Denny Emerson - How Good Riders Get Good: Daily Choices That Lead to Success in Any Equestrian Sport

First published in 2011 by

Trafalgar Square Books

North Pomfret, Vermont 05053

Printed in China

Copyright 2011 Denny Emerson

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, by any means, without written permission of the publisher, except by a reviewer quoting brief excerpts for a review in a magazine, newspaper, or Web site.

Disclaimer of Liability

The author and publisher shall have neither liability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. While the book is as accurate as the author can make it, there may be errors, omissions, and inaccuracies.

The author and publisher have made every effort to obtain a release from photographers whose images appear in this book. In some cases, however, the photographers were not known or could not be contacted. Should additional photographers be identified, they will be credited in future editions of this book.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Emerson, Denny.

How good riders get good : daily choices that lead to success in any equestrian sport / Denny Emerson.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-57076-437-0

1. Horsemanship. I. Title.

SF309.E64 2011

798.2--dc22

2010046900

Book design by Carrie Fradkin

Cover design by RM Didier

Typefaces: Bauer Bodoni, Myriad

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents, Edward and Margaret; to my wife, May; and to my sons, Rett and Jamiemy Support Network, past and present.

Thanks to all who have made this book possible:

Caroline Robbins and the whole staff at Trafalgar Square, for twenty years of urging and support to put these thoughts into the form of a book.

My editor, Sandra Cooke, who patiently walked me through the whole process, and who conducted the interviews of the twenty-three Good Riders profiled in this book.

My familyMay, Rett, and Jamiefor their ongoing support.

The memory of my past teachersJoe McLaughlin, HLM Van Schaik, Lockie Richards, Sally Swift, Jack Le Goff, and Walter Christensen.

The twenty-three great riders, drivers, and trainers who showed us how good riders get goodClinton Anderson, Georgina Bloomberg, Sandy Collier, Buck Davidson, Anne Gribbons, Robin Groves, Mary King, Courtney King-Dye, Laura Kraut, Beezie Madden, Gina Ostini Miles, Leslie Law, Michael Pollard, Larry Poulin, Jane Savoie, Havens Schatt, Louise Serio, Meg Sleeper, Callan Solem, James Stierhoff, Geoff Teall, Stacy Westfall, and Peter Wylde.

Allen Leslie for fifty-five years of friendship and support.

Priscilla Endicott for opening so many doors.

When people learn that Ive written a book, usually their first question is, Whats it about?

Do you know those vast old hotels, the kind they built in the nineteenth century, with wings in every direction, and halls in each wing, and doors in each hall? Imagine that hotel represents the vast world of horses, and that each of those wings and halls and doors represent choices we can make within that horse world.

A wing might stand for a large choice, such as a discipline or breed. A hall might be who I choose as my instructor, which horse I buy, where I choose to live, and each door I open represents still other choices that flow from the larger choices that Ive already made.

This book is about the phenomenon that the choices some riders make open doors to proficiency and great success, while the choices others make close them.

This book is about how some riders are good because theyve made good choices, and its about how you can make good choices, too. We all have to make choices every day, and on these pages you can find out how to make the right choices, no matter which horse sport or breed you happen to prefer.

The reason it doesnt matter which riding discipline you choose is because the phrase good rider can mean different things to different riders. We tend to judge people through the prism of our own experiences. In a stanza from the poem Two Tramps in Mudtime, Robert Frost recounts how two loggers evaluated his performance as he split firewood:

Men of the woods and lumberjacks,

They judged me by their appropriate tool.

Except as a fellow handled an ax,

They had no way of knowing a fool.

People judge one another by their appropriate tool, as Frost says, and in a riders case, thats likely to be the kind of horse she rides, and the type of riding she does. A Grand Prix dressage rider is likely to think about dressage riders when she decides who is or isnt good, just as a reiner is apt to evaluate fellow reiners. It would be unusual to ask a Maryland Hunt Cup jockey who he thinks is a good rider, and have him start talking about a rider of American Saddlebreds who shows in park classes. Their worlds dont even intersect.

It is my desire that this book applies to all riding worlds. I hope you use the many examples that follow to help guide you as you make choices in the days and years to come. If you make them wisely, they can propel you forward toward your goals and bring you to wonderful conclusions.

Denny Emerson

Why should I be presumptuous enough to think I have anything to tell you about how to become a better rider?

Heres the answer: Ive been involved with horses for almost sixty years. Ive competed in trail riding, saddle seat, hunters, jumpers, eventing, and dressage. My primary career has been as an eventer, but Ive competed in the National Morgan Show, Ive ridden in point-to-point races, Ive done endurance riding and completed the 100-Mile Tevis Cup. Ive ridden Quarter Horses, Arabs, Paints, Thoroughbreds, Morgans, and Warmbloods.

Ive helped win a team gold medal for the United States at a World Championship. Ive served on the Executive Committee of what was the American Horse Show Association and is now the United States Equestrian Federation; Ive been vice president of the US Equestrian Team and have twice served as president of the US Eventing Association. My Tamarack Hill Farm has stood successful stallions and bought and sold horses.

In other words, in the world of horse sports, Im quite an experienced and successful person.

Fig. 1 Paint was the ideal first pony for a wild Indian kid like me. He was steady, reliable, and most of all, he was tolerant: tolerant of my ignorance, my uneducated riding, of all the mistakes I must have constantly made. I could gallop him all around the neighborhood with just a halter and a lead rope, and he and I became gymkhana champions of Western Massachusetts in the mid 1950s. This photo is from my first competition, April 23, 1954, at the Stoneleigh Prospect Hill School gymkhana, Greenfield, Massachusetts.

I also know lots of people all over the horse world, because since getting Paint, my first pony, at age ten, Ive spent as much of my time as possible in the company of other equestrians (fig. ). The huge majority were backyard riderspeople who just loved horses, but whose riding skills were no more than average. However, Ive also spent a great deal of time with some of the really superb riders of the world, men and women whove become gold medalists and superstars in their disciplines.