Trying Again in a Different Arena - Madison Solosi

So I typically just kick the episodes off by having the guest tell us who they are and what it is they do. OK I am Madison solo see and I am currently a show jumper at the moment. I used to be an event rider for pretty much my whole life and then a couple of years ago I switched to show jumping because of the amount of accidents or broken bones like occurring. And then I also had a son a couple of years ago. And so I just decided to make a little bit of a change and switch to show jumping and that took a second to get used to.

That is what I’m currently doing. I have a farm that I’m renting in Leesburg, VA right now out of Broad Shadow Farms that I’m renting and I have a small 15 horse barn here and we have a little bit of show jumpers and inventors. I still coach both. Thanks. So what originally got you into horses?

Parents actually, they built a huge facility in Michigan, which was very random, especially now, but they wanted us to stay away from the outside world. So we were homeschooled and then we were put on horses and then they built a barn and then a cross country course and then they built a bigger barn and then a bigger cross country course. And then that’s how all of myself and my siblings got into it, and I’m the only one that stuck with it. So what is it like competing out of Michigan? Did you compete when you lived in Michigan?

Yes, I did. And it was quite a while ago. I left Michigan, I would say back in 2012 and then I ended up going back for a few years in between jobs and then moved back out to Virginia in 2000 and 18. But I competed up to intermediate level out in Michigan. The second closest event to compete at that level was the Kentucky Horse Park.

Along the. Drive is that it was about 7 hours. That’s every now and then I’ll have someone on who’s from middle America. Not that Michigan is really middle America, but Michigan’s quite. North, it is quite north and the events around there, like back when I was younger, there used to be quite a few.

Like Richland Park was a really big one when we were growing up and they had a decent amount. Anything that would go past intermediate you had to leave besides Richland Park, but you had to leave the state. And now being in Virginia, we have you can just get 20 minutes down the road and be at so many different places. But in Michigan, I used to really have to pack up. So what made you decide to take the move to Virginia?

Honestly, it was the location. It was getting complicated. Traveling that much and then also seeking trainers and being at the same shows and just really being at a high level was becoming implicated. The clientele there is. There are some great people in Michigan and I had a great barn and everything, but it wasn’t the same atmosphere.

Being homeschooled, did you always know that you were you wanted to do horses full time? Yes, I was lucky enough to have figured that out at a young age and not really look back. And around the time that, you know, people start going to college and things like that, I sat my parents down and I was like, I really don’t think that I should go to college because I’m going to. I just don’t want to. Instead, I would rather put whatever money I would have going to college and I’d rather go to Scotland to go train with Ian Stark instead.

And they were like, OK, so instead of going to college, that’s what I decided to do is go and spend. I think I was there a little over a year living in Scotland and that was incredible and. What was that like? Because although weather wise, I’m sure it’s not too much different than because Scotland’s pretty. Cold and.

Rainy, yeah. Yeah, cold and rainy. Honestly, I don’t mind that weather. I prefer cold and rainy over super hot and humid. Like here in the summer.

I can’t stand it. But it was definitely cold and rainy. But the experience itself was just outstanding. I ended up bringing a couple horses with me. I like to say I got FedEx to Scotland and just training under Ian was incredible and meeting some people and diving into the atmosphere over there was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.

So comparing sort of riding, training and competing over there to riding, training and competing here, what are some of the differences, but also maybe some of the similarities? Majorly different. I would say Virginia compares a bit more with even just like their local fox hunts close like in Middleburg. Not that I participate in them, but just stay at rough idea in the train and access and things like that. But to Michigan there was no comparison.

As soon as I got home I wanted to buy some sheep and then I wanted to leave, get out east where it was busier and more comparable to Scotland, which was competitions everywhere, good riders everywhere, lots of choices of trainers and just a bit of a higher standard. And higher standard in terms of just like horse care or in terms of facility? And facilities, yeah, facilities and things like that. And Michigan people did their best to, obviously, but it’s so cold there and for so long, it’s pretty tough to do a proper three day eventing season in Michigan unless you travel even more than I already was. You were in Scotland for kind of a year, a little over a year.

