Growing up in rural Maine, Jen Colby was “always the kid who wanted the pony, but never the kid who had the pony.” Back then, she managed to learn just enough not fall off on trail rides through a few lessons taken at a backyard barn. But in the intervening years, Colby’s skills in the saddle have become quite a bit more sophisticated, and in 2023, she and her 17.3-hand Dutch Warmblood gelding Corleone (Winningmood—Oscar) were crowned the Adequan/USDF Fourth Level Adult Amateur Year End Award champions, with a median score of 68.74%. 

“Until last year, I didn’t even realize how many shows you had to ride in to make that leaderboard,” Colby, 38, said with a laugh. “This year, I tried to be intentional about making sure I rode the test enough times, but I didn’t know what the scores would end up being until my last rides from [the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 4 Championships] posted. I wasn’t even ranked until those rides came out, because I didn’t have enough scores.”

Now based in Minneapolis, Colby acknowledged dealing with the region’s tough climate, its short show season and her demanding job as director of a medical laboratory means that prioritizing her riding can be challenging. But ever since her first exposure to dressage in the early 2010s, when she was a doctoral candidate in molecular toxicology at the University of California, Berkeley, Colby has been fascinated both by the technicality and specificity required in the sport.

“I’m a classic type A,” Colby said. “I like the challenge of it. I actually accept it will never be perfect, but that’s kind of why it’s motivating to me—because you can always do better.”

Prior to trying dressage, Colby’s time in the saddle was mostly spent trail riding with friends on her first horse, a Tennessee Walker, as a welcome escape from the pressures of graduate school. At the time, she boarded at a multi-discipline facility, and it was there she first saw someone schooling dressage movements. She thought it looked like fun and began to look around for a trainer to take lessons with. She found the perfect match in USDF gold medalist Katy Barglow, who coincidentally was completing a post-doc appointment at UC-Berkeley and had an office just one floor up from Colby. She took her first dressage lessons on Barglow’s semi-retired Grand Prix horse Leo, and soon learned she had entered a whole new world.

“I remember getting on Leo, and I asked him to go—and nothing would happen,” Colby said. “Or he would do things, and I would say, ‘I have no idea what is happening here.’ But I was totally hooked. It was very different than riding a trail horse.”

For nearly a decade and a half, Colby’s frequent moves to pursue further professional education and career opportunities challenged her to find ways to stay connected to the equestrian world. After earning her doctorate, Colby completed a fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco, then accepted a faculty position in Tennessee, where she had also studied during her undergraduate years.  

“I think I just collect people,” Colby said of how she’s made equestrian friends in new places. “Everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve always adopted a new horse community. I still have a lot of horse friends, and my old trail riding friends will post on my Facebook, ‘We always knew you could do this stuff; we’re not galloping through the park anymore.’

“I’ve been really lucky in the era of good social media connection, to find people I know, who know someone,” she continued. “The internet era has been helpful to me in trying to reconnect with horse folks when I’ve moved.”

It was largely thanks to a series of leased horses that Colby was able to continue her dressage journey beyond her initial lessons. She even began competing, earning scores toward her bronze medal at first level and testing the waters at second. But Colby admits her early efforts at second level left something to be desired, despite the fact she was leasing a former Grand Prix horse at the time.

“Part of it is the horse and the talent of the horse, but part of it is also your education as a rider,” she said. “I have been super lucky with lease horses; I had a lot of very nice horses that people let me ride. I am confident that, knowing what I do now, I could go back and ride that same horse way better.”

Colby was still living in Tennessee when she decided it was time to purchase a dressage horse of her own. Corleone, or “Cory,” was owned by a friend and had competed through Intermediaire I with good results, but just before the pandemic, he was sidelined by a series of health issues. When Colby purchased him in 2021, he had been out of work for some time. Learning to ride him effectively still required her to up her own game.

“If you are picking a horse to be competitive on, he’s phenomenal,” she said. “He is a super competitive horse. If you’re picking a horse that’s easy to ride—you would never pick him. He’s a big horse, and he moves like a big horse. But he has made me an infinitely better rider, physically, and he is also a great schoolmaster.

