A radiant smile always graces Katherine Bateson-Chandler’s face as she canters into the Grand Prix dressage ring at A. An up-and-coming talent, there’s no place she’d rather be than on the back of a horse.

Although she’s been riding Grand Prix horses for years, Bateson-Chandler is probably best known as Robert Dover’s groom. She’s accompanied him to the Olympics, World Cup Finals and hundreds of national competitions over their 15-year friendship.

It’s only been since the Athens Olympics in 2004 that Bateson-Chandler, 31, of Wellington, Fla., has stepped out of Dover’s shadow and started making a name for herself.

“Robert didn’t want me to do the grooming for the Olympics,” said Bateson-Chandler. “But I said that I really wanted to do it. I love that part so much!”

A servant to the horse, first and foremost, Bateson-Chandler had to be convinced to give up grooming. “It was emotionally hard not to take care of them,” she said. “It was like giving up your children.”

But Dover insisted it was time for Bateson-Chandler to step out on her own. “If a person believes she’s a groom–even if she has great talent and ability to be a great rider–then you are what you think,” he explained.

And Bateson-Chandler has proved that her riding abilities are more than equal to her grooming talents. She began riding Rainier, Dover’s Sydney Olympic mount, in 2004. They qualified for the 2005 Grand Prix Championships.

She then took over the ride on FBW Kennedy, Dover’s Athens Olympic mount. She rode Kennedy at the 2005 Dressage At Devon (Pa.) and placed second in the Grand Prix Special.

In the spring of 2006, she continued her winning ways with Kennedy, topping a Grand Prix test at the Florida Classic and placing second or third in the three CDIs she entered.

Not Just A Skinny Little Girl
Bateson-Chandler’s involvement with horses started when she moved to New Jersey as a 12-year-old. Her non-horsey family had lived in England before then, and they were hoping to find some new opportunities in the United States.

Always a horse lover, Bateson-Chandler had to work hard to find rides as a child. She was able to purchase a Standardbred (that she still owns), and she took dressage lessons with Jane Landeau.

“I liked dressage,” said Bateson-Chandler. “People lent me horses. I wanted to go to the best trainer.”

And the best-known trainer in New Jersey was Robert Dover. So Bateson-Chandler showed up in his barnyard when she was 16, begging for the opportunity to work for him.

“Katherine was so determined,” said Dover. “My first memory is of this little skinny girl being let off by her mom. I kept thinking, ‘Is this girl going to give up?'”

But she had no intentions of giving up. “I remember when I first started working for Robert, I thought, ‘If I could just walk one of those horses down the aisle into a stall.’ They were mystical creatures to me,” said Bateson-Chandler. “I would do anything to get my foot in the door.”

She worked all summer and on the weekends during the school year. “I groomed and mucked stalls,” said Bateson-Chandler. Eventually, I graduated to walking his horses when he was done and then gradually started doing more.”

“She would have slept in the barn,” said Dover laughing. “She was really cute and skinny and determined. She’d ask for a lesson, and I’d say, ‘You don’t have a horse.’ She’d say that she’d find a horse. She just wanted to be around them.”

Bateson-Chandler rode with Melinda McPhail while Dover was in Florida during the winter and borrowed a friend’s Thorough-bred to improve her dressage. When she graduated from high school, her initial plan was to go to college, but her obsession with horses was bigger, so she discussed going to Florida with Dover for the winter instead.

“I told her, ‘If you graduate [from high school] and your mom says it’s OK, then you can become a working student.’ And she just kept hanging in there,” recalled Dover.

Devotion And Grit
Bateson-Chandler’s life as a professional horsewoman really started at that point. She gradually made herself indispensable to Dover, taking over the duties as head groom and eventually assistant trainer.

“I was determined to stick it out until he saw that I was serious,” she said. “I enjoy taking care of the horses as much as riding them. I started teaching lessons, advertising myself and building up a business. It happened slowly over time. I gained students.”

One of her most important students would turn out to be Jane Forbes Clark, the owner of Rainier and Kennedy. She started taking lessons with Bateson-Chandler in 2000.

“She’s a very good instructor. She can be very tough, but she’s very fair about what she asks you to do and extremely articulate about how to get it done,” said Clark. “I found that very impressive. Coming from a hunter/jumper background, I was unused to listening to dressage terms and understanding what I was meant to be doing. She’s clear, concise and very articulate.”

