Man, oh man, what a triumph it was for us at the Paris Paralympics! We all knew it was going to be an exciting Games for USA Para Dressage, but it ain’t over ’til it’s over. And Becca Hart, Fiona Howard, Roxie Trunnell and Kate Shoemaker came, saw and conquered, and took home a mountain of medals for equestrian sports in Paris.

I love it when our country succeeds in sport, but I was particularly invested in these Games, as Becca Hart is one of my closest friends, and I sat in my office, bawling my eyes out, watching her conquer Grade III. I made time to watch all the Americans, and as my timing was imperfect, I also ended up seeing a fair bit of the rest of the competition as well. And I made a few notes on things we can learn, as high-performance riders and as able-bodied riders writ large, from their monumental triumph, and from para sport in general.

1. A horse is only as sensitive to the aids as you train it to be. Please do yourself a favor and find a way to watch Rihards Snikus of Latvia, the individual gold medal winner from Grade I. He has cerebral palsy, and he moves a LOT. And his horse, the appropriately named King Of The Dance, is so beautifully trained that he ignores a lot of those excess movements. He understands what to pay attention to, and what not to. He blocks out the inadvertent noise that Rihards’ body makes. (NBC has the Paralympic video coverage under lock and key, but if you want to see him in action, check out his gold-medal performance from the 2022 ECCO World Championships in Denmark.)

I take from this that our horses, too, can learn to ignore us, unless we tell them otherwise by being consequential with our aids. Rihards’ body makes noise he can’t control. Your leg, Jane the Jockey, that you use to spur your horse every step, because you’re just being sloppy? What’s your excuse? 

2. Halts are expensive, and easy to practice. So is the walk, and so are transitions within the walk. I’m writing this on a gorgeous, crisp fall day in Virginia, but it was horrible this summer, beastly hot with terrible humidity. You know what we spent a lot of time on, my horses and I? Halts. Collected walk. Walk pirouettes. Extended walk. And all of the transitions in between. 

Of course these are much more critical movements in para-dressage, where they comprise much, if not all, of the lower grades’ tests, versus the Grand Prix, where they are only a handful of the 31 test movements. But why get 6s there when you could get 7s, or 8s? Yes, quality of walk is about your horse’s natural gaits, but transitions, walk pirouettes, and halts? Anyone, on any horse, can be taught to do those brilliantly.

3. We don’t need our reins as much as we think we do. Many para riders have impaired ability in one or both arms. When a rider has an arm that does its own thing, they sometimes get a dispensation to basically strap it to their chest so it can’t get in the way, and the rider then uses their “good” arm to hold the reins. Sometimes it’s two reins. Sometimes it’s four reins. All in one hand. So, again, able-bodied Jane the Jockey, why doesn’t your horse half-halt from your seat? Why do you need to pull on your reins? Watch riders do this at the Paralympic Games, and let it be inspiration for you to work harder at home until you can do it, too.

4. There’s no silver-bullet answer to why the U.S. Para Dressage Team was so exquisitely successful in Paris, and also came home with hardware at the last world games and Paralympics, but it’s noteworthy that the timing of their meteoric rise in competitive success is aligned with the tenure of the current para team coach, Michele Assouline. In able-bodied dressage land, the land with which I’m most familiar, our best years in recent memory were also years in which we were led by a highly qualified and experienced team coach, with a long enough tenure to make their mark. As of late it’s felt like we’re a ship without a rudder, and I know this has been felt in other disciplines as well. Is it the only thing? No, of course not. Luck, timing, caliber of horse, sponsorship, and a million factors contribute. But it would be foolish not to recognize the connection. 

5. Horses are incredible. Let us not for one second make the mistake of thinking that competitive para horses are old plodders; they are athletes. They go. They are overwhelmingly, at the top level, warmblood horses, with all that comes with the warmblood mind (with all of the love in the world for the warmblood, “dumb jock” fits most), and they’re fit and big moving. And then, at the Paralympics, they are piloted with grace and elegance by people with physical disabilities, in an arena surrounded by potential predators, with big ol’ horsey smiles on their faces. Able-bodied or para athlete, green to Grand Prix: None of us can ever take these amazing animals, and all they let us do with them, for granted.

Lauren Sprieser is a USDF gold, silver and bronze medalist with distinction making horses and riders to FEI from her farm in Marshall, Virginia. She’s currently developing The Elvis Syndicate’s C. Cadeau, Clearwater Farm Partners’ Tjornelys Solution, as well as her own string of young horses, with hopes of one day representing the United States in team competition. Follow her on Facebook and Instagram, and read her book on horse syndication, “Strength In Numbers.”