Five-star eventer and Grand Prix dressage rider Laine Ashker discussed making it to the upper levels of two sports during the Practical Horseman+ Members-Only VIP Webinar “Learning From Multiple Disciplines” on Oct. 13. The webinar concluded with Ashker answering audience questions. Here, she explains how riders can make their way in eventing or dressage without deep pockets.

Q: How can someone aim for the upper levels on a more limited budget?

~ Alyssa R., Texas

A: I grew up working for really great riders. I didn’t come from a family with a lot of wealth. I had a family with a lot of support in terms of showing up for me and finding ways to make things happen for me.

All my first horses were off the track. You know, “Al” [Anthony Patch] was $2,000, “Patrick” [Call Him Paddy] was $1,500, “Jamie“ [Eight Saint James Place] was $1,500, and I got lucky, because nowadays, even horses off the track are now [much more expensive]. So the world looks a little bit different as far as how horses are priced, but my biggest piece of advice is to find someone who you really appreciate in their training, and you go and work for them. You clean stalls, and you get lessons, and you kind of do that grunt work.

I started off working for Jimmy Wofford. I worked for Stephen Bradley. I worked for Phillip Dutton, who I’m now circling back and riding with, and I worked for Buck Davidson. All those people played a pivotal part in what my program is now. My program isn’t an exact duplicate of any of theirs, but it’s a piece of all of theirs.

I learned that through just putting my nose to the grindstone and working for these people, riding horses and cleaning stalls and tacking horses, then I was able to be in a world-class program with my horse, which I normally couldn’t have afforded doing as a paying client.

Then as you start to have success, you start to get notoriety, and you get people asking, “Hey, I’d like to be a part of the horse.”

I also have told a lot of young people, it’s never too soon to ask for sponsorship. My very first sponsor was a very local tack store. I was raising money to go to England with my off-the-track Thoroughbred Eight Saint James Place, and they gave me $500, and then a few local people in the area gave me $1,000. It was pretty amazing. Back then, horse flights weren’t nearly as expensive as they are now.

But yeah, it’s never too soon to ask, especially if your goal is to be a serious upper-level rider. Let people know that. Don’t be afraid to hear the word no, because you’re probably going to hear it more than you hear yes, but every now and then someone’s going to say yes and be like, “Yeah, I’m in this for the long haul.”

I have always been a proponent of social media, and I think social media is very important for getting people to recognize your brand. I went back to business school after graduating from the University of Virginia. Twitter had just become a thing, so hashtags weren’t really big, but I did learn how to harness social media to show people what my life was like and get people involved.

Now I’m able to schedule clinics through social media. If it’s something that you want to do as a profession, then you start to provide training tips. Even if you’re just showing a day in the life, I think people really like education, and that also gets people wanting to support you and be a part of your dream.

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For More:

This Q&A is an excerpt from our Practical Horseman+ Members-Only VIP Webinar: Learning From Multiple Disciplines.

Practical Horseman+ members can watch the full recording of the webinar here. To sign up for Practical Horseman+, click here.

For more articles with Ashker, click here.

About Laine Ashker

Horses were part of Laine Ashker‘s life before she was born thanks to her mother, Valerie. That early exposure shaped the rest of Ashker’s riding life, right down to her preference for off-the-track Thoroughbreds. Ashker made her five-star debut aboard off-the-track Thoroughbred Eight Saint James Place at 21.

She’s now ridden 16 horses in FEI events and logged more than 100 international starts, including several at the five-star level. With Lovedance, Ashker won the Maryland International CCI & HT CCI4*-S this summer and finished second in the Plantation Field CCI4*-S in September.

Ashker picked up upper-level dressage more recently, doing her first CDI in 2018. Since then, she’s earned her USDF gold medal, and her first CDI win aboard Zeppelin in May 2023. She’s also competed at the Grand Prix level with Boogie Woogie and Atlas.

Ashker is the first athlete to compete in both the US Equestrian Open of Dressage and Eventing.