You come back to Michigan and then how long are you in Michigan before you’re like, OK, I need to go somewhere else? Not too long. I think I lasted a couple of months and then I ended up going to Florida for a little bit and then in Virginia for I think about one or two years. I went back to Michigan. When I was figuring out where I wanted to be in Virginia.

I didn’t really have all the answers and haven’t figured out yet probably I didn’t go to college. I wasn’t quite sure what to do so I went back home and got myself sorted out and figured a few things out and then decided to come back out East when you’re I think. One of the big things is when as competitors we don’t always think of the business side of things that I think business people see the competition side of things and they go, yeah, these two things just do not work. Do you think being over in sort of the UK and Scotland, you maybe had a little bit of a better education in the business side of things to actually understand that you needed to sort things out to make it happen? Or are they the same over there where it’s like we just train and ride and we make it all work but we don’t really know how it all works?

To be completely honest, I may not have been paying too much attention at the time just because I was young. I was there just to ride and compete and get as much education as I possibly could. And Ian side of the barn at the time was basically focusing on some students and he was wrapping his having a bunch of horses in his barn at the time up because he started doing a lot more traveling for a course designing and such. So I like to think we’re one of the last batch of people that were now that were there because they still have a farm and still do things, but where he was really taking students out all the time. So I would like to think that I did notice a couple of strategies.

But at the same time, people there were so focused and so game and like people were raised fox hunting, like kids were doing pony club and fox hunting and competing and it was like a family thing. So it didn’t seem as special in a way, if that makes sense, or as hard to get to or accessible maybe would be the right word where it was just everywhere there, at least where I was. So everyone had their pick of what they wanted to do. The the clientele was what I would imagine to be huge. There were people everywhere and competitions everywhere.

And so I guess when I came back to the States and found myself back in Michigan, I’m like, this is not it. Yeah, as far as where I wanted to be. Yeah, I have a similar. I’m from New Hampshire originally and now I live in Aiken. And in New Hampshire I was very lucky.

Like area one has a pretty good community, but the winters are hard and when it’s such a small community, it’s hard to break in where even though Aiken’s very saturated, there’s always people looking for something versus in some of these more remote type areas, it’s things that people are looking for that not everyone who has a competition background or goals are going to offer. And so how when you’re looking at moving to Virginia full time as you’re stepping back into Michigan, did you have an idea of what you wanted your business to look like in order to support the competing? But. Moving back to Virginia scared me a little because in Michigan I was like a little bit of a bigger, I guess like a bigger fish in a small pond kind of thing. There wasn’t a ton of upper level options per SE, but it was actually the family that I’m renting the farm from right now that I’ve known for.

Oh man, I don’t even know how long, quite a long time. They had always mentioned to me they were at my family farm. Their daughter came up to Michigan to go to Michigan State and I trained their daughter for a while and then rode a couple of their horses as well. They had mentioned it a couple of times just randomly. If we ever move out east, would you move out east with us and run our farm?

And I was like, yeah, for sure. But I didn’t really think anything would come of that just because you never really know if it’s actually going to happen. They were living in Colorado at the time and basically I decided to leave Michigan. I was training with Kate Chatterton at the time. She was my eventing coach for quite a few years and was awesome to work for as well.

And I basically told her that I was coming with all the horses that I had at the time and all of my belongings and I was just going to move to Aiken and wait to see what the Poland’s were going to do. And during that winter, they started looking at farms and I would fly up to Virginia and meet up with them a couple of times. And then when they found where we are now, they were like, this is what we’re going to buy, do you want to run it? And I was like, wow, this is actually happening. So then I moved to Leesburg and started the barn here for them and started out as the barn manager and getting the place full.

And then a couple years ago I was like, now I’d like to be more of a trainer, but while also running the day-to-day routine was becoming complicated. But anyway, they gave me a great place to start and which was amazing because not a lot of people get that opportunity and basically I’m still here. So how has the business kind of progressed? What is your sort of day-to-day look like? So it’s.

Progressed in the way that went from being their barn manager and an event rider to then a couple of things happened and I changed to show jumping and then during that time I also switched from being the manager to renting the facility from them. From then on I was able to get employees and fill exactly who I wanted. At that point I had a lot of eventing students. They built two more Horizon addition for me to have more horses. 3/4 of the barn is clients that are in training and then the other stalls are the nonsense that I tend to purchase either my competition horses or sail horses or pretty much those two two things.

