Hannah Schofield’s horse of choice has always been a Thoroughbred. The eventing professional doesn’t know exactly how many of them she has worked with in her career—some fresh off the track, others further along—but she has enjoyed each unique journey.

“I have a passion for working with the Thoroughbreds and restarting them, and I’ve been able to build a successful business based on that and teaching adult amateurs and kids at the lower levels,” Schofield, 43, said. “I enjoy finding what it is these horses love to do and maximizing their potential.”

But eight years ago, Schofield was “an adult amateur with a young kid,” returning to eventing after nearly a decade away with dreams of making it to the top levels. With no budget to speak of, she submitted an adoption application to ReRun, a non-profit organization dedicated to retraining and rehoming off-track Thoroughbreds. 

“I used to event really seriously, a long time ago, and I wanted to get back into it,” Schofield remembered. “I had no idea if my life would allow for that. But I wanted something young and unlimited in terms of its physical potential.”

When the horse she originally had her eye on became unavailable, ReRun program director Lisa Molloy texted Schofield a photo of a newly arrived coming 4-year-old named Fastidious (Flatter—Cruisin’nthebridle, Unbridled’s Song).

“He looked like an oil painting, he was so beautiful,” Schofield said. “I told her, ‘You know what? It’s my birthday. He’s $500; sure, stick him on a trailer.’ So I purchased him sight unseen, off of only one photo, as a birthday present to myself.”

When Schofield met her new horse a week later, little did she know that “Rigby” would, in fact, bring her to the upper levels—but in dressage, not eventing. So far, the pair has successfully competed through Prix St. Georges, and at the Loch Moy (Maryland) Spring Fling Dressage show in April, they completed Schofield’s U.S. Dressage Federation silver medal. But their journey to this point has been far from linear, serving to remind Schofield to appreciate the unexpected.

“He’s been such a cool horse,” Schofield said. “He’s a real character. In the eight years I’ve had him, this horse has literally done everything, and he’s just up for it. Everything I introduced him to, he’s been fantastic at—apart from eventing, ironically enough, in the end.”

Don’t Tell Him What He Can’t Do

The Schofields purchased their current home at Milestone Sport Horses in Lovettsville, Virginia, in 2018, but initially, Rigby lived in a field with a herd of ponies at their previous farm. There was no ring there, so Schofield “made do,” and alongside his early eventing education, the pair dabbled in everything from judged pleasure rides to western cutting clinics. In 2018, Rigby competed at the 5-year-old USEA Young Event Horse Championships at Fair Hill (Maryland).

“I was still an amateur then, on my little $500 Thoroughbred, with all of these professionals with these amazing horses,” Schofield remembered. “He totally holds his own—and then I jumped the wrong fence on cross-country. I will probably never forgive myself.”

It wasn’t long before Rigby felt like a member of the family for Schofield. His generally laid-back temperament meant that Schofield’s young children could lead him back to the trailer after cross-country, or sit in front of her in the saddle on a trail ride.

“We talked at one point, could we ever sell him?” Schofield said. “The consensus has always been, how could we do that? He’s a family member. He’s one of the Schofields, for sure.

“He is very much a cat, not a dog,” she continued. “Everything is on his terms. He has to come to you if he wants affection, which is not super often. I always joke he has his chosen people, and I’m not so sure I made the short list. He tolerates me.”

Schofield produced Rigby gradually. They competed at the 2021 USEA American Eventing Championships in Lexington, Kentucky, at training level, and moved up to preliminary that same year. In February 2022, Schofield and Rigby headed to Aiken, South Carolina, to get a jump on their season. Upon arrival, she turned him out; just seconds later, Schofield heard a loud crack.

“It sounded like lightning hitting a tree,” Schofield said. “I turn around, and Rigby is hopping on three legs.”

At first, she thought he had pulled a shoe and stepped on the clip, but when she reached him, Schofield found a small puncture wound spurting blood from his right foreleg. She carefully led him to a stall and called a veterinarian, who was immediately concerned about the degree of lameness in relation to the size of the wound. An X-ray revealed that Rigby had fractured his radius. Immediately, Schofield reached out to her friend Susan Johns, DVM, senior associate at Virginia Equine Imaging in Middleburg.

“I sent her a text and said, ‘Don’t reply on the weekend, but here is the X-ray,’ ” Schofield said. “My phone rings three seconds later. It’s her, and she says, ‘Do not move that horse. He needs to stay right where he is.’ ”

Rigby ended up spending three months at Engineered Equine Performance, a rehabilitation center located about a mile away from where the injury occurred. Although he ultimately made a full recovery, the setback proved significant. After the accident, Schofield struggled to get him back to his previous level of performance.

“He’s a worker bee,” she said. “He likes to work, and he wants to get things right. He’s a real thinker. You’ll give him a challenge, and he’ll bite down on it and figure it out—in his own way. In eventing, it was fine at the lower levels, but as the jumps got a little bigger, you couldn’t miss on him, which was really tough for me.

“I was trying to get him back up to preliminary after the leg fracture,” she continued. “We’d win on one weekend, and on the next weekend, he’d barely want to leave the start box.”

Finally, Schofield sent Rigby to eventer Will Faudree for some help and fresh eyes.

“I ride with other professionals often, and I take a lot of lessons,” said Schofield, who also credits Tim Bourke with helping her over fences. “I was watching Will show jump Rigby at Bobby Costello’s farm one day, and I looked at Bobby and said, ‘Why can’t I do this?’ And he said, ‘Because nobody has an eye like Faudree.’ I thought, that sounds about right, and here I am, little human me.”

The first few competitions after Rigby returned from working with Faudree were more successful, and Schofield felt encouraged. But things soon came to a head at the Virginia Horse Trials CCI1*-L in May 2023. After a solid performance in dressage, Rigby proved reluctant on cross-country right out of the start box, and he threw Schofield into the second fence.

