Inspirational dressage rider and trainer Eleni Kangas is owner and operator of Ancient Arts Dressage in Wellington Florida where she combines competing with manage her boarding and training program out of GNC farm.
How many horses do you have and what does a typical day look like for you?
Elenie and Beau
Right now, I have five horses on my string Mago DO MT, Bento 260 Bacchus (Beau), Lucky Star, Jabrun LVP (Rico), and Qlever. I just purchased Lucky star with an investor about a month ago, he is my new big prospect for the international arena.
I am in full training with all of my horses under Marco Bernal. Marco found me at a horse show at a point in my life where I had no idea what to do next and invited me to move across the street to an empty barn. I now walk across the street with all my guys and have the privilege of seeing him and being coached by him, a true classical dressage master.
My typical day starts at 7:00am when I teach my home student. At 8 o’clock I am on my first horse, and I ride through my five with Marco. I then go across town and teach my fourteen-year-old student on her two ponies. I recently had my social media go viral, so I now teach virtual clients in Europe from 6 o’clock to 11 o’clock at night.
Where did your dressage journey begin?
Eleni and Lucky star, “my horse of a lifetime” at their first competition schooling at Global.
My career started in Sussex County Delaware, where across the street from my first house, there was a field with horses in it. I used to do game shows. Barrel racing, pole bending, and other fun adrenaline junkie activities. At nine years old my mom’s doctor was wearing a horse pin during an appointment and they began talking. We found out the doctor owned a dressage facility forty-five minutes away from home and they signed me up for my first clinic with a German trainer. I wanted nothing to do with it because I was addicted to going fast and furious in the western tack. It is safe to say that, as soon as I sat in a dressage saddle, there was no going back. My first horse was a nineteen-year-old Trakehner gelding “Russian Soldier.” He was an incredible horse that took me to training level shows and built my confidence as we won our entire first show season. Because of him I quickly begin my journey as a Working Student under my first German trainer. I was her Working Student for two years from the ages of ten to twelve. After her, I met two very important people in my life’s trajectory. A classical dressage master, Jeremy Beale, who was a thirty-year British cavalry veteran. I met him when he was in his mid-eighties. I will never forget the time I spent with him. He became the voice in my head for many years. Another lifelong mentor and friend that I met at this age was Jackie Kinney, who was trained by a Hungarian Calvary member Mj. Ethie, and Hilda Gurney. I became her Working Student very quickly and worked under her for many years.
Who do you train with?
Eleni and her stallion Mago “he is my partner in crime.”
My current coach is Marco Bernal, a Colombian international dressage rider and trainer, who is a true master of the sport and of the horse. I have been training under him for about seven months now here in Wellington, Florida. We work six days a week together from 8:00 until about 12:30pm.
What do you love about dressage?
What I love about dressage the most is the history of the war horse. I myself am Greek and the origins of the sport started there as a battle tactic. I hold that very close to me as I believe to take a horse into battle with the utmost trust in the partnership is something very spiritually captivating. Horses have showed me the way to freedom within my own life, and I can only imagine what it must’ve felt like to physically fight for freedom on one.
Can you share some of your dressage highlights?
Elenie and Beau. “my top sport Rescue. Our first season competing was this year and he made me cry at every show because he is just the best partner”
Some of my dressage highlights are, getting my bronze medal at the age of fifteen and then my silver medal at the age of nineteen. Most of my highlights are within my working days because that is how I have gotten to where I am. I earned the opportunity to go to Germany for a summer, which was a completely life-changing experience for me. Another highlight for me was training and managing one of my client’s horses who was said to be done in the show arena at Grand Prix. I got him back up to the Grand Prix level to complete my first two tests at that level.
Dressage always comes with challenges, what has been the most challenging?
If I were to say there have been any challenges in my career, it has been financial. I don’t come from a wealthy family, and I have not been able to pay my way onto nice horses or into big shows. It’s hard to find clients where I am without a good show record so me having a small one, has proven to be difficult within the business development, though I am actively working on that.
What do you think horses have taught you?
Horses have taught me so many things, but the one that I will forever work to repay them for is how they taught me to fight for myself and my freedom. When I was seventeen, I was in a very bad spot mentally, I had planned to take my life. I met a horse that never stopped fighting for his life, the same day that I was going to take mine. When I met him, I felt so stupid because if he could survive what he had went through, I knew I could survive what I was going through. Horses have grown me up and have always been there for me to talk to. I wouldn’t be here without them.
What is your training philosophy?
My training philosophy is rooted deeply in the classical dressage principles and training scale. My program is built on the theory that I can improve a horse’s natural gaits and show them to the most athletic and healthy body possible. I teach all of my students about elasticity and suppleness, as well as symmetry. Something that I really enjoy doing, is taking horses that have been treated poorly by the modern sport and showing them this way of going, to tune them into the frequency of harmony.
Your Top Tip
My top tip or message that I would love to get out to the world is this. You have to be comfortable being uncomfortable, you have to be willing to sacrifice, and you have to be able to stand firm in your morals and integrity. There are quicker ways to train horses, but they are not healthy or correct. It may take longer but doing it the right way will always pay off. My favourite quote right now is this, “something built on a lie will never last,” and I believe that directly translates to the sport and the way it is going right now. One more tip would be this, don’t forget to love your horses, always make time to spend time with them. Never forget where you started and who you were before everything started going fast around you.
What is the best piece of advice that you have ever been given?
I don’t know if this qualifies as a piece of advice, but one of the best things that was said to me was when I was younger by someone I thought very highly of at the time. They told me that someone like me would never make it to the big leagues because of my background. I started to ask myself, “why not me?” Even though I didn’t have a family with generational money, or a family that had connections on the ins and outs of the horse world, why couldn’t I do it myself. I work every day to prove the little girl that heard that wrong. I do it for the love of the horses, not the love of the money.
It takes a team to do dressage, who is in your support team?
I have a very small support system. My physical team right now is my coach, my groom, my dog and my herd. The family that I go to in the afternoons for my 14-year-old student has also grown very close to me. It is so hard to find good people in this sport, but they truly are some of the best I have ever met.
It has always been a very lonely journey for me. My biggest support of all is God to be totally honest. I would not be here without some serious divine intervention helping me come to terms with, and fix my mistakes. I have learned a whole lot along the way and will never stop learning. This whole journey of dressage, since the beginning has been very spiritual for me as I feel like I have a mission in this life to help horses all over the world find true freedom within their bodies, instead of the contrary.