So mix and matches if you get what I’m saying. Yeah. And do you travel in the winters or are you in Virginia year round? So when I have traveled, it hasn’t been for a great length of time. I would like to eventually, but when I do, I end up in Ohio.

And so that that’ll hopefully change one day. But I’ve gone to WEC Ohio last winter and I actually was meant to go pretty soon, but we’re going to stay home just because of the outbreaks going on right now. But but my goal is to eventually be competitive enough to justify going to Florida and spending a chunk of time there. I’m waiting until I’m a bit more competitive. I just moved up to the meter 30 level with two horses and I’m still pretty new at that and my poor trainer.

I’m still trying to figure out what a jump off is and how to be competitive and they need to have a clear round first. Waiting for Florida until I’m a bit more competitive in Ohio is just such a great setup for me to not become overwhelmed or be against 70 amazing horses and riders and just feel really far away from being competitive before I can justify spending the money. But I’d like to at one point. So do you have like what is the setup or you just train? Yep, we’ve got a beautiful indoor.

The Poland’s built a outstanding indoor. It’s quite large. I don’t know the dimensions of it, but it’s quite big, lovely indoor. And then the main barns up by the indoor and then my Horizon barns are down a little path. So it’s a bit separated.

And that’s why I like to keep my sail horses, my personal horses or working students horse. That way. It’s just a little bit gapped from the main barn, which is where the clients stay. But no, we have a great indoor so we’re able to ride all year. People don’t because of Virginia.

I think people from up north or maybe even in other countries. Virginia on the map doesn’t necessarily look super N but y’all get snow. It can get cold, that’s for sure. We haven’t had a horrible winter yet, but I have a feeling that this winter is going to be it because that’s what everyone is saying and I just feel like it’s time for that to happen. But I’m not too worried about it because it doesn’t ever last as long as Michigan.

Michigan lasted from Thanksgiving until April. It was half the year. I feel that in New Hampshire, I remember some years I’ve been early June birthday and there were some years where I’d be like, Oh my God, could it snow on my birthday? Yeah, you just never really know what’s going to happen. But So what has it been like mentally switching from eventing to show jumping?

I was a bit sad about it because I love eventing and cross country was my favorite. That once I realized I made the decision when I had a bad, I broke my leg pretty bad and I ended up having to have three surgeries on it and at one point I was standing out of the stirrups. I’m like, I don’t think I can do this 12 minutes and just see my training and fitness and things like that. I just didn’t feel very stable with it and I wanted to switch to show jumping instead of anything else because I was also worried that I wasn’t going to get like my adrenaline Phil, if you get what I mean. And one of my good friends, he, he was worried about that for me.

He’s I don’t think you’re going to be able to replace it. And I’m like, I don’t think I can look at it that way. But then when I started jumping around meter 30, I’m like, it’s replaced. Those jumps are big. And the courses that I’ve gone to, like at Ohio were at Tryon, they’re pretty demanding.

And if I want a little bit more adrenaline, I just, I’m going to have to go faster and start angling some of these stupid. We’ll see what happens there. But I’m plenty entertained, that’s for sure. And it’s definitely a lot more complicated than I, I don’t want to say thought it would because I didn’t feel like I was super naive going into it, but I definitely just went into it and was like, I’m going to, I’m going to just keep trying until this works. It ended up I ended up getting some nice horses pretty early and I have a great trainer who helps me a lot.

And so far, it’s been successful. When you are competing, what, what does the travelling look like? Because I know obviously Virginia’s the eventing capital basically of the US, but I don’t know too much about the show jumping up there. Do you have to travel? I know you mentioned try on.

There is a decent amount. We have Upper Ville very close to us, it’s about an hour from the farm and they have very prestigious shows, I think two or three times a year, and then we have loads of schooling shows. Culpepper is not too far away as well. I tend to get bored pretty quickly, so I like to change it up. I went started going to Tryon in Ohio once I started moving up to like meter 20 or so on the horses I’ve got right now, just to get in front of some of the bigger classes and harder tracks and things like that.

