Chatting with Laura Crew

Laura Crew is a forty-two-year-old dressage rider from the Isle of Wight. A mother of two boys, Jack – sixteen and Freddie – nine, Laura currently works as a part time PA for an elderly gentleman with dementia and teaches a few clients on their own horses. Before this, Laura was a police officer for seventeen years up to 2019 where she had been a firearms officer, safeguarding officer and response. She has also worked as a sales executive for Mini, been a wellbeing coach for mental health and worked with children with disabilities.

Laura now works part time as she suffers with fibromyalgia and PTSD. Laura is also autistic which brings its own challenges with over stimulation and sensory issues. She says “Horses are the only place I feel truly at home and myself. I have spent a lifetime masking and ‘fitting in’ but with the horses I don’t need to mask”.

 

Tell us about your horses

I currently have a 16 year old KWPN named E-Mail who has previously been shortlisted for the Young Riders European team, represented GB at YR Nations Cup and been competed up to PSG with previous riders. I have had him since December 2024 so still very early in our journey. I am currently riding Advanced Medium and working towards riding in tails next year at PSG! I also want to represent GB at the Virtus Regional Games and hoping that they will be held in Europe so I can do it with E-Mail (or Ems as I call him)

I also own a 2year old KWPN named Fenjay Ravendale. She was bred by a lovely lady in the UK and has the most amazing dressage lines including Everdale, DeNiro, Sandro Hit, Lord Leatherdale to name a few. I am intending to train her myself and believe she has the ability and temperament to go far.

 

How did horses come into your life and transpire to dressage?

So, I was told by my Mum that I’ve always loved horses. Being born in London, at the nursery I apparently used to drag the rocking horse everywhere with me and grab any horse toy or teddy they had! Aged five when moving to the Island I had my first riding lesson. Aged twelve I was bought my first pony, a 16 year old show pony who gave me the love for dressage.

I owned a few big horses over the years, one named Tristan D’Cuna who I produced from a 4 year old and qualified and competed at the BD winter Championships placing 9^th at Prelim. I had then ridden up to Elementary competitively and ridden some medium movements at home.  I did also show jump up to Newcomers.

I then had my children and got into breeding and showing miniature Shetlands, at one point my Mum and I owned 16 Shetlands! My son Jack also competed successfully in M&M lead rein. After that, I took a break from horses for about six years and did bodybuilding but got back into riding  back in 2023 when I started hacking my friends horse. I then went freelance and decided to buy my own. I bought a three-year-old New Forest and backed her, brought her on and realised that I really wanted to get back into dressage and so I leased a lovely horse named Morrigan Elliott where I last year was chosen to ride at Home Nations in prelim where I placed 3^rd in one class.

I was then in a position to have my horse E-Mail and so Elliott returned to his owner and I am now absolutely living my dream I had as a kid and young adult to ride at higher levels and represent my region and hopefully country. I just love that in dressage there is always room to improve, learn and being autistic, it gives me the structure and precision to follow.

 

Who you train with?

I train with Tom Holley. We have been training together since I got E-Mail in December 2024. He has trained at the Talland school of Equitation and with many top dressage riders. He has helped me go from being an Elementary rider to an Advanced Medium rider.I train with Tom once every 6 weeks or so when he is able to come back to the Island when he visits his family.

 

It takes a team to do dressage, who is in your support team?

So, my partner Simon who drives me to shows, grooms, tells me to chill and is generally just there for me. My Mum who has always been my biggest supporter and who looks after my boys when we go away and also lets us live with her to enable me to be able to afford my horses.

My trainer Tom Holley. My farrier Simon Legge, Chiro Bodywork’s by Melissa

Solent Cruises and The Lemongrass Lounge who sponsor me.

Reynolds and Read who keep my lorry running

My yard. family who all help keep my horses happy and support me.

 

Can you share your Virtus experience

Well, Virtus is a fairly new official body for athletes with intellectual impairments. There are 3 categories, ii1 for people with IQ under 75, ii2 people with Down syndrome and ii3 people with autism. I am classified in ii3. The UK is managed by Sport Excel UK. So, if you imagine Sport Excel are equivalent to BD and Virtus are equivalent to FEI in horsey terms. Virtus competitions are run online and are international so you film your test and its judged by an FEI judge. We ride the Para tests. Once a year there is an in person international competition which requires selection to be part of the GB team.

It took 10 months for my classification to go through. From the application process to gaining more information about my diagnosis I am now officially an international rider under Virtus. It came about when the DO for South & West overheard me telling someone about my autism and told me about it. Me being me, I found all I needed to about it and got my application in!

Also, as part of British Dressage Para Championships they run Virtus classes. I was lucky enough to be able to compete at the Championships with Ems and am proud to say that I won both Virtus classes to be given the National title. Not only that I managed to gain 75+% in one class with a mistake (sack the rider!) and my PB with a massive 80%! It still hasn’t sunk in that I’m double national champion but that I also gained those scores. And I honestly can’t thank Ems enough for what he has already given me, he is so talented and he just knows that when he’s in those whiteboards that he needs to perform. Every photo taken of him in the ring he just has a happy face which lets me know he loves what he does.

 

Virtus Moments?

I’ve only managed to do two competitions due to the time the application took, one was Non competitive where I rode in my school at home and it was filmed for online. All I can say is that we are liveried on a working farm and our sand school isn’t a posh dressage arena, it had jump poles down to mark the 40×20 and there was a huge puddle one end and so had an orange cone in the middle of the puddle to mark one end as the poles kept floating in the puddle!! We would have won both tests overall with a 79.5% test so goes to show you can still get high marks in half a pond!

 

Proudest dressage achievements?

Definitely my recent highlights being Double Virtus Champion but more so winning the Advanced Medium silver Freestyle at Area Festival at only my second time riding at that level gaining my golden ticket to the finals and getting a massive score of 72.5%

 

What have been some challenges that you have faced?

I think the biggest challenge is not listening to my inner critic and imposter syndrome. I sometimes think to myself that I should be getting these results as Ems is trained like he is or that it’s through luck or I should do better. I have to do a lot of reflection and talk nicely to myself. I think we can all be hard on ourselves, especially in dressage as we are judged by a mark that strives for perfection -that mark of 10. But I am very hard on myself and don’t always give myself credit that Ems may be trained to a high level but actually he has extra buttons that I am learning when to push and to be gaining the scores and progress I have in the eight months I need to give myself credit for that.

Also to learn to do sitting trot on Ems!! He is so big moving and uphill that I couldn’t sit to his trot when I first had him and so competed at Elementary until I mastered it. Even now I feel like I’ve done a workout after a test.

 

Do you ever get nervous?

I do get nervous but I am quite good at channelling that into concentration, like I did as a firearms officer back in the day. I do need quiet time beforehand and give myself plenty of time to be ready otherwise I stress really badly and no horse wants that from their rider.

 

What are your future aspirations?

I want to be riding at PSG, ride at Home Nations at AM or PSG, represent GB at Virus maybe in Europe.

 

Your Top Tip

In dressage, if you make a mistake or go wrong, always remember that is just one mark, leave that behind and carry on to the next movement. You can’t change it, but you can ride a better next movement.

 

What is the best piece of advice that you have ever been given?

BREATH! It is just one simple thing that you think we automatically do but I’m one that holds my breath sometimes actually learning to control your breathing when riding can really help with relaxation for you and your horse.

 

Want More?

If you enjoyed meeting Laura you might like to view more dressage rider “chatting with” interviews here.  You can keep up with Laura’s progress and visit her instagram page here