Back in the Saddle with Christina Mangano-Mackenzie
Written by Kaitlin Hill
The idiom “to get back in the saddle” is defined by the Cambridge Dictionary as “doing something that you stopped doing for a period of time.” For many in Hunt Country, though, the literal meaning of getting back on the horse is more applicable. For Ohio-born but Upperville-raised Christina Mangano-Mackenzie, both interpretations apply.
As idioms go, Mangano-Mackenzie takes it one step further, offering that riding a horse is in many ways “like riding a bike. You can stop for a while and then it’ll still be there when you are ready to go again.”
From a childhood pastime with her parents to an adolescent ambition, and now returning to the sport after time away, the journey back to the saddle for Mangano-Mackenzie has been a labor of love supported by old friends and shared with the next generation of riders, her children.
“My dad rode,” shares Mangano-Mackenzie of how she inherited the equestrian bug during her childhood in Ohio. “He loved riding, trail riding. I had a teeny, little pony named Prince. We would go for two to three hours and pack a lunch, and that is how it started. I just fell in love with horses, riding, and trail riding.”
Mangano-Mackenzie would move to Sunridge Farm in Upperville in 1994. “My parents bought the farm from the Mellons,” she recalls. “Unfortunately, my father passed away right before we moved in.” However, her father’s love of equestrian sports carried on and Mangano-Mackenzie continued to ride when she arrived in Hunt Country. She says, “When I came here, everyone rode English and jumped. I quickly started taking lessons and did pony club.” She quickly made local connections, too, riding with Frannie Kansteiner, founder of Gum Tree Farm, and Denice Derisio-Perry of Skyland Farm. She adds, “I just became obsessed with ponies.”
“I had a teeny, little pony named Prince. We would go for two to three hours and pack a lunch, and that is how it started. I just fell in love with horses, riding, and trail riding.” –Mangano-Mackenzie
The obsession would lead to participation in competitions. Mangano-Mackenzie remembers, “I competed what seemed like almost every weekend. Then we would go to Wellington to show, and when the National Horse Show was still in New York, I took my junior hunter, Bucky Dent, up there.”
Then came the break. “I went to college at Elon, and I didn’t ride much except for when I came home.” She adds, “Then my horses got older and retired, and then I just took a pause. I worked on Capitol Hill, got married, and had three kids. I just did not make time for riding.”
After settling down, Mangano-Mackenzie lived in Arlington until 2023, when she made the move back home. Like her initial move to Upperville, this return to Hunt Country would coincide with a loss as well. “My mother passed away in 2022,” Mangano-Mackenzie shares. “She was my biggest champion when I was riding. She drove me everywhere to show and would replay the rounds again and again on the car ride home.”
As though passing a torch, the move back to Upperville would start a new chapter in Mangano-Mackenzie’s life where, instead of sharing her love of riding with her parents, she would share it with her kids and reconnect with old friends. “The kids were old enough to start dabbling with ponies, but I had been out of the horse world for so long, I didn’t know where to start,” she admits.
She continues, “So I reconnected with Christine Fiore … and we picked right back up where we left off when we competed as juniors together.” Beyond the friendship, Fiore showed Mangano-Mackenzie’s kids the ropes around the barn. “She has taught Caroline, my oldest daughter, from lunge line to jumping … and then my younger two, as well,” she says. “William is 6 and he loves to trail ride Western and go through the mud and go fast. And my youngest, Penelope, just turned 4 and is the lead line queen. She loves a good lead line class.”
Through seeing her kids progress, Mangano-Mackenzie “got the itch again,” but with some stipulations. She asked Fiore to help her find a horse with a laundry list of nonnegotiable traits. “I gave her every criteria: no prep, no spook… He had to be a good mover, a good jumper, quiet. I thought there was no way she was going to find it,” she adds. “She made one call to Chad Keenum, it was the only horse I sat on, and now I have Good To Go.
“He’s fabulous. He is such a sweet guy… He is a beautiful mover and a great jumper,” Mangano-Mackenzie says of the 10-year-old Hanoverian gelding by Rotspon. “And he is warm blood, so he is quiet by nature.” She says, “We joke that there are no bad days with him. Even if I make a mistake, we’re still smiling. He is a pleasure to ride.”
“When we all get out there together, it is that much more special. It is fun to share my sport and my love of horses with them.” –Mangano-Mackenzie
Now back in the saddle, Mangano-Mackenzie also looked to Fiore and Keenum for help returning to the ring, specifically at the 66th Washington International Horse Show last October. “I decided on Sunday that I was going. Christine and Chad helped me pull it all together and we showed on Monday.” For Mangano-Mackenzie, it was a return to the show ring, and for Good To Go it was his first time indoors. “There were a lot of nerves, but Christine and Chad set me up perfectly to go in there. It was a surreal moment,” she remembers. “Good To Go got an 86. It was a magical night.” The duo won the Regional Hunter Finals.
Of Good To Go’s performance, Mangano-Mackenzie says, “He was so brave. It is one of his best qualities.”
With a successful show under her belt and confidence renewed, she is looking forward to competing more. “We are right around the corner from Upperville, which has long been my favorite show. To do well at Upperville is what I have my sights set on next,” she shares.
But more broadly, Mangano-Mackenzie is just enjoying the ride. She says, “It’s funny, doing it as a mom now. It takes a lot of effort to get the kids going on the ponies and tacked up. When we all get out there together, it is that much more special. It is fun to share my sport and my love of horses with them.” She concludes, “Horses will always have a special place in my heart, and it is so nice to come back to it. I had forgotten how much I love it.” ML
Featured photo by Caroline Gray.
Published in the May 2025 issue of Middleburg Life.