DRESSAGE DAYS.
DRESSAGE DAYS Q&A MEET MELISSA BEER BD Youth has helped launch the career of many young riders such as Melissa Beer who is now developing her own training and livery business. Melissa won the Elementary Restricted national title at 13, before later joining forces with Celestial King, her partner at three Junior Europeans, a Young Rider Europeans and the FEI Young Rider World Cup. She holds her BDCC Level 3 and teaches clinics for BD Youth. Melissa lives in Billingshurst with her partner Paul and their cocker spaniel, Rusty.
This has influenced the way ride and train others. aving been through the system understand the pressures on young riders and believe this has made me a more empathetic coach.
WHAT ARE YOUR FUTURE GOALS? WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO TAKE UP DRESSAGE? y fi rst pony learnt that putting his head down after every jump would send me flying. We were much better at dressage owadays my love for horses and addiction to ‘that feeling’ where it all comes together keeps me inspired.
AT WHAT POINT DID YOU DECIDE TO MAKE IT YOUR PROFESSION? fter college started to work for Sarah illis as her second rider ended up staying for si years was hooked and even though the job comes with e treme highs and lows still can’t imagine what else ’d do.
HOW WAS THE TRANSITION FROM EMPLOYEE TO SELFEMPLOYED? n eye opener in many respects s an employee you have lots of the perks with much less pressure. When you’re self-employed, after your day on the yard, riding and teaching, there are still messages and calls to return, bills to pay and a never-ending list of things to organise. When left my riding job realised how important success at s and my foundation of working at Sarah’s had been. t allowed me to quickly build a network of clients and has recently meant could fi ll a yard with training liveries. feel lucky
to have had such a good start to build upon.
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE OTHERS PLANNING THE SAME ROUTE? When making the leap to selfemployed you need to have people to help and support you. mentor or ‘older’ professional who can advise you on what they did, what worked and what didn’t. There are so many paths within the industry. ou have to know your strengths, what you love to do, and then make a plan using those strengths.
WHAT’S YOUR CAREER HIGHLIGHT SO FAR? had a wonderful time in s with Celestial ing competing all over the world. y favourite show was the oung ider World Cup in rankfurt. The arena is like a smaller scale lympia it was absolutely terrifying at fi rst but the biggest bu
TELL US ABOUT YOUR YARD AND CURRENT HORSES. ’m incredibly lucky to have set up a new training livery yard in West Susse with my long term supporters eil and Catherine Stuart. can now offer top class facilities alongside my training, which is really e citing s well as horses ’m riding for their owners have my own two rennus owned by myself and my partner aul Gri ths,
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who aim to compete at SG this year, and iver ise ingsley, an e citing young horse owned by my parents. e starts his competitive career soon.
HOW HAS TIME IN U21S SHAPED YOU AS A TRAINER? s gave me a huge amount of e perience. t allowed me to learn under different trainers at squad trainings and camps, meet many people within the industry, and gave the opportunity to be around and watch riders competing and training at the highest level.
To continue to build and enjoy building my business, keeping my integrity at the heart of everything thing do and every decision make. ockdown has taught me that it’s really important to enjoy the process not just focus on the end goal. want to enjoy each step of each horse’s journey nd to keep learning
SIX FAMOUS GUESTS AT YOUR DREAM DINNER PARTY! The ueen, sabell Werth, Walt isney, eryl Streep, rincess iana, arcus Wareing.
