United States Eventing Association

Carol and Audrey Green will both compete at 2014 Nutrena USEA American Eventing Championships this week in the Junior and Senior Novice divisions. Carol reflects on the sentiment of sharing a love of eventing with her daughter and the time that competing together allows them.

“We have a cat too!” an exasperated Audrey would exclaim as she begrudgingly drug her feet into the barn to see the horses that her little friends were so excited about. As a child, she just didn’t understand all the hoopla over the horses that had lived in our backyard pasture since before she was born.

I wasn’t sure she would ever develop the passion for horses that I had as a little girl. Since I grew up in a gym, being a competitive gymnast at the highest levels of the sport, I didn’t have a chance to start riding until college. It seemed like it took forever for her interest in horses to bloom, but I held out hope and waited patiently. Finally, at age six (hey, it seemed like a long time to me), she uttered the words, “I think I want a pony.”

And so the adventure began. Eventually, I started taking Audrey to lessons with my trainer, three-star eventer Becky Roper. She already knew and idolized Becky, as I had been training with her since Audrey was a toddler. It has been great to watch Audrey grow as a rider and a horsewoman under Becky’s tutelage. Audrey and I enjoy riding together and helping out one another when we are riding on our own. We venture out to local dressage and hunter/jumper shows and enjoy trail rides and even working cattle at a friend’s ranch. But both of our hearts lie in eventing.

I have a hard time denying where Audrey gets her competitive spirit. That spirit gets in the way sometimes, so we try not to take lessons together. Becky cringes when a show is small enough that they don’t split into junior/senior Novice divisions and we end up competing against each other. I joke that it’s tough being beaten by a kid, but at least it’s my own kid.

We are lucky to ride a couple of pretty amazing bay mares. Audrey, who will turn 15 the week after the AEC, has formed a strong partnership over the last three and a half years with her 1999 foundation-bred Quarter Horse, Bridgette. At 14.3 hands, people often ask if she is a mini-warmblood as she doesn’t move like your typical quarter horse. They have enjoyed a lot of success together and this year will be their second AEC as a team after competing there last year in the Beginner Novice. A naughty little buck in their dressage test was enough to keep them out of the ribbons, but they finished on their dressage score in the top 20. After this year’s AEC, the pair is planning a move up to Training.

This spring, during our first recognized season together, I also qualified for the AEC at Novice with my 2007 Oldenburg/Thoroughbred mare, Rio Paisano’s Juliet. I purchased Juliet from her breeder last year after they had given her a strong start the year prior as a five year old. Juliet is still trying to figure out where her legs are, and I’m still trying to figure out how to connect the front end to the hind, but she is the most honest horse I have ever sat on. She tries so hard and I’m very excited about our future together.

We are extremely fortunate to have the AEC in our backyard again this year, only two hours away from our home in Prosper, Texas. It made the decision a little easier to take the plunge of entering both of us. We think it’s pretty exciting for mom and daughter to be qualified at the same level for a national championship, and as we all know with horses, who’s to say it will happen again!

Even as a teenager, I think Audrey would agree that it’s pretty amazing to share this sport with her mom. I hope she looks back one day on our shared passion, the hours of training, miles on the road, nights spent with a sick horse, hopes crushed, ribbons won and dreams realized, and thanks her parents for buying that first pony.