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So far Lauren Sprieser has created 339 blog entries.

Early Support Could Be A Game-Changer For Young-Horse Trainers

By |2024-09-23T08:08:47-04:00September 19th, 2024|COTH Posts|

My last blog was about our triumphant 2024 Paris Paralympic Games for American dressage enthusiasts. Gold after gold, a brilliant week of consistent and extraordinary excellence. It was a contrast to the Olympic Games, where our team suffered the two most inconveniently timed hiccups ever, following a team selection process that required the throwing of a lot of Hail Marys. Isabell Werth aboard Wendy and Cathrine Ladrup-Dufour aboard Freestyle showed that green partnerships can achieve big results, but it wasn’t in the cards this year for the U.S.

Our 2021 Tokyo Olympic performance was stellar. Sabine Schut-Kery led the way aboard her homemade Sanceo, joining the rarified club of American riders who’ve placed fourth individually, and Adrienne Lyle with Salvino and Steffen Peters with Suppenkasper were on top form to collectively earn team silver. When the champagne flutes were put away and the confetti vacuumed up, did the conversation amongst those in power in U.S. dressage turn to the fact that Salvino was 14, Sanceo, 15, and Mopsie, 13?

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!

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5 Takeaways From The Paralympics

By |2024-09-23T08:10:41-04:00September 10th, 2024|News & Events|

Man, oh man, what a triumph it was for us at the Paris Paralympics! We all knew it was going to be an exciting Games for USA Para Dressage, but it ain’t over ’til it’s over. And Becca Hart, Fiona Howard, Roxie Trunnell and Kate Shoemaker came, saw and conquered, and took home a mountain of medals for equestrian sports in Paris.

I love it when our country succeeds in sport, but I was particularly invested in these Games, as Becca Hart is one of my closest friends, and I sat in my office, bawling my eyes out, watching her conquer Grade III. I made time to watch all the Americans, and as my timing was imperfect, I also ended up seeing a fair bit of the rest of the competition as well. And I made a few notes on things we can learn, as high-performance riders and as able-bodied riders writ large, from their monumental triumph, and from para sport in general.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!

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What’s Next: Looking To The 2025 Horse

By |2024-08-03T07:28:13-04:00August 3rd, 2024|Snippets|

Over the years, through breeding my own and selling them, through the help of some incredible people, through a few really creative loans, and through a HECK of a lot of hard work, I’ve managed to own many of my own horses. Owning my own means I answer to no one, and it means that when they go right, the proceeds of their sales funds the next group. My goal is that each one I train and, as I’ve yet to find my Team mount, sell leads to the purchase of two more young horses to bring along; I’m ok when the sale of one leads to the purchase of one.

But the stinky part about owning my own is that I’m on the financial hook if they don’t work out. And sometimes, when I’m in a rough patch, the sale of one doesn’t fund the next; I have to sell two to fund the next. And that’s where I am right now.

By the end of this year, I’ll have found new homes for two of mine that were bought young and, to my great dismay, aren’t going to be what I need them to be. And that means that, next year, I’ll start the search for what’s next. Again: this is not happening right now. So if you read this and then ping me about something that you have for sale RIGHT NOW, you will have wasted your time. But I love supporting American breeding, I love a good plan in advance, and I’m writing this while bored on an airplane and with a fire in my belly to trying to improve upon our next Olympic performances. Plus you just never know what’s out there – not just what horses are out there, but also what breeders or owners might be interested in a creative situation – until you ask. So here’s what I’m looking for.

– gotta be under saddle. Again, we’re talking in 2025, so it may not be under saddle now, but it’s gotta be going. Yes, I realize that horses already under saddle cost more than those who aren’t. Yes, I know my money could go farther if I got one that wasn’t yet backed. I’m old and I’m crunchy and I’m willing to spend more money to have more of my questions answered. With that said, the reality of my financial situation is that it’s likely I’m going to only be able to afford something that, in 2025, will be 3 or 4.

– gotta be tall. 100% for sure it’s silly for most people to rule out a horse that might be an inch or two above or below your dream, because body type is a factor. But I’m a leggy 5’10”. There’s not a chonky enough 16.2 hander to be big enough for me. They’ve gotta be 17h+ at maturity.

– it’s gotta move like hell. And I really can’t believe that I have to say this, but it has to have a warmblood pedigree. I am sure your Arab cross, draft cross, Irish Draught or TB cross is a LOVELY animal, I am. I am not a snob. But I’m a realist, and I want to play at the highest level. Only something bred out the wazoo is going to have what is needed to play in the big ring.

– if she’s a mare, she’s gotta have a team player personality, and not an alpha bitch one. As an alpha bitch myself, there can only be one of us in this relationship, and it’s me. (As an aside, I have no patience for a lecture on why I should love bitchy mares, and I REALLLLLLY have no patience for a lecture on why I’m a crappy feminist for using the b-word. Get over it and move on.)

– if he’s a stallion, and I will personally own him outright, he will be gelded. If you have an interesting stallion that you want to keep intact and maybe retain ownership of, we can chat, but I won’t own one myself.

– it must have a quiet mouth, and I’m personally annoyed by the flinchy spooky ones. Hot is fine, and a cheeky weirdo will, alas, lol, fit in just fine around here. But I like brave.

– lastly, while I’m not a nutcase about PPEs and x-rays, it must have excellent feet, clean legs and – above all else – a solid neck. Everyone’s got the thing that makes them spook, and for me, it’s necks.

