Adult amateurs, it’s your time to shine! We are featuring all things adult amateur throughout the month of April.
Dressage riders who are designated as an adult amateur with USEF are eligible for amateur-exclusive year-end award divisions, including Master’s Challenge, Vintage Cup, Adequan®/USDF Adult Amateur Awards, All-Breeds Awards, and more!
An adult amateur finds joy in showing again as she steps into the FEI ring for the first time with her Connemara/Trakehner, Dylan!
By Danielle Comley
Dylan, formally BDF Top Dun, is my fairytale horse of a ‘different color’ and my best friend, as cheesy as it sounds. He and I have been together since he was a weanling, and I was an adult amateur previously competing in eventing.
As a child and young adult, I grew up on a small farm in Pennsylvania, where we raised a few young horses for the hunters and jumpers. I am short, so I did a lot of work with ponies, both my own, and catch rides to help pay the bills. Through my love of ponies, I stumbled upon Connemara crosses while I was dabbling in eventing, admiring them from afar for their brains and athleticism. I had also always dreamed of having a buckskin.
In 2014, I saw a picture of Dylan in an advertisement as a weanling, and fell in love at first sight.
My trainer, Katie Poag, was headed to Florida with her stallion, and I tagged along to groom. During the trip, Katie graciously took me to visit Dylan at Black Dog Farm in Plant City, Florida. I loved him even more in person, and entered an agreement with his breeder, Beth Davidson, to buy him.
Dylan stayed in Florida to grow up until he was about a year and a half old, when we brought him home to South Carolina. Katie and I started him as a late four-year-old. It was during those sessions that Katie suggested we spend our first two years focused on dressage before starting any serious jumping. I agreed…and well, the rest is history!
Until that time, I had never focused on dressage solely, though I had taken lessons while eventing. It was a big change for me, but Dylan immediately took to the challenge and competition. Since 2019, Dylan and I have earned a number of top-five finishes (despite a “bad driver” error once!) at the Great American/USDF Region 3 Dressage Championships, with highlights including Champion Adult Amateur titles at Training Level in 2019, First Level Musical Freestyle in 2021, Second Level Musical Freestyle in 2022, and Fourth Level in 2024. Katie also rode Dylan in the Developing Prix St. Georges in 2023, barely missing out on earning a qualifying score for an invitation to the U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions at Lamplight Equestrian Center; he just needed a little more fitness and time to grow up. In that time, Dylan and I also earned my Bronze Medal and Bronze Freestyle Bar!
In the beginning, dressage was mentally a little bit of an intimidating change for me, competition-wise. I have shown my whole life, but obviously in very different disciplines. And it’s not like we blended in – Dylan is a loud color. I think he is beautiful, but it sometimes feels like we stick out like a sore thumb amongst all the stately dark bays.
He is also an off-breed – he is a Connemara/Trakehner cross, and is registered with the American Connemara Pony Society. I am so appreciative of the Adequan®/USDF All-Breeds Awards Program because there are not many “Connies,” and I get to see other non-traditional breeds in dressage!
Beyond my trainer, Dylan’s breeder, Beth Davidson (who is very involved in the USEF and USDF worlds as an FEI Steward L2 and Registered Technical Delegate), and my husband, Grant, who is his farrier, I have a great support network. Grant has taken care of Dylan’s feet since he arrived in SC. Beyond the feet…
We are “Do-It-Yourself” farmers, and Dylan lives with us at home on our farm. At home, my husband and I do all the work ourselves; it’s not fancy, but it’s functional and safe. Stall cleaning, building infrastructure, stacking hay, mowing, you name it, and we do it. I also work full-time in a very demanding job as an Operations Director at a geospatial consulting firm. I trailer Dylan at least weekly to work with Katie, and once in a while, he goes to her for a few days of “bootcamp” while I travel for work.
In 2025, I stepped away from competing for a bit. Work was demanding, and I had taken on a new role that required a lot of my time as my company went through a major reorganization. This gave me quite a bit more responsibility, including international teams, and tripled my domestic team size.
I was experiencing serious burnout, and it really made it hard to find joy in riding, or much else. I felt for a bit like competing was just one more hard-to-navigate pressure, and I was a little lost. Over time, Katie and my husband gently pushed me to remember why I loved to show. They reminded me that I needed goals to feel accomplishment and challenge in the saddle.
Somehow, it finally clicked, and Dylan and I made our way down centerline for our first Prix St. Georges test together. I had watched Katie compete at this level with him, so I knew he could do it, but I didn’t want to let him, her, or myself down at this grown-up level.
We made my debut in April 2026, where we won Champion PSG Adult Amateur for the weekend, and we achieved my Silver Medal! Let me tell you, though, I have a lot to learn at this level. But, I finally have my spark back to keep learning and growing together.
I wondered what Dylan would think of showing again; would he be stressed? Well, if you have met him, he is a bit of a ham. He likes standing in the aisle, hanging out with the humans, and being fussed over. People usually notice his shocking color immediately, so he is used to attention and is a total socialite.
For other AA competitors, I would tell them to ride for the joy of it, and even when you are burnt out, don’t give up. I have had show ring success, but every time I get to ride Dylan, it is truly for the joy of it, and the honor of growing with him through our partnership. One of my most precious treasures in life is that he trusts me and keeps showing up again and again each ride. At the end of the day, we will keep competing as long as he is happy and healthy. And when it’s time to retire someday, he will spend his days with his mini pony friend, Otis, on our quiet little hobby farm.
