My last blog was about our triumphant 2024 Paris Paralympic Games for American dressage enthusiasts. Gold after gold, a brilliant week of consistent and extraordinary excellence. It was a contrast to the Olympic Games, where our team suffered the two most inconveniently timed hiccups ever, following a team selection process that required the throwing of a lot of Hail Marys. Isabell Werth aboard Wendy and Cathrine Ladrup-Dufour aboard Freestyle showed that green partnerships can achieve big results, but it wasn’t in the cards this year for the U.S. 

Our 2021 Tokyo Olympic performance was stellar. Sabine Schut-Kery led the way aboard her homemade Sanceo, joining the rarified club of American riders who’ve placed fourth individually, and Adrienne Lyle with Salvino and Steffen Peters with Suppenkasper were on top form to collectively earn team silver. When the champagne flutes were put away and the confetti vacuumed up, did the conversation amongst those in power in U.S. dressage turn to the fact that Salvino was 14, Sanceo, 15, and Mopsie, 13? 

The Los Angeles Olympics begin July 14, 2028. That’s 1,393 days from now. The time to start thinking about thinking about our 2028 team is now, because it’s likely to be horses who are currently 6 to 12 years old. And I even think the time to start thinking about our 2032 team is now, because that’s horses who are currently 2 to 8. I would hope that there’s a lot of interest in trying to make our next teams from homegrown talent—horses produced by their team riders for at least part of their careers, if not the whole enchilada. So how do we grow more top quality, domestically produced, international Grand Prix horses, so we’re not spending bajillions in Europe buying them?

There’s certainly no simple and singular answer, but one of the many things that I’ve found hard is to find ownership support, and/or grants, for young and developing horses, mostly the 4- to 7-year-olds. By 7 they’re usually doing something interesting enough that I can entice investors, or I’m seeing that they’re not going to be horses for that level of sport and I start thinking about when to sell and move on.

As hard as it is to get people excited in the 4- to 7-year-olds, it’s even harder to get people excited in getting foals and very young horses. Of course breeders try to sell them as young as possible (as they spend the first three years of their lives trying to die or lame themselves, and then unless they have the X-rays of Adonis, people spook at buying them anyway), but unless a trainer has a field in the back somewhere, it’s hard for them to support a foal for the three years it takes to even begin to think about riding it.

So I have an idea. It’s an idea that will require a substantial donation to start, and then a lot of administrative work to weed through applications, identify both the horse and rider talent that is eligible, and a lot of paperwork to sort out the money part. But here it is: 

Two grant programs, designed to help ease the burden of supporting a horse from foal to age 7. One for those who do very young horses, birth to age 3. They’d be granted $100/month to help care for it, until the calendar year in which it turns 4. Then Dobbin gets backed, and if the owner wants to sell it, she’s had some help getting it to that point, and it allows her to have kept her head above water a bit, so she can take the proceeds of that sale and go get more horses and start anew.

The second is for those who do the horses ages 4 to 7. That program would be $1,000/month. Seven is usually when we get a sense of “keep or cut bait,” so if Dobbin decides he wants to be a rockstar, then the rider can pitch for ownership help, and if Dobbin decides he wants to be an amateur professor, then the rider can sell him and start anew.

These would have to be grants only available to those who’ve demonstrated their abilities. For the foal one, maybe the rules are that applicants have to have started at least three horses that have gone on to compete at at least third level. For the young horse one, perhaps that the applicants must have trained at least two Grand Prix horses beginning at no older than age 7. It should be some sort of criteria that proves the applicant isn’t new at this, and can prove concept.

One more requirement I think is important: All human applicants should have to have some sort of working student or apprenticeship program, such that, at least theoretically, they’re repaying the favor by helping educate the next generation of young horse trainers.

In Lauren’s magical universe, there’d be five horses a year selected for each program. Riders would have to reapply every year the horse is still eligible. And here’s where things get even more complicated, because we all know that, even if that regally bred, exquisitely conformed, and spectacular moving foal makes it to being backed and its first shows, it might decide that, meh, it doesn’t want to work as hard as one has to work to go to the Olympics. Or it might limp. Or it might be a dirtbag. And then what?

Statistically speaking, very few of the horses who’d go through this program would go on to be team contenders, because that’s just such freaking rarified air. Statistically speaking, many, if not most, of the horses who will go through this program will, at some point, be put on a path to be sold to a different situation. What then? Here’s the math part: When the rider applies for these grants, they must disclose what they paid for the horse. If a horse that has received funds from these grants needs to be sold within x years of receiving said funds, the rider owes an x% commission on the amount of profit on the sale—“profit” defined as the amount it sells for minus the amount that was paid for it. I say profit on sale, and not just sale price, because if you take a loss on it, you shouldn’t have to pay a commission on that loss.

The goal would be to help facilitate the training of horses for sport through the years where it’s hardest for even the most competent and experienced of trainers to cultivate external ownership support. Is this going to guarantee us four American-developed horses for the team? I’d truly fall down with shock if it did. But it would make owning and supporting the very young and very risky raw material just a little easier, until said material starts to prove its mettle. And it would be just the littlest safety net for those of us out there taking all that risk on our own, because it’s a statistical impossibility that, independent of how much talent and experience a rider has, every young horse said rider touches turns to gold. 

And before the comments section goes nutsy, yes, I’m sure I haven’t thought of everything. Yes, the buying of the horses outright is an expense beyond a lot of qualified trainers. Yes, I realize this grant would require a substantial initial contribution to make work (five horses per year through each program is $66,000 annually), and that it would probably never fund itself. We’d need a lot of qualified people watching a LOT of videos and reading a LOT of applications to narrow the pool. And that’s what The Dressage Foundation told me when I brought this idea to them: It’s a really intriguing logistical nightmare. 

But they liked it. They thought it was cool. Every trainer I’ve pitched this to thinks it’s cool. And as I’m staring at my own personal numbers—I’m in a sticky spot where I’ve had two dud young horses in a row, and that makes buying the next one a real burden—I’m thinking about how much less of a burden it would be if I’d hemorrhaged less money caring for those two that fell short of my Big Hairy Dreams. This would have helped a lot. I think this could help a lot.

So… the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation, perhaps? Or a private organization or benefactor? If you like this, and want to fund this, I’d love to hear from you. 

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.”