Name: Erin
Age: 30 (ugh!)
Location: New Jersey, but moving to MD in June!!
Relationship to Eventing: Up until recently, I was an adult amateur rider at the lower levels with dreams of becoming a professional. Thanks to my super supportive hubby, I was able to do 6 months as a working student last year and turn the corner to becoming (technically) a professional! So, I’m in the process of slowly building up a training business with several youngsters, one of whom debuted at Jersey Fresh YEH this May! So…I think I’m in a major transitional period in my Eventing Relationship 🙂 I will say that I’ve been riding for 25 years and have done everything from hunters to barrel racing to dressage to Eventing and ever since I learned what Eventing was, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do! I am very sad I didn’t get to start in this sport before the Long Format went away.
Favorite Eventing moment/story?: My mare’s first Horse Trial! At Bucks County Horse Park in PA, we were entered in BN Horse and it was a nasty rainy day. This was a huge deal for us because 18 months prior, she did a LF suspensory and so we went through 4 months of stall rest, plus all the of the fun rehab that goes along with that. This was not only our first Horse Trial, but our 2nd competition in almost 2 years! I knew my mare loved jumping, but wasn’t sure if she was up to the mental rigors of an entire cross country course. We left the start box, jumped 1 and 2, pretty straight forward, and entered the woods, turning left to number 3. Number 3 was a pallisade at the bottom of a hill…remember how rainy and nasty it was? Well, we came down that hill and I sat her back on her butt to slow down and the brakes weren’t working all that well! She tried to slow down, but slid instead…right into the palisade! I realized what was happening and just stayed back and let her sort it out. She saw the jump coming, and jumped it with her front legs, but slid in with her back legs. I thought we were going down right there, but she stifled it and somehow got her rear legs over safely! I was a little shaken, but trotted her and she felt sound. I thought “we’ll just take it one fence at a time, and see how she feels,” I didn’t want her to have a bad experience. Well, she shook her head, looked up and was like “OK Mom, where’s the next fence?!” She trotted up to number 4, cantered away and ate up the rest of that course! That was the day I knew I had an Eventer, not just a wannabe! When I got off after XC, she had a one inch cut on her hip bone where her entire rear end had rotated sideways laying on the top of that jump….never took a bad step or stressed out afterwards. Rock Star Mare!
If you had to pick one reason why you love Eventing, what would it be?: Hard to narrow it down to one, of course I love Cross Country, and the camaradarie at the events! But I think for me, it’s the honesty. This sport makes you honest, it makes your horse honest, you can’t fake it out there on XC, you can’t fake it in the dressage ring (your horse will rat you out every time!) It’s the most objective test of horse, rider, and the training that got you there. I love that. No gimmicks, no trainers riding your horse 5 days a week and handing you the reins ringside, no fads or fashion points…just you and your horse, your relationship, your care and your training. Honestly performing your tests, hoping that your preparation and training are enough, and if not, knowing that you can go back and keep working to improve.
Overall Goals in the sport: Well, honestly, a tiny part of me still hopes to run advanced one day and dare I say it…Rolex? That would be unbelievable! But, more short term, I would like to run at the upper levels and do it well. The most important thing for me is to do it right…to train my horses and myself slowly and methodically and build their abilities and fitness and see how far that gets us. It’s not worth it to me to take shortcuts to get to a certain level. But I am confident that I can get there, because many before me have done so, with integrity and care for their partners.
Biggest Role model: My biggest inspiration as an eventer is Denny Emerson. He embodies for me the old mentality that used to be everywhere in this sport…that anyone can do it if they work hard enough, and that you get where you’re going by working slowly and methodically, always putting your horse first! But I have to claim two here…my biggest role model is my trainer, Lisa Lewis-Greene! She used to event, ran around Rolex a few times and was short listed for Atlanta (back when the long format was in!) Now, she does straight Dressage at the FEI levels. She is the epitome of a trainer with integrity, something that I think is hard to find…she always puts her horses first, works the basics of flatwork to fix and improve the horses, no shortcuts, runs her business with integrity and always works to improve herself and learn more. What more could you want?
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