Warmblood I
By Michael Barisone Sometimes the Turtle Wins the Race
was recently in Chicago for the Young Horse Cham- pionship, part of the U.S. Dressage Festival of Cham- pions, helping competitor JJ Tate. I saw boatloads of
high-caliber, impressive young and developing horses competing. Back at the hotel, I reflected about what I’d seen, realizing the three-, four- and five-year-olds I have at home are skinnier and much less developed than the fancy-looking horses at the championship. For a minute I felt discouraged, but then I thought, in the big picture, this is just a moment—there’s a lot that comes after these early years. If you are lucky enough to have a horse fancy enough
to do those classes, that’s fantastic. But if you are a rider or a breeder with a gangly youngster, do not despair. It’s the same with horses as with people: a lot of the time the girl with freckles and braces may grow up to be a movie star, or the nerdy boy with glasses who isn’t handsome and popular in high school grows up to be a Bill Gates. It’s very interesting to look back and see the gangly teen- agers turn into amazing adults. An example of this is a friend I went to high school with who called me last winter at 53 years old—I hadn’t talked to him since we were 20. He was a smart guy and quite a nerd in high school. He wasn’t popular or cool, and he wasn’t the handsome captain of the football team, but he was very smart. First he went to Cornell Uni- versity, then he earned multiple graduate degrees from very important institutions of higher learning. He learned to speak Russian and Chinese, and ended up working with the State Department. He married well and he and his wife have a beautiful little boy. My intelligent, suc- cessful friend has a fantastic job and has traveled all over the world. He’s a little bit like the turtle who won the race: I guarantee he’s the number one most successful person from our school. His life now as an adult is extraordinary, but when he was 18 it wasn’t worth writing about. That said, Young and Developing Horse Champion-
ships are wonderful, wonderful accomplishments for breeders, owners and trainers who have a horse that can be successful in these young horse classes. But if you are an aspiring rider, breeder, trainer or owner, don’t despair if your horse is not that caliber at a young age. Years 11 and 12 tend to be the equalizer; time, training and care- ful development is just as important as the caliber of the
74 November/December 2018
horse, as long as he’s of reasonable quality to begin with. If you have a six-year-old and you like riding him,
don’t be concerned just because he doesn’t float around the arena or have a flying change. That doesn’t mean he will never be a Grand Prix horse. Some horses need time to have a chance to grow into themselves. I don’t want to demean the exceptional six-year-olds. However, just because your young horse doesn’t look like that now doesn’t mean he won’t get there in the end. It’s a little like kids who are learning to read: they all
read differently at seven than they do at 12. Some of them are still reading picture books when they’re seven and some are reading Harry Potter, but by the time they’re 12, most kids read pretty well. It’s the same with horses. Look at Verdades—he
clearly wasn’t a fast developer as we never even heard of Laura Graves until the spring Verdades was 12 years old. She was just a girl in Vermont, an unknown, but look at them now—number one in the world! They should be an inspiration to all of those whose horses aren’t the fast bloomers; one can make the argument that he’s one of the greatest horses of all time in America. Thank God for strong breeding programs, and that ambitious riders have great horses. Just because your horse doesn’t look like these young stars or have the most expressive trot, don’t give up. Please continue your training program. If your horse’s life is a little unremark- able, that can be a good thing. Just because your young horse isn’t performing at the same level as others doesn’t mean he or she won’t grow up to be amazing. My advice is to avoid expectations of success too ear-
ly. Take your time and develop good, high-quality basics on your horse. Let them quietly take root. Your horse will tell you when he’s ready to be special.
An FEI dressage rider/trainer of Long Valley, New Jersey, and Loxahatchee, Florida, Michael Barisone has a thriving train- ing business and several young horses in the works. Michael was reserve for the 2008 Olympic team rid- ing Neruda. He and Vera Kessels-Barisone, a Dutch native and Grand Prix dressage rider, purchase foals in Holland each year and pro- duce all of their own Grand Prix horses.
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