Our columnist—and executive director of nonprofit organization Road To The Top—discusses the way the program hopes to help talented riders fill in the financial and skill-based gaps to success.
As the Olympic closing ceremonies have faded into memory, and we blink back nostalgia and national pride, we turn our collective gaze to the west: Los Angeles 2028! Home turf for the home team. We envision the iconic U.S. Equestrian Team pinque coat galloping through the timers in the show jumping stadium.
Will silver become gold in 2028? Who will our riders be in four years, eight years, 12 years? How do we ensure that the most talented U.S. equestrians rise to the top of their discipline to ascend the podium?
Each morning of the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Florida, I drive into the showgrounds, wave at the guard, and stop at the intersection. In front of me is the leaderboard for the Under 25 Grand Prix Series. As I read the list, I am struck by the number of riders who are self-funded, the number of riders who are amateurs, and the number of riders who are not American. Will these riders become our next Laura Kraut, McLain Ward, Kent Farrington or Karl Cook? If not, where are the young riders with talent but without financial resources or competitive opportunity to be on this leaderboard?
As costs soar, opportunity evades even the most ambitious. We have reached a critical point in the future of show jumping. Either we step in to create a runway for the next generation of talent, or we rely on a system of meritocracy based on privilege.
Clearly, a rider cannot buy their way to success. The top of our sport requires equal measure talent, experience and grit. The crucial element that eludes us is how a rider can gain access to the tools to develop their skills. Where is opportunity found for the talented young professional willing to give their heart and soul for a shot at wearing the pinque coat?
Michael Matz and Kathy Kusner—two of the greatest show jumpers of my lifetime—are Olympic medalists (Matz with silver in 1996 in Atlanta, and Kusner with silver in 1972 in Germany). Matz was the son of a plumber in Reading, Pennsylvania, who never rode a horse until he was 15 and a neighbor asked him if he wanted to go riding. From there, he worked his way up from a groom to a rider to an elite competitor. He was not wealthy; he was not a trainer’s son, and he worked his way up from the ground.
He earned sponsors who gave him the opportunity to buy great horses in order to become a great rider. His stellar career is based on studying all aspects of the horse and training endlessly toward perfection of his craft. In today’s world, there would most likely not be a Michael Matz.
Kusner was the first female licensed jockey in America, one of the first women to ever ride for the USET, and the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in equestrian competition. She was born in Gainesville, Florida, to a father who was a mathematics professor and a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force and a mother who was a school teacher. She had no access to horses but was drawn to them instinctively. She worked in the afternoons after school for $2 per day to pay for riding lessons. Soon, she became a sought-after young rider for horse dealers in the area.
She rode every type of horse, even competing in unrecognized flat and jumping races as a teenager. She famously sued to become the first licensed woman jockey, unable to become the first woman to ride a race because of a broken leg sustained while jumping at Madison Square Garden. Kusner was indomitable, pushing through barriers and jumping up to become one of the greatest riders in the history of the U.S. How would this Army brat who never understood the words “you can’t” be able to navigate the current system to become a three-time Olympian and an inductee into the Show Jumping Hall of Fame?
To bridge this gap of opportunity, Katie Prudent founded Road To The Top, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization dedicated to building future U.S. equestrian show jumping teams. Prudent is arguably the best jumper rider coach in America, having mentored Beezie Madden, Kim Prince, Elise Haas, Alison Firestone Robitaille and Reed Kessler to international success.
“Young riders coming up, they have a hard time making it,” explains Prudent. “For the young, struggling professional trying to get to the top, they are going to need some help. And that’s what I am trying to do.”
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The Many Steps To Success
If we frame the conversation around the Olympics as our end goal, the challenges are evident. To lend perspective to cost, equestrian events have reached the apex of expense of all Olympic sports.
In the 2024 Games, there are 75 horse/athlete combinations in show jumping. Consider the number of high-level competitions throughout the world, the number of competitors vying for a berth on an Olympic team—many with more than one horse to choose from—and from thousands of horse/rider combinations, and we arrive at 75. The value of each of these horses, the best in the world, exceeds the $1 million mark, usually in multiples.
Twenty-first century elite show jumping is an exorbitantly expensive sport—a price point not available to most. The sky-high cost of horses is one aspect of the expense sheet, accompanied by board, veterinary work, farrier work, training and competition fees. Riders with talent and ambition choose to become professionals and face the hard reality of managing a business. Twelve or more hours a day, seven days a week is the norm. Hanging out their professional shingle, they are hopeful that hard work and some success will align them with major sponsors and upper-level horses. The hard truth is that this formula is usually not enough to propel them to the top of the sport. The slog of finances and building a clientele creates slow, arduous progress, leaving far too many toiling just to stay afloat.
Let’s consider the human athletes. In the case of the United States, we had one athlete in his 30s, two in their 40s, and one in her 50s. Kraut, winner of multiple Olympic medals, became the oldest U.S. woman to win an Olympic medal, first with her silver in Tokyo in 2021, and then again with her silver in Paris. The good news is that our sport is ripe for longevity. The challenging news is that we need to develop the next generation of Cooks and Wards and Farringtons and Krauts.
