July/August 2020

from July/August 2020

Jessica Springsteen: Dedication and Confidence

DEDICATION and CONFIDENCE in herself and her horses are at the core of her success.

The world shifted in a heartbeat. And then it stopped—literally. Citizens around the globe had to swiftly adapt to the new norms that best served their communities in a universal effort to prevent the spread of thecoronavirus pandemic.

To view this from an athlete’s perspective, andmore specifically, an equestrian’s, an entire season of competitions—large and small, at home and abroad—were postponed or canceled entirely.The summer 2020 Tokyo Olympics will hopefully be hosted a full year later in 2021.

Focusing on a tighter frame, we learn how one equestrian, Jessica Springsteen, is tapping into her years of experience and unflappable resilience as she navigates this untested terrain.

The 28-year-old world-class champion show jumper is the daughter and middle child of Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. She grew up surrounded by animals at her family’s Coltsneck, New Jersey, farm, and began riding when she was 5 years old. She rode every day after school, rarely missed a lesson, and acknowledged that equestrian sport taught her about responsibility. Jessica had found her passion at an early age.

Through dedication and an abundance of talent, she has ridden her way through the ranks of ponies and horses—accruing national championship wins and excellence-in-equitation awards—and has risen to the world stage of grand prix 5* show jumping. She is currently number one in the USEF show-jumping ranking.

Meeting Jessica

I first met Jessica in Wellington, Florida, at the beginning of March 2020. She arrived at our photoshoot energetic and confident as she efficiently worked her way through the series of photographic scenarios we had planned for our article.

And poof—after one hour, she was off to enjoy a rare day off during the frenetic winter competition season in Wellington, Florida. One week later, the remaining events of the Winter Equestrian Festival (WEF) were abruptly canceled. The traditional lineup of spring and summer shows, here and abroad, quickly followed suit and canceled their events, one-by-one, in domino-style succession. The pandemic and its worldwide impact had arrived with a vengeance.

When I interviewed Jessica three weeks later, she and the rest of the world was sheltering in place. I expected to hear a disheartened athlete discouraged by the setback and loss of momentum she had built over the last year. Perhaps she would be disappointed that her potential selection to compete at the Tokyo Olympics would be on hold for another year, and being able to return to her home base in Belgium was suspended in limbo.

Instead, I heard an unflustered young woman with a steely reserve of optimism. This reaction started to make sense as we continued with the interview. It registered that her attitude was in alignment with her approach to riding and weathering the ups and downs of being a world-class competitive athlete.

Jessica had experienced many of the roller coaster series of wins and losses as she moved through the various levels of riding. “There are always awkward phases,” Jessica laughs. “I remember I had a lot of success on the ponies, and then I switched to horses. There are those years when you’re trying to catch up, and you go right back down to the bottom. When you age out of the juniors and start to compete against professionals, you go through all of that again. You’re used to getting results week-in and week-out, and then all of that’s probably not going to happen for a couple of years,” she admits. “There are always moments when you feel like you’re never going to get there, but you just have to stay focused. You have to be so passionate about this sport and really love it.”

Horses are at the core of her passion for equestrian sport, and her relationship with them is everything. “This sport is so unique in that we’re working with animals every day, and they are ultimately our teammates and our partners,” she muses. She is patient as she develops those relationships and allows herself the time to establish a working partnership, until she feels confident that she can go into a ring and give a class a shot. “Sometimes it’s instant chemistry, but with some horses, it takes time developing the partnership and learning how to understand each other,” she adds.

The Equine Team

Jessica is very involved with the selection of her horses, noting the necessity of building a solid team to keep up with herrigorous competition schedule. She’s been developing this string over the last few years. “I have a couple of younger horses, and some more experienced, so that’s been nice,” she smiles. “Of course, your connection with the horse is everything, and you want to be as involved as possible. You definitely want to have a good feeling the first time you sit on a horse. I learned to trust my gut and that first instinct when I am trying a horse, and not think about all of the things I can improve or change. I’ve learned you want to love the horse in that moment and feel like you can have that chemistry.”

