After accomplishing her lifelong dream of representing Canada at the 2012 Olympic Games in London with Riddle Master, Rebecca Howard knew it was time for a major life change with her business at home in the United States in a transition period.

So she decided to stay in England and has been based at New Zealand couple Tim and Jonelle Price’s Mere Farm in Wiltshire ever since.

Howard and “Rupert” a 14-year-old Canadian Sport Horse gelding (Rodero—Legacy 3rd, Eyes To Rule) owned by Blithe Hill Farm, had a 12th place finish at the Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials CCI**** (England) in 2013 and followed it up with an 11th place finish at the Land Rover Burghley Horse Trials CCI**** (England) that fall.

Feeling confident, they tackled Badminton again last year but Rupert sustained an injury on cross-country and spent the rest of the season recovering.

Now back competing again, Rupert and Howard, 36, recently placed 11th in the CIC*** at Tattersalls (Ireland) on their way to the Luhmühlen CCI**** (Germany) in June.

We caught up with Howard to learn about her new life in England, her plans for Rupert and what it’s like to work for two of the top eventers in the world.

Chronicle: Tell me about adjusting to life in England. What’s it been like working for Tim and Jonelle?

Howard: I was in a little bit of a transition period [in 2012]. The group of horses I had were phasing out or I sold some and I was needing to make a move, so it was either make a move and do the same thing in the States, or I’d always wanted to come to England and it seemed like a good opportunity. It happened to fall on the year of the Olympics, so I used the plane ticket to come over here. 

At the beginning I was doing some riding and competing for them. I gradually started getting my own rides and clients and I’ve continued to ride for them. I’m up to seven horses here. I’ve got a separate barn so I have my own operation running out of their property. I still ride 20 a week for them, which essentially pays for my rent. It’s worked out really well. They’re great people and great riders. It’s a big team that they run between the two of them so there’s always lots to ride and lots of organization involved to keep the moving parts together.

They’re both very different and go about things in a different way and have different priorities. It’s been sort of fun being here because it’s very much evolved in the time I’ve been here. The Olympics was a bit of a turning point for Jonelle and they’ve been on the up and up since I’ve been here. It’s grown exponentially in the last three years. As much as anything, that’s been very educational to watch. They’ve been here for 10 years and it’s taken them that long for the pieces to fall into place.

The scale of operation is much bigger than everything I’ve experienced. You can do that in England—it’s set up to be a professional rider and produce horses like you can. You compete a lot more here because there’s more opportunity with the one-day format. The cross-countries are a little bit shorter, but it’s normal to take the young horses out every 10 days and get quite a bit of mileage in a season, more so than you do in America.

On the upper level side of things, there are so many options. If you’re not quite right to a CIC, there’s another one quickly in the calendar and that goes for the four-star level as well. You can pick and choose what type of three- or four-star is best suited to that horse to bring them along or best showcase them or to whatever.

The pure volume is very beneficial. Seeing and dealing with such a variety of different horses and horse minds has increased my repertoire of tools. The professionalism of producing the horses and running them—these guys are so professional and it really is a job, they don’t get in a flap about anything.”

Tell me how Rupert is doing this year. What’s it like to have him back?

He hit a birch rail oxer [at Badminton in 2014] and it was an overextension of his stifle. It was just one of those unfortunate things. The horse is so careful and the one time he hits a fence, [he hurts himself]. It was very disappointing, and in hindsight, he hit that rail early on and he’s such a trouper he kept going, but he didn’t feel 100 percent.

He wasn’t jumping in his same sort of exuberant style and I thought maybe he scared himself a bit. Then he finally stopped at the water, which he never does. He was actually sound that night and wasn’t particularly sore until quite a bit later.

He had last summer and fall off and has been back into work since October. He’s just continued to develop and his education is continuing to increase. He’s coming out a more sophisticated boy each year—just feeling more established in his education, which has always been important to him. He can have some nervous tendencies and the more confident he’s gotten in his work, the more settled I’ve been able to make him, especially in the dressage.

At Tattersalls, that was the most rideable he’s felt in the arena. It was the most time I’ve ever felt I had in there really being able to ride him and not just surviving some movements where he gets electric.

I was disappointed I had a rail in the show jumping, so that knocked us a little out of the top places. I wanted to give him a good run, so we did cruise around. I was surprised, I was finding it harder to catch the time than I thought it would be. He came home feeling very good and happy with himself.

Rebecca Howard and Riddle Master at the Tattersalls CIC***. Photo by Libby Law Photography

What are the plans for this year with him?

We decided on [the Luhmühlen CCI**** in Germany on June 18-21] versus Badminton to give him that extra six weeks to get going.

That will be a new venue for us. We feel good. You never know how many runs you have in them, and the injury was disappointing, but knock on wood, he is a very sound horse and I’ve got a fantastic four-star horse that I want to take to a four-star!

What other horses do you have in your barn right now?

I have an intermediate horse and the other three are novices. It’s just slowly getting one or two each year to add to the client list. It’s really all I can hope for. It does take a long time to develop those connections. I’m really enjoying it over here and there’s lots of opportunity if you can be smart and produce some results.

I would like to stay, but it’s going to come down to the renewal of my immigration visa in January. I’m working hard to get my ducks in a row to have that renewed.