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University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations 12-15-2014 Grand Prix: A Trainer's Guide to Show Ring Success Lauren Rebecca Allen University of South Carolina - Columbia Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd Part of the Creative Writing Commons Recommended Citation Allen, L. R.(2014). Grand Prix: A Trainer's Guide to Show Ring Success. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/2975 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you by Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Grand Prix: A Trainer’s Guide to Show Ring Success by Lauren Rebecca Allen Bachelor of Arts University of South Carolina, 1997 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing University of South Carolina 2014 Accepted by: James Barilla, Director of Thesis Sara Schwebel, Reader Dianne Johnson, Reader Gabriel Lovatt, Reader Lacy Ford, Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate Studies © Copyright by Lauren Allen, 2014 All Rights Reserved ii Abstract This is a memoir of my experiences as a horse lover and professional horse trainer, and the startling parallels I discovered in the Los Angeles equestrian and entertainment industries. Both worlds revolve around commodifying something that is rooted in beauty but somehow gets bruised in the process of spinning art into business. I found that my taste for romance and adventure spurred me to new heights and simultaneously crashed against reality. In pursuit of the big prizes, I was willing to slowly sell off the things I cared about most to get what I wanted, until I woke up to what I really needed. This is a trainer’s guide to the Grand Prix, including lessons on how to ride, mistakes to avoid, and a reminder that the innocence and generosity at the heart of a horse is the best prize of all. iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... iii Chapter 1: Green .................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Circles .............................................................................................................. 16 Chapter 3: Show Business ................................................................................................. 30 Chapter 4: In and Outs ....................................................................................................... 38 Chapter 5: Up Downs ........................................................................................................ 48 Chapter 6: Change of Rein ................................................................................................ 67 Chapter 7: Distances .......................................................................................................... 83 Chapter 8: Give and Take ................................................................................................ 101 Chapter 9: Falling ............................................................................................................ 117 Chapter 10: Rehabilitation ............................................................................................... 133 Chapter 11: Carrot and Stick ........................................................................................... 151 Chapter 12: Refusal ......................................................................................................... 169 Chapter 13: Serpentine .................................................................................................... 182 Chapter 14: Collection ..................................................................................................... 200 Chapter 15: Broke ............................................................................................................ 208 Chapter 1: Green In the horse world, inexperienced horses and riders are referred to as green. Green horses and green riders do not mix well, since novice riders generally lack the skills and confidence to handle a horse who has not previously been taught to yield to training cues. A rider must learn to keep their weight deep in their heels and their hands soft and still, he or she must develop an elastic and supple connection with their partner but also must use their stirrups and spine to leverage their body against the horse when necessary. Riders must learn to control their emotions and to be consistent in their actions so that the horse can ascertain and trust their authority. A skilled rider must exercise control not only over the horse, but also over the self. Horses are mirrors; they reflect their rider’s inner truths. “There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man,” is an old saying. But horses especially appeal to girls and women, maybe because they so gracefully embody their dichotomies: strong and yet gentle, inspiring fear and yet fearful, powerful but fragile. Horses and girls seem to recognize an innate compatibility. We know what it is to be both vulnerable and brave. 1 The doll posed proudly in the middle of the cake, her tan plastic arms bent like they were holding reins, but her cascading hair and her hot pink strapless bustier indicated she wasn’t a girl with horses on the brain. She was wearing a pair of oversized sunglasses and the icing was decorated to look like her skirt, with “Good Luck, Lauren” spelled out around the edge. I clapped and laughed, “Oh my God, where did you find a red-headed Barbie!” Caroline smiled, “She’s Movie Star Make-A-Wish Barbie.” “Good, I’m going to need a Barbie Fairy Godmother.” I hugged my sister and her eyes reddened and filled with tears. Mine immediately followed. “Stop it. Just stop it, I don’t even leave until tomorrow.” Caroline laughed and swabbed at her face with a napkin. I looked around the table. My Mom was trying to catch the waiter’s attention to get a refill on her half sweet/ half unsweetened tea and Dad was smiling and wiping his glasses. My grandmother was crying. “Oh, Monue, don’t be sad. I’ll come home and visit.” (My sister had started calling my Grandmother Monue when she was little and it had stuck so completely that now the whole family called her that.) I had never seen my grandmother cry. I hugged her, and asked if she was okay but she just shook her head and patted my shoulder. It was starting to become real that I was saying the first permanent goodbye in my life. Not goodbye, I’ll see you again in a few weeks, but goodbye, I won’t be living here anymore and next time I see you I will only be visiting. 2 When I bolted from home on the weekend of July 4th I thought I was leaving for good. Independence Day seemed like the perfect choice for my blastoff from the expectations and limitations of the small town slowpoke south. It wasn’t that I didn’t love my family it was just that I thought my education was finally over and my real life was about to begin. I had my credit card and some spare change scraped together and I was ready to hit the road. The morning after my goodbye dinner I finished packing the last few things into my car and my Dad came out of the house and examined the Oldsmobile Achieva that I had bought with the money I made from selling my horse. I still couldn’t believe how fast that had happened. I had decided to sell him since I knew I wouldn’t be able to ride him anymore. He was too young and too nice a horse to retire, unlike my mare who would have been impossible to sell. I don’t know how Mr. Chastain heard about him but he called the house and asked us to bring the horse over to his stable. I had never met the Chastains and I was excited to go see their place—even though it wasn’t far from home I had never been, and I knew it was probably fancier than any farm I had ever seen. I walked out to the pasture to catch the tall Thoroughbred that had been donated to me off the racetrack through the 4H horse club. It wasn’t unusual for racehorse owners to get rid of horses that weren’t winners, they didn’t get any money but they could unload the horse fast and get a tax deduction for the horse’s “value.” Will trotted over to the fence when he saw me coming. He was stunning, a rare true black. But what really made him special was his personality. My mare wasn’t mean, she was just sort of a hellbitch—she didn’t ever do anything the easy way. But Will was the opposite- even that first time when Dad took me out to see him and I rode in a field carpeted with 3 purple Sweet William flowers, he bucked a few times but I could feel that he was kicking up his heels out of joy and not trying to throw me. The owner said that he couldn’t race because he had developed a sinus infection over the summer when the person who was supposed to be looking after the horses killed himself and wasn’t discovered until weeks later. I ignored the grisly backstory and begged to have him. Mom wasn’t on board, she said we didn’t need another horse, but Dad helped talk her into it. So a couple of years later, I loaded Will up to go to the Chastain’s farm and Mom drove us in Dad’s truck with the horse trailer. I thought Mr. Chastain would look the horse over and maybe arrange a time for his client to try him. But then he wrote out a personal check for twenty thousand dollars and just like that my horse wasn’t mine anymore. I had more money than I had ever imagined. I felt terrible, and I was sure that my horse was confused, too. “That’s the horse business, kid,” Mr. Chastain said, clapping me on the shoulder. Mom and I had cried all the way home as the empty trailer rattled behind us. But now Dad looked at all of the things I had piled into my car and then he looked at me over the tops of his transition lens glasses. “Lauren, don’t you think if you’re going to drive across the country it might help to be able to see out of your rearview mirror?” “I know, but I don’t want to leave any of this stuff.” I laughed but then I almost slipped right over the edge into crying.

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