PrintPatience pays off for this talented young rider.
Brian Hafner didn’t get into dressage for the instant gratification. At 14 years old he knew he’d found his passion and convinced his parents to buy a young horse for him. Six years later that investment is finally paying off with big wins at the Dressage Affaire CDI-W in Del Mar, Calif., March 12-15.
Hafner took home blue in the FEI Young Rider Team test (66.63%) and the Individual test (67.21%) with Lombardo LHF. It was only the second time he’d competed in a CDI, and the pair stepped out at Prix St. Georges for the first time in January.
Horses were always a part of Hafner’s childhood. “We have 40 acres and a hobby farm in the Midwest,” he said. “My first horse was an Arab-Welsh cross. It was kind of off and on riding as a young kid. My parents were really reluctant to buy me a real dressage horse. They didn’t think I’d stick with it.”
But it was pretty clear Hafner was determined. He helped pay for dressage lessons by picking rocks out the arena at a local boarding facility and then graduated to cleaning stalls.
“I’d have to be there at 5 a.m. to clean stalls, much to my parents’ distress because they’d have to get up, drive me to the barn and drop me off that early,” recalled Hafner.
Although many teenage boys might have dropped riding or gone for a more action-packed discipline like jumping, Hafner appreciated the challenge of dressage.
“Every day you have a different horse. They have their lows and highs just like the riders have lows and highs. It’s all about the details, and that’s a challenge for me. I like to take that on,” he said.
Hafner’s first big challenge was finding a horse he could ride up the levels. He bought Lombardo as a 4-year-old in 2003 from Michelle Lauber in Colorado. The Hanoverian gelding (Londonderry—Waluga) was young but
talented.
“Money was an issue at the time. We chose to get a high-quality youngster rather than an average-quality made horse. That’s starting to pay off. We went for the long-term gain I would get from training my own horse,” said Hafner. “It would’ve been a lot easier for me to go out and buy a Prix St. Georges horse and compete. But this way I’ve gotten to learn about training the horse and connecting with the horse.”
Hafner had his eyes opened to the bigger dressage world when his parents briefly moved from Minnesota to California for a job. “All the Olympic riders and top trainers in this small area drew me back. The Midwest has some dressage, but it’s nothing like the dressage world here in Southern California,” he said.
So Hafner applied to the California State University at San Marcos and packed up Lombardo. He found trainer Laurie Falvo Doyle at the Dove Hollow Dressage Center in Olivenhain, Calif., and soon settled in as working student and part-time college student.
“It’s been great. I’ve gotten to sit on tons of different horses and used that to help me with my horse. It’s hard trying to go to school and be a working student and make it work financially, but it’s what I have to do to make my dreams come true with what I want to do in riding,” he said.
Hafner, 20, is pursing a business degree, which he hopes will either help him when he starts his own dressage business or will give him a fallback if horses don’t work out.
