Here, a rider from Region 2 shares how she brought her Thoroughbred mare from untouched to Prix St. Georges, far surpassing her expectations!
By Amanda Endfinger
As an adult amateur with limited funds, it has not always been easy to compete in the horse world or find horses that I could afford. But, in the mid-2010s, unbeknownst to me, my husband, Sean, had spent almost two years keeping an eye out on Craigslist for a horse for me, as my gelding was heading towards retirement. And in 2015, he found what we thought was my dream horse: a 6-year-old, unbroke, 16.3-hand dapple grey Thoroughbred mare.
We drove almost two hours to look at her, and when we got to the farm, we almost didn’t get out of the car. What we saw in the pen was a scrawny little mare that was in no way close to 16.3. I am tall, so I wanted something larger to take up my leg. I told him that maybe it was a trick of the footing, and she was bigger than she appeared (spoiler alert – she wasn’t). We got out, and the trainer put her in a small round pen, chasing her around a bit so we could see her move.
We were told that she had spent most of her life living in a field, with maybe a week’s worth of round pen work with the trainer, but she had never been saddled or bridled or had any other training as far as they knew. Still, she moved nicely and seemed sweet, so we went home, talked it through, and decided to purchase her. That is the story of how I got my high three-figure, 16-hand, unbroke, unregistered Thoroughbred off of Craigslist, whom I have now taken to Prix St. Georges.
We brought Chloe home on June 7, 2015, and I spent the rest of June and July working with her on the ground, introducing her to lunging, a saddle, a bridle, and a little bit of long lining. In early August, I swung my leg over Chloe for the first time, with Sean there to lead her and help if we had any issues. As a teenager, I had the privilege of working as an assistant for my trainer, Val, and her daughter, Darcy, which provided me with an excellent education in starting and working with young horses and the skills I needed to give Chloe a good foundation.
We worked for several months to get Chloe going decently under saddle before having our first lesson with my coach, Reese, in December 2015. I took her to her first schooling show in early 2016, choosing the show name Starfyire’s Phoenix Rising. We made several trips to various schooling shows throughout the year to give Chloe some experience with other horses and new, busy environments.
In 2017, we made our USDF-recognized show debut at the Kentucky Horse Park, showing Training and First Level. That weekend, and with plenty of help from both Reese and Sean, we qualified for the 2017 Great American/USDF Regional Dressage Championships and made plans to head up to Ohio. Chloe did wonderfully at the Region 2 Championships, but we did not quite earn the scores to place in the top eight or get a wild card score to qualify for the US Dressage Finals presented by Adequan®. With Reese and Sean, we decided that one of my main goals was to earn my USDF Bronze Medal, as we were never likely to do a large amount of showing.
In 2018, we moved up to Second Level and struggled. Second Level is a stopping point for a lot of riders with good reason: it’s HARD! With Reese’s guidance, we worked through the more challenging movements and higher level of precision. At this point, the only competition I was concerned about was ourselves, trying to improve each time and have a better test in the show ring, so we could earn those elusive scores for my Bronze Medal. I also added the challenge of doing freestyles to our competition goals, and we both enjoyed the change.
We finally earned the second Second Level score towards my Bronze Medal in 2019. We also started working at Third Level that year, adding a challenge that was new to both of us. Our progress was much slower as, at times, it felt like the blind leading the blind. I was not only trying to teach her the changes and half pass, but I was also trying to figure out what they should feel like. Adding to the challenge, Chloe had no natural flying change, so it was a very slow and mechanical process to teach her to perform a clean change.
Nonetheless, we received a 65% our first time out at Third Level, which was not only the first Third Level score needed for my Bronze Medal, but also the score I needed to ride my Second Level freestyle. Through a last-minute decision to run up to Ohio, I received my second Third Level score, and reached my goal of earning all six scores towards my Bronze Medal on a horse that I had trained myself.
In 2020, while working around all of the additional challenges presented by COVID-19, we continued to work on Third Level and our Second Level freestyle. In our first two runs, we earned qualifying scores at Second Level to go towards my USDF Bronze Freestyle Bar. In September, we had a great show, earning first place in all three classes we attempted (the only time I’ve ever gotten that many blues at a dressage show), and we were finally able to break the 63% we needed to do a Third Level freestyle in 2021.
We prepped for our Third Level freestyle but also had a long discussion with Reese about our future. We both agreed that Chloe was possibly reaching the top of her abilities and that maybe it was time for me to sell her and look at getting a horse that would be more competitive and able to take me to Grand Prix, my ultimate goal.
So, in May of 2021, I created a video, wrote up a description of Chloe, and posted her for sale as a schoolmaster. I spent the next month answering questions for several people online and having a local friend come and try her. We went to the Kentucky Spring Classic show at the end of May and rode our Third Level freestyle for three days, earning the last two scores for my Bronze Bar. Coming out of one of the rides, I broke down crying, thinking it was one of my last times taking Chloe down centerline. After the show, I kept flipping back and forth in my mind about whether I should keep her, or sell her, making that period of time very stressful for me. I finally gave up and pulled her off the market in June, realizing that I could not sell her without being 100% behind the decision.
