As youth exhibitors enter the show pen, it’s easy to pick out the horse show moms and dads on the rail. If the grooming totes and dirty rags don’t give them away, the unmistakable look in their eyes does – it’s one of anticipation, nervousness, and most of all, pride. That’s exactly the look you’ll see in the eyes of Haylee and Tony Dixon, parents of 13-year-old Alyvia Dixon.
But the Dixons have new reason to be proud this show season – Alyvia is wearing a showmanship jacket they are calling the ‘thin blue line tribute jacket’ to honor police officers. Tony, now retired, served as a police officer for 16 years, most recently in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
The Dixons’ lives changed suddenly on April 18, 2011, when Tony’s good friend and co-worker, Eric Zapata, responded to a call at which a fellow Kalamazoo officer was shot. When Zapata arrived, he pursued the armed suspect on foot. Just 35 years old and a father of three, Zapata was shot and killed on that call.
Since Dixon and Zapata had become good friends and often spent time together off-duty, Dixon became a liaison for Zapata’a family after his death. “I sort of inherited his family during that time. For 10 days after he was shot and killed, I was with his family every day, and I was honored to act as a liaison for them. I neglected my own during that time because it was more important to be with his,” Tony remembers, calling the period a traumatic and emotional roller coaster. “I’ve never suffered grief like that before,” he says.
The jacket Alyvia now wears is meant to be an acknowledgment of the work of all police officers and a special remembrance of Zapata. The idea came to fruition when Haylee, a lifelong Quarter Horse enthusiast, and exhibitor herself, began a conversation with Tony about getting a new showmanship jacket for Alyvia. Tony’s wheels began turning. Prior to this, though Tony was always there to cheer Alyvia on from the rail, his policing world and the Dixon women’s horse world had remained greatly separate. Tony saw a new jacket as an opportunity to bring the two together.
“I suggested to my wife to do a jacket with a thin blue line; it would be cool to me but very pretty, too. It was a chance to tie the world that I’ve lived in to this Quarter Horse world they’ve lived in,” Tony says, noting that the conversation occurred shortly after the time when five Dallas police officers were shot last July. “I was personally frustrated that I couldn’t do anything about it. It hurt my feelings to see these guys getting victimized and villainized for not doing anything other than trying to do good. So I told her, ‘keep it girly, horse show and showmanship-looking – but let’s do something to recognize police officers that have given more than I ever could,’” Tony recalls.
After a moment’s hesitation, wondering how a 13-year-old girl would pull off something like that, Haylee began contacting designers. Trudy Futo-Lichterman, owner of Black Label Designs, accepted the design challenge.
Using the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety patch (pictured below, left) and the thin blue ribbon as inspiration, Futo-Lichterman’s team got right to work. Four designers spent an estimated 80 hours to make the jacket just right – its jeweled back mirroring the shape and incorporating the colors of the patch. Though Futo-Lichterman doesn’t do custom work often, she felt compelled to do this piece to honor Zapata, Tony and all officers.
“I wouldn’t say no. It was extremely important. I just put everything aside to do this and was honored to be asked. To me, the men and women in blue put their lives on the line every day and making this jacket really put things in perspective,” Futo-Lichterman says. The family couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.
When the package containing the jacket arrived at their doorstep, the Dixons were sure to make its reveal a family event. Haylee and Tony watched with anticipation as Alyvia untied a big red bow and dug through the mounds of tissue paper the piece was wrapped in. When she pulled it out, the family was awestruck.
“It made my jaw drop; I was excited to actually have it in my hands,” Alyvia says.
Haylee agrees. “I was in awe. It’s better than I ever expected. It was a cool moment for all of us to have together.” The moment was especially significant for Tony, calling himself “embarrassingly emotional” as Alyvia pulled the jacket from the box.
“He’s not a crier,” Alyvia explains, “but that’s how much it meant to him.” Tony, who went off duty a half-hour before Zapata was killed, recognizes that he or any other officer could have been in that situation that night. The Dixons realize all too well that every time police officers don that blue uniform, there is always a chance they may not make it home.
“I’m not a guy that shows emotion often, but it really hits home when you see your daughter holding something like that. It makes you think about where Eric’s kids are at now. They don’t have their dad, yet here I am, still lucky enough to be enjoying time with my daughter,” he says.
Showing her six-year-old mare, If Onley, in the 13 and Under Showmanship as well as the Novice Youth Showmanship, Alyvia recently debuted the jacket at the Indiana Quarter Horse Association’s Shamrock Shuffle in Cloverdale, Indiana. Haylee says people were “blown away by the design.” Many wanted to hear the story behind the design details.
Though perhaps more public, this isn’t the first time Alyvia has paid tribute to her dad and his profession; her chosen back tag number is 183 – her dad’s first badge number.
“With everything that’s been going on in the world right now, I think the jacket is a good way to compliment police. If the word gets out, I hope it might be something to help keep them going. It’s a good way to express my feelings and gratefulness for them and what they do,” Alyvia says.
Like those other families on the rail at the horse show, the Dixons’ pride in their family is obvious (pictured left). And with this jacket, Alyvia hopes to make her feelings about her dad and his profession very clear. “I’m very happy he took the brave step forward to help people as a police officer; he’s proud of me, and I’m definitely proud of him.”
With the thin blue line and Zapata’s badge number stitched into her right sleeve, Alyvia is wearing the Dixons’ hearts – full of love for family, loss of a beloved brother in blue, and pride in horses, policing, and each other – right on her sleeve.
About the author: When Megan Ulrich isn’t wrangling 12 and 13 year-olds in her middle school English classroom, she enjoys riding, showing and judging horses. Ulrich lives in Holmen, Wisc., with her husband, daughter, two dogs and two horses. She earned her journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Photos @ Haylee Dixon Photography
