Accomplished as she is in pure dressage, Jules Anderson has found a niche in the eventing world, coaching leading event riders in dressage. Her students, who rode at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** and in the Olympics and World Cup Finals in 2004, often finish on their dressage scores.

Anderson–a winner of the U.S. Dressage Federation bronze, silver and gold medals–credits her introduction to eventing to Belgian Olympian Carl Bouckaert, who hosts the Beaulieu Horse Trails at his farm in Chatsworth, Ga., and who, post-2000 Olympics, decided to improve his dressage. So he sought out Jules’ expertise.

Late in 2002 Bouckaert, fresh from completing his first Grand Prix competition on Anderson’s equine star Goodwood, enthusiastically described dressage as his “weakest strength” in the Chronicle.

Anderson, 37, admits that this “can-do” attitude is typical of her eventing clients.

“Helping event riders improve their dressage is so rewarding, because the riders are already skilled horse people,” she said. “And given basic tools to improve the timing and technique of their aids through a better understanding of half-halts, especially regarding collection and flying changes, generally leads to a rapid improvement of their test scores.”

Anderson was a serious contender for the Australian team at the Sydney Olympics on Goodwood, who was ranked third in the United States in 2000 at Grand Prix freestyle but missed the final selection process with an injury. Libby Anderson, an FEI I-rated judge and international dressage competitor, had given Goodwood to Jules. He returned to soundness and helped Bouckaert experience dressage competition at the Prix St. Georges and Grand Prix levels and enabled Suzanne King to gain her USDF bronze, silver and gold medals.

“He was truly a gift of a horse,” reflected Jules, who hopes to gain U.S. citizenship in time to try out for the U.S. dressage team in 2008. “Goodwood taught me that to listen is my primary job as a rider; he helped me to better understand that dressage is all about timing and balance, and that as riders our aids must always be an invitation and that in the training process you must only ‘hurry slowly.’ “

Flying Changes Are Exciting Enough

In Australia, Anderson was a national junior eventing champion, on a horse called Coppertop. While growing up, she also had the unique opportunity to ride her mother’s Grand Prix horse, Rivoli Majestic, in international competition, becoming Australia’s youngest Grand Prix dressage competitor at that time and cementing her love of pure dressage.

“Eventing was my first love,” said Jules, “but walking around [the Rolex Kentucky CCI****] this year in the pouring rain, I was reminded of exactly how large four-star fences are and how physically and mentally tough you have to be–read ‘crazy.’ I guess I’m getting old, but teaching a young horse flying changes is definitely exciting enough for me.”

Anderson moved to the United States in 1996 to work with her mother at Jilba Dressage in Catharpin, Va., having returned to the horse world from a six-year hiatus studying theater.

“My mum is a serious go-getter and very pro-continuing education, and so I’ve been incredibly fortunate to ride in clinics she’s organized with some of the best dressage trainers in the world while growing up in Australia and here in the U.S.”

Since reaching U.S. shores, in addition to training with her mother, Jules has worked with Gary Rockwell, Bent Jenson, Oded Shimoni, Steffen Peters, Michelle Gibson and most recently Dutch national coach Bert Rutten.

In 1998 Anderson moved to Georgia to prepare for the Sydney Olympics and train with Olympic bronze medalist Michele Gibson. She now trains independently from a bustling 17-stall facility called “teamworkdressage” in Alpharetta, Ga., which she operates with her business partner, Suzanne King.

Since her arrival in the United States, Anderson has produced five horses from scratch to competitive Grand Prix. Her favorite Grand Prix horse–next to Goodwood–is the Olympic event horse Welton Molecule, on whom Bouckaert finished 26th at the Eventing World Cup in Pau, France, in October.

“Molecule was put into my training program in 2001 to improve his not-so-stellar dressage record and to bring him back into fitness after sustaining an injury following Carl’s placing at Rolex in 1999. Molecule was 15 years old, unfit and rather difficult in the bridle, and within 12 months he’d competed at Grand Prix with scores in the mid-60s,” said Jules. “What a generous and noble athlete I had the privilege to train.”

Bouckaert’s daughter Nathalie, who rides her father’s horse West Farthing, is one of Anderson’s most outstanding eventing students, winning the dressage phase at the 2004 Rolex CCI****. But Anderson quickly pointed out that West Farthing is no easy ride.

