Never Give Up, Never Give In
I think a lot, being in the place that I am and doing what I do, about funding and high performance sport. Of course there’s never enough money. Of course there are more riders that need support than there is support to give. And of course it’s impossible to look at a group of 4-year-old horses and pick out the future international Grand Prix star, so it’s not like we can identify the ones to support at age 4, and the rest can go kick rocks.
There are quite a few ways to get financial support to help afford one’s competitive career with a horse. Private sponsorship, of course. When you get to a certain point, the USEF steps in and helps pay for things like transport to team events. There are little grants here, and little prizes there, many of which come from The Dressage Foundation, an incredible organization that funnels cash into the hands of those who need it, across professional, amateur and youth ranks. And for those with high-performance ambitions, the brass ring of TDF funding is the Carol Lavell Prize, a five-figure bursary. Originally offered at one tier of $25,000, for horses demonstrating the Grand Prix work, this year the Carol Lavell Prize has been opened, for the first time, to a second, $15,000 tier specifically for horses in that Prix St. Georges-ish realm but showing potential for more.
I’ve applied for the Carol Lavell Prize nine times.
Read the rest at The Chronicle of the Horse!