This is a thing I will be looking for no earlier than January 2025, so if you have it right now and need to part with it right now, I’m not your girl. But nothing ventured, nothing gained, so I’m putting this out to the universe. And if you think you’d like to be a part of a journey on the development of a horse up the levels, whether it’s something from your own breeding program that you’d just like to stay a part of, or you’re a rockstar enthusiast who likes adventure, I want to hear from you, too. My email is lauren@spriesersporthorse.com.

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Homegrown Horses Are Our Best Chance For Topping The Podium

By |2024-07-08T16:21:32-04:00July 8th, 2024|COTH Posts|

Out there on the interwebs this month were three Facebook posts that caught my eye. One was on a sales group for dressage horses, where someone called trainers to task: “What is it with trainers these days? Particularly in the USA,” she wrote. “How come no one is willing to put in the effort to help develop a good horse, and instead they just expect their clients to have the budgets to go and buy the finished product? I know there are a handful of good trainers that don’t get the recognition they deserve but it seems the majority aren’t willing to put the work in. Thoughts?” The replies were thoughtful, bringing a range of experiences to the table.

The second was from a Dressage-News.com article that quoted former team coach and Olympian Debbie McDonald saying, “I think we need more people able to bring along young horses with people who are willing to support them to do that.”

And the third was a Facebook post by six-time Olympian and former team coach Robert Dover, lamenting a lack of ownership support for international horses grown here in the U.S.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!

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So, You Want To Get Your First Job In The Horse World?

By |2024-07-08T16:24:23-04:00July 2nd, 2024|COTH Posts|

It’s a time of year when the horse job market is flooded with new graduates, both high schoolers not advancing on to college or those taking a gap year, and college grads, some from equine studies-adjacent programs, some not. We professionals in the equine business need support staff, whether it’s grooms or working students or vet techs or farrier’s assistants. There’s no barn-to-barn consistency in what one of those positions looks like, in the same way that being a server at TGI Fridays and a server at the nicest restaurant in Manhattan aren’t the same type of position. And with barns, just like restaurants, there are great ones and there are crappy ones, run by great people, run by crappy people.

I am so, so grateful to not be amongst the barns out there hiring right now (she says as she knocks wood and crosses her fingers and prays to whatever deity needs prayer to keep the team I have). The pandemic and its resulting economic strangeness have left the hiring market in the horse world a wild place. Inflation is making it harder and harder to keep up with wages. I’ve raised board five times in four years just to keep up with both increased costs on my end and also in trying to provide my employees with a wage that made it possible for them to live in a more expensive world. It’s tough, for a lot of people. I don’t have to tell you all this.

And listen, young and horsey, I see them too: the posts on the equine employment groups on Facebook that are offering unpaid positions with shady housing and long hours, touting “I will teach you the ways of the industry and provide invaluable experience” from people with boarding barns or low-level training jobs. If you think it sounds like one step above slave labor, it probably is.

With that said, somewhere behind the naiveté of my fellow Millennials who were told we could be anything we wanted to be—as long as we were willing to take on tens of thousands of dollars of student loans—only to have three epic financial crises in our lifetimes, and the Gen Z “tear it all down” approach to capitalism are a whole bunch of people who love horses and just want to make it all work. There’s gotta be a middle ground.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!

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Staying Your Course When FOMO Hits

By |2024-06-05T05:02:23-04:00June 5th, 2024|COTH Posts|

Tjornelys Solution DWB—”Beaker,” in the barn—is one of the best talents of my career. Owned by Clearwater Farm Partners, he’s 6 years old, and came into my life in February of this year with a stellar pre-purchase exam, three exquisite gaits, a clear understanding of the connection from leg to seat to hand, and a clean flying change. The FEI 6-Year-Old test is roughly equivalent to third level, calling for collection, flying changes, the third level lateral work of shoulder-in and half-pass.

It was tempting to make that level a priority. He finds the work so, so easy. He is a lovely character, a happy little trier, approaching each day with a smile on his face. He deals well with pressure. And he certainly has the gaits to compete.

There’s also the minor detail that I’m in baby horse purgatory right now. With all of my last round of homemade FEI horses on to other paths, I’m starting anew. And I found myself at a show recently, warming Beaker up for first level, test 3, in the warm-up arena next to the CDI arena, thinking wistfully of how I could be on that side of the perimeter fence.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!

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In Praise Of The Schooling Show

By |2024-04-16T13:45:29-04:00April 16th, 2024|COTH Posts|

A million years ago, in a time of much healthier knees, I did triathlons. If you’ve never stood next to me, I’m 5’10” and built like a refrigerator, so when I tell you I did triathlons, I did them slowly, and I did the shortest distance class: a sprint, which is usually about a half-mile swim, 15-mile bike, and 3.1-mile run. I could do one in about two hours. Competition in these things is often by age group, but because I’m no pixie, I competed in something called the Athena division, for female athletes over 165 pounds. (Lest you were curious, the men’s division, for athletes over 200 pounds, is called the Clydesdale division.)

When you go to a local sprint-distance triathlon, you see all shapes and sizes. You see weekend warriors like me. You see the more ambitious amateur athletes, really going for it. And you’ll often see a few pros that are doing a little sprint to stay sharp, or begin a season, or test the waters recovering from an injury, or maybe just there to inspire their local triathlon club. There are prizes, pizza and beer at the end. It is an absolute hoot.

One of the many things I love about dressage is what I loved about local sprint-distance triathlons: There’s a level, and a competition, for everyone.

Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!

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