Wine, art, some cheese, and friendships. What do they have in common? They all get better with time – just like the Senior Superstars we’re celebrating on YourDressage throughout the month of March!
Here, a rider and author from Region 2’s unique Mackinac Island shares how she dove back into the dressage world at 66 years old with a special Thoroughbred and some talented Arabians.
By Candice Dunnigan
When I was 44, I began writing an equine column for our seasonal newspaper on Mackinac Island, Michigan, called Horse Tales. It was about the special horses, situations, and people of my hometown, Mackinac. Being an island in Michigan, which has consistently used horsepower as its main method of transportation since inception, the column seemed to fill a need. I did it freely, partly because I needed to put my horsey energies somewhere beyond perfecting twenty-meter circles.
Realistically faced with the fact that I could not have summers of riding or showing dressage, I let my USDF membership lapse, turned my goals to another aspect of equine experience, and satisfied my horse senses with writing to increase the community’s involvement and education of the island’s horse heritage. I had a remarkable but complicated way of living, one that was not amenable to pursuing a sport like dressage. My seasonal home on an island had become year-round, complete with a commuting husband, local civic commitments, two young children, and two trail horses.
At the time, we owned two Arabians, and we took them each summer by ferry to live in our tiny barn and pasture on this island. My husband was a rider as well – you know the kind, one of those naturals. Together and with our children, we would hit the trails. Our kids blissfully took to it all like ducks to water. For me, leg yields, serpentines, and being on the aids took a backseat.
Fast forward to today, and I’m a breath from 70 this August. I am still writing that column, and people are still reading it! One major thing has changed, though – my age. And, I decided to take some of that advice I so freely dole out. I got back in the swing of learning, to both make myself a better rider for as long as I can and challenge myself with some actual competition goals. I figured out I really wanted to see if I could go the extra miles.
Hello again, world of dressage. So three years ago, at the age of 66, with the persistence of my daughter and the goading in my head, I renewed my USDF membership, dusted off my County Competitor, and polished those Vogel boots.
Instead of waiting around for summer, I, along with my now adult daughter, aimed for the first USDF show in our region that was nearby. Naturally, it was over a cold and snowy April weekend in Michigan. We worked with our long, lanky, 19-year-old Off-Track Thoroughbred (OTTB) Nicolet, whom I had rescued twelve years before.
I found Nicolet while working on a story about another horse for my column. He literally walked across a field on a bitter November day and put his nose in my back. Four days later, he was in his new stall at our small farm downstate. Claire and I shared this old-school, classic Thoroughbred that weekend, and respectfully scored 60-plus in most classes.
Summer came, my columns were written ahead of time, and I postponed my “other life” until July. We entered spring, June, and July shows with Nicolet, where he and I ended up Reserve Champions at Introductory Level for the 2023 series at Waterloo Dressage. It was an encouraging re-entry back into serious showing, even at the very lowest level.
The great irony was that, for 15 years, our off-island home was a small hobby farm in Grass Lake, Michigan – just two miles from the Waterloo Hunt Club, where we rode to hounds, earning our colors as members of the Hunt, and at an early age, our daughter had been a score runner at Waterloo Dressage competitions (Nicolet even participated in the flight a few times!). It’s a small world.
I have always managed, in some way, to own horses since I was 19. I worked at a Pizza Hut to be able to pay board on one, and some of my tack cost more than my horses, but I didn’t care. As a kid, I loved any horse I saw. I’m glad USDF acknowledges so many diverse equines, and now promotes the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards program.
Growing up on Mackinac in the summers also carved a special niche in my heart for drafts, particularly Percherons. I hunted a fantastic Appaloosa, and a Connemara-Arabian cross. I have always been a bit unconventional, holding the belief that any horse should be able to hack, and any horse can learn dressage – some just do it better than others.
Although part of me bemoaned not being able to “do it all” successfully in the dressage ring – especially with the horses I had owned – I certainly did not spend those non-show years idle. My husband and I made riding a part of our lives, traveling together on riding trips to Austria, Ireland, Spain, Italy, and Greece. Parkinson’s Disease, however, ended his trails. My horse-crazy daughter Claire grew up, and now continues taking wild international treks with her mother – when time permits. Egypt has been perhaps our most colorful adventure yet. I have taken advantage of riding for adventure in other countries, as well as instruction. Claire is also my trainer, and I am hers. Folks, we are about as adult amateurish as you can get.
Last year, I was 69, and buoyed by the success of 2023, I was game to up my ante. I was ready to enter classes with Nicolet, while also bringing along a young half-Arabian in Opportunity Classes. Fate is a fickle thing, though, and both horses ended up with injuries from a freak pasture accident, putting my plans on hold.
Nevertheless, I was still able to finally earn my Elementary Dressage Seat Equitation Rider Award on Nicolet. Together, Claire and I took our senior Arabian, JR Cappuccino (aka Cairo), as our dressage remount, and our hard work paid off.
2024 was a positive year despite the earlier setbacks. Claire and Cairo were the Arabian Horse Association Adult Amateur Training Level champions for full Arabians, and earned his Training Level Horse Performance Certificate at the age of 20. Both Nicolet and Cairo continue the tradition of traveling by ferry to Mackinac Island for the last weeks of summer.
Dressage (the discipline, the schooling of the levels, and the training of both horse and rider) has been a central part of my life for 50 years. It has been a part of those small personal highs in many ways. And I have learned to adjust my life like my seat in the saddle. In spite of several cancer operations, and the loss of horses to blindness, colic, and broken bones, I cannot imagine a life without horses.
I suppose surviving cancer at 23, years before I had any inclination that I would marry and become a mother, made me focus on the present. But the present marches on. I owned a horse during my first bout with cancer, and was frequently too sick to ride. Eventually, I got better, and was determined to get back on my horse – carpe diem.
I have figured out just what is meant by the “prime of your life.” To me, personally, that is energy. My suggestion to others of a certain age who still have a hand in the horse world, or those who’d like to get back in: do it. Do it in some way, even if you can’t ride or don’t have a horse anymore. Go to a clinic, audit and watch, get involved, volunteer – do not wait until later. Every state has equine resources, such as horse shows of all kinds, as well as rescue organizations that need helpers, and dressage judges always love good scribes.
Since 2025 is now well upon us, I look forward to “shedding season” in Michigan. As many in our region can commiserate, it was a long winter. I have set some goals again in my own personal mindset for what my equine partners and I might try for this year, and if I don’t achieve my objectives, I know the importance of backup plans, and the depressing aspects of things going wrong.
Being older really means taking advantage of each opportunity and maximizing goals, both short and long. Do you remember the phrase, “You are in your prime”? I believe that your prime can be any day – or every day! While one may never ride Grand Prix, or own a Grand Prix horse, we might still be able to take a lesson on a schoolmaster and call it good. For some of us, a Century Ride could be our new brass ring, and you better get ready to grab it.
