Riding Grand Prix dressage is challenging. Riding side-saddle is challenging. Doing both at the same time? That’s a job for … an academic and her spotted mare.

Abbey Dondanville, a longtime university professor and administrator who now teaches high school, is used to drawing attention whenever she rides her pinto mare, Alter Ego, down centerline in FEI tests. The 17-year-old Friesian Sporthorse isn’t just flashy, she’s also notable for her unique physique—by a Friesian stallion and out of a Percheron-Spotted Saddle Horse mare, “Glory” simply does not look like a typical FEI mount.

In April, they upped the head-turning ante at the Tryon Spring 1 Dressage Show (North Carolina) by performing two Grand Prix freestyles—competing side-saddle at the level for the first time.

In their 15 years together, Dondanville and Glory have done everything from eventing to foxhunting to dressage, the sport in which the mare truly found her niche. Not only did Glory help Dondanville earn her U.S. Dressage Federation bronze, silver, and gold medals, but also the corresponding freestyle bar at each level—making them one of just a handful of USDF Diamond Award recipients in the country. After achieving that milestone in 2022, Dondanville was looking for new ways to learn from and enjoy her special equine partner.

“Side-saddle has always seemed really cool and challenging, and ever since I was a kid, I’ve wanted to try it,” Dondanville, 52, of Easley, South Carolina, said. “I love my mare, but she is not [CDI] small tour material. I like having fun with her, and she seems to be having fun too. She loves to work. 

“My mare has answered every single request I’ve ever asked of her, from the time she was 2 until now,” she continued. “I thought, ‘What can we do that is fun and different for us?’ So even though I didn’t know what I was doing, I decided we’d start at the beginning and see what we can do with side-saddle.”

From acquiring the proper equipment to learning modified aids to working with officials to resurrect retired rules, the pair have come a long way riding aside in just a short period of time. But their two Tryon Grand Prix freestyle performances marked two special milestones—not only was it Dondanville’s official side-saddle Grand Prix debut, it was also the pair’s first time back at the level since 2021.

“I wanted to do the regular Grand Prix [test], but I could not get the canter zig-zag riding aside,” Dondanville admitted with a laugh. “But we were qualified for the freestyle, so I decided that’s what we’ll do. 

“I have not been so nervous as I was on Friday in a long time,” she continued. “Obviously, riding Grand Prix is hard—it just is—and riding side-saddle is hard. And you get those doubts. It doesn’t matter how many times you do the test at home, it is different when you are doing it in front of other people.”

An Unexpected Equine Partner

When Dondanville purchased Glory as a long yearling, sight unseen off a sales video, it was with the intention of training her for resale. She thought the filly’s three clear gaits and steady temperament would make her an easy horse to develop while Dondanville’s main mount recovered from an injury. At the time, Dondanville was mostly eventing (she has competed through preliminary level), and she thought Glory might make a nice low-level “all-rounder.”

She was in for an unexpected surprise when her new project arrived at the farm.

“The stallion was 17.1, and the dam was 16.3,” Dondanville remembered. “The breeder told me that as a coming 2-year-old, Glory was 15.3, and I thought that sounded about right. Then she comes off the trailer at 13 hands. I didn’t even know if she was going to get out of pony size.”

Fortunately, Glory did end up growing—both taller (she finished at 15.2 hands) and broader—and even though Dondanville is 5’9”, she has never felt overly large on the mare. 

Dondanville evented Glory through novice, but it was a judge’s fortuitous comment at a Young Event Horse competition when the mare was 4 that ultimately changed the course of her career.

“Sue Smithson said to me, ‘Abbey, I love your horse, she is doing all the things, but she’s a dressage horse, not an event horse,’ ” Dondanville recalled with a laugh. “I knew at that point she was right. But I had never competed more than first level dressage. She and I had to learn together, all the way up.”

Just before she turned 5, Glory was kicked in turnout and fractured her right hock. Veterinarians were unsure of her long-term prognosis; Dondanville opted to give the mare six months of complete rest in a small turnout and hoped for the best outcome.

When Glory came sound after her layup, Dondanville was relieved. But she knew her soundness wasn’t guaranteed, and the damage was still visible on X-ray. That, combined with the extensive external scarring on her hock, meant the mare would never pass a pre-purchase exam. Instead of reselling her, Dondanville decided to see what they could accomplish in the dressage court. As it turned out, the sport proved to be a perfect fit.

“We were schooling Prix St. Georges when she was 6,” Dondanville said. “If we had our [one tempi changes], she would have been able to do the developing Grand Prix at 8. It took us three years to get the ones, and then she was like, ‘Oh, is this what you wanted?’ And then, she did the ones. She has the best brain ever. Just totally willing to try anything I put forth.”

When it came to heading down centerline, Dondanville found that striving to achieve the scores necessary to earn her USDF medals was a good motivator—but even more important was to have fun while doing so.

“I like to challenge myself, and I like to challenge my horses,” Dondanville said. “I didn’t care if I finished last in the class, as long as I got my qualifying score. It’s about me having fun, and learning things, and about my horses using themselves well, so they are happy and their brains are engaged.”

Initially, Dondanville still dabbled in lower-level eventing with Glory while also pursuing her dressage goals. 

