I have an Issue with my Sport

I love dressage to the moon and back. It allows such a deep connection with all my horses, regardless of the discipline. Pursuing dressage in competition, to the FEI level has put me through a whorl wind of emotions, from the happiest I’ve ever felt and also the lowest I’ve ever felt and here’s why and my story:

My horse and I have a closer bond than I have with most humans. He is always there for me, regardless of how I’m feeling, where I am or what’s going on in my life. I walk into the barn and always see his head peek out of his stall, the happiness is reciprocated. When I get other horses ready, he gets jealous. I am his human and his alone as far as he’s concerned. I think part of this relationship and its strength stems from the fact he was born on our family farm out of my mom’s mare, Elusive (by Equitanious) and by a local Hanoverian stallion, Welfenschatz. He was supposed to be the star of our barn, planning on keeping him a stallion and starting our one breeding operation. The only problem with this plan was he didn’t grow up into the stallion we hoped for. Stopped growing at an astounding 15.3hh and developed quite the sway back. Not really the type of horse people wanted to replicate. This is when ‘Shoey’ and I started our relationship, not tall enough for my mom or nice enough for breeding, he was 5 and I was 12 and we grew together. Being a member of Canadian Pony Club, Western Ontario Region and the Mount Nemo branch naturally we wanted to be eventers. The thrill of galloping over hills, down banks, through water and anything else the course designers would throw at us captured my attention. I’d dabbled in the eventing world a little on my pony before at D-rally and such events but now I had a warmblood, just like the pros did and I was ready to take on the world. Allie Schmidt… 3-Day eventer extraordinary! Shoey though didn’t like that idea. Everything was scary. A log on the ground? Nope. A simple brush box? Also nope. Anything that even closely resembled a ditch, bank, or water jump? Hell no! We then thought we would compromise and be a show jumper, but that involves bending one’s knees, that was also apparently a no from Shoey.

This leaves us with another option… Dressage. This discipline had always been part of my life. It was my mom’s passion and I had been to a few local shows on my pony and always cleaned up (I’m sure our cute score was a contributing factor). Shoey also always cleaned up in the dressage portion of our events and at the pony club shows. Now my passion was lit on fire. I was going to be a dressage star!

Every year, we went with a group of people from the barn to the Royal Winter Fair on Thursday night, the freestyle night. I would go to the warm up ring and stalk my idols, watch them do what I wanted to do. My highlight when I was about 14 years old was getting an autograph card from the Canadian team that won a medal at NAJYRC that year. I took this card home and treasured it. Maybe that could be me one day? A while later, I had a conversation with my parents… I had tears streaming down my face as I learned the reality, we just couldn’t afford it. Have you seen the quality of the horses at NAJYRC? Most of them imports, in training with the best trainers in their area, showing at the top shows to gain their scores to qualify. I had a little sway backed thing that didn’t want to jumpI decided I was going to pursue dressage still, just maybe on a smaller scale. I volunteered at Equivents Dressage shows, national and international. I did jobs like scribing, whipping the warm up arena and running tests. I learned a lot, still a little sour that I was the one on the ground and not on a horse but I was still involved and that was pretty cool. The next year, I made a huge leap. I got Shoey an Equine Canada membership and decided I was going to show first level at the Gold level shows. I was making some money cleaning stalls for my mom and teaching the odd kid how to ride a pony, figured out how to get him his EC passport and was ready to rock and roll.

I talked to my mom and wanted to find a serious dressage coach, she mentioned a small tour rider who lived just up the road from us at the time, David Marcus. I bombarded him at a show, just after he had gotten off his horse and let him know (in a very nervous, high pitched voice) I was interested in some sort of working student agreement. I guess he couldn’t say no and we settled on that I would work all day on Sunday’s in exchange for an hour lesson on the resident school master, Cedar. This relationship continued to grow and I eventually started shipping in for lessons with Shoey. I was so nervous but we started to grow as a pair. I remember David asking me, “What are your goals with this horse?” to which I responded “To go as far as we can go”. We showed first level again the next year and qualified for CIEC 2012. I was pretty excited to make the team, I must actually be kind of good or something… Then I realized that I was the only applicant. None the less, I was stoked to be competing at Bromont for my province as part of a team, it wasn’t Young Riders, but pretty close right? OEF was a jem and spoiled us rotten. We had great sponsors, great support crew and awesome riders on the jumper team as well. I made ton of friends and met riders from all across the country.

Some other riders my age at the time out of David Marcus Dressage were showing FEI Juniors that year and one lesson I gathered my courage and asked David if that’s something maybe Shoey and I could do. He put it nicely that we would have to work our asses off and maybe it might be possible but it will be hard with out a full training program. I dedicated the next summer to be a working student and give our all towards it. I got Shoey an upgrade to his own FEI passport, those things are stupid expensive FYI. I also learned what the criteria was, we had to beat 62%, and paid all my declaration fees.