And then like for example, this spring I started getting a little bit bored again and wanted to go for a bit of a traveling experience. So we went to Princeton, which isn’t horribly far away but it was still a over a week long expedition, had to bring tons of trailers and everyone was all excited and it was fun to just relocate. I do enjoy different atmospheres and seeing different venues and changing it up. What is your sort of week or two week training and look like when you were venting versus like now that you’re so jumping? I would say that there are quite a few differences, but I’m learning that a lot of it is actually the same in the way that they still have to be fit, but just in a little bit of a different way.

And obviously you don’t have to go do all these canner sets and things like that. But when I first switched, I let off the pedal a little bit and my trainer Silvio, he was like you, these horses need to be fitter, you need to be fitter, everything needs to be fitter. And I was like how does one do that for show jumper? So I kind of had to learn, but because of my eventing background, I love riding on the road and I love hacking a lot. Like I still do a lot of that with my show jumpers.

So I would say like on a week to two week basis, I tend to jump them like the upper level horses probably once every five to six days, probably once every five days where I properly give them a good jump, even if it’s not a ton of them. I’m learning that I need more practice, so I’m having to put more than I thought I would. And then the in between rides I’ll still have my flat rides and I’ll change up their bits. They’re not always in their competition, but some of my horses actually jump right now. I think it’s just random, but in hack mores and things like that.

So I have to make sure I’m always changing things around and ride in a bit. And so I’ve got my flat schools, I’ll do the pole cavaletti pop at least once a week and then they still do fitness and then flat rides are a good lunge ride. So they’re still getting worked as much, just not in the same way, if that makes sense. But it is easier in the way that I don’t have to panic about the dressage, like I don’t have to do it in the arena and be judged the whole time. Like I can work on my flat work in a very different way which has been.

Something that I’m honestly learning as I go, which has been interesting and helpful, but all the same movements we still practice all the time, Shoulder and hunches and flying changes, walk to Canon transitions. It’s just not timed in a box. And though actually I grew up eventing, but then I got into show jumping as a junior. My eventing trainer was a silver medalist dressage rider. So the dressage was a very structured and it’s like that dressage tension where there’s just a lot going on.

It’s time. And then I moved on to show jumping. My show jump trainer would be out in a hackamore flatting her top hunter and he’s doing half past and lead changes and shoulder and I’m like it’s all the same stuff. Her horse just looks so much happier and she looks. So much happier, I know.

And it’s actually a funny concept because I see that the similarities with that, because we still have to do it, still demanding. There’s only so many jumps in a course and there’s hundreds of steps of canner. So if you can’t ride the canner, then the jumps tend to get in the way in the wrong way. And if you don’t have that flat work, then you don’t have the ability to ride your course as well. But the happier part is interesting.

It’s, it’s funny because I tend to see that too. The horses just feel a little bit happier and it’s not stressful and things like that. But I do every now and again put myself I’d say once a month or so I train with my neighbor. Her dressage instructor comes in and I’ll bring five horses over and do 5 flat lessons and borrow a dressage saddle or ride in my jump saddle. And sometimes I show up in a hack more and she just helps me with whatever I’m working on the flat.

One of my sales horses I accidentally bought doesn’t jump and he’s a beautiful dressage horse. And so I go to her for that. And I actually have been to some of the dressage shows around here as well. So I still like to be looked at from a training perspective on the flat and still be held a little bit accountable for not completely losing it because it’s a good thing to have. And then I still coach cross country and dressage at a lower level now, but I’ll still go out and bring the babies, cross country schooling and do very small stuff because I promised my husband I wouldn’t jump anything big.

And if I do, then I’m going to get hooked again and I can’t do that. In Aiken we have versus field. So every now and then I’ll drag my non horsey fiance out to these Grant Freeze and I go would you rather me jump back or would you rather me jump the solid cross country and he’s I’d rather you not jump at all. I know, yeah, that’s what my husband’s looking just keep getting bigger and bigger. I’m like, yeah, they can get even bigger and go so high and he’s like, when are you going to, what do you think your level of height is?

