Anna Ross: ‘Talent without opportunity is like a horsebox with a dead battery’

Anna Ross on helping set the next generation up for success in dressage

April and May are always busy as the NAF Five Star Winter Championships kick off the summer season.

I particularly enjoy watching the silver sections at championships – often more so than the headline classes, because you can spy the stars of the future. Many of this year’s gold section winners – like Sadie Smith and Dannie Morgan – won their first national titles in those classes, and it was good to see them paying it forward.

This year Lauren Burrows, Dannie’s assistant rider, took home her own national title. Jezz Palmer’s second rider, Amy Hose, won her class. Sadie, Jezz and Dannie all won their own first titles riding for more established riders at the time, and have grown within supportive, professional systems – when it’s mutual, it works.

The days when young people worked for peanuts and were promised the world but then let down are on their way out – thank goodness.

But as a new era of employers comes through, we have to find a way through the minefield of new challenges that affect our businesses, like the rising costs of insurance and so many perfectly serviceable horses “failing” vettings on X-ray.

As diagnostics get better, which they will, horses will look worse, and in the end, the perfect horse will arrive in plastic packaging, not in a horsebox.

People blame vets, but without a crystal ball or the money to throw away, it’s challenging for everyone. We all need a viable industry, so a fresh look is needed, encompassing welfare, business needs and breeding.

Good horse management makes all the difference – so many challenges in training and performance can be overcome with spot-on care.

It’s encouraging to see the British Horse Society (BHS) having something of a revival, with five newly qualified BHSIs and a Fellow competing at Badminton this year. It would be great to see more dressage riders follow that path.

The old view of doing things “the BHS way” has moved on. Today, the BHS is about being safe, competent and practical – not ticking boxes, but developing real-world skills that support both horses and riders.

Helping the next generation

After the winters, I headed to Addington CDI3* and thought, “Wow.” We are sitting on a gold (medal) mine of riding talent here in Britain, but it reminded me once again – talent without opportunity is like a horsebox with a dead battery.

The young riders looked particularly strong with Izzy Lickley, India Durman-Mills and Mette Dahl showing great team spirit as well as impressive performances.

Our team has started positioning horses with young riders. Demi Howard-Cartwright was one of the first. She scored a personal best in the junior freestyle at Addington and won both her classes at the following Premier League show. Future riders we support have Demi and her mother Anna to thank, as if it had been a nightmare, we probably wouldn’t have gone again.

Another rider is 16-year-old Emily Brewer. She’s been helping in our stables since she was 12 years old – sweeping, shovelling, and soaking up everything she could.

She had the ride on a former eventer now also competing in the junior classes, and when she earned the call-up for Addington, she posted on social media: “It wasn’t just a dream.”

Inspired by that moment, we’re launching a new project to help match young dressage horses with talented riders who might otherwise be priced out of progressing.

It’s not a giveaway. It’s a contract to tackle the bottleneck where many careers fizzle out, not from lack of effort, but lack of access to horsepower. I believe for every international rider, there are many others with the talent but not the means, and they’re stuck unless they sell their souls or give up.

I know, because I was one of them, a horse-mad kid in my plastic-fantastic riding boots, mucking out for rides hoping someone might think I was any good. I wasn’t sure myself, but a talented, naughty horse became my partner and my opportunity to ride on British teams.

My message is: if you are wondering if it’s possible to make your way in what seems like a rich man’s sport, we want to help.

Gold medallists of the future could be training right now on small yards with big dreams. I hope that, with structured support and a holistic modern approach, we can turn more dreamers into dance partners.

● Have you ever had the talent – but not the horsepower to progress? Or given someone else their shot? Write to us at hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and country, for the chance for your letter to appear in a forthcoming issue of the magazine

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