By Liz Cornell
very busy. With ten horses in training, Stacey rides seven horses per day, competes many of them, teaches a group of students locally and travels frequently to give clinics. She is one of only four USDF-certified instructors through the FEI-B level (Prix St. Georges and Intermediate 1). She trains and competes a variety of horses, including
S
a Friesian mare recently going Prix St. Georges along with two P.R.E. stallions owned by Coves Darden Farm: Police, who is getting ready for Grand Prix and Guateque IV, scor- ing well at Third Level. She also co-owns three Warmbloods with partner Ronald Woodcock, one of whom is a talented six-year-old chestnut Oldenburg named Furst Aurum (by Furst Romancier), recently qualified for the Young Horse Championships. This kind of dream career was what Stacey always hoped
for, but it didn’t happen overnight. Stacey shares her jour- ney and lessons learned with us, hoping to inspire younger riders with similar career goals.
BOLD AT SEVENTEEN As a young girl growing up in southern California, Stacey learned to ride Western in jeans, a cowboy hat and boots. “We used to make fun of the girls riding English with their tight outfits,” she says with a laugh, “until one day, I attended a show called The Kingdom of Dancing Stallions.” She was seventeen at the time and was in awe as she watched their beautiful Andalusian stallions performing dressage, some- thing she had never seen before. Since it wasn’t financially feasible for her parents to purchase her a horse and cover all the expenses that go with it, Stacey knew she had to make things happen on her own. Inspired by the precision, discipline and beauty of the Andalusians, she soon went knocking on the company’s door. “I had no idea if they were hiring, but I wanted to be a
part of what they were doing. I went in and inquired about working for them,” she recalls. “I was expecting a job muck- ing stalls or grooming, but they told me they had openings for three riders to join their team and that I could come back tomorrow as they were conducting the test rides then.”
Stacey enjoys riding two PRE stallions for Coves-Darden. Police (top) is working currently at all the Grand Prix and Guateque (below) is shown here competing at the 2015 5-Year-Old Young Horse Championships at Lamplight.
Warmbloods Today 31
HARD WORK, TAKING RISKS AND A LITTLE LUCK PAY OFF BIG FOR THIS DRESSAGE PRO Excited, yet knowing she knew nothing about the disci-
tacey Schettkoe Hastings has been riding dressage for more than 30 years. Today her training business is thriving in North Carolina—and her life is very,
Success
pline, she showed up to find plenty of young women in their fancy breeches and boots talking about their dressage
to
Dorothea Darden
Chronicle of the Horse
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