I’m like, I don’t know. When I first started meter 20 felt like I was good with that. And now I’m meter 30 I’m getting comfortable with, which means it’s only going to go up a little bit. So do you primarily only do show jumping or do you dabble in any of the hunters or equitation or any of the stuff like that? Just show jumping as of right now, I can’t honestly even begin to know how to start doing that part of it.

I might change my mind eventually and figure out how to do all that, but it’s so far from where I am comfort level. I would just have to become so much more educated in different ways, and between my inventors and the jumpers, I feel like if I added something else, it would just. Get crazy. Yeah, no, I ride a lot of, I exercise a lot of hunters, but I don’t compete hunters at all. And I always joke they go out with their owner and they win.

And I’m like, that same horse would go out with me and it’d get the deep distance to every fence because I’m like, get to the base and you know, they want the gappy distance and I’m like that. Hears me. My eye is not going to be saying that. So it’s always funny with your horse you bought that doesn’t jump every now and then. Sometimes you get one in and you’re like, I think you want to go nice and slow.

And so I was just wondering if that ever brought you into the Hunter side of things. It has not yet, but if it does, that’s where I’m going to look at whoever’s working for me and be like, get ready to do it for me. Yeah, that’s funny because. Maybe I’ll just get lucky enough in that respect. But no, I haven’t had the desire to go to that side of the show grounds yet, but who knows?

What are your sort of spring plans? I have my 2 upper level horses right now, neither of them I own. I’m going based off of the owner’s schedules as well. One of the owners rides the horse as well, so we split her season up a little bit. And then the other horse I have fully.

So basically I try and compete as much as I can this winter in Ohio. And then my goal there was to get around as many of the future priests as I can, which is the meter of 30 and get a little bit more competitive there. And then get myself to try on in the spring and hopefully be a bit more competitive there this time in the similar class around like that future Pre or mini pre. I think that’s what they’re calling it. And then see if I can move up to meter 35 at one point.

But I have to get these meter 30s done a bit more 1st. And I haven’t had much luck because I didn’t get stalls at the last month’s show. And then this month I just don’t feel like it’s the right time to go. Which is a bummer because we were meant to leave in two weeks. So now I’m like looking in January, trying to figure out when to go.

Young people are like, are you really still motivated? I’m like, yeah, it’s going to be great. I’m going to be freezing but. We’re all, but I like to make the winter a little bit harder, and the spring and the fall. But in the summer, Oh my goodness, I really have a hard time here in the summer.

It’s so hot, and I’d rather that be almost my winter, if that makes sense. That would be a little bit more of a chill time. I went to Princeton in July, which was not really exactly the coolest, but then we have an easier rest of July and a very I don’t think we went anywhere in August except for put the babies into the schooling shows and more lenient. Yeah, it’s similar in Aiken because in mid-july through August, you’re like baking in an oven. And so when you’re going to these, for the listeners who may not know, a lot of these shows are weak, long weeks, sometimes long or shows, how do you or do you have someone at home that teaches while you’re gone or rides the horses while you’re gone?

Like how does the business operate while you’re out competing so. Basically, I’m learning that as I go. To answer your question, just because our barn isn’t too unbelievably large, like we have 15 stalls. So whenever I go for a bigger one, almost everyone comes with me. Not everybody, but a very good majority.

Then I was competing the upper level horses and coaching and riding the four year olds was like, I’m not going to try and do that again because that was insane. And so now my plan is to break it up and bring the upper level horses and maybe another one of mine so that if there’s a ring conflict, it’s on me. Like, I don’t have to worry about them coming this far and me being in the Grand Prix ring while they’re supposed to be jumping around the point nines and there’s a time conflict and they’ve gone all this way and then I’m not there. And then I also need to have my head straight to be rotting the bigger jumps and not be running around. And I was finding myself literally running around.

And at one point in Princeton, I ran down to the ring and was running my course and it was hot and I jumped I think 10 rounds before 10 AM. And I was like, this is not it. And so basically, to answer your question, now that I’ve learned that lesson the hard way a couple of Times Now, now I’m trying to just go and coach and try and find out how far people want to travel and how far they don’t want to travel and then make sure that I’m not riding too many at the same shows. And then for example, when I was going to go to Ohio with the 2 upper level horses, I would leave and only be gone on for a small section of the week because all the classics and stuff for the adult amateurs are on the weekends. So I actually, until I’m jumping much bigger, I won’t be jumping on a weekend class.

