United States Eventing Association

Debbie Lark Lemberger’s riding career has been best defined by her love of spunky horses and her penchant for adrenaline. Now 75, she clearly hasn’t let the years that have gone by slow her down. Lemberger recently completed her USEA Century Ride, which recognizes horse and rider pairs whose combined ages total 100 years or more, in June at Windermere Run Horse Trials in Grand View, Missouri, aboard Yoshi. The pair placed seventh with a score of 35.3 in the Open Novice division.

“I was very nervous,” Lemberger said of her mindset before her Century Ride. “I don't go out of town to show or anything. I only do local shows. There are two parks in my area here, and you just never know what's going to happen. I just really wanted to complete it.”

Despite friends and family expressing concern about the pair, who’s combined age is exactly 100, competing at the Novice level, Lemberger was determined to move forward without dropping down to an easier division.

“I had friends say, ‘Don't you want to go do Beginner Novice because your chances are probably a little better to finish?’ ” Lemberger said. “And I said, ‘Nope, I'm going to stick with Novice.’ And we did fine! I asked my instructor about taking him up to Training level a couple years ago, and she thought it wouldn't be fair for him. So we stuck to Novice, and he did well.”

Lemberger had invited friends and family to come cheer her on. After crossing through the finish flags one final time aboard Yoshi, Lemberger and her crew celebrated with a toast.

“We set up a bunch of chairs under a tree and drank champagne,” she said. “It was just fun to have it over and to have done so well. My instructor complimented me. I don't really remember having a cross-country and a stadium be so perfect in one day. I couldn't have changed anything. Everything went well, and Yoshi was having a good time.”

Lemberger and her horse are a match made in heaven. Though Yoshi is 25 years old, he may as well be 25 years young. Together, the Thoroughbred of unrecorded breeding and Lemberger go fox hunting, trail riding, and are still happily jumping Novice height, although Lemberger did say their Century Ride together will be his last event, with plans only to trail ride and fox hunt in the future.

“He's doing really well and, like I say, I'm just going to keep riding him, because I've learned that staying active is very important, both for people and horses,” Lemberger said.

However, their relationship wasn’t always so in sync. “[He’s taught me] perseverance, for sure,” she said. “When I started taking my dressage lessons, over the hundreds of times I rode him, he just never settled in and spooked every time he went by my instructor. At one point I said, ‘OK, what if I just take him out on the road and gallop him for two miles and come and try to do lessons?’ She goes, ‘Whatever you think.’ I went and galloped him for miles, and it still didn't make any change. So–perseverance. He really taught me perseverance. Don't give up.”

Over the 15 years this pair has been working together, they’ve come to build a partnership built on Lemberger’s perseverance and understanding of Yoshi’s quirks. She got Yoshi “for a song” when he was 10 years old, after he’d sat in a field on a polo farm because he was a bit too big for the sport. He found his way to Lemberger’s farm through a mutual friend.

“He was a project,” Lemberger said. “He just had a lot of quirks I had to figure out. He tried to dump me when I'd start cantering, and I couldn't figure it out. I'd look at the tack, and I realized he's really sensitive to sound. My nylon jacket was making weird sounds, and it caused him to go haywire.”

Lemberger even took a break from attempting to compete the Thoroughbred gelding when he was 15 years old. “I'd given up on showing him after about five years because he was just not settling in,” she said. “I'd take him somewhere, and I couldn't even jump over a pole on the ground. I started doing dressage lessons with him, and that kind of turned it around. Just regular dressage and being consistent with my riding.”

While Lemberger didn’t start eventing until her mid-40s, she quickly fell in love with the adrenaline rush the sport provides. Now however, she does admit she’s not taking quite as many risks. Her age doesn’t hold her back, but has made her a bit wiser, per say.

“I don't take as many chances as I used to,” Lemberger said. “For example, I might go for a hack somewhere and see a picnic table and jump over it—just things like that. But now it's, ‘Well, maybe not…’ ”

According to Lemberger, Yoshi didn’t need joint injections or any extra maintenance, beyond pads on his front feet, until just last year. Ironically, Lemberger has had three joint replacements and wanted to complete her Century Ride before her fourth. Now happily back in the saddle after her surgeries, Lemberger wants everyone to know joint replacements can be a vital solution to some of the most limiting impacts of aging, like arthritis. “For anybody who thinks they can't ride after joint replacements, this kind of debunks that," she said.

As for Yoshi, he regularly forgets that he’s an older horse now and is still full of spirit. “If you saw the video of him [at the Century Ride], you'd think he really enjoys himself running around and jumping,” Lemberger said. “He's still a Thoroughbred, though. If I take him fox hunting, I have to just hold on and look forward to the trip because he wants to be first, and you have to do a lot of circling, because the protocol calls for not passing people with stripes and all that kind of thing. So he's still got a lot of energy.”

Throughout the years, Lemberger has been a dedicated horsewoman. When she first graduated college and didn’t have a car, she would ride her bike to the barn to take riding lessons. She may have a car now, but her dedication to her horses and to horse sport remains the same. Reflecting back on what horses have brought to her life over the past decades, Lemberger compared them to an escape from the harsh realities of life’s challenges.

“I think when you go through some things in your life that are difficult—you can't really think about much else when you're riding,” she said. “You have to really think about your body, and you use your body in connection with your mind. Especially if you're doing some dangerous things, it helps you forget other things in life that maybe you'd like a break from. I guess [horses] have been a medicine in that way.”

A Century Ride is an achievement that Lemberger believes every equestrian should pursue. “Don't give up on that goal,” she said. “Keep working at it and hope to stay sound. Do whatever you can do for yourself to stay healthy and keep yourself moving—and horses do help you keep moving. Even if you don't get started till later, don’t think you can't start riding and enjoying and even showing. After all, I didn't start competing 'till I was 45.”

Congratulations to Debbie Lark Lemberger and Yoshi on completing their Century Ride!