Like many busy professional equestrians, Emily Morris often finds herself with more on the “to do” list than time to do it. Whether she is coaching one of her students—who range in age from 8 to her 81-year-old mother, Century Club member Janet Hadden—schooling a client’s horse, or working alongside her mother to care for their own herd at Russell’s Landing Farm in Avella, Pennsylvania, Morris is always on the move. And if she isn’t at the barn, Morris is probably working in the emergency room at Weirton Medical Center in Weirton, West Virginia, where she is a registered nurse. It is a job that both brings her great satisfaction and helps pay the bills. 

With all that she does, Morris admits it can be hard sometimes to prioritize her own riding and horses. Not surprisingly, then, when Morris received the 2023 Verne Batchelder Instructor Fund Grant from The Dressage Foundation, she was excited to spend some concentrated time preparing her own Chez Versailles (Tarkenton Q—Caressa), an 8-year-old Trakehner gelding known as “Oatie” at home, for second and third levels. She also planned to use some grant money to fund lessons on an FEI schoolmaster to enhance her own education. 

“Trainers need trainers,” said Morris, 54. “You should never not keep working, or think you are ‘good enough’ or perfect. You need eyes on the ground to watch your body position, and you will always learn something. I think it is crucial, as a trainer, to keep developing your education, so you always become a better rider.”

The instructor grant was established in 2020 in memory of the late Verne Batchelder to “assist dressage instructors in broadening their base of knowledge from their mentors to then share with all their students.” Morris, who teaches a blend of juniors and adult amateurs, mostly at Keepsake Equestrian Center in McDonald, Pennsylvania, spent the winter under the tutelage of U.S. Dressage Federation gold medalist and certified instructor Lisa Hall, and traveled to Rocky Ridge, Maryland, to train with USDF gold medalist and international competitor Janna Dyer when the weather improved. 

During winter 2024, Oatie flourished under Hall’s direction. The powerful gelding—whom Morris describes as being sweet but sensitive and requiring a tactful ride—had grown a full hand in just 18 months, and needed to develop increased strength, suppleness and balance to manage his larger frame comfortably in the collected work.

“We were making a lot of progress,” Morris said. “Lisa got her gold medal on a self-developed horse. I like working with people who have made a horse themselves. If you never rode a young horse, you are probably not going to help me with my young horse.”

Everything seemed to be going according to plan—until it wasn’t. That spring, an injury sidelined Oatie for the remainder of the season. Then, the schoolmaster Morris was supposed to work with at Dyer’s Dark Horse Dressage passed away unexpectedly. Almost overnight, Morris’ goals for the grant seemed to be in jeopardy. But Dyer had an idea, and she offered Morris the opportunity to train on her personal Grand Prix horse, Certero (Texnik—Usappa), a 10-year-old Ukrainian Warmblood.

“Janna had enough faith in me as a rider that she said I could ride ‘Rip,’ who is an international CDI-quality horse,” Morris said. “He is probably the nicest horse I’ve ever ridden in my life. 

“When you ride babies, you don’t use the body parts you use to ride upper level,” she continued. “This opportunity, to ride a horse like Rip, let me focus on really precise riding, using 110 percent the correct body parts and developing greater feel.”

The unexpected opportunity to concentrate on FEI-level work with such a talented equine partner was like a dream come true for the self-funded Morris, who has always developed her own horses from scratch. Of these, it was a chestnut Hanoverian gelding named Poseidon H.F. (ES Portofino—EM Lollipop) who brought her to the cusp of competing at FEI six years ago, before a freak accident abruptly ended his career. With her top horse off the roster, Morris channeled her crushing disappointment into working with clients’ mounts while waiting for her young horses to mature, all the while feeling as though the clock was ticking.

“I’ve been riding my young horses and clients’ horses, but most of them are maybe at second level,” Morris said. “The dream of getting my gold medal was kind of shattered after my horse suffered that injury. 

“I buy young warmbloods and work with them,” she continued. “I have developed quite a few and sold the ones who didn’t work out. If they’re a little too rambunctious or not the right personality, or if my mother can’t lead them, then they can’t be at my house, because I don’t want my mom getting hurt.”

In this way, Morris has successfully competed through fourth level and amassed an extensive resume in the young horse classes. She has shown at Devon (Pennsylvania) nine years in row, and plans to debut her young Hanoverian Lone Star WHE (Liberty Gold—Fila), aka “Stanley,” there in the 3-year-old class this fall. But Morris has also produced several “non-traditional” dressage horses, and she is equally proud of a $1,400 Percheron-Quarter Horse cross on whom she once scored a 78.8% at training (her highest score at the level) and an $800 off-track Thoroughbred with whom she won a 4-year-old test at Devon.

“If you do things right and do things correctly, you don’t need a million-dollar horse,” she said. “It’s nice to say you can have 10 fancy horses that can do things, but you ride what you have, and you develop what you have because maybe you can’t afford to do otherwise.

“I’ve been very competitive with people who have way more resources and more horses, and maybe I won’t beat them, but I’m right there,” she continued. “To me, that’s an accomplishment.”

Thanks to her diligence, patience, and attention to pedigree, Morris believes she currently has in her barn “three of the nicest horses I’ve ever had in my life.” In addition to Oatie (who is now back in work) and Stanley, there is Krisantos SF (Kaiman—Still Waters), a yearling Hanoverian colt who was awarded gold medal status by the American Hanoverian Society last year.

Although she is excited for the future with her prospects, Morris recognizes it will be years before any of them are ready for FEI—which is why Dyer’s offer to not just let Morris train on Rip but potentially compete him this season has been so meaningful. The women didn’t know each other well prior to last year, but they quickly found a shared language.

“She’s developed so many horses and riders to Grand Prix,” Morris said of Dyer. “Janna really likes to teach people and share her knowledge. She was a student of [Reiner] Klimke in Germany and has a good, solid, traditional German background, which I am familiar with. She has helped me so much, even just in this short period of time.

“I am not getting any younger—although I’m in better shape now than when I was 30,” she continued with a laugh. “When you ride 3- and 4-year-olds constantly, it is amazing to ride something trained. This opportunity has been invaluable, and I would never have been able to afford to take lessons with her without this support.”

Although winter weather has required a break in their work together—it is a 440-mile round-trip over the mountains from Morris’ home in western Pennsylvania to Dyer’s facility in Maryland—Morris is looking forward to picking up where she left off this spring. In order to prioritize her grant-funded opportunity to invest in her own training and riding, for this season, Morris plans to scale back slightly on the number of clients she teaches and trains. And while she remains committed to her equestrian goals, she is equally dedicated to her full-time work in emergency medicine, a career she says has proven to be a perfect complement.

“It’s a very humbling job,” said Morris, who got her start in emergency services as a firefighter and paramedic in 1996. “Your brief interaction with another human being can change their life forever. If I had a million clients, I would never quit doing emergency medicine, because it means something to me, and I worked really hard to get there.

“In emergency medicine, you have to be in overdrive constantly,” she continued. “While I’m riding, I have to take that and shut everything in my head down. You cannot get on a horse in ER mode, because it will not go well. Both keep you mentally focused, and both require you to think and solve problems.”

This is the second TDF grant of Morris’ career; in 2015, she also was awarded a Carol Lavell Gifted Memorial Fund Award, which she used to train with Phoebe DeVoe-Moore. 

“This grant has been phenomenal—and to now have the opportunity to go for a dream, I’m pretty excited,” Morris said. “Most people don’t have a million resources, and I was in awe I got this, as a ton of people apply. What The Dressage Foundation offers—these grants have helped so many people.”