“She’s an amateur’s horse, and amateurs like to do all the things,” Dondanville said with a laugh. “But once I moved her up to FEI, my dressage trainer was like, ‘Please, stop eventing this horse.’ ”

Before training Glory, Dondanville had never before taken a youngster from halter breaking to under saddle work and beyond. She credits her longtime coach, USDF certified instructor Julie Cochran, for helping her to bring Glory up through the levels.

“She is realistic,” Dondanville said of Cochran. “And she doesn’t back away from the off breeds; she embraces them. Like, this horse may not have the greatest extension, for example, so where can we earn other points in the test to make up for that?”

Although Cochran has since moved to Georgia, Dondanville still seeks her advice and guidance, including when she and Glory began their side-saddle journey.

“Julie has seen all of the trials and tribulations,” Dondanville said with a laugh. “She has been with Glory from second level all the way through Grand Prix. She is a super, fantastic individual.”

Learning To Ride Aside

When she decided to try side-saddle, Dondanville reached out to the International Sidesaddle Organization for advice. Although she found their resources helpful, she also learned there were no instructors focusing on sidesaddle dressage in the southeast—so she began to teach herself. She found a century-old side-saddle and an equally aged “cane,” made of bamboo, which is used to replace the rider’s right leg when it is hooked over the saddle’s horn. Then, she started showing up at traditional dressage clinics in her new equipment.

“I’d walk in the ring, and they’d be convinced they wouldn’t be able to teach me anything,” Dondanville said. “But a good instructor is a good instructor. They might not be able to tell me to put my cane in a certain spot, but they can tell me my horse is dropping her outside shoulder.”

Dondanville admits that at first, she found it harder to stay in the middle of the side-saddle than a traditional one, and she was nervous about leaving the fenced arena in case an unexpected spook caused her to lose her balance. But with practice, she soon learned that many familiar aids were equally effective aside as astride.

“For example, for the one tempis, I do tap her slightly with my heel or my cane, but it is mostly moving the hips, like you would in an astride saddle,” Dondanville explained. “Obviously you don’t have a right leg on the side of the horse, so you have to use your cane. She has to be good about being sensitive to that light pressure, instead of my whole leg.

“I had to get control of myself before I could even think about asking her to understand what I want,” she continued. “Because when I’m all over the place, she’s like, ‘What are you doing?’ ”

Dondanville discovered that the U.S. Equestrian Federation had removed most of the rules related to side-saddle from the dressage rulebook about a decade ago, because its practice had become so obsolete. As she prepared to make her side-saddle show ring debut, Dondanville worked with the USEF Rules Committee to put together a letter that she now shares with the technical delegate at each show. Specifically, it states that her cane is legal equipment, as is her side-saddle apron, which is the same color as the breeches she wears. Dondanville also learned that, according to the rules, spurs must be worn in pairs—but they do not need to match; the letter stipulates this as well.

“I still have to wear a spur on the leg that is crossed, so I use a dummy spur with no shank,” Dondanville explained. “That way, the spur isn’t digging into my shin.”

Dondanville and Glory debuted riding side-saddle at third and fourth levels before moving up to Intermediaire last season. She admits that at first, certain movements—including the travers and the left lead canter depart—were more difficult to perform while riding aside, so initially she strategically chose tests whose movements best matched their side-saddle skills.

Working through challenges like this is nothing new for Dondanville, who has always juggled two jobs in order to support the pursuit of her equestrian goals. After three decades as a professor of exercise and sports science and a college dean, most recently for the University of Louisville in Kentucky, Dondanville recently returned to South Carolina to be closer to family. There, she has been teaching health sciences at Carolina Academy, a magnet high school in Greenville, as well as online courses for American Military University.

“I’m a single person, an only-income kind of household,” Dondanville said with a laugh. “So having a second job is the only way I can afford to have horses.”

On To The Next Adventure

Last fall, Dondanville welcomed a new equine partner to her life, Doubting Thomas. She hopes that the 4-year-old buckskin pinto, whom she purchased at an Amish auction, will one day step into Glory’s hoofprints. His largely unknown background has already led to at least one unexpected discovery.

“They told me he was a Shire cross, but in order to do any of the age restricted classes, horses have to be registered,” Dondanville said. “We had to do DNA testing for the American Warmblood Society and Sporthorse Registry, and he came back as an Argentinian Criollo, which is an offshoot of an Andalusian. If you pull up Argentinian Criollo on Wikipedia, it is my horse.”

While she continues to develop “Sundance” under saddle, Dondanville also plans to keep her side-saddle skills tuned up with Glory this summer, with the goal of returning to the freestyle ring in the fall. When not preparing for a competition, Dondanville only rides side-saddle about once a week; the side-saddle is longer than a traditional one, and because she can’t post or get off Glory’s back, she thinks it is hard work for her longtime partner. But she is still enjoying the journey.

“I think the biggest thing now is to show people it’s OK to have fun,” Dondanville said. “There are too many amateurs who feel like we have to squish everything into that five minutes of time we have allotted for our horses, and we sometimes lose sight that we probably all started riding for fun. Absolutely have goals and aspirations, but don’t lose sight of the fact that you should be having fun.

“We want to do well, and we want to hit our goals, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t,” she continued. “When I finished my first test last weekend, there were some bobbles. But the mare doesn’t know that. I gave her cookies, I gave her love, and I enjoyed spending time with her. That, to me, is more important than anything else.”