The Capital Challenge

I love horse showing. It’s something I’ve tried to quit, and my bank account wishes I had, but there are few things I love more than the early mornings, the pageantry, the beautiful horses and the orderly chaos. Each horse show has its own special atmosphere, and there have been some I love for their history (Upperville), some I love despite their downfalls (HITS Culpeper), and some I love to hate (WEF). No horse show, though, has been as much of a touchpoint for me than the Capital Challenge. 

Established back in 1991, the Capital Challenge set out to become a prestige show from the start. The timing of it allowed everyone to get some practice before the upcoming Indoor season, but they also added classes over the years that gave it a unique place among shows, most notably lots of classes for young horses as well as Equitation Weekend which hosts several end of year finals events. I’m sure someone else could give you a much better run down of the full history of the show, but suffice to say, it’s one of the shows targeted by the Big Guns each year.

My first time there was in 2004, and it launched my life in a completely different trajectory. It’s a story I’ve told elsewhere, but it never gets old (to me), so here it is again. 

I was a “trainer” giving up-down lessons at a depressing backyard barn in Upper Marlboro, MD when I decided to venture to the Prince George’s Equestrian Center to catch some of the action before my lessons began for the day. Recently graduated from college with a BA in English and a plan to become a public school teacher, the horse thing was just a stop gap until I could get my resume in order and find a job in a local school system. 

As soon as I got out of the car and started walking through the barns, though, I knew that plan was going to get waylaid. I ogled all of the gorgeous drapes, the absolutely stunning horses, and the names of top equestrians I had only read about in my Practical Horseman magazines walking around like normal people. The show itself was mesmerizing to watch. The riders all seemed like dancers, guiding their equine partners around the ring with so much grace and poise. I knew it was something I wanted to, had to, be a part of. 

So I wrote down all of the names and barns I could fit into my little notepad (because this was before iPhones), went back to my drab work-provided townhome, fired up my laptop, and started collecting phone numbers. 

The next day, I cold-called the barns I wrote down and left messages. Hi, my name is You’ve Never Heard of Me, and I was wondering if you had any jobs available. Later that evening, Chris Kappler called saying he got my name/number from Carol Thompson over at Quiet Winter Farm, and he needed a rider/manager for Hunterdon ASAP, and could I tell him a bit about myself.

What happened next was the start of my career in horses, and the Capital Challenge made it happen. 

I didn’t return to the Capital Challenge again until 2008, the first day on the job for Scott Stewart as a rider. I had become a freelance whatever-people-needed since my time at Hunterdon, and getting a job with Scott was another one of those “pinch me” moments in my riding career where I look back and think, “did that really happen?” So I save little mementos to remind me that yes, it did. In this case, a schedule from my first day of showing listing all of the horses and approximately when they went in the orders. 

As I worked that Cap Challenge, I remembered just four years earlier when I walked onto the show grounds as a complete outsider with no idea how things really worked behind the scenes. I thought about how lucky I was to have gained so much knowledge in such a short amount of time, and also how much I wished some things remained a mystery to me (because there are some things about the horse show world I would just rather not know). But mostly, I was just thrilled to be a part of it with the top hunter rider in the world. (This is also a show where I had one of my “blew it” moments that I still wonder what would have happened IF to this day…)

I also placed an order for a pair of custom Pinnell half chaps - at the time the only thing worth wearing when schooling your horse, as this was before the days of tall boots all-the-time. I made them as fancy as I could while still staying within my pretty small budget (because I was NOT rich doing what I did). They are still one of my most prized possessions to this day. 

My final time at the Capital Challenge was just a year later, my first time working for Sandy Ferrell. My friend Kate Cardalico, who I worked with at River’s Edge, was helping Sandy, and they needed an extra rider for the early morning flats. The atmosphere in Sandy’s tent was more relaxed and fun than in Scott’s, without being less committed to top performances, and I remember thinking how interesting it was that every trainer brought their own influence into the same situations. 

Each time I worked the show, the things I loved about it remained the same. I loved the 5:00am flats in the indoor pavilion, sometimes with so many people that the announcer would tell us all when to change direction together. I loved the exciting WCHR night classes, some of which I watched and some of which I worked. I loved observing and learning from so many top riders all in one place, and I loved watching the early morning sunrises over the outdoor ring from the back of a lovely horse. 

Now, my view of the Capital Challenge has changed quite a bit. It’s a show that, in all likelihood, I won’t ever return to as either a worker or a rider. It’s still one of the only shows during the year that I have the livestream on in the background pretty much from start to finish, and everytime I watch it, I pull out that old schedule just to remind myself that yes, my experiences there really did happen.