“Cory is the first horse where I broke out of the lower levels, and he’s the first horse I’ve scored above 70% on,” Colby continued. “One of my favorite things about Cory is he is a fantastic show horse, but he is also a good trail horse. I still enjoy a good trail ride, and he is just solid.”

Not long after purchasing Cory, Colby accepted her current position in Minneapolis and relocated from Tennessee to Minnesota. It was again thanks to social media connections that Colby met her current trainer, Lindsay Fuchs of Pferde Farm in Ham Lake, Minnesota, about 30 minutes north of the city. Colby tries to get in the saddle at least three times a week, but when she can’t, Fuchs is there to help keep Cory tuned up. 

In her work, Colby runs a drug-testing lab that does things like pre-employment drug screening and substance abuse monitoring.

“I am responsible for the entire laboratory—I have the scientific training, as well as the board certifications, that allow me to direct a medical laboratory,” she explained. “Sometimes it is easy, but often it is hard to find a balance. My show schedule is hard to manage sometimes. Remote work has made this a lot easier for me, because I can jump on a call or check in. At regionals, I was doing calls from the stall with the mute button on.”

But luckily for Colby, many of her co-workers prioritize time off at the holidays, while she saves her vacation days for Minnesota’s short competition season. In 2022, Colby debuted in the show ring with Cory, competing at second and third levels and earning her USDF bronze medal. The pair ended the season by winning the USDF Region 4 Adult Amateur Second Level Championship in September, and qualified for the US Dressage Finals in Kentucky later that fall. They went on to finish fourth there, earning a 69.60%. Colby found the Dressage Finals experience both surreal and inspiring. 

“The show grounds are beautiful,” she said of the Kentucky Horse Park. “There were people in our barn who I follow on the internet—not people I know, but famous people. It was super fun, and you feel like a fan girl.

“It was a really great experience to be able to watch other people, in person,” Colby continued. “I really liked being able to go to the Alltech Arena when I wasn’t competing—and I was there for one ride, really, so I had plenty of time to watch a bunch of really nice horses, and dedicated riders. Obviously, you had to work hard to get there. It was nice to be able to just celebrate that with everybody.”

In 2023, Colby and Cory maintained their successful ways in the show ring, qualifying for the Region 4 Championships at both third and fourth levels. Although the pair had a consistent season, and won the Region 4 Adult Amateur Third Level Championship with a 67.68%, Colby was disappointed by their performance in the fourth level championship test.

“We actually did much better at fourth than third all season,” she said. “I liked the technicality of that test. But classic bummer of all bummers, we just didn’t have a good test at the fourth level championship. It wasn’t good enough, and so we didn’t qualify [for Dressage Finals].”

Colby was still processing her disappointment—and her decision to not make the 18-hour drive from Minneapolis to Lexington, Kentucky, to compete in the third level finals—when she learned Cory’s seasonal average had earned them the USDF year-end award.

“I think the fact that we had a not-good ride at our fourth level regional finals made the year-end award even more meaningful,” she said. “It was like, ‘Yes, that ride was not your best, the timing stunk, but you still did a good job all season.’ We did this, we did it well, and we did it well eight times.

“Not that our ride at regionals isn’t meaningful, because it is, and it is very exciting to get to be there and test yourself against all the other really good riders,” Colby added. “But it comes down to one ride, and the year-end award is the culmination of an entire season. It just makes you very proud.”

Looking forward to 2024, she plans to debut at Prix St. Georges and has set the goal of earning her USDF Silver Medal with distinction, as well as qualifying for the Region 4 championships—all while applying the lessons she has learned from Cory so far.

“Cory taught me a lot about test riding,” she said. “Not just getting through the pattern, but really thinking about doing it perfectly, setting up and thinking ahead, and optimizing. It’s thinking about what he’s good at, what I’m good at, and what the weak points are, so you can best manage the picture for the judge.”

In learning to balance a demanding career with the pursuit of her dressage goals, Colby appreciates working for a company that allows her some flexibility, and a barn family and partner that offer her support.  

“I think it’s a question of trying to figure out how to fit the pieces together,” says Colby of balancing her two main passions. “My company has been really understanding, and people are respectful. But it’s still not easy. I wouldn’t say I have any other consuming hobbies—this one takes care of that!”