NOTE: As said before, my parents were happy to support me but they couldn’t financially. I was lucky I found a coach that worked well with me and my horse (little did we know then that he would go on to represent Team Canada) and gave me the opportunity to work off every lesson I ever had. I was also lucky we had a farm I could coach kids and clean stalls and turn-in and feed horses working for my parents. This gave me the opportunity to make just enough money to pay for my show season. I am grateful though that I had to work hard as it built my character as well as taught my many skills I use now as a developing professional. The hard work didn’t stop there…

I did all this hard work, paid all this money, got all my hopes up just for them to come crashing down. My first show, I trekked up driving the trailer with my friend as my groom, stayed in a camper cabin on site, (on our own because coaches are expensive), and rode my first test. I only went off course twice so didn’t get eliminated and got a huge score of 58%. I called mom to tell her how it went. Everyone else was scorning well into the 60’s but I did it, my first FEI test and I was ecstatic! I also learned about Equine Canada and go our first drug test. There was a slight issue though in that being on our own and both being under 18, who was going to sign the paper work. I had to get one of the other girls’ moms to sign it for me. The next day I was revved and ready to go, only issue was I was so worried about going off course, my riding suffered and got a lower score… and I went off course again. This was a little discouraging. I was so ready to do well, I felt so good but the judges didn’t agree. I tried again the last and final day determined to make up for the previous day and yet we still scored lower (we didn’t go off course though, so that was one positive point). I told David how it went and he was supportive as always and helped me work hard to kill it next show. The season went on and my anxiety about showing got worse and worse, all I wanted now was not even make the team for NAJYRC, but not be an embarrassment to my coach. My scores started to get down to a lowest of 52% at a national show. I realized I needed help and started seeing a sports psychologist who helped me work through these problems and start to be the master of my own mind. By the end of the season, well past the date for making the team, we started spiraling back up and won champion at Equivents summer show for the FEI Juniors division and with it came a super cool lamp I still cherish and a cooler.

That summer, I interviewed for an assistant position at The Acres for Jan Ebeling, just outside of LA, California. To my surprise, I got the job. Shoey and I trekked across the country and settled into our new roles that September. I got a lot of opportunities here; made the jump to PSG with Shoey (earning a 63.5%!), travelled to NJ, Belgium and Austria to groom for Jan while he was competing Rafalca. Here I learned a lot about what it means to be part of a team and met so many of my idols! I learned a lot about the business side of an elite dressage barn and all the details it takes to run smoothly and efficiently. I came back home at the end of the year to go to school.

Everyone told me that I should have a backup plan so I dedicated the next 4 years to getting my BSc in Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University (WLU)in Waterloo, ON. Coached a little to help off set the costs of student life and commuted from my family farm to be able to still ride and continue my training with David Marcus and Nicholas Fyffe. That spring I decided to campaign for Team Ontario for NAJYRC. While at school I tried being a equitation rider for the WLU OUEA team in the open (3') division and although I had a lot of fun, my talents lied in the dressage ring.

This is where things get a little exciting. Unfortunately I had to miss the first show due to an infection which made me a little nervous because my next show scheduled was a local CDIY*. I hadn’t been to a show in about a year and my last experience declaring for a team didn’t go as planned. I learned a lot at that show and all the volunteering I did at these shows paid off. I ended up breaking 60% but didn’t quite break the 62% I needed to break. Once again, I didn’t bring a coach or a groom to save on costs, and still managed to have a good show. I went back home at the end of the weekend, told David how it went and worked our tushes off before the next show. I had lost a little hope seeing as there were 9 declared riders and only 4 make the team and we only had two shows over one weekend to get all of our scores. I was just going to try and do our best. Once again on my own, a girl, her dog and her horse on the road again. We did two tests a day and even our first score broke the 62% mark and I was thrilled. The weekend continued to get better and better topping off the first show with almost a 66% in the freestyle and taking home reserve champion. All that was left to do was break 62% on the last day and we did, giving us a total average of 64.7% putting us on the team.

I couldn’t believe it… I did what I never though was possible. Competing in the ring I watched Totilas compete in at WEG 2010 was almost surreal. We gave solid test and although we didn’t get super high scores, I couldn’t have been happier. I met awesome people and saw some amazing rides. The caliber of the horses here was unreal! Now I have a few students and nice horses in training and am super excited for the season to come. It’s crazy to think of where I am now and where I was. I wrote this to give inspiration to people who are working hard to get where they want to go. Here are some things I’ve learned on my journey;

• You can’t hope and wish on stars, you have to work your butt off and want it more than anything else
• That being said… you have to balance your life because if you get to one sided then you won’t do your best
• Network. You are always being interviewed, make a good impression
• When in doubt, volunteer. That’s how you find opportunities
• Love what you do ❤