The Retired Racehorse Project recently released the list of trainers for this year’s Thoroughbred Makeover, and as the winner of one of the disciplines from last year I was at the top of the list for dressage. My bio read like this…

2015 Thoroughbred Makeover Dressage Division Winner on Called To Serve. Carleigh is an amateur who has enjoyed training and selling off-track Thoroughbreds when not studying for her doctorate in equine reproduction. She has deep roots in eventing, ranch work, and Thoroughbred racing.

Ranch work. Eventing. Racing. Sounds like the pedigree of an accomplished dressage rider, right? Below were the names of five Grand Prix riders. The highest scoring rider on Centerline Scores. The champion of a USDF class. A woman who trains horses for The Queen, and no, I don’t mean Beyoncé.

I laughed at first, then fell into an almost comical funk. I am a competitive person, an over achieving person and generally hard on myself. I am turning 30 in two weeks and have accomplished almost none of the goals that I set out for myself at the age of 5 when I began competing.

I have not gone to the Olympics. I have not ridden around Rolex. I did not get my A in Pony Club. I did not win the Maclay. I have not jockeyed a horse in the Kentucky Derby. I do not own my own boarding facility. I am not even a professional rider.

choco

I had big goals.

I was lamenting over this with my friend Alexa last week as she rode my “champion” horse, Called To Serve (“Nixon”). I was hacking my newest ex-racehorse Marilyn’s Guy, giggling as he finally accepted pressure on the bit, learned to trot a pole and steered around the indoor arena as if he had been doing this his entire life. As I trotted a large 40m circle, I watched as she put Nixon through shoulder in, haunches in, leg yields and beautiful transitions. I realized that I had come full circle, yet again, with my training horses. One was moving off into adult-land, just as another began his transition. And this made me so happy.

But Alexa was in her own personal funk. A highly successful Young Rider, she spoke of how she wanted to get back into the upper levels of eventing. As she lamented over her own personal failures I stared slack-jawed, wondering how someone so young and, what I considered, so successful, could be so hard on herself. She was living my dream. She had the medals, she had the farm, she had the experience up through the FEI levels and she was only 21. She had spent the entire summer jumping fences that make me poop my pants and training with the elite. All I had was a few good, solid, fun, young thoroughbreds and a resume that no one understood. But while our resumés were so different, we were so similar. We both wanted greatness. We both wanted that to be with horses.

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Kennedy learning how to jump.

Then, it dawned on me: maybe I wasn’t made to be an upper level rider. Maybe I was not created to steer a horse around Rolex. Maybe, just maybe, my role as a horseman is something entirely different, and yet, entirely necessary. Maybe I was put on this earth to get these horses ready for those riders. Maybe my career will be made on breaking, training and retraining horses.

I said this out loud to Alexa and she reminded me this is something that is sonecessary in the industry and something we are lacking in America. We have the upper level riders. We have the big name competitors. But we are lacking the people who can instill SOLID basics on young horses. We are lacking the breeders. We are lacking the starters. We are lacking the people who can take a horse and find their secret skill, bring that to light, all the while not creating bad habits, fear and tension.

And maybe the Alexa’s of this world are made for fame, and glory, and medals; and the Carleigh’s of the world are made for first crossrails, first beginner novices, and first cross country schools. And these two people can, and need to, coexist for America to get back on the international stage. We need the Carleigh to be standing at the finish line of Rolex smiling as the Alexa finishes a double clear on the horse that Carleigh took his first beginner novice.

I hope Called to Serve gets to experience just that, and I can promise you, I will be sobbing tears of happiness as he does.

I don’t know if RRP should have listed me on the trainer list for the dressage because I don’t even know if I will compete in dressage this year. I won the dressage last year not because of any championship I had ever won, or high score I have ever received. I have no medals, I have no diploma. What I did have was an amazing horse. I had the patience to unlock his talents. And, I had the training, methodology and ability to craft him into a phenomenal dressage horse. None of my previous ex-racehorses would have won the dressage, but one of them might have won the eventing. One of them might have won the jumpers. Dynamaker, my true love, would have probably won the hunters—even if I was adorned in my monoflap and scrambling for a pair of tan breeches.

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My training level event horse REALLY wants to be a 3′ hunter, even in my monoflap.

So, maybe this is what I will keep doing. I think there is truly a void within our horse industry; a void of people with experience in a wide variety of disciplines, but who acknowledge a good horse should be brought along in a similar manner no matter the end goal. And a good trainer can bring along that horse. No matter what discipline. No matter what age. No matter how many races won or how many rides have been put on. I want to be that person, even if my pedigree doesn’t read as amazing as the rest. Let them scratch their heads as they read “Ranch Worker. Eventer. Pony Club Drop Out. Dressage Queen. Racing Enthusiast.”

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CarleighTB

Carleigh and Called to Serve

Those things are a lot more similar than you think. They have all taught me different aspects of horsemanship, and all have one thing in particular in common: a good horse…and, a trainer who didn’t ruin the good.