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!
In this story, an adult amateur from Region 7 tells us about the series of events that led her to a rescue horse, and how he helped her learn how to have fun in the sandbox again.
By Erin Holden
I discovered my love for horses at age 11, when my mom arranged a trail ride birthday party for a small group of friends. From there, she found a coworker who rode with a Western Pleasure trainer, who we were introduced to and from whom I began taking weekly lessons. As I got older, I wanted to switch to English disciplines. We found a (now rare) schooling barn, where I learned English riding and how to jump on so many different wonderful horses; thank you, Frenchie, Tess, and Freckles!
Once I went off to college, the hobby became much more difficult to fit into the budget, so I rode sporadically. But when I had the opportunity, I always especially loved riding the trails in the hills around the school.
After college, riding took a back seat until I graduated from nursing school at 30. It was at that point that I knew I’d be able to afford to not only start lessons again, but could purchase my first horse!
Working with my trainer, Cindy Ramirez-Smith, I purchased my first off-track Thoroughbred (OTTB), Soul on Ice, barn name Ash.
With Cindy’s training, and encouragement from barn friends, I was introduced to the sport of dressage. Ash and I worked hard, qualifying for and competing at our local Regional Adult Amateur Championship (RAAC; a championship program put on by the California Dressage Society for its adult amateurs) for two consecutive years, and we competed at Second Level at our last show. However, a deep digital flexor tendon injury, as well as having children of my own, meant an early retirement for Ash.
A few years passed, where I used a lesson horse and leased a friend’s warmblood at a new barn. There, I rekindled my love of riding and purchased my second OTTB, Highest Rank, or “Gram,” around the barn, whom I had shipped from the East Coast, sight unseen.
Unfortunately, Gram came with some dirty habits. While we spent two years working hard to try to build a partnership, eventually I realized that he was too much for me, and he was given to a professional to retrain. Many tears were shed along the way.
Knowing I didn’t want to take any time off from being a horse owner, I instantly started perusing the sales pages. Being scarred (literally and figuratively) from my last purchase, I knew I needed to be careful with my next selection.
I found a horse for sale named International Velvet, AKA “Baby,” who was a mere two-and-a-half hours away from me. He was adorable, and until then, I had never known I wanted a Paint! At the time, he was being ridden by Aurora, a 17-year-old who was going off to college.
Baby’s principal owners were Summit Horse Rescue in Los Gatos, California. He had been rescued from a horse auction in Texas in 2018; their employee was there to purchase older horses, but a small, three-ish-month-old colt running the pen frantically was hard to ignore. She was told his mother had just been auctioned off without him, leaving him in distress. A quick phone call to Summit Horse Rescue later, the three-month-old colt was also coming to California.
After recovering from shipping-related illnesses, Baby grew up as part of the rescue herd. He was started by a professional as a five-year-old, before being given to Aurora to train and show. She evented him once, so I knew he had just enough show miles to make him more trustworthy.
With Aurora going off to college, though, he needed to find his forever home.
We went back and forth over the course of a couple of weeks trying to coordinate a meeting time, but nothing was lining up, and ultimately, Baby was brought to me without the opportunity to try him on his home turf.
This wasn’t ideal, as I had been burned once before, but my worries eased due to two factors: first, his easy-going demeanor, and second, the rescue agreeing to a four-month trial – something practically unheard of.
Our first four months were all smiles, involving jumping, dressage training, and trail riding. Baby quickly became “McClain,” but in honor of Aurora, will always be shown as International Velvet, the name she chose to show him under.
Out of curiosity, I sent off a hair sample for a DNA breed analysis to Texas A&M University. The results showed that McClain’s breeding is Quarter Horse, Hanoverian, and Rocky Mountain Pleasure Horse. The latter breed was unfamiliar to me, but, after some research, it seems to make sense, since it is a gaited breed, and McClain has a proclivity to gait.
My best barn friend, Lynaia, and I have been so lucky in that our two horses are the best of friends. You practically have to get out of McClain’s way when his friend, Freaky, is in the trailer, or he’ll run you over to join him. We travel to take lessons with Cindy, and love showing with her group of students at recognized shows. Lynaia and I competed in a trail trial, and practiced trail obstacles at an Extreme Cowboy facility – all while in dressage saddles.
Returning to the show ring has been one of my greatest joys to come from working with McClain. I love the dressage training scale and seeing how much he has advanced since we started together. We competed at our first recognized show of the season in mid-March, at our local Paso Robles Horse Park. I’m happy to say we earned two qualifying First Level scores for RAAC, which we’ll attend in August in Santa Barbara.
I’m also lucky to say that McClain is kid- and husband-friendly. My sons, Vaughn (9) and Reid (6), love walking, grooming, and riding him bareback. I never take for granted that, in a sport that can inherently be dangerous, I have a partner who never makes me second-guess getting on.
Having a hobby like riding means more to me than just being with my horse. As an ER nurse who sees a lot during their working hours, the barn is a place to unplug, be outside, visit with friends, and be active.
Also, not many adults have the opportunity to truly compete in a sport that could last into their later years!
My advice to any and all adult amateur riders is: remember that this is meant to be fun! What’s the point of spending all this time and money to be anything but happy? I always try to keep in mind that this sport is a privilege; someone will always have more than me in terms of training, grooms, and quality horses, but there are people who can’t ride because of physical problems or budget limitations. I am truly lucky every day that I can go to the barn.