Turns out you got to be jumping like meter 40. I didn’t realize that there’s such a jump in the classes that you can do as a professional. You can’t do all these weekend classes and all these classics until you’re either jumping around the Grand Prix height or the small Grand Prix height, or you’re jumping the meter classes, which are like the blue ribbon rounds. Yeah, and I actually ran into the same because I showed them to the junior so I could do all the junior and classics and whatever. And then I’m looking at classes to bring young horses.

Nice young horses, but young horses too. And I go, Oh my God, I either have to do a meter 10 or a meter 35 and. Or you don’t do anything today. Exactly and I’m like luckily the venue is local but I’m like God this is crazy because when I was a kid just everything was available to me except for the random Wednesday pro class right? And I’m like, OK, now I’m show jumping on a Wednesday and a Thursday.

Wednesday, Thursday and then Friday if I’m lucky. And then I coach. So it breaks it up in the way that if I stick to the format in which I’ve learned, which hopefully I can do, is then I just go for a short stint through the week with the bigger horses and then find ones that the adult amateurs and the kids can do on the weekend. And not everyone wants to go to Ohio in the winter. I don’t know why.

And not everyone wants to go to try on and things like that when they could very easily just go to Morgan Park or lock more. We have so many things close to home. Yeah, and it’s very expensive to go for the week too, because then all of a sudden you’re looking at hauling and Airbnbs and stalls and grooms. But like I said, when I went to Princeton, a lot of people came and we had ten horses. I was riding a lot of them.

But it’s still the owners came and it was a lot of fun. Yeah, and I feel like Jumper Land is very The Avengers. Maybe now it’s different with social media, but I remember being a kid going from eventing to show Jump Bay and the inventors always looked down on show jumping and the show jumpers always looked down on eventing. But the one thing that I noticed was that the show jumping was such community based. Like your barn was really your community where an eventing.

It’s such an individual sport. Not like you really didn’t have. You maybe had your friends at the barn, but you weren’t traveling, but you’re travelling with your and with the staff and you’re all in it together versus an event and you all have your own truck and trailer and you’re like, so that was the one thing what it really is very community based like around your barn. Yes, hugely. And that actually is an interesting point because I was pretty and I still am a little bit, not in a sad way, but a little bit lonely at at times because I’ll go to a show.

And at one point I was telling Silvio who I trained with. I’m like, I can’t go if I can’t bring a ground person And he’s you could just ask. I’m like, I don’t think you get it. I don’t have any friends and no one really wants to really. It takes a second to break in it.

Like I, I’m the new kid in school and I’m the inventor. I was wearing the wrong color pants for the longest time. No one was telling me and I looked like a an idiot apparently for a while, and then finally my friend told me I’m like, how did you let me go this long wearing white pants in a point E and I’m like I thought everyone did and he’s no, you look like a a tool. I’m like, but and then just like being it like going around course walks and stuff. It didn’t.

I didn’t feel like I could really approach too many. I’m not saying that was always, but it was pretty frequently. Yeah, no, it really is different. And I took my horse out the spring and eventing and I go, God, it feels like I just don’t. I parked my trailer and I was like, I don’t recognize any of these trailers.

And then of course you see someone, you go, I got thank God. But that is the good thing about the Aiken community is that all of the inventors are kind of show jumping down, yes. And I love running into the inventors at the show. 1 of the first times I went to Tryon and Waylon Roberts was there and I was like, I know you and he was friendly and like I could ask him a question without him just looking at me like I was insane. Why can’t it be this way with everyone?

And I think at one point I’ll eventually break in, but I’m still pretty new at it and it feels pretty far away so far. But slowly, it’s coming along. Also. When I go and coach the events, that’s when I see friends. I can go to an event to coach at any level and feel like I fit right in and instantly feel at home, know the format, know what to do, run into someone that I may not know or have known for years and I feel safe.

