Having Fun While Striving for Excellence
When the choice is made to have a career as a horse trainer in the hunter-jumper sport, to be successful it is best to bring two things with you: a sense of humor and the tenacity to stay with it while being flexible. Rebecca Bruce is the walking example of how those play out together; she says it all very well... so here it is, in her own words, edited very little.
T
ERS” (as Mary Gatti likes to say), which means you have to eat a lot of feathers before you get to the chicken! It is un- derstanding those expressions that make your successes that much better. You have to work hard to earn successes, and have a sense of humor too. A very important lesson I have
learned in the last few years, is how important it is to have a strong support system, create relationships and treasure those people. It makes such a differ- ence. I feel very lucky to have so many great mentors on my list! “I was born Nov. 3, 1987 and
wo of my favorite horse show expressions are “HERO TO ZERO” (from Archie Cox), and “CHICKEN AND FEATH-
at home but trailered down for lessons every weekend or met up with Rainbow at the horse shows. Keeping my horses at home, forced me to work harder and made me figure out things on my own. I am truly a product of the Southern
California Show Circuit. We would pick and choose between the “A” and “B”
and Mary. When I was fourteen, I took on my
first “clients” at Sunnybrook. I started teaching up-down lessons and imported green ponies from Canada, breaking them, then selling them as show po- nies. It worked great because I was still a junior and could show them in the pony divisions. It also taught me a lot of what worked and what didn’t with training tech- niques, you learn that fast. In eighth grade, I decided to home school and I became a working student for Patrick Spanton and started traveling to Europe several times a year to look for horses. Mary Gatti was always sup-
raised in Santa Barbara but I grew up showing with Rainbow Canyon Ranch, I moved there when I was ten years old. At the time I made the move to Rain- bow, it was suppose to be tem- porary, but once your part of the Rainbow family, you never want to leave. Mary Gatti, Pat- rick Spanton, and Kim Tasker are like all family to me.” Even though Rainbow Canyon is over
two hours away from Santa Barbara, it was always a perfect fit for me and my horses from the start. I was in fifth grade when I got there and I did my homework driving down and back in the car. I started keeping a couple of horses
circuit shows to get the most bang for our buck, getting as many show miles as possible. Kim Tasker and I would go to all the Camelot and Gold Coast shows to get qualified for Medals and year-end points. I would then go to as many “A” circuit shows as possible with Patrick
afraid to ask questions or get help with something you want to improve on. Most challenging thing about the
horse business, as any professional knows, is trying to have a personal life along with running a business and a barn. The horse business is not
portive of me learning as much as I could from as many top professionals as possible. My last junior year she set it up so I got to stable and train with Karen Healy, then with Don Stewart back east. When I first turned professional, I was afraid to ask questions or ask for help with something. Now I see that it is one of the biggest mistakes a young pro- fessional can make. Don’t be
Opposite Page: Rebecca Bruce with Hearthrob. Photo © Tass Jones Photography. This Page - Top: Rebecca and Clif Lee Z, owned by Paige Zangrillo, in Santa Barbara. © Rick Osteen Photography. This Page - Bottom (Left to Right): First pony ride, age 2; First horse show, age 8; First Year End Awards with Kim Tasker, 1999; PCHA Overall High Point Equiation Rider (winning Michael Tang portait) with Maty Gatti, 2001; Winning the LAHSA Jr. Medal finals on her 16th birthday, 2003.
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