For the first time since its inception in 1996, The Dressage Foundation’s Century Club has welcomed a para-dressage rider to its ranks. Over the weekend, lifelong equestrian Laura Mollrich, Laguna Beach, California, rode into the club by performing USDF introductory test B in front of nearly 30 friends and family members on her own Dutch Warmblood gelding Pabatsa. 

The Century Club recognizes the achievements of horses and riders whose combined ages add up to at least 100. Mollrich, who is 72.5, and Pabatsa, 27.5, reached that threshold earlier this year. 

“It turned out to be a super fun day.” said Mollrich after her century ride. “I am so blessed he’s in my life.”

Mollrich hadn’t heard of the Century Club until she and her husband went to the Adequan/USDF Convention in Omaha, Nebraska, last year. There, she met several TDF staff members who gave her the idea. When Paralympian Roxanne Trunnell, a friend of Mollrich’s, encouraged her to go for it, she knew she had to give it a try. 

The ride took place where Pabatsa (Caritas—Abatsa, Roemer) lives, at Rio Vista Stables in San Juan Capistrano, California. Though they had the home turf advantage, Mollrich was worried that her chestnut gelding might be a little spooky for the test. 

“Our dressage arena can be extremely scary for the horses, as one side is a creek lined with bamboo and homes further up the hill. On the other side, on higher ground, is another stable with a jumping arena with horses running around in it,” said Mollrich. “But he was a very good boy for me.”

Having a dependable partner is important for Mollrich, who competes in para-dressage because of several traumatic injuries and auto-immune diseases. At 19, she was in a near-fatal head-on car crash with a drunk driver that left her with permanent cognitive disabilities, though she recovered physically. Then, in the 1980s, she started suffering from epilepsy and frequent seizures. 

“It was really bad. I was having seizures everywhere: movie theaters, the airport, you name it,” she recalled. 

She was eventually diagnosed with lupus, which is linked to her epilepsy, as well as systemic sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Two serious riding accidents—one in which her horse was stung by a bee, another where her horse was spooked by horses jostling around in a nearby trailer—permanently damaged Mollrich’s physical mobility. Including both accidents, she broke her right hip, seven ribs, cracked several vertebrae, and had a collapsed lung.  

The unplanned dismounts affected her ability to lift her legs from the hip, but they have not deterred her from spending time in the saddle. Now, though, she now mostly gets around by scooter rather than walking.

“I just don’t have fear,” she said. “I figure it’s a good thing, because I’d rather get on a horse’s back and be hurt than in a hospital bed with tubes and swabs and all that.”

Mollrich caught the horse bug as a sixth-grader almost by accident. During the Cold War, her family moved from missile base to missile base for her father’s job as a mechanical engineer. One day when they were living in Washington, her father took her and a few of his friends to a rodeo in Spokane. In the afternoon, there was an auction. 

“Being the clowns that they were, playing around and drinking their beers, my father and his friends were raising their hands to drive up bids,” said Mollrich. “Well, guess what my dad’s hand was? The last hand that went up with this 3-year-old Thoroughbred filly.” 

Despite her inexperience, Mollrich quickly bonded with the filly. Her family kept “Simbo Mount” until they had to move again. Though the Thoroughbred sold, Mollrich was permanently hooked on horses. 

By the time she met Pabatsa two decades ago, Mollrich knew she needed a horse she could trust. When she flew out Woodinville, Washington, with her husband, Stu Mollrich, to try him, Laura was impressed by the gelding’s confidence. 

“It happened to be opening day hunt season, so there were hunters out shooting in the beautiful countryside,” she recalled of trying him. “I was riding Pabatsa in an enclosed arena, and guns were going off, and he just totally cool with it. So my husband and I figured he would probably a good horse for me.”

At times, the similarities between Laura and the Dutch Warmblood have been uncanny. Three years after she bought him, Pabatsa began showing signs of insulin resistance and metabolic issues. He was diagnosed with Cushing’s disease. 

“We’re kindred spirits,” Laura said. “I have all of my medical issues, and he, his. 

“We love each other,” she added. “He’s so good to me, and he’s just like a big puppy. He’s the barn favorite wherever I’ve had him. He everybody loves him. He’s a character.”

They share a sense of humor as well. Laura has a tradition of dressing up Pabatsa when her barn hosts costume contests. Their past costumes include Laura as a pizza and Pabatsa, her chef; rider as Father Time and horse as baby new year; and rider as an elf and horse as Rudolph.

“I’m kind of a clown; I like to laugh,” she said. “I’m not one of those people that came out hardened from a life of being hurt and sick and this and that. I want to make people smile and happy, and I think so does Pabatsa, so he lets me dress him up.” 

Though she is reportedly the oldest competing para-dressage rider in the United States, Laura has no plans to hang up her spurs anytime soon. As the 2023 and 2024 Adequan/USDF Para-Dressage Rider of the Year Grade IV reserve national champion and USDF All-Breeds Para Dressage national champion with another horse, her younger Holsteiner mare Ciave, she has unrealized competitive goals yet to achieve. Her education, however, continues to be a priority, and she plans to attend the 2024 Adequan/USDF Convention in Houston, Texas. 

“I don’t have time to stop. I’m just going to keep going until I can’t,” she said. “You know that song by Lil Nas X, ‘Old Town Road’? It’s like that. I sang that song all the time after my last accident. ‘I’m gonna ride ‘til I can’t no more.’ ”