Whereas at the jumper shows I’m like, oh boy, who is going to get mad at me now? Yeah, it is so different. And it really it’s just the people who grew up doing it, never got out of it, where I feel like adventures kind of maybe it’s the same, but you leave your dressage test and you say good luck to the person who’s going in. And it just builds this camaraderie where, yes, even in the show jumping, you’re in the arena before that person even finishes and they just leave. And there’s no like even that.

And you’re all watching the course to see how a line is riding, but you’re not really talking. About it Yep, no one is talking about it and if they are, you got to find the ones that are speaking English. I noticed my green horse that I have right now, my young 1. He can be a little bit naughty and fresh in the warm up and if he’s acting up, nobody cares. No one is changing their plan.

You might get a person here or there, I’m not saying everyone, but it’s in eventing I felt people would do their best to help you out a little bit. Or maybe not jump the fence and smoke the rail intentionally as you’re just trying to get to the Crossrail while holding on to the next strap. Like why does she even have a neck strap with her white pants? What an embarrassment. Yeah, exactly.

It is so funny. Culture shock. It is a culture shock. Yeah, and then also the trainers that have been there forever and have big names. They have good camaraderie with the ingate people.

And you might be next, but they showed up. So they’re next with six horses. And I’m not one to. I don’t like confrontation and I don’t want any enemies. And so I’ll just sit on the sideline a little bit patiently waiting my turn and then have to re warm up a few times.

Some of my students will be like, why don’t you just do what they’re doing and just go push your way through? I’m like, I can’t. Every part of me won’t. It is so different, and I think unless you do, and that’s the good thing about eventing is that it does set you up to be able to ride basically every sport. Yeah, obviously there are technical differences in pure show jumping than a show jump around an event.

But you’ve seen bright colored sticks and you understand the time and you know it and. Where? So many of these people like this is just all they do and it’s all they’ve ever done, and unless you’ve done something different, you don’t know that it could be different. Even down to what you just said with like times and stuff like when you’re, if you’re jumping at a high enough level and they give you an order of go, you got to look at what kind of course you’re doing. Is there a jump off or is it just a speed round or a power and speed?

Because those, those run very quick and then the jump off ones don’t run very quick unless everyone’s having rails. And so you just go down and you’re like, I’m 15 out. But I don’t know what that means. So that’s where I just get there early, stay polite, keep my head down and do my best until I make more than one friend. And that’s got to work at one point.

Out at some point. Well, yeah, it can be a little. Stressful. Especially when you have a bunch of students or 4 year olds and you’re like, we’re just all going to the ring and they’re like, we don’t want to wait for too long and you’re like, we don’t have a choice. This is the way.

All righty. This has been such a fun conversation. How do people find you? Follow along with what you do, All of that good stuff. So Mythic Landing has helped me a lot.

I started working with them this year in March and before that I tried to do it myself but I’m hopeless I’m really bad at it. I need to get better, but basically they do a lot of all my advertising and run my Facebook and they’ll even send me a text saying you need to check your e-mail and or even check your text messages or stop ignoring your phone. They do a lot of that for me. The people that work for me as well, they’re really good on social media and taking pictures and videos and sending it and sharing it. And I just wish I had a walkie-talkie or didn’t communicate with people via in any way because I’m just really bad at it.

But. My 500 on. Red Oh, it’s just yeah, same and thousands of emails and it’s just it’s hopeless or I’ll get a bunch of videos and I’m like, I can’t edit so I don’t know what to do. And so I send a 7 minute video. I’m like find something in there, have fun.

It’s got to be a nice moment. Yeah, exactly. A lot of people step up and help, help me do it because otherwise it won’t get done. And at least I’m not the one narrating a lot of the things anymore because when I would try and make a post, I’m like, this just doesn’t sound good. And it didn’t sound good.

It was bad. People were like, you need help? I’ve always said it’s so hard to be a trainer where you look at the video and you go, this is everything I see that needs improvement and then turn around and talk about how excellent it all is. I think so many people have people that do social media for them. Another thing that’s not quite always talked about, but equestrians are not technical savants, no.

They’re getting more, the new people, they’re getting really good at it. They’re like, Maddie, do you even know what a hashtag is? Am I? Yeah, I think so. They’re like, you shouldn’t have 4 sentences with punctuation behind it, so you don’t.

All right. Thank you so much for joining me. Of course. Thank you.