“I got up, covered with dirt and a very bruised ego, looked at my daughter and said, ‘Enough. I’m done with this, and I don’t want to do it anymore,’ ” Schofield said. “That was the last horse trial we did before we switched to the pure dressage.

“He wasn’t a horse that was winning after dressage, [though] he was always fairly competitive,” she continued. “He is not an exceptional mover for a Thoroughbred. But I couldn’t bring myself to sell him.”

Schofield set the goal of earning her USDF bronze medal with Rigby, despite the fact that he had never learned his flying changes. Her good friend and dressage coach Holly Wilmoth had always been a fan of the horse and encouraged Schofield to give him a chance.

“She said, ‘Don’t tell him what he can’t do,’ ” Schofield said with a laugh. “The rest has been history. He is a very particular little guy, and he didn’t become an upper-level event horse because he kind of wants things to be just right. He demanded a level of perfection from me that I was never able to give him over fences. He’s the same in dressage, but that is just a little safer, and more forgiving.”

Why Stop Now?

Much to her surprise, Rigby quickly found success in the dressage court, and she earned her bronze medal just a few months after leaving the start box behind. 

“When I originally stopped eventing him, I thought it would be quite a feather in my cap to get the bronze,” Schofield said. “It happened so quickly and so easily, I thought, ‘Well, let’s crack on. Why would I stop now?’ But at the time, I thought the silver was a lofty goal, and if we ever got there, I’d be amazed and never expect to go any further.”

But unlike in eventing, as the dressage work got harder, Rigby’s confidence increased. His physique began to change, and he started to require less supplemental maintenance to stay happy in his work.

“It’s been interesting seeing the change in him,” Schofield said. “I now get a lot of, ‘That’s a Thoroughbred?’ from people. And I say, ‘Yes, that’s a Thoroughbred that I’ve spent a thousand hours working on the correct basics on the flat.’ He’s very strong; he’s got a big neck. He looks like a baby warmblood now.

“I think he had his reasons for not wanting to do the eventing,” she continued. “I think it was hard on his body. He has the best back, radiographically, of all of my horses, and the others all event very happily—but it wasn’t for him.”

When Schofield and Rigby made their Prix St. Georges debut at at Loch Moy, she knew the tempi changes would be a “hot mess.” But with the rest of the movements feeling fairly secure, she decided it was worth giving it their best shot.

“I’m very humble about my dressage,” Schofield said with a laugh. “We’ve been so patient with Rigby’s training—he’s so correct—that even though he’s not fabulous, the judges can’t deny him. The training is there, he’s doing the movements correctly. But the tempis are wild—that is one movement that does, or doesn’t, show up.

“I think you get to that stage when the work is hard for everyone, and it’s a bit of an equalizer,” she continued. “The work is hard enough that everybody is on the same struggle bus.”

After earning a 63.82% for their performance on Day 1 (despite only coming up with a line of three-time tempis but not fours), Schofield felt confident about their performance on Day 2. She was preparing for her ride—Rigby had two of four hooves oiled, his braids in, and his coat glossed to a high shine—when the tack room door on her trailer blew shut, spooking the gelding. He immediately pulled back on his halter, snapped it, and galloped away.

“It is the one thing where he is a real pain. He feels that poll pressure and will bust away,” Schofield said with a sigh. “He felt that pressure, and I swear he looked me in the eye. I was like, ‘Don’t you dare,’ and then he just went ‘ping!’ ”

The scene that followed was fit for a “Three Stooges” sketch, as Rigby led Schofield on a foot chase up, down and around the Loch Moy property. Instead of sticking near the dressage show, Rigby ran down the steep driveway, toured around the jump chute area, and clocked through the woods to the cross-country schooling field (where he caused chaos among those present), before finally settling down for a snack in the lush grass along the Monocacy River. 

“Rigby is standing there, grazing and looking like a unicorn,” Schofield said with a laugh. “He looked at me and was like, ‘I guess I’m good now.’ ”

By the time the pair made it back to their trailer, both drenched in sweat and with shaking legs, the rider ahead of them was preparing to canter down centerline. Schofield threw on Rigby’s tack and her shadbelly, making it to the warm-up ring with just two minutes to spare.

“My hair was a mess; everything was a disaster,” Schofield said. “Holly looked at us and laughed, and said, ‘Hannah, anyone other than an eventer would have loaded that horse back up on the trailer and said, ‘Today’s just not my day.’ ”

Although she admits their test lacked the quality of the previous day’s, it was still good enough to score 62.64%—high enough to be the final score needed to earn her USDF silver medal.

“We pieced it together, although the tempis were a mess again,” Schofield said. “The rest of the training was there, and he was correct enough to get me silver that day. I was furious with him when I was chasing him around Loch Moy, but withing a few hours, I just couldn’t help but think there was no other way that we should have done that. It was so us.”

Looking forward, Schofield plans to continue training and working toward new goals in the dressage court with 12-year-old Rigby. 

“It certainly hasn’t been easy, but when I got the silver, I have to say the very first thing I thought was, ‘Why stop here?’ ” Schofield said. “I don’t want to tell that horse what he can’t do anymore. He proves me wrong time and time again, and while I’m not sure I can one hundred percent visualize piaffe and passage on him—we’re going to give it a go.

“I love the horses first, and the sport second,” she continued. “Not to say I don’t have competitive goals—I do, and that’s why I have a lot of horses. But I’ve never spent more than $1,500 on one of my Thoroughbreds, and I’m still working toward those goals with the string of horses I have, which is ever-evolving. For me, I enjoy the individual, and you can find something they will excel at if you look hard enough and try hard enough.”