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66 ja n ua r y/ f e b r ua r y 2 015 U n tac k e d profiLE profiLE ey descended in ominous black helicop- ters and swept swiftly around the grounds of the Colorado horse park, some with clubs in hand and others with barking dogs pulling hard on their leashes. horse park owner helen Krieble watched, horrified, as representatives of the u.s. naturalization and immigration ser- vices rooted out, hand- cuffed and took away three undocumented guest workers. e men weren't Krieble's employees— they'd been hired by one of her subletters at the show facility in parker, Colo.—but that didn't make the raid that day in 1995 any less upsetting. nearly 20 years later, she still remembers it like it was yesterday. "people were totally traumatized. it was a bad thing. You've heard the horror stories of what happens when they come to a busi- ness? i can tell you, they're true, and it's not the way for a civilized society to behave," she states emphatically. "i looked at that and thought, 'You know, i don't live in gestapo germany, and i am going to do something to correct this.' "is is not the way you treat people," Krieble continues. "ese guys are not criminals in the sense that they have hurt anybody or done anything wrong except come across our border illegally looking for opportunity, and we need to fix this. And i'm going to take it on." e episode would fuel what Krieble hopes to be her legacy: a proposal she has masterminded addressing the issues of for- eign guest workers known as the red Card solution. "public policy is my great love, and i feel like i can do some- thing of national importance in that area," Krieble says. "i've been focusing on immigration, thinking that the equestrian world and the whole of the country needs a solid immi- gration plan. And if i accomplish that, it would be a great cap on my lifetime efforts." But those efforts by Krieble, now in her 70s, already set a pretty high bar. From hisTorian To horse Park owner e transformation of a small equestrian facility on the outskirts of denver to a major international equestrian event center now known as the Colorado horse park might seem like a strange tangent for a renowned art historian from the east Coast who once mounted 18 exhibitions in her Connecticut gallery over the course of one year. it was happenstance that led Krieble to develop the park. while she takes the occasional trail ride, she isn't a horse person, per se, and never had any interest in show- ing. But in 1992, Krieble's daughter, grand prix rider Amanda strain, grew interested in expanding her equestrian opportuni- ties, and research pointed them toward the denver area. "we did a market study of all the areas in the country where we thought the eques- trian world would blossom, and we decided that was Colorado," Krieble recalls. e original plan was to buy a small pri- vate barn, but when the high prairie farms equestrian Center came on the market in a sealed bid auction, with no announce- ments or advertising, Krieble took the offer and bid the same amount on the equestrian center. six days later, it was hers, later to be renamed the Colorado horse park. "it was a fascinating project, and mak- ing it into something to serve the eques- trian community in the united states in an area that was hugely underserved was my goal," she says. But that hadn't been the entire goal—it was more just a piece of a puzzle. with her background as a scholar and historian, Krieble envisioned the inclusion of a museum as a key component of the plan. "i originally started the horse park as a history and heritage museum complex for the western states," she says. "As a histo- rian, that was very, very important to me. "I looked at that and thought, ' You know, I don't live in Gestapo Germany, and I am going to do something to correct this. is is not the way you treat people.' " —helen KrieBle lInColn roGerS PHoTo MollIe baIley PHoTo

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