My name is Leah, and I am a 24 year old eventer trapped in the body of an investment banker, for the next two months that is. After getting an undergraduate degree in business from the Wharton School at UPenn, and working as an Analyst at an investment bank for two years, I have decided to throw all those hellacious hours of work to the wind and replace them with the equally long, though I would say more rewarding and fun, hours it takes to be a full-time eventer. I have been riding pretty much my whole life and, before college and work, I evented through Preliminary level and was working my way up. I made the decision to get back to eventing in January, and since then have purchased a farm and three horses. While I finish out my two year analyst program, I have the formidable task of balancing all these obligations.
Of course, now that I have something else going on in my life, things start to really get cranking at work. In the last month, I have been involved in four "live deals", which is pretty much a 6-9 month process where we sell an entire company to another company. During this process I am expected to draft sales materials and talk directly with the CEOs, CFOs, and Directors of the company we are selling on almost a daily basis. On top of this, as the markets are starting to rebound, there have been so many opportunities for new business, and as an analyst, it is my responsibility to prepare the materials we use to try and convince the prospective clients to hire us. Think 50 page powerpoint decks. My mornings are easily starting at 7:30 and my evenings ending by 7:00 at the earliest, but usually more along the lines of 9:00 to 12:00.
On the days when I live the life of a normal working person and get in around 9:00 and leave around 7:00, I haul ass out to the barn to try and ride my three horses, which are Benjamin James, BamBam, and Paris Hilton. A little bit of background on each. I just purchased Benjamin James from New Zealand with the help of Ryan Wood and Carolyn Jolley, both of whom have an excellent eye for horses. As a side note, I would absolutely recommend both of them to anyone who is on the lookout. BJ is a nine year old New Zealand TB and a two-star horse, and he is pretty much going to serve as my way to jump right back into eventing and get things rolling. Don't get me wrong, I whole-heartedly believe that a rider is only as good as the best horse they have produced. From here on out, I have every intention of making my own horses, but in the interest of learning and getting back into things, I think investing in a horse like BJ is the right way to start. He arrived in the States on Memorial Day weekend and since then has been enjoying a leisurely life of acclimating. He pretty much stands in front of a fan, eats grass and grain, goes on relaxing hacks, and works on losing his winter coat while I tirelessly curry him. I am planning to start getting him back to work this weekend, which I am really excited about! Right now, he is completely enamored with me. We will see if he still feels the same way when his life consists of a little bit more than food and massages!
My second horse is BamBam. He is a 7 yo foxhunter who was given to me by my good friend, Vanessa Keal Gerrish. She had a few too many horses and thinks this one has a pretty bright future, and I would certainly agree. I have had him for about a month now, and he is coming along nicely. From all the foxhunting, he is a cross country machine, but is still a little perplexed by the need to jump so many jumps so close to each other in stadium. Until last weekend, he had never been to a horse show before or jumped a jump with any color on it. We are shooting for the Maryland Horse Trials I on July 10th.
My third horse, and possibly my favorite, is Paris Hilton. Please don't judge her by her name!! There's a bit of a back story to how I got this one. For the last two years, during any of my free time, I have been exercising foxhunters for Old Dominion Foxhounds. As part of that, I get to take all the up and coming young ones out on their first hunts so the staff can actually focus on getting their jobs done. Paris was one of these young ones. It turns out that her being a red-headed mare hasn't been too conducive to the excitement of whipping-in or hunting hounds. When I told Clare Palmer and Gerald Keal, her owners and the whipper-in and huntsman of ODH, respectively, of my plans back in January, they both thought she should be my first project. I have gone in as a half owner on this horse, and the three of us are really excited about her future. For all her red-headedness at times, she is super talented.
Right now, my main focus is on BamBam as Paris is the kind of horse that needs to be ridden every day and BJ is still just relaxing after his travels. When I got BamBam he understood how to move in a balanced and forward way, but the idea of cantering around a turn was foreign. He only ever had to go straight to foxhunt! In the last few weeks he has come so far. We just went to his first show, a combined test, where he was a perfect gentleman and placed fourth, pretty good for a first outing. The picture to the right is him getting a big pat after his dressage test that day. We still have quite a bit of work to do until we are ready for Maryland HT. As my work schedule is so up in the air, I never know how many times I may be able to ride during the week. For example, this past Wednesday, most of my work was related to actually meeting with clients, so I may be able to get out of the office and ride BamBam as the sun set. Then Thursday morning I got up at 4:45 to be on by around 5:15 and ride before I began the commute back to DC. The drive is usually only an hour, but in the mornings DC traffic can make it two easily! It's a tough commute, especially compared to my normal 20 minutes, but after an early morning ride it's a little more bearable.
To be honest, I am pretty worried about being ready by July 10th with BamBam. As usual, I am probably being a little over-ambitious, and I may have set our sights a little too high. I know he can easily get around Novice, but I really want his record to get off to a great start. Simultaneously, I am a little daunted at the task of getting BJ back into work. With my schedule I really only have time to ride one of the horses during the week, and with the MD HT coming up, those rides really have to be dedicated to BamBam. I almost feel guilty only getting two rides during the weekend in on BJ. I just keep reminding myself that come August, I will be working all three horses nearly every day and these worries will be long behind me. Easier said than done!
Even still, these worries are nothing compared to those about the location of my new farm, which is in Illinois. I will be relocating there in November. Don't get me wrong, Illinois is a great state, but not exactly the ideal location for eventing. A huge part of my being able to do this is contingent on my moving back home. Without the financial support and help caring for the horses from my family, this endeavor is pretty much impossible. The good news is that the facility is fantastic. The only downside is that it is a pretty far drive from the epicenter of my sport. While this won't be such a huge concern immediately, once I begin competing at the Intermediate and Advanced levels, the logistics will become pretty challenging.
Not only that, things have changed so much since I evented last! Seven years ago, we still had the long-format and thoroughbreds reigned supreme (they still do in my book)! It is going to be more challenging than ever to make something of myself in this sport, way more difficult than getting a degree from Wharton or a job at a top investment bank! Regardless, I am really excited about the challenge and hope to share the steps along the way with you!
Good for you going after your dreams!