Balancing being an adult amateur dressage rider and USEF ‘r’ Dressage Technical Delegate.
By Christina Harmon
Being an adult amateur dressage rider is one of the most challenging and rewarding things I’ve ever done!
The challenge comes in managing my time between work, home, the barn, horses, and family. I don’t have my horses at home, and I am fortunate to have a wonderful barn owner, which helps a bunch. Like many horse people, I am chasing a balance between what I can do both physically and financially. Not having the horses at home, which means incorporating travel time into my barn schedule, and working a full-time job requires careful planning for things like meeting the vet and farrier for appointments, scheduling time to ride, showing, and now my new career as a USEF ‘r’ Dressage Technical Delegate.
I have two beautiful mares, Millennium Wind (Millie) and Rose Marie (Rosie). Millie is my oldest. She’s a 26-year-old Arabian mare whom I’ve had since she was two. I feel like we’ve grown up together, having had many adventures and faced many challenges together through the years.
At 17, Millie started rearing under saddle and exhibiting stallion-like behavior. She was diagnosed with an ovarian tumor that required surgery. At the same time, she also incurred an injury to her facial crest, requiring another surgery to remove a bone chip. Both surgeries were successful, but they caused a lot of setbacks in our training.
Right as we were getting back on track, and fit enough to compete, she developed a horrible abscess on her right front foot that turned into laminitis. Thanks to my excellent farrier, Craig Stark, and the awesome veterinarian team at Pine Ridge Equine, Millie is once again sound. We have slowly been rebuilding her muscle tone and stamina, but at 26, it’s much harder and takes a lot longer.
Last year, we started doing a few schooling shows at Introductory Level, and this year, I’m hoping we can get back to doing a few Training Level tests at schooling shows. Millie loves being in the show ring, and she still enjoys being ridden, so as long as she is happy and stays sound, we will continue on.
One of my proudest accomplishments with Millie over the years has been earning over 2,500 hours through the Arabian Horse Association’s Recreational Rider program. This program allows riders to track the time they spend with their horses riding in non-competitive environments.
Rosie came into my life around six years ago. Millie was 20, and I knew it was time to start looking for a younger horse. Rosie came to me on a free lease initially, and she is truly my heart horse (Don’t tell Millie!). I ended up purchasing her after the lease ended about a year later.
Rosie is a Friesian-Arabian cross mare, and is well-known for her impressive mane and very sweet nature! We started competing at Training Level, earning Training Level Reserve Champion at our local Group Membership Organization (GMO)’s year-end championship show. But, as we were starting to work on showing First Level, she began having some issues with her right-lead canter. She then started refusing to pick up the lead at all, and began to trip at the trot.
After lots of lameness exams, we ran tests for EPM, and she came back positive on the neurological test. After treatment, it took several months to get her strength and balance back to where it felt safe to ride her again. Once she was back under saddle, things went south again, and Rosie started having trouble, this time with her right hind.
After an ultrasound, it was discovered that she had an abnormality in the meniscus. She was treated with Prostride, given time off, and we began rehabilitation work. Then, last year, I was getting her out of a stall for our first lesson back after the meniscus injury when I noticed her left front leg was swollen. She had torn her left front lateral suspensory. I was devastated. Once again, we were in a cycle of more time off, more rehabilitation, and lots of prayers.
Thankfully, Rosie has recovered well, and we attended our first away clinic in March!! Yay!!! She’s feeling stronger every ride, and I’m cautiously optimistic that we can head back down centerline this coming fall.
The rewards come in the quiet moments at the barn, and the time I get to spend with my beautiful mares. The friendships I have made with my barn family help sustain me when life feels like it’s a little too much, and I most definitely couldn’t do everything without the support of my husband. I wouldn’t trade all of it for anything right now… even though I have to make sacrifices in what I can take on and what I can do.
My journey to become a USEF ‘r’ licensed dressage technical delegate started close to four years ago. Both of my horses were off due to different lameness issues, and I missed competing. I was volunteering at a Central Plains Dressage Society show, when our show secretary, Stacia Wert-Gray, and I were talking about how more technical delegates were needed. She proposed that I look into the process.
I have always enjoyed volunteering for our shows, and with both horses unable to compete, I decided it would be worth looking into what the process involved and if it was something I felt that I could take on. Fortunately, I already had most of the volunteer prerequisites completed, which helped speed up the application process. My work is flexible enough to where I could take off for the required apprenticeships, and that was a big help as well.
Becoming a technical delegate has allowed me to stay connected to the competition ring but in a completely different capacity. There is so much that happens behind the scenes at a show, and I have an amazing respect for competition managers, and how much they have to know and do to put a competition together. I love being there to help them facilitate a show, but also to be a resource for competitors.
In the past, I have worked in sales and marketing, and my current position is in administration, where I handle lots of data entry and human resource duties, and am well acquainted with coordinating with field staff, vendors, and insurance companies. The skills I’ve acquired from my corporate jobs have definitely helped me when working as a technical delegate…especially with all the paperwork! I am able to stay very organized and focused, which helps me balance all that’s required.
My favorite part of being a technical delegate is helping competitors be better educated before going into the show ring. I aim to be a resource for both competitors and show management to have a successful showing experience. I love when competitors ask questions – it helps me learn, too! It also helps me become more familiar with the rules and requirements of the show. There is a lot to know and understand, and no question is ever too small or silly!
I have been asked, over and over, how I manage it all. It’s not easy, but I love horses, and I love our sport, and I have an amazingly supportive group! My husband, Brian, is especially supportive through all of the travel and time away. I couldn’t be a technical delegate without the help of my support system.
I don’t think adult amateurs are given enough credit for all that they balance, especially when working full-time. Most have careers and families, but we carve out the time to spend with our horses to train, compete, or even just spend time with them. Sometimes that means very early hours or very late hours at the barn, not being able to participate in events that happen during working hours, and missing out on other fun things because of scheduling.
However, I couldn’t imagine my life without my horses, barn friends, and family. It makes for a crazy life at times… but I definitely sleep well at night!