Olympic-level riding is the culmination of not only superlative talent but decades of experience and training. We see a snapshot of a rider in the few days surrounding world championships, storied grand prix classes and the Olympic Games. There is a deceptive facility to it because we are not privy to the countless hours of practicing, the difficult horses, the unsuccessful rounds, green horses, sales horses, round after round to hone skill and feel; working as a second-tier rider for minimal wages and putting your leg over any horse that was afforded to you. Reaching the pinnacle only happens after climbing the sheer face of success.
Getting The Best Athletes The Right Opportunities
Road To The Top aspires to address these challenges by providing opportunity and support for talented young professionals who aspire to the highest level of show jumping. Icons Prudent and Kraut are at the helm of the newly launched program, which has two enrolled athletes: Carlee McCutcheon and Trent McGee. Both McCutcheon (19, Aubrey, Texas) and McGee (22, Granada Hills, California) enjoyed successful junior careers, graduating to the professional ranks with their gaze fixed on Olympic dreams. As Kraut explains, “With my Olympic experience and Katie’s [coaching experience], hopefully we can show them the path, give them the opportunities, the education—what it takes to one day get there.”
What does it take for the young professional to rise through the ranks of show jumping to arrive at an elite level? Talent, yes, but also an exceptional horse. For the aspiring young rider, it takes horses that can compete over challenging tracks at premier events, even better if they have international exposure. The goal of Road To The Top is to carry two to three horses for each athlete in the program to compete under the tutelage of their mentor—either Kraut or Prudent.
Getting to the top also takes hours of coaching in the saddle, and hours of learning on the ground. Horse management, horsemanship, groundwork, feed, and veterinary knowledge, all are essential to achieve equestrian expertise. And money. And talent. The program is designed to identify these riders and give them the tools necessary to create a pathway to the highest levels of the sport.
U.S. Chef d’Equipe Robert Ridland is a supporter of Road To The Top as a gateway for young professionals. “We are looking for the best athletes to give them the best opportunity,” he says.
Road To The Top is solely supported by donations, which fund the expenses of the athletes and their mounts as they compete with their mentors. Travel expenses, entries, and hard costs for each horse are covered. The athletes do much of their own groundwork not only to keep costs down but to learn essential skills outside of the saddle. Prudent and Kraut donate their time and expertise to the effort, and they source horses for the young riders.
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In the summer of 2024, McCutcheon competed in Europe under the tutelage of Kraut. She and her horse Coco Mercedes won a class in Chantilly, France, in July, beating many seasoned competitors. McGee has been stateside with Prudent and her able crew at Plain Bay Farm. He successfully competed in Virginia before heading to the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival in Traverse City, Michigan, where he was twice champion in the 1.30-meter division against a formidable group of riders.
The end game of the program is to develop these young riders to the point where they can gain sponsors, buy horses and continue down the road of professional success with the goal of riding for the U.S. team.
“What we hope for is that these kids look like the future of our sport, and then we find an owner—a sponsor—to take over and relieve the foundation of this group of riders, so that we can then take on new ones,” Kraut explains. “And they go ahead and live the Olympic dream.”
Road To The Top applicants complete an extensive process that includes videos of them competing at the 1.30-meter level or higher. The Athlete Selection Advisory Committee, consisting of Prudent, Kraut and Margie Engle, review applications and decide on the next step. After review, some applicants will be asked to complete an in person interview and riding demonstration.
Because of funding and the busy schedules of the two mentors, the number of athletes currently accepted is low. As support of the program grows, it will hopefully become possible to accept more applicants.
Road To The Top was established to be a gateway for the next generation of international-level riders. From Bill Steinkraus and Joe Fargis to Will Simpson and Beezie Madden to Kraut and Ward, as a country we have always done a great job of identifying the next superstars and providing a path to the podium. How do we find the next Matz or Madden, Kusner or Kraut? What will the Under 25 Grand Prix leaderboard look like in the future?
I hope that it is open to anyone’s guess and within everyone’s reach—irrespective of financial means. As the portal of opportunity narrows, the need to source and support our future riders expands.
For more about Road To The Top, visit roadtothetop.org and follow on Facebook and Instagram.
Sissy Wickes is a Princeton University (New Jersey) graduate, a lifelong rider and trainer, a U.S. Equestrian Federation R-rated judge, a freelance journalist and an autism advocate. Her resume includes extensive show hunter and jumper experience. She serves on the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association board of directors and the USEF National Breeds and Disciplines Council. She chairs the USEF Judging Task Force and sits on the USHJA Equitation Task Force, USHJA WCHR Task Force and USHJA Planning Committee, as well as the board of directors of the Retired Racehorse Project and Hill Top Preparatory School. She is executive director of Road To The Top.
She writes a monthly column for Practical Horseman’s “Conformation Clinic” and is a contributing columnist to Warmbloods Today magazine as well as an EquestrianCoach.com blogger.
This article originally appeared in the September 2024 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse. You can subscribe and get online access to a digital version and then enjoy a year of The Chronicle of the Horse. If you’re just following COTH online, you’re missing so much great unique content. Each print issue of the Chronicle is full of in-depth competition news, fascinating features, probing looks at issues within the sports of hunter/jumper, eventing and dressage, and stunning photography.
