Carrie Fanning was like so many of us as a kid—horse crazy. But riding lessons weren’t feasible for her family’s budget, so Fanning put her passion for horses on the back burner for years.

It might seem like Fanning forgot about her love for horses as she navigated through high school and college and started her career. But at age 25, as a young professional, she found herself looking for a lesson barn.

And that just re-sparked the flame, which is now burning bright. Fanning balances a demanding job in New York City with bringing along her horse Ashmaan, to the FEI levels in dressage. She also battles a chronic digestive disease, Ulcerative Colitis, which is currently controlled but has wreaked havoc on her life in the past.

Fanning started riding 14 years ago with Marissa Mastronardi, a student of Canadian Olympian Ashley Holzer. She had begun her career and decided to fulfill her childhood dream of riding. She flirted with the idea of jumping, but once the opportunity to ride one of Holzer’s former small tour horses arose, she embraced dressage whole-heartedly. “I definitely love the intricacies and the detail of the sport. I like being able to see horses progress and learn. It’s the accomplishments that are important,” Fanning said.

I’ve Got To Do It

As she was learning to ride, however, Fanning was also starting to experience the first symptoms of her disease, which causes inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract. “Before I was diagnosed in 2007, I lost a lot of weight and was very sick. It did interfere with my riding. It made it hard to leave my house and I was very weak,” she said. “It was a lot to deal with. I’d eat and feel so sick. And it was hard to adjust my diet because one thing would be fine to eat one day and then not the next.”

It took some time for Fanning to be diagnosed, but thankfully the correct medication has improved her health dramatically. “I’ve been very fortunate that medication works for me; it doesn’t work as well for everyone. This disease can be very debilitating; I’ve been very lucky,” she said.

Fanning had been riding school horses for a few years when the chance to lease Jornello, or “George,” came along in 2008. She’d never even shown, but George had experience to the Intermediaire I level with Holzer. “I wasn’t doing any level! So, finding such a well trained horse who could teach me everything was great,” she said.

“And being sick had changed how I thought about life; when I was given the opportunity to lease George from Ashley, all I could think was, ‘There was a time when I could barely leave my house and now I have this opportunity. I’ve got to do it.’”

George came with a bit of history, though. “He’d already been bought and returned a few times; he kept bucking people off. He was a bit wild!” Fanning said. “I almost didn’t try him because I’d heard the stories, but I got on and Marissa was telling me how to do all these things like canter pirouettes. Once I felt that, I was hooked and I knew I had to buy him if I was given the opportunity.”

But George had other issues, too. His FEI-level career with Holzer had come been interrupted in 2002 for surgery to remove a large calcification on his spine that was causing neurological issues. He recovered for two years after it had been successfully removed, and Holzer competed George at Prix St. Georges in 2005. He also showed at the lower levels with other riders.

Fanning bought George in 2009 and made her show-ring debut on him that summer, competing at third level. “It was a little intimidating to show him, but I knew I had a great horse. For me, it wasn’t trying to accomplish much, I was just trying to enjoy what I was doing,” she said.

She showed George through the fall of 2011, but some physical issues related to his original problem years before began to interfere with his comfort. “I learned so much from him that I was happy to have him retire,” Fanning said.  George now lives in a field in Warwick, N.Y.

Now She’s The Teacher

Carrie Fanning on Ashmaan. Photo by Pisa Wingren

It wasn’t until the fall of 2012 that Fanning replaced George, purchasing Ashmaan, then 7. He’d been shown at third level by Canadian rider Brittany Fraser. “I learned from George how things are supposed to feel and that’s so valuable now, as I’m teaching Ashmaan. George gave me the knowledge to teach my new horse,” she said. “With George, if he didn’t do something, it was because he didn’t want to. With Ashmaan, it’s because he doesn’t know. It’s a little bit of a different experience. I’m learning how to train a horse as well, which is exciting for me.”

She and Ashmaan spent 2013 at third level and in 2014 moved up to fourth. This winter, they’ve been showing at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival (Fla.) and won four consecutive adult amateur fourth level, test 1 classes in January and February. Ashmaan is staying in Florida with Holzer and Mastronardi while Fanning commutes on the weekends to show.

“The goal is to get him to Prix St. Georges next year,” Fanning said. “I am not rich by any measurements, but the logic of sending him to Florida is that we lose half the winter of training in New York. I get a little behind where I want to be. Down there, with the better weather, it’s easier to keep moving forward.”

Fanning is having to balance training and showing Ashmaan with her demanding work as a project manager in electronic discovery at a New York law firm. “I do a lot of database work,” she said. “I work long hours and it’s very demanding. I’m very lucky in that I work a lot, but they understand about having a life outside the workplace and they have been very flexible to let me train and compete and do all the things I want to do.”

When Ashmaan is in New York, living at Riverdale Stables in Bronx, N.Y., with Holzer and Mastronardi, Fanning gets to ride twice during the week and both days on the weekends. A weekday ride means getting home to her New Jersey home at 10:00 p.m., but it’s worth it to Fanning. “I can go to the barn and not think about anything else. It helps me balance everything. If I didn’t have the horses or the riding, then my job wouldn’t be as fulfilling as it is,” she said. “Riding is a very big part of my life. It’s good exercise and it’s where all my friends are. It’s become my way of life.”

A Second Home

It’s because of the huge role Riverdale Stables has come to play in her life that Fanning worked to help secure its future when in 2014 the New York City Parks Department considered shutting the barn down. The 20 acres in Van Cortlandt Park host lesson and therapeutic riding programs along with trainers such as Holzer and Mastronardi.

“I practically live there and there were some real issues with whether it would continue,” Fanning said. “They found a new operator and we didn’t know anything about what was going to happen. We didn’t know if the horses could stay or if people still had jobs. It was a very worrisome situation.”

“New York City owns the facility, but Rusty and Ashley Holzer had leased it. I know how to get information and a lot about the political process and contracts. So, in May I started compiling information about all the people who might be involved,” Fanning said. She organized a community effort to petition the city to keep the stables open and operational until the new operator took over in September.

“A lot of people got involved and at the end of May, there was a contract put in place that would allow Ashley and Rusty to stay through the operator changes,” Fanning said. “There was a point in time that we were told, you have to move the horses and all your stuff out. But in the end, the Parks department found a new operator, and it worked out because it’s someone we all know. It ended up being a good thing. It’s a very special place. I’ve been riding there for 13 years and seen a lot of kids grow up.”