Gage Welcomes Chance to Show His Stuff : Horseman: Primarily a trainer of jumpers, Burbank rider places third in puissance at L.A. Equestrian Center.

Godzilla and Brigitte Bardog--a pair of Chihuahua-size terriers--scrambled for cover as a rare hailstorm pelted the L.A. Equestrian Center. Godzilla found shelter in the lap of its master, show-jumper Rob Gage, who was sitting inside a leaky portable tack room, his headquarters during last weekend’s Hollywood Charity Horse Show.

While Gage was left cold and damp by the unexpected weather, Candice Schlom--currently the American Grandprix Assn.’s top-ranked show-jumper--was several yards away eating blackened chicken in a cozy, 40-foot luxury trailer. Wearing black cowboy hat and black clothes, she talked on a portable phone to her father, ignoring a TV game show on a set built-in to a wall.

The reason for the lifestyle differences between Schlom and Gage has little to do with Gage’s current unranked status in the AGA. Schlom is sponsored, Gage is not. With nobody paying his way, Gage teaches show-jumping and trains jumpers as a business, relying on his wits and skill to develop horses capable of riding in the exacting grandprix.

“In Europe, riders get paid up to $500,000 to ride a horse,” Gage said, contrasting that to his situation. “People send me horses they think have grandprix potential, and I tell them yes or no. Then I make a grandprix horse out of someone’s preliminary horse.”

Considering his self-reliant career, Gage has done remarkably well. In 1985, he became the first West Coast rider to win the Mercedes rider-of-the-year title, winning several major national events and taking home a new Mercedes, which he still has.

“I’ll drive that car till it drops,” said Gage, whose license plate reads “BSTRIDR,” meaning best, not beast, rider.

Gage, 39, who lives in Burbank and runs his business at a ranch in Lake View Terrace, no longer competes nationally--a commitment requiring months of travel and much money. Competing primarily on the West Coast last year, he did not win a grandprix but collected $55,000 in prize money aboard Dutch Chocolate, a “sweet horse” owned by a Sacramento couple.

“I enjoy the California life and I want to base myself out here,” Gage said.

The Hollywood Charity Horse Show gave him a chance to ride in the largest show on the West Coast and one of the top events in the country this year. Half of the AGA’s top-ranked riders were on hand to vie for $150,000 in prize money.

Generally, horse shows draw the Ralph Lauren crowd, but the Saturday night puissance event at the Equestrian Center was even more chic: The men wore black tie, the women sequined gowns. Celebrities turned out, including Hugh O’Brien in an embroidered tux jacket that would have gotten Wyatt Earp arrested. Other Hollywood stars were William Shatner, Patrick Duffy, Buddy Ebsen and--for those women disappointed by Tom Selleck’s absence--Dick Van Patten.

Gage, riding Wittekind, came in third in the $10,000 puissance--the high-jump event of show-jumping--but was disappointed because he “thought I had a chance of winning it.” The next day, aboard Dutch Chocolate in the $50,000 Crown Royal Grandprix, he committed eight faults and finished “in the middle of the pack” of 33 riders, out of the money.

Gage remains something of a local legend. Schlom, who worked at Gage’s barn a few years ago, remembers him once winning five grandprix events in a row. “He was magnificent,” she said, “someone I looked up to and admired.”

Schlom, 21, sponsored by Rancho del Puma in Calabasas, once took lessons from Gage. “He’s very good at teaching you how to win,” she said, “and a very good technician.”

Gage did not begin riding until his parents moved from Hermosa Beach to Rolling Hills when he was 11. “They wanted us kids to have an activity,” he said. Gage rode conventional western style until the day his mother drove through their neighborhood and he saw some kids jumping horses over foot-high barriers.

“I said ‘Stop the car,’ ” he recalled.

A child “prodigy” in show-jumping--the Pacific Coast junior rider of the year at age 13--Gage turned into a gawky teen-ager who “all of a sudden couldn’t ride to save my life,” he said. “The child prodigy had become just another rider. When I was 18, I was going to quit.”

His parents gave him a choice for his 18th birthday: a car or a horse. He chose the horse. “There was no way they’d keep driving me to riding lessons, so I knew they’d wind up getting me the car anyway,” he said, chuckling.

Gage trained the horse and sold it for a profit. He also began getting requests to teach. His first student back then was 15-year-old Cyndi Grossman, who is now his business partner.

After about 10 years, however, Gage was “a burnout,” so he sold his business and flew to Caracas, Venezuela, intending to stay for a couple of weeks. But, he says, he was “recognized” by Venezuelan riders and talked into competing. He remained for a year, but when Gage and another foreigner began dominating local shows, he says, the Venezuelans passed a rule limiting foreign participation.

Gage returned to California in 1980 because of that and partly because he began reading about the success of contemporaries like Hap Hansen, whom Gage had ridden against as a teen-ager. “I thought if they could do well, so could I,” Gage said.