South African dressage rider and coach Chrismie Venter is based at her “unconventional” yet inspirational yard, GPR Dressage, in Bloemfontein where her horse first philosophy is producing remarkable results.
How did horses come into your life and transpire to where you are now?
Chrismie and Suavitas a Hanoverian, owned by Leonore Visser
My mother always had some horses, mostly on their family farm, and then she competed in Saddle Breed competitions. When I was born, she bought me a Section A Welsh Pony and I simply fell in love with the breed. One pony became two ponies, and two quickly became ten. A riding school for kids happened slightly spontaneously, and as I outgrew one pony and moved on to the next, I started helping my previous pony with her new little rider. The ponies were absolutely a part of our family, so none got sold. We just passed them on to the next kid who could learn from them, and I would help that kid with my pony. So, the coaching part also happened in a very unplanned way. I was helping out or “coaching” from around ten years old.
I did a bit of everything with the ponies. Showing, Jumping, Eventing, Dressage, and mostly playing around bareback with only a halter in the field. Somehow, I really fell in love with Dressage, and we focused on that from when I was around ten years old. Not that I was any good at all, I was probably South Africa’s most unsuccessful Youth Dressage Rider. I distinctly remember qualifying for the final 15 once at the SA Championships as my competitive highlight, despite having some very good ponies and horses to ride. Yet I was completely in love with the sport, so despite around eight years of mostly catastrophic failures, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. So, I became a professional rider.
You run your own livery yard, tell us more
Chrismie and Callaho Bohemia. A South African Warmblood mare, owned by Runé Edeling
The yard also happened without a lot of planning. And to this day, we don’t have a conventional stable yard. We mostly have riders here who started out in the riding school, leased a few of our horses or ponies as they progressed throughout their careers and then bought a horse of their own.
So, all those horses wouldn’t then be stabled at GPR. The most important part for us is that we try and keep them as natural as possible, while giving them the most comfort for the environment we placed them in. We’ve changed so many things about how horses naturally live, so we need to ensure that we care for them as horses first and as competitive athletes. Our horses go out the entire day, regardless of the weather. They all have friends so they can socialize. From there, we try and take care of the athlete part of their lives. But they’re horses first.
Who have been the most influential people?
Chrismie and Callaho Bohemia. The pair are currently competing in Advanced 4th level.
There have been so many influential people. My mother and my grandmother, who got me started on the journey and supported me through all the various stages. Marianne Conlyn, who coached me for thirteen plus years and gave me so many life-changing opportunities to learn. Every technical aspect I know about dressage, I learned from her.
Who inspires you?
People who find true happiness in the real journey. Not those who say they’re focused on the journey as a cop-out to failure. Those who truly embrace the process. The reality of long days, weeks where there is no visible progress, months of rehabbing injuries, years of looking after horses who can do nothing for you. Some of them are elite, well-known world-class riders, some you will probably never hear from. But they really inspire me.
It takes a team to do dressage. Who is in your support team?
Chrismie and Suavitas are currently competing in Small Tour.
I have the most amazing team anyone could ask for. My mother, who is my business partner, eyes on the ground and supports me in everything I do. My father, who helped me build the facilities up from scratch, still manages a lot of the farm and allowed me to go and chase this crazy dream. My brother, who is one of the kindest, most intelligent, and hardest-working people I know. Even if he won’t go anywhere near a horse, he always helps build new things around the yard, and he is just such a constant reminder that all opportunities arise from problems. You’ve never seen anyone as excited about a problem as Philip. Then Johane and Tia. Two young riders who started riding with me almost before starting school, and who have now become such an integral part of what we’re building here at GPR, both as riders and coaches. And the entire team at GPR. They’re always willing to do the next right thing, embrace the process, indulge all my ideas and experiments, and most importantly, put the horses first.
What is important to you when coaching?
That it truly is possible to become a really good rider without having the best or most expensive horses. Timing, feel, horsemanship, sportsmanship, and ethics make up the basis of what a good rider should be. The competitive aspect comes after that. Our horses deserve us at our best. And that best doesn’t have anything to do with medals or placings. It all comes back to the objective of dressage. Developing the horse into a happy athlete. I think “happy athlete” is a very broad term. Difficult to define. But the second part becomes very actionable. “As a result, it makes the horse calm, supple, loose, and flexible, but also attentive, willing, and keen.” If we look at all the work we do with our horses through that lens: is what I am doing at this moment living up to the objective of dressage? That doesn’t mean anything is perfect, or that you don’t make mistakes. On the contrary, embrace making a million mistakes. But the needle should always move towards more calmness, more flexibility, more attentiveness, more willingness, and more keenness. It always surprises me that people can think softness will miraculously appear on the other side of a fight, or that suppleness will come from or calmness will appear from tension.
What advice can you give to someone who is starting out in dressage?
If you truly love this sport, you have to learn to love it twice. The first time it’s the initial appeal. You watch a great test or training, someone who makes everything look effortless. Dancing with their horse. The first flying change, piaffe, passage, pirouette. The magic. Then slowly as you embark on the journey, the curtain lifts. You see the amount of effort it takes to get the most basic things right. Things so boring that a bystander won’t even realise that you are training. Or trying to. The realisation that you know nothing. That you don’t have the answers, and the more you learn, the less you know. It’s no longer perfect. It’s real.
And then if you still love it. If you still love it with the heartbreak, the uncertainty, without the illusion of effortlessness, without expectation, then the magic slowly appears. Somewhere right in front of you, so close that you can reach out and touch it, but somehow always just miss. Coming back for more every day. That’s the real love of understanding this sport. The kind that stays. The kind that grows. For the horse. Not for ourselves.
What does a typical day look like for you?
Is there something like a typical day with horses? I’m a morning person so I go to the gym at 5:00 – 6:00 with a few riders from our stable yard. Then I normally start riding at 6:30 or 7:00, depending on the season, but just as soon as the sun comes up. I will then ride 5/6 horses until around 11:00.
The middle of the day is filled with admin, taking care of the yard, planning our training, and drinking lots of coffee (though the coffee thing pretty much goes for the entire day). Then I will teach from 14:00 to around 17:00. I am very fortunate to live at the yard, so everything happens on my doorstep.
Your Top Tip
Your success in dressage and life depends on making really good decisions; your happiness depends on not caring too much about the outcomes.
What is the best piece of advice that you have ever been given?
Remember that it takes a really long time for things to become easy.
Want More?
If you enjoyed meeting Chrismie you might like to view more dressage rider “chatting with” interviews here. You can keep up with Chrismie’s progress and visit her instagram page here