Second to One | Insights into the Lives of Assistant Trainers
The Euro Experiment
By Erin Gilmore | ShowBiz Magazine, August 2010
Reality sets in while standing, old-fashioned pitchfork in hand, in the middle of a dirty horsebox bedded two feet deep with straw. It’s 6:30am and that “box” is one of fifteen to be cleaned before 7:00am, when there will be a short coffee break and then half a dozen horses to groom, exercise and put away before the barn gets a meticulous sweeping by noontime.
If the preceding scenario isn’t familiar to you, you’ve never been an assistant trainer who’s headed to Europe with high hopes and a loose grip on reality. The allure of working and riding in the land where show jumping is real sport can cause even the most levelheaded assistant to walk away from a cushy U.S. job and search for higher knowledge in a foreign land.
American show jumping, as a sport and as a business, improves in quality and scope with each passing year. But there’s still nothing like experiencing the European system firsthand.
However, experience includes everything from breaking the ice in water buckets at 5am to showing young horses on a national circuit. It all depends on where you land and how wide open your eyes are.
No Illusions
Trainer Chrissy Christensen had no illusions when she decided to work in Europe for one year. By splitting her time training in two different disciplines, she learned how two top systems operate. The 26-year-old trainer is now based at the Menlo Circus Club, Menlo Park, CA, where she trains dressage and hunter/jumper horses under the umbrella of Jennifer Dixon’s Dixon Stables.
While working in England and Belgium in 2007, Chrissy spent six months with international dressage rider David Pincus in England, and six months at the barn of Belgium’s most successful Olympic show jumper. During her time in England, she studied for and obtained her British Horse Society Instructor Certificate while receiving daily dressage lessons in exchange for working student duties.
“I wanted to better my horsemanship skills and gain international certification from a different set of riders,” she explains. “Getting a ton of lessons from a very successful dressage trainer and also earning an international teaching certificate was very rewarding.”
But her agreement at Ludo Philippaerts’ Stal Dorperheide in Belgium was looser – the large, busy sale barn needed riders and stable help, and lessons were not part of the deal.
“If you’re an assistant for an international rider they’re not often at the barn,” Chrissy says. “And my expectations included seeing how elite riders operate. At one barn I knew I was going to get instruction, and at the other I knew I was just working to see what others were doing. It’s key to know who you’re going to ride with, and know exactly what you’re going to get.”
Success Story
But grand prix rider and three-time World Cup Finalist Mandy Porter, Encinitas, CA, had no idea what she was going to get when she headed to Switzerland for two weeks in 1992. Those two weeks turned into a seven-year stay, living and riding in Switzerland and Italy.
While riding at Gerhard Etter’s large dealing barn in Switzerland, Mandy was exposed to countless horses of all ages and abilities. After being given the opportunity to show, first at small one-day competitions and later in international level Nations Cups, Mandy learned to take any ride and make it a success.
“I wanted to do my best, of course, which meant working harder than I’d ever worked in my life!” she says. “But I was able to gain the confidence to get on any horse, any time and be able to ride it well.”
After riding in Switzerland for five years, Mandy took a job as a private trainer in Italy. During her long stint abroad, she had to deal with homesickness and assimilation into new cultures as she tried to improve her riding and learn European training methods. She attests that the hours and workload are not for everyone, and a certain focus is required.
“I went into it with the attitude that I was going to work harder than they thought I could,” says Mandy. “In those days, Americans were viewed as lazier than Europeans, and I was out to prove them wrong. I was serious and I was ready to work. But most important of all, I wasn’t wearing rose-colored glasses. I knew it would be hard, and I didn’t expect to be handed a string of going horses.”
Once she returned home to the United States, Mandy was able to springboard from her years in Europe and open a highly successful training business. Today she’s a successful grand prix rider with a string of high quality grand prix mounts.
Mandy’s work ethic and talent paid off in the way that every rider hopes it will. Garrett Warner is still hoping that his chance is out there. In 2003, the 26-year-old rider spent 11 months at sale barns in Germany. Now he is planning a return trip in a different capacity.
He Who Works Smartest
With a solid riding background and horse-savvy parents, Garrett, of Healdsburg, CA, wanted to further his career and knew he’d be exposed to a lot in Europe. He connected with Gilbert Bachman in Lastrup, Germany and Stal Sarrenkopf, near Frankfurt, spending 5 to 6 months riding at each dealing barn.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be all easy and fun,” he says. “They know there are ten other people behind you waiting to take your job, and they work you really hard. They’re not very concerned about days off or things like that, and the day-to-day of it was tough. After cleaning the boxes, feeding and sweeping, getting on the horse was like a reward.”
After a year of hard work that he felt was largely thankless, Garrett returned home to California. It was then that he realized what he’d gained. He had a stronger sense of the horse and improved flatwork techniques. And once he was home, Garrett realized that he might have gotten farther along if he’d committed to spend several years there. “To really progress there, you’ve got to work for a good chunk of time,” he admits.
After working for John French in California for the past two years, Garrett is looking into ways to return to Europe – but this time on his own terms.
“I want to go back to Europe, but I want to go back with the ability to buy a few young horses, and take the time to develop them while I’m there,” he explains. “It’s so much easier, and less expensive, to go to lots of shows all over Europe and get miles for me and my horses.
And that’s what I need – more miles,” he continues. “You can ride all the horses you want, but until you’re in the show ring, you don’t really go anywhere. Even if I go over for six months, if I have a few horses of my own I’ll be able to do more and spend less than if I brought them back home to train them. I don’t know when it will happen, but I like my new plan.”
Garrett plans to sell the young horse he has now, and return to Europe when he’s able to support himself.
“The biggest thing I learned in Europe was that it’s not who works hardest, it’s who works smartest,” he says. “Looking back now, I would never go back and get a job in a big barn. But I will go back with a better plan.”
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