First person: Dressage rider Emily Cochran

Laura Clark / Nelson County Times
Published: January 31, 2008

Her recent achievements include earning fourth place at the junior training level for year-long scores at the Virginia Dressage Association state banquet on Jan. 27. At a competition in September, she was the high point junior and placed second in a class of 14, including professional riders.

On dressage:

It's kind of hard to explain, but (you may have) seen the horses on TV where they've got the riders in all-white clothes and tall black boots. They sit up really tall and ride around in a rectangle. It's considered dancing with the horses, which is the ultimate goal, but it takes a while to get there.

It's basically staying in shape enough to do everything the way you're supposed to do it. Everything is so precise. Everything is so on the letter. In dressage you have letters that you have to ride by. Each letter is a different movement.

The ultimate goal is piaffe, which is to trot in one spot. You don't move forward, you don't move sideways. Everything is so subtle, and it just becomes automatic.

Much of it is just a psychological game. If you think it and see yourself doing it, most of the time the horse can feel that and work with you. It's making that connection with the horse and getting them to want to work with you. It's the time behind the scenes that really makes it count.

On how she got into riding:

I've always had horses. When I grew up we had Percherons, and then I fell in love with dressage. I used to ride hunters. I've been fairly successful at that. I did foxhunting a couple times with Rita Mae Brown (best-selling author) and the Oak Ridge Foxhunt Club.

One year, before I went to the Virginia State 4-H Show, I took one lesson in dressage. I've been in love with it ever since.

I started riding dressage, and so the next logical thing was to show. It's been a couple years now. I've been to Salem, Lexington, Leesburg, most places in Virginia. I work with two instructors.

On her horses:

I've got a three-year-old Hanoverian canter mare, Odessa, which is really built for the sport. I actually got on her yesterday and walked and trotted for the first time. You usually get on horses when they're about three, and I got her in October 2006. She's doing really well. This is the first horse I've ever broke by myself, almost. We took her to a couple of the horse shows, and she actually won her baby class.

Mia was one of the first horses I had. I've been showing her a lot. We've been to the state 4-H Horse Championship. It's really an interesting story because she's really not made to do (dressage). She will give her heart to me and anything else she has. It's really nice to have a horse like her.

It's something hard. Most people think that riding isn't a sport, but it takes on a whole new meaning of working with something. You can't make them do anything. You have to work with them. I love (Mia) to death. Some days I'll get off the bus, and she'll be standing there waiting for me. It's incredible, what they can do. They're part of the family, just one of us.

On a typical afternoon with Mia:

I get her out of the field. I clean her up; make sure there are no cuts or anything. I go down and ride her. We warm up. We actually work, and as soon as she does well, I praise her. I get off, and we go up (to the barn). I make sure she's all cooled down, brush her off, put her blanket back on her, give her some treats and turn her back out. If she's being really good, I call it quits soon. It can take an hour or up to three. It kind of varies on the day, how much time I have to offer her.

On the invitation to train in Europe:

I was invited to go to Europe and train for four years and finish up my last two years of high school and come back with my bachelors. (I would) train with (Robert Zandvoort) who's from the Netherlands who coaches the Venezuelan Olympic Team. I'd go to an equestrian school over there and hopefully the Olympics one day. He transports horses all over the world. His wife competed in two Olympics.

I'd go to a boarding school through the week then come to his house and stay with him and his wife on the weekend. And on the holidays, either come home and spend Christmas with my family or travel Europe and go to horse shows with him and meet all the top dressage riders. My mom's like, 'Yup, never going to see her again.'

It's really hard to decide. It's really far away and I love being in Nelson County. I have all my friends and I know everything around here. It's so hard. But it's kind of hard to pass up the opportunity of a lifetime - these are the things you dream about and never think will happen to you. When it does, it's just 'Wow. What do I do now-' It still really hasn't sunk in.

On what she hopes to do one day:

Eventually, I'd like to have my own training barn and school young horses and break them in, just work with a lot of people doing that. And hopefully the Olympics, that's my ultimate goal.

And why she loves what she's doing right now:

It's just being able to work with something else and seeing the-I can't even explain it. It's not like you're working against somebody else, you're working to better yourself. You always have a goal to work towards. It's good for the horses. It's good for you.

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