Some of them have been in my program for years, and some are new. Some are on horses who we’ve helped bring up the levels from the beginning of their dressage careers, and some are on horses that were already schooled to the middle levels when we met, but all are horses who we’re finishing to the level, which is pretty fun. They are the six students of mine in pursuit of their USDF Silver Medals this year, or, as I like to call them, the Prix St. Georges Club of 2016.
They have come to this place in their respective journeys in different ways—from eventing, from the jumpers, from learning to ride as an adult. And they’re on all sorts of horses—a homebred, a converted driving horse, a hunter/jumper reject, and a few that came up in dressage and have known nothing else. But even though they have different jobs, different budgets, different constraints on their time, they have a few things in common.
First, they all get tons of help. Every single one of them gets at least a lesson a week, and every one of them has, at one point or another, left their horses in training for a little while. Some of the horses live with us full-time, but some live at home with their owners, and trailer in for lessons weekly.
But along each horse’s journey from the lower levels to being FEI horses, they’ve all spent a few weeks, a few months, a few chunks of a few days, whatever, with us. The reason for that is simple: training FEI horses is hard, and everyone struggles.
There’s thing No. 2: they’ve encountered struggles, and they’ve stayed cool about it. (Or mostly cool about it. A few of them send me a lot of text messages about how everything is a disaster. This is totally OK and I actually encourage it, because it gives me a chance to talk them off the ledge, which is way better than having them sit at home and fret about it.)
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Every single horse and every single person has plateaued and failed and, finally, gotten it together and climbed again. But they haven’t panicked and changed equipment or changed the plan or called the vet or whatever; they’ve all just quietly and patiently stuck it out, until things started working well again. So often I see riders throw the baby out with the bathwater the first time they hit a challenge; these ladies didn’t do that. Hooray!
And there’s the third thing: they lean on their village. When they’re in over their heads, they call me, or each other.
They have supportive spouses and friends. They have a long line of people in their corners ready to support and help them, and they haven’t been afraid to use them. And this is so important, I think, for all of us in our riding, whether we’re tackling the FEI levels for the first time, trying to make a team, or just getting through the day to day grind of learning how to ride: no one any good goes it alone.
Our coaches don’t just give us riding lessons; they help us see the bigger picture, to see where each moment in time, good or bad, fits into the bigger picture. Our friends love and support us, and our non-horsey friends and family give us perspective. The journey is so, so hard. Good people having our backs makes it easier!
