It might have been Halloween weekend, but Amy Bock didn’t have time to go trick or treating at the Great American/USDF Region 9 Championships, held Oct. 28-31 at the Las Colinas Equestrian Center in Irving, Texas. She and Prestige won the amateur fourth level championship (62.39%) and the fourth level freestyle (65.83%), and she took home reserve championships at Prix St. Georges (56.50%) and Intermediaire I (56.62%) with Hondo.

Finding the time to ride one horse at the upper levels of dressage can be difficult for an amateur, but Bock squeezes two into her busy schedule. An attorney by day for the Dallas firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, she comes home around 8 p.m. and rides under the lights to fit it all into her day.

“I have no social life!” she said with a laugh. “I get up early and feed and groom and turn out. Then I get home and ride until 10 or 10:30 and get up in the morning and do it all over again.”

Bock used to run a small breeding operation from her farm in Copper Canyon, Texas, but after deciding she could only focus on two horses, she sold her mare and a few youngsters. She also keeps a small herd of miniature Black Angus cattle.

Bock grew up riding Quarter Horses and showing on the Quarter Horse circuit but eventually started taking lessons with a dressage instructor.

“I’d never heard of it, but it made so much sense and made such a difference in this giant, hulking, halter Quarter Horse,” said Bock. Her love for dressage blossomed, and although she evented through intermediate, she always came back to dressage.

“I just really enjoy the sport,” she said. “I enjoy the work, spending three months for that one moment of epiphany.”

Bock acquired Prestige almost by accident. Her trainer, Lyndon Rife, was wintering in Florida and called her up and insisted she come see the horse. Bock was reluctant, as she wasn’t in the market for a horse at the time.

“I watched the video with two friends,” she said. “And later on during the day they both e-mailed me, independently, a ‘net-saver’ fare from Dallas to Palm Beach.”

She decided it was fate and bought a plane ticket. With only one day to try “Scooby,” Bock had to make a quick decision. “I said if this horse doesn’t knock my socks off, I’m not doing it,” she recalled. But when she saw him he was the “plainest brown horse standing in the crossties.”

Still, she watched him under saddle, rode him herself and then came back to ride the 4-year-old Hanoverian (Prestige Pilot–Walbinchen) one last time in the evening.

“I was riding around, and all of a sudden I didn’t want to get off!” said Bock. She decided to take the plunge and shipped Scooby home to
Texas where he hasn’t failed to disappoint in the four years she’s had him, winning a regional championship every year since.

Although Bock has enjoyed bringing Scooby up the levels with Rife’s help, she knew she needed to learn the upper level movements on an experienced horse. So she bought Hondo from Rife after he competed the Texas-bred Dutch Warmblood at Grand Prix for a season.

The 15-year-old is no easy ride, though. “He was naughty!” said Bock of his behavior at the regional championships. “He had a difficult show because he was spooky. I don’t know if he was really afraid of the Halloween tablecloths or if he was just testing me.”

Carol and Richard Schmickrath bred Hondo (Wieberoodnoot–Ulette) at their Brookstone Farm in Georgetown, Texas.

An Education In the Making

The Schmickraths also coach Georgia Boothe, who rode Heineken to the junior training championship (73.27%) and the reserve at first level (66.25%).

From San Antonio, Boothe purchased the Oldenburg gelding as an unbroken 4-year-old, just less than two years ago.

“I probably should have gotten a schoolmaster,” said Boothe, 14. “But I didn’t want somebody else’s training. I wanted to start with a clean slate, and I wanted something with potential. We probably wouldn’t be able to afford a nice schoolmaster.”

Boothe initially bought Heineken as a hunter/jumper prospect but learned that jumping wasn’t going to be a strength for him.

“I decided to try dressage,” she said. “I wanted to train him in dressage anyway for the power and balance.”

Horse and rider learned the sport together with Carol’s help. Boothe started Heineken’s training on the ground but sent him to Rick Urban to complete his basic training.

This unorthodox pairing of green horse and rider has led to some typical roadblocks. “He was broken late and didn’t have the muscling,” explained Boothe. “Building up his muscles has put training on hold.”

But the dedicated junior doesn’t mind the setbacks. “It’s a very disciplined sport, and I love discipline,” she said. “There’s so much to strive for, so many levels. When we get up there he’ll be fantastic if I don’t mess anything up.”

And Boothe, who spends all her school holidays as a working student for the Schmickraths, is striving for the top. “I’d like to be the best,” she said simply. “I want to go to the Olympics.”

She plans to do less showing next year, so that she can work on bringing Heineken up the levels a bit more quickly. “I have my eye on [North American] Young Riders [Championships],” she said.

Cobs Can Do It Too

One of those young riders she might be looking up to is Sarah Christy. Christy, 20, of Montgomery, Texas, rode Madoc Prince Edward to the second level, junior/young rider championship (62.94%) and Rock Star DC to the Prix St. Georges championship (63.50%).

Christy bought Rock Star in January and rode him on the Region 9 team at the Maui Jim NAYRC (Ill.). Christy purchased the Oldenburg gelding with that goal in mind, but he is really her first horse. Christy learned all she knows about dressage from riding Welsh cobs.

When Christy wanted to learn to ride, she headed to the local riding school at Madoc Farm, a Welsh pony breeding farm. There she met Nancy Hinz and began her riding career by showing at Welsh shows. Hinz specializes in dressage and encouraged Christy to take the ponies and cobs to dressage shows as well.

Madoc Prince Edward is one of those Welsh cobs. Christy actually broke the 15-hand cob when he was 3 and bought him after he was sold and then returned to the farm.

“I own his full brother, Madoc Prince Henry, and I really like the line,” explained Christy. “Edward gets nervous easily and it was difficult to resell him. He was only 5, and he didn’t like all the different people trying him.”

Christy decided to buy him herself, and she has been competing against the warmbloods ever since. “He seems to be able to hold his ground,” she said. “He looks pretty big when he’s going, and he’s got a nice, big stride so you can’t really tell he’s a pony. He just has the feathers on his feet!”

At first it was a big transition to go from riding cobs to a 17-hand warmblood. “[Rock Star] has really taught me a lot this year. I have to put him together because he’s big and long,” explained Christy. “There’s more power and the body parts are all bigger. It’s more difficult to figure out where everything goes. Edward comes all put together.”

Christy keeps both horses in College Station, Texas, where she goes to school at Blinn College. In her third year there, she is living with her teammates from the NAYRC. “It’s a lot of fun to have people to ride with,” she said.

Living with her teammates also keeps Christy focused on her goal–to return to the championships and improve her scores.

“Rock Star wanted to shut down the entire test [at the regional championships],” said Christy. “He tried to stop in both his canter pirouettes and when I came to collect at the end of the extended canter. We’ve started putting him in a harder spot and he can hold it, but not for so long.

“I think we’re going to push him a little bit this winter in order to get his gaits to a better quality to show Prix St. Georges next spring,” she added. “Just to get a little bit more out of him, more through the back for next year.”