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Remembering Hickstead
By Erin Gilmore | ProEquest.com, November 6th, 2011

Just over a year ago, I sat among 6,000 of my closest friends and watched the World Championship of Show Jumping unfold in Lexington, Kentucky at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. It was an exciting finish to what had already been a dramatic competition - the United States' early lead and subsequent failure to capture a WEG medal, the emergence of Middle Eastern countries as formidable show jumping competitors. But on the night of October 10th, 2010, all eyes were focused on just four riders, and there was only one name on everyone's lips: Hickstead.

Team Saudi Arabia’s Big WEG Impact
An Interview with Saudi Show Jumping Team Chef d’ Equipe Rogier van Iersel
by Erin Gilmore | Sidelines Magazine, December 2010

They were the most talked about show jumping team at the 2010 Alltech World Equestrian Games. From their victory gallops to their hysterical fans, their clean rounds to the price tags of their horses, the team from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia not only made tongues wag, they made history.

With the mare Seldana di Campalto, twenty-eight year old Abdullah al Sharbatly jumped five clean rounds over the duration of the Games.
He survived the Rolex Top Four and won the individual silver, the first-ever WEG medal for his country. Abdullah’s teammate, Khaled Al Eid, also jumped brilliantly and led individual standings early in the week with Presley Boy, famously purchased for him before the Games for a sum said to be in the millions of dollars...

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...

Second to One | Insights into the Lives of Assistant Trainers
The Dare
by Erin Gilmore | ShowBiz Magazine, April, 2010

Lines of sweat drew tracks through the dust on my arms, and my thin orange shirt was starting to stick to my back. Spring was just about to give way to summer, and at the sale barn where I took my first professional job, everything was getting heavier under the heat.

The big German warmblood I was riding sweated with me as we trotted around under the critical eye of my trainer, a handful of clients and other riders. Everyone except the trainer was pretending they weren't watching, but I knew better. It was my maiden voyage on "the one-rider horse", and all eyes were waiting for one of us to crack...

We Are The 10,000-Hour Club
by Erin Gilmore | Chronicle of the Horse, July 2009

The author believes there are many riders out there who have reached this milestone—and should be recognized.

I read Denny Emerson’s Between Rounds column “The 10,000-Hour Club: Are You A Member?” (June 19, p. 48) with interest. Stating that the competence of a rider is directly related to his or her time in the saddle is absolutely true...

Mark Watring’s Sapphire is Cloned
by Erin Gilmore | California Riding Magazine, June 2009

Six years ago, when Mark Watring and his dapple-grey Holsteiner Sapphire were racking up international Grand Prix wins, breeding inquiries flooded in. Sapphire was a typey, well-built warmblood with lots of muscle, and jumped with an uncanny desire to leave rails up. People assumed that he was a stallion, and potential breeders were roundly disappointed when they learned otherwise. And six short years ago, that’s where the conversation ended; a gelding simply can’t breed. But that was then, and this is now...

Crossed Paths
by Erin Gilmore | Sidelines Magazine, March 2009

It’s never a good sign when a seller chooses to remark that their horse has never been cantered under saddle - while they watch a potential buyer do just that. As Colin McIntosh dutifully cantered around on the horse which ten minutes prior he had had no intention of buying, he looked across the ring to where his wife Toni was watching and gave her a knowing look. Although the couple had agreed to try the gangly four-year-old chestnut gelding named Kronie only as a favor, they both knew that there was something about him worth getting to know...

A Conversation with Rudy Leone
by Erin Gilmore | Sidelines Magazine, January 2009

While Northern California is hardly considered a remote corner of the horse world, its distance from the European and East Coast hubs of horse sport often leave it in a position of catch-up. The majority of U.S. Olympic and Super League show jumpers are East Coast-based, and on the FEI World Cup circuit all West Coast qualifiers have always been held in Southern California...

Monty Roberts on the State of Racing
by Erin Gilmore | PhelpsSports.com, May 2008

When Eight Belles broke down before millions of eyes at the Kentucky Derby, the collective bodies of horse racing knew to brace themselves for the wave of criticism that was sure to follow. With the sad memory of Barbaro still fresh in the minds of the American public, watching another horse meet its untimely death on racing’s biggest stage further fueled aversion towards a sport that is sorely in need of the opposite...

I’m A Stable Girl Now!
Supergrooming for Superstars
by Erin Gilmore | California Riding Magazine, May 2008

Before he transported his entire stable of horses and staff (myself included) to Wellington, Florida for the Winter Equestrian Festival and 2008 Olympic Selection Trials, I spent the fall working for Olympic rider Peter Wylde at his home base in the small town of Elmpt, Germany. I went to work for Peter chiefly because he was going to allow me the opportunity to travel with him as his groom on the European fall indoor circuit...

I’m A Stable Girl Now!
Reality, Once Removed
by Erin Gilmore | California Riding Magazine, April 2008

Last October, I began working for American show jumper Peter Wylde, at his home base in Germany. Naturally, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to work with one of the world’s most recognized riders. I gained invaluable knowledge working in Peter’s pristine stable and observing his hands on involvement with every aspect of his operation. I felt confident that I was becoming a better horseperson every day that I worked at “Stall Wylde,” even if it was a constant challenge to keep up with all of the details. In any case, I was making the most out of my first trip to Europe...

I’m A Stable Girl Now!
My show jumping journey through Europe
by Erin Gilmore | California Riding Magazine, March 2008

It was the girl in the shiny black vest that really roped me in. There I was, standing at the rail of the warm up ring at the Audi Equestrian Masters in Brussels, Belgium, last October. The sheer elegance of the place had already overwhelmed me the minute I walked in the door. Suffice it to say, it was nothing like the dusty show rings I had grown up around back in California. This place was all about glamour: stage lighting, white breeches and red carpets abounded. Instantly my mind began to scheme; I wanted to be a part of all this. Standing on the sidelines was just not going to cut it...

I’m A Stable Girl Now!
Forest Hacks and New Beginnings
by Erin Gilmore | California Riding Magazine, February 2008

“Day: 1, Eurolife,” is what I think to myself as I rise before the sun to begin work at Ludo Philippaerts’ Stoeterij Dorperheide in Belgium. I’ve heard all the stories about working one’s butt off in Europe and I try to remind myself that life here will be far from glamorous. All the same, I have to mentally pinch myself every time I pass by the trophy room where Ludo’s World Cup sits, or when I see Parco or Ottorongo, Ludo’s current and former Olympic and World Cup horses...

I’m A Stable Girl Now!
My show jumping journey through Europe
by Erin Gilmore | California Riding Magazine, January 2008

I came to Europe to work, and ride, and I knew I would be very busy. I get the feeling that friends back home imagine me on vacation, traveling around Europe and snapping photos of cathedrals and interesting greenery. While being a tourist is fun in many ways, the experience I’m having is just as exciting, and more unique...

I’m A Stable Girl Now!
My show jumping journey through Europe
by Erin Gilmore | California Riding Magazine, December 2007

My adventures with horses will never cease. I have only ever wanted to work and be around horses. Ever since I was old enough to I have cleaned, ridden, groomed, competed, managed, taught, and cared for them, first for the fun of it and more recently as a career. I am the little girl who never grew out of her pony obsession, and my life’s goal is to somehow “make it” in the equine industry. Two years ago I left a job I enjoyed very much, being assistant editor for this magazine, to ride professionally in the show jumping world. Assisting hunter/jumper trainers in California was, for me, a natural step up the ladder of this multi layered industry. The last two years have been an education for me in countless ways, and have prepared me well for the step I am embarking on now...