I occasionally peruse the COTH discussion forums, and a few weeks ago, after the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships, someone started a thread debating the merits of the Young Rider programs.
It’s not the first time I’ve heard complaints about the program—it tends to be won by kids with access to expensive horses and full training; many of the successful Young Riders fail to succeed at the High Performance level, and lots stop riding entirely; it’s an expensive horse show to run, and lots of resources are dedicated to both the NAJYRC and to clinics for High Performance Youth that could be directed instead at supporting the grassroots amateur rider contingent that is the source of so much of the U.S. Equestrian Federation and U.S. Dressage Federation budgets.
And I get it, I do. As someone who has been involved in the Young Rider program as both a participant and as a coach since (yikes) 2002, I’ve seen riders come and go, hype rise and fall, champions crowned only to leave the sport. I can understand the frustration.
But I watched our brilliant Olympic team contest the freestyles in Rio, and as I felt my heart swell with pride for Ali Brock and Steffen Peters and Laura Graves. And as I felt my brain swell with inspiration and hope for my own high performance dreams, I was reminded of all that my years of competing in the Young Rider divisions gave me, and why I hope it’s a program that we can see the value of and support for years to come.
Competing at the NAYRC (as it was just open to Young Riders back in my day, when we walked uphill to school both ways with no shoes) taught me how to deal with pressure.
As adults we can argue the importance of such a program, but when you’re 14, or 17, or 21, it’s the Olympics. It’s big and scary and thrilling and, in that moment, the sun rises and sets by the six minutes you spend in your team test. The NAJYRC throws young people into the pressure cooker, and whether they go on to be the next generation of Olympians (like, by the way, Ali Brock, Adrienne Lyle and Courtney King-Dye), or whether they go on to stay in the sport as amateurs, or whether they leave horses in their rear-view mirrors, the skill of being able to take a deep breath and hold it together is universal.
So is dealing with disappointment. So is making a plan, knowing your horse, learning when to trust your coach (particularly at a time when even the brightest of young people is still a teenager and is sometimes convinced they know everything!), and learning to see the big picture and cultivate a strategy to peak at the right time.
ADVERTISEMENT
And so is dealing with people you might not necessarily like. At a show like the NAJYRC, there’s going to be a team with a kid on it who’s capable of getting great scores but is a diva, impossible to be with. There’s going to be an insufferable parent, or a prima-donna coach. There’s going to be a huge cast of characters and not all of them will wear halos. Learning to work together with someone who isn’t your favorite person on the planet is a terribly, terribly important skill outside of the showing.
Success at the NAJYRC means media attention, and media attention means talking to the press, and a social media frenzy. Not everyone who competes at the NAJYRC will be written about in a newspaper at some point in their lives, but public speaking is an invaluable talent to cultivate, and a mature and poised social media presence is crucial as young people make their way unto the job market as adults. I know many of the programs run by Lendon Gray, Robert Dover and the USEF include media training, and the same things they teach apply to life outside of horses.
And the NAJYRC inspires.
It’s a goal for young riders everywhere, in dressage, in eventing, in jumping. I watch as some of my youngest students—8, 10, 12 years old—come to the ring to watch my superstar Young Rider, Kristin, school for her tests. Our Pony Clubbers list it among their goals.
And that dream, that goal, lights a fire in the bellies of young people. They learn to plan, to hope, to dig in and fight. And as far as I’m concerned, if that’s not a skill that comes into play in their adult lives, they’re adulting wrong.
I hope the NAJYRC can stick around. It’s so much more than a horse show.
