Californian Josh Albrecht may be 22 years old and in his first season of competition at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival, but he said he doesn’t get nervous going down centerline in Wellington, Florida. Years of enduring the trials and tribulations of showing livestock, including his home-bred goats, calves and dogs, has erased any competition anxiety he once had. 

“I have been showing animals since I was a little kid—in 4-H, you’re allowed to show starting when you’re 9—and even though they’re different species, the competition aspect is just not any different,” he said. “I’ve shown so many times and competed so much that going in the show ring does not affect me in any way at this point, even when it’s a CDI.” 

The Oroville, California, native’s nerves of steel paid off when he was tapped to represent Team USA in the FEI Dressage Nations Cup USA CDIOU25, held Feb. 22-25. Although the CDIOU25 ended up running as an individual rather than team competition due to low entries, Albrecht and Goldenboy Vinckenburgh, a 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding (Apache—Tandafanory, Olivi) owned by Coalcyn Equestrian LLC, finished the weekend standing second on the freestyle podium. The pair brought their A-game to earn a personal best of 70.13% with a test set to music from Imagine Dragons on Sunday. 

“I just had this feeling that we were really working together, going into the arena for the freestyle,” Albrecht said, adding that it felt like they achieved a new level of harmony between horse and rider that day.

Albrecht sourced the gelding, who previously competed through the Grand Prix level with Dutch rider Nars Gottmer, in Europe last autumn. The Californian previously had competed through the FEI Young Rider level on Espresso, with whom he won the GAIG/USDF Region 7 Junior/Young Rider Prix St. Georges championship last autumn, but felt the horse would struggle with the Grand Prix movements. He went to Europe looking for a partner to help him tackle the Under-25 Grand Prix, and found that in “G-boy.”

Although the two are only four-and-a-half months into their partnership, Albrecht is working to build a bond with the gelding in and out of the ring, and during their time in Florida is responsible for every aspect of his care. 

Growing up on his family’s cattle ranch, Albrecht started riding before he started kindergarten. 

His earliest days in the saddle were spent atop Quarter Horses moving cattle, doing ranch work and roping. He took his first formal dressage lesson with Sabine Rijssenbeek at 15, with whom he still trains in California.  

“The first lesson I took with her, I was riding in a jump saddle on a Quarter Horse-Thoroughbred cross gelding,” Albrecht recalled. “He was built very downhill, and we would have had a hard time in the show ring. But I was able to see how dressage could really help gymnasticize him and make him better and more comfortable.”  

Not wanting to spend exorbitant funds on what could have been a passing phase, Albrecht’s family did not buy him a schoolmaster at the beginning of his dressage journey. Instead, Albright rode what he could: warmbloods that were often young, green or difficult. He earned a reputation for giving young horses a solid early education, prompting potential clients to ask if he’d consider starting their young horses for them. 

In 2020, Albrecht founded Coalcyn Equestrian, a training business with a particular emphasis on starting young horses, and a Dutch Warmblood breeding program. While all of his recent homebreds are registered in the KWPN studbook, Albrecht’s first foray into the breeding industry was a little different. 

“When I was in high school, I had a little Quarter Horse mare that I just loved, and I wanted to have a foal from her,” said Albrecht. “I convinced my dad—my mother said absolutely not, but I convinced my dad—to breed her. So we did. It was an amazing experience, and I’ve been hooked ever since.” 

Though he has no formal training in equine breeding, Albrecht was heavily involved in both 4-H and Future Farmers of America livestock judging in high school, competing on a team that won the California state finals and went on to compete at nationals. 

“While they’re not horses, judging livestock is the exact same idea,” Albrecht said. “Analyzing the angles, knowing what’s good versus what’s bad, and really honing in your eye are important in both. So I was able to take that exact knowledge and look at the horses and be able to evaluate their conformation and movement.

“My goal is, for every single foal I breed, I want to think that they are good enough that I would want to ride it,” he added. 

These days, Albrecht spends much more of his time aboard purpose-bred dressage horses than the Quarter Horses he grew up with. But that doesn’t mean he’s put up his western saddle entirely. 

“We try to use a really diverse colt-starting process. We do a ton of trail riding on the babies,” he said. “I pony them off of our Quarter Horses on the ranch, they get to learn to cross water, they get to see cows, they get to see dogs, and they get to learn how to experience life. It seems to set them up for success.” 

Because Albrecht prefers to start those babies in the warmer months, when low temperatures are infrequent and the youngsters tend to be more earth-bound, the quieter winter months offered an ideal window for making his first trip to Florida. With the support of his clients at Coalcyn Equestrian, Albrecht decided this year was his chance to travel across the country and work with Lars Petersen while taking advantage of the copious competition opportunities that Wellington has to offer. 

Albrecht doesn’t know exactly what will come next for him and his horses. He wants to go back to school to get a college degree at some point, but until then, he’s looking forward to perfecting the movements in the U25 tests. 

“I’m hoping next winter that I’ll come back to Wellington,” he said. “I’ll just keep submitting applications for things. If it happens that we are good enough to get to have more opportunities, then that’s fantastic.”