Clark was so impressed with Bateson-Chandler that she wanted to help her get her Grand Prix career underway and offered her the ride on Dover’s horses when he stopped competing him.

“It was completely obvious,” said Clark. “Katherine’s spent a lot of time with those horses. She’s ridden them a lot at home. There’s nobody that knows the horses, other than Robert, as well as she does. So it was a natural decision.

“I think that Katherine needs to be given the opportunity,” Clark continued. “She’s a wonderful rider. She needed to be given the opportunity to ride wonderful horses.”

And while all this may sound like a fairytale come true for Bateson-Chandler, she’s had to endure a fair amount of criticism to go with her opportunity.

When she doesn’t win with Kennedy, people wonder why not. When she does win, they often give the horse all of the credit.

“I’m a sensitive person, and I’m working on not letting things get to me,” said Bateson-Chandler. “I know I have big shoes to fill, and I want to do the horses justice. I’m always doing my best, trying to figure it out as fast as I can. It’s not like I’m slacking off. I’ve never really showed before. It’s my second season doing Grand Prix.”

An Audience
Although Bateson-Chandler had ridden the Grand Prix movements at home, she learned that showing Grand Prix is an entirely different experience.

“I’m learning how to ride in front of the world,” she explained. “It’s not a good thing for my ego. I’m the greenest person out there with a lot of weight on my shoulders, but I’m a trier and I want to win.”

Not only is she faced with riding horses that already have reputations, but they’re also horses that were picked for Dover.

“There’s no way that riding these horses is easy, but it’s a chance of a lifetime,” said Dover. “She’s kept her head about it. I give her credit for jumping on these horses and going in the ring again and again. I told her when we started that you have to mess up thousands of times in order to know what success is.”

Regardless of criticism, Bateson-Chandler is still overwhelmed at her good luck.

“I’m my own biggest critic,” she said. “I’ve had a lot of high points with Kennedy, but I haven’t had my best test yet. At Devon, he got a little rank and got away from me. At [the Wellington CDI], we had a bad Grand Prix and a good freestyle. I’ll do everything in my power.”

And at the end of the day, showing is not the most important thing in Bateson-Chandler’s life. She met Carl Chandler in 2000 when he was working in a polo barn. They married in May of 2005 and both took over grooming Clark’s horses fulltime.

Although living together and working together can be tough at times, their mutual devotion to the horses is part of the glue that keeps them together.

“Monday traditionally is a day off, but it’s a lifestyle, not a job,” said Bateson-Chandler. “We try to take a day off, but it doesn’t always work out. Carl is an intense personality, and he wants to make sure everything’s done perfectly. He’s happy taking care of the horses.”

While it was hard for Bateson-Chandler to give up grooming fulltime, she’s excited about this new phase of her life. She would like to spend time in Europe to get additional training and hopes to make a U.S. team in the future.

But as much as Bateson-Chandler wants to be competitive and win at the highest level, it’s not her motivation for getting out of bed in the morning.

“If I didn’t ride, I’d go back to grooming,” she said. “I love them as animals. I’m still awestruck by them.”

Learning To Ride Kennedy
Jane Forbes Clark’s FBW Kennedy made waves when she imported him from Denmark in 2003 for Robert Dover. Already an international superstar under Lone Jorgenson, “Turbo” went on to help Dover sweep the 2004 Olympic trials and finish his best yet at the Olympics, sixth place individually.

So it was the opportunity of a lifetime when Clark offered Katherine Bateson-Chandler the ride on Turbo after Dover retired from competition.

But Turbo got his nickname for a reason, and it was no easy task for Bateson-Chandler to learn to ride him.

“He’s a very hot horse,” she said. “That works for you and against you. He never gets behind your leg. He’s very strong, and I’m learning how to ride that power. He’s such a good-natured horse, and he wants it for you. I’m learning to trust him when I need to and push when I need to.”

Despite his electric personality, Clark knew that Bateson-Chandler was the right rider for Turbo.

“She’s the one person who can deal with Turbo,” said Clark. “Especially at the awards ceremony in Athens, when Robert had to get off and stand on the podium. That was not easy, and he was quite well-behaved. That wasn’t anything except Katherine and her ability.”

Dover agreed. “If anyone thinks he’s such a schoolmaster, they should try riding him,” he said with a laugh. “Especially if something happens and he’s launched himself into the air. Katherine’s done a great job of being able to ride him through situations where a lot of people would have been on the ground.”