skills and composure necessary for reaching the peak of pony competition. Harlow currently rides with Morning Mist Farm under the careful guidance of David Josiah. Josiah has been instrumental in Harlow’s development and will continue to help her work towards her goals.