“I trained him to small-tour FEI level, but Nathalie put the confidence and relaxation into his gaits and further improved his trot; he’s not as easy as Nathalie makes him look.”

So Many Buttons!

Nathalie has been working consistently with Anderson since her 2002 graduation from Washington and Lee University (Va.). Since Rolex, Nathalie and her husband, event rider Michael Pollard, have trained with Anderson as often as their schedule allows.

“Jules has given me a much greater understanding of how to train a horse to upper-level dressage,” said Nathalie. “Michael and I have really upped the bar since we started working with her. She has helped me communicate my aids with improved harmony.

“I used to be happy with just forward and regular; now my horses sit and push, while staying light in the bridle and maneuverable on their feet.”

Pollard said that Anderson has turned his riding around by training him as if he were a Grand Prix dressage rider, rather than an eventer.

“She has a good way of explaining things, and she’s really improved the sophistication of my aids,” he said. “The way they train a horse to Grand Prix is very consistent, and I think it actually enables you to put more pressure on the horse because it’s focused and they want to work for you. It especially helps at shows when they’re excited.”

Pollard also noted that her willingness to put her students on her own Grand Prix horses has given him the opportunity to develop a feeling for correct dressage.

“I don’t think I’d just let anyone get on my advanced horses–that really impressed me,” said Michael. “And I expected a horse that was trained so well he’d just do what I wanted, but I was surprised at the plethora of aids it involves in the seat and balance and pressure. You have to know how to push all the right buttons.”

He said that he has probably also learned as much from watching Anderson ride his own horses as he has from taking lessons from her.

Julie Richards, a member of the bronze-medal U.S. team at the Athens Olympics riding Jacob Two Two, has also been honing her dressage skills with Anderson. With her equestrian operations based at Foxhall Farm in Douglasville, Ga., Richards, and her husband, Jim, and their daughter Genevieve, don’t live far from Anderson’s farm in Alpharetta. Now pregnant with her second child, Julie plans to send “Jake” to Anderson for training for a few months and to take lessons as long as she physically can, until the baby is born.

“Jules has given me confidence in the movements and made them second nature,” said Julie. “She’s done worlds of good for my riding and changed my whole understanding; there is no way I would have gotten my score in the 40s at Rolex without her help.”

Nevertheless, dressage decidedly wasn’t the highlight of Richards’ Olympic performance. But Richards said that her score ballooned because of the wind and noise in the stadium and wasn’t a reflection of what she’d learned from Anderson.

Carl Bouckaert has also enabled Canadian international eventer Kelli McMullen-Temple, who’s based near Middleburg, Va., and Belgian two-time Olympic eventer Karin Donckers, who won the individual bronze medal at the 2004 Eventing World Cup Final with an excellent dressage score, to take concentrated lessons and clinics with Anderson.

“Through Carl, I’ve had the opportunity to work with some extraordinary individuals, and I feel privileged to be held in high regard by such wonderful equestrians,” said Jules.

For example, Nicky Hall, freshly out of the competitive eventing young riders ranks, is currently in Holland as a working student under Bert Rutten, a learning opportunity that Libby Anderson facilitated. Hall took with her a Dutch-bred horse named Nairobi, owned by Jim and Julie Richards, whom Anderson trained to the FEI levels, to escalate her learning curve under Rutten’s tuition.

In 2005 Anderson plans to continue her current, rigorous training schedule with her dressage and eventing students while also showing clients’ horses, hoping to produce another Olympic-caliber performer. Anderson intends to show Fabrice-S, owned by Holly and Billy Haines, in his first year of Grand Prix. In 2003 with Anderson in the saddle, Fabrice-S, was the winner of the USEF 6-year-old Young Horse Dressage Championships. Anderson also hopes to gain her r-rated judging status in 2005.

Proud Workaholics

Jules Anderson encourages her eventing students to push beyond the expectations of eventing dressage.

“Most eventing horses,” Anderson said, “have the athletic prowess and desire to perform upper-level dressage, and I’m delighted that the four-star dressage tests are encouraging riders to improve their dressage and make flying changes part of their skill set. Riders need to be shown how to improve the horse’s gaits without blocking.

“All horses, no matter what their job description, feel pride in experiencing their own power to carry themselves,” she added. “Thoroughbreds are natural ‘workaholics,’ and what they may lack in hind-leg sitting power, typically seen in the dressage warmbloods, is more than made up for in ‘heart’ and the desire to please.”