Instead, we refocused on going to regionals for both the Third Level championship and the Third Level freestyle. I had changed Chloe’s bit to try and resolve an issue, and found that she went so much better in it, so we went ahead and signed up for the Fourth Level Test 1 at our last prep show (scoring just over 60%). At regionals, we used the Fourth Level Test 1 class as a warm-up for the show, not only receiving the second qualifying score for my Silver Medal, but also a 66% from Lilo Fore, which put us first in the class. Everything in that test just went well; Chloe was really on it and just ready to listen and do anything I asked. Unfortunately, that was our best test of the show, and we ended in the middle of the pack in both championship classes.
In October, I was surprised to receive an invitation to the US Dressage Finals to compete in the Third Level Freestyle Championship. I was the highest-scoring alternative who had declared for Finals, and someone had pulled out, so there was a spot open for Chloe and me. Sean and I spoke with Reese, and she has always said that if you get an offer to attend Finals, you should always take it.
So, we signed up for Finals and spent the next month prepping Chloe to go. The music for my freestyle was a compilation of songs I had put together from the movie Frozen; suitably, as I was getting ready to enter my test, a bit of snow started falling. It was a miserably cold, grey day, but I was so proud of how Chloe handled herself and that we did not fall apart in front of three judges. Out of a class of sixteen riders from all over the country, we ended up placing seventh, which is one of my proudest moments with my little grey mare.
In 2022 and 2023, I had some mental health challenges due to a situation at work, which made it hard for me to focus on making progress with Chloe and getting all of the movements for Prix St. Georges (PSG). We really came to a stopping point with her tempi changes, as she would shut down mentally when we tried to get them done in the correct number of strides.
One challenge we have faced at every new level is a period where Chloe thinks she can’t do it, until she suddenly figures out she can, much like a child throwing a tantrum before realizing it’s no big deal. We got past the big blow-ups with the changes and, in 2024, we could do all five three-tempis changes, although they were not the prettiest. Reese encouraged me to make the leap and take Chloe to a show.
In August 2024, we made our first attempt at PSG. It was certainly far from perfect, and we were late on one of the changes in the four-tempis, but we did everything and came out of the ring with 60.5%, leaving us with just one score left to earn my USDF Silver Medal. The last local show of the year was the Region 2 Championships, so we went ahead and signed up for the regular show, with the goal of earning our last score.
We prepped and made it to the Kentucky Horse Park, where I worked her the evening before our first test, and things fell apart. Chloe reverted to stopping in the middle of the three-tempis, and I could not get her past it. Our first test on Saturday was very conservative and went okay until the three-tempis, when she stopped in the middle of them. I almost pulled her out of the rest of the show, but Sean encouraged me to keep going, saying we had come so far and that I should not give up on her.
The next day, Reese was able to warm us up, and I gave Chloe a much stronger warm-up for our test in front of two judges. I took the stance that the score didn’t matter; I wanted us to get out there and show that we could do the level. We still had a bobble in the three-tempis, but the rest of the test felt really good, so it was extremely disappointing when our score was just under 60%. We had gotten the lowest score for an extended trot that we had ever gotten, which was frustrating, as it had felt like one of the best extensions that she had ever done. On the last day of the show, I went into the ring with not a lot of hope that we would get that last score, but Chloe put in a respectable test for me and officially earned me my Silver Medal.
So far in 2025, we are taking it easy. Chloe has gone so much further than anyone thought she would, and she owes me absolutely nothing. We are taking a break to work on jumping and some bridleless work. It has been a great mental break for both of us from dressage, and it keeps Chloe much happier in our flat work. I am still trying to work through her angst of the tempis, and if we can get to a point where they are not a big deal for her, I would love to try and get the score we need to be able to do the Fourth Level freestyle, and possibly even look to Intermediate, if Chloe indicates that she is up to the challenge.
Our journey has been slower than many others on the same path. I watched many riders in our region outpace Chloe and me, and at times, I felt left behind. But I had to remind myself that the path I chose to take was slower, and the horse I chose would never be the one that would be consistently competitive, but I am a better rider for it. There are not many amateur riders who are able to take an unbroke horse to Prix St. Georges, and I have a huge amount of pride in what Chloe and I have accomplished.
Our journey would not have been possible without the huge amount of help I have received over the years from my husband, who has been such an asset as my daily eyes on the ground, coach, videographer, groom, farrier, and photographer; and from the support and encouragement from my coach, who has always been supportive of any direction that we wanted to take and always a positive influence. Although I have taught her everything, I have learned so much from Chloe and will have the pleasure of being able to take what I’ve learned from her and apply it to my homebred colt, For Fun SF, who I am hoping will one day be my Grand Prix horse. My journey with Chloe has not always been easy, and certainly not filled with blue ribbons and championships, but I would not change it for the world.