In addition to her string of horses, Jessica currently rides two talented mares for Rushy Marsh Farm: RMF Tinkerbell and RMF Zecilie. “This will be my third year competing with Zecilie. She is the most beautiful horse with the sweetest temperament,” says Jessica. “You see her in the stall, and she looks like a painting. It took a solid six to eight months of working with her until we were on the same page, and we’ve been growing ever since. I never thought we would be where we are today, but at the moment, I would say she’s my best horse.”

Over the last year, Jessica and Zecilie have had some tremendous wins, including the CSIO5* 2020 Longines FEI Nations Cup and the CSIO5* 2019 Longines Global Champions Tour Grand Prix of Ramatuelle, Saint Tropez.

Jessica spends most of the year in Belgium, right outside of Brussels, and loves competing in Europe. “The jumping competitions are amazing. It’s one of their biggest sports,” she explains. “People come from riding families and grow up doing it. They get so many people at the shows, and the crowd is always so educated. They follow the sport and the horses and riders. There’s incredible history there, and you can feel that when you’re riding. There are also a lot more shows. You can look at the calendar, and there are four different places you can go every week, which is nice because you can pick and choose what’s best for your horses,” she adds.

LIFE AS A PROFESSIONAL ATHLETE

Jessica loves competing around the globe and acknowledges it’s a pleasant way to see the world. “It’s amazing that we get to take our horses with us and compete in these cities. Madrid has always been a favorite of mine. It’s such a beautiful competition, and I love Paris,” smiles Jessica. “We compete right in front of the Eiffel Tower, and it’s such an incredible backdrop. I competed in Rome last summer in Piazza di Siena, which was also one of the most beautiful shows I’ve ever been to.”

Competition is an adrenalin rush for Jessica. “When you’re in the ring, and the bell goes off, and you have eighty-something seconds, the only thing you’re thinking about is the next fence,” she admits. “Everything else just melts away.That’s what I really love about it.”

That rush was evident to anyone watching the 2020 Longines FEI Nations Cup at Palm Beach Masters in Wellington, Florida, earlier this year with the U.S. team clinching the heart-pounding win. “It’s consistently a goal of mine to jump a Nations Cup, and it’s always something I look forward to doing,” Jessica shares. “I try to aim my horses towards those competitions. To be a part of that [Nations Cup] win was so exciting. To be on the team with Laura [Kraut], Beezie [Madden], and Margie [Engle]—all these women I’ve always looked up to—was so much fun. It was exceptionally special with such great energy.”

Training is paramount throughout an equestrian’s career— whether navigating a level-one fence or tackling a five-foot vertical. Jessica is no exception and has trained with numerous people, including Laura Kraut and Edwina Tops-Alexander. Currently, Helena Stormanns trains her on Zecilie and Tinkerbell, and she does a little bit of her own thing on her horses. “Lorenzo [de Luca] helps me when I’m feeling stuck on something, or if I have a new horse I’m getting to know,” says Jessica. “Overall, I feel lucky that I’ve been able to train with multiple people over my career. It’s helpful because you can take what you’ve learned from everyone, pick the things that were most helpful to you, and put them in your program.”

She mused that as she transitioned to show jumping, she had to ease up on the mindset of the pretty and smooth equitation and hunter-riding style and learn to go all out and fight for each jump because, in the jumpers, it’s all about leaving the rails up.

Jessica complements her training regimen with Pilates and a bit of sports psychology. “I can almost be too relaxed sometimes, especially in Europe,” she explains. “Sometimes, classes will start at night, and it can be really tough having to go the whole day, and then you have to get motivated and focus.

“In this sport, you lose a lot more than you win. You have to believe that you can do it, maybe even before you have proof of results. There are so many times when you can have consistent rounds but have unlucky four faults. Having trust with your horses and having that partnership, I think that’s the key. You have to believe the wins will come.

“There was never one moment when I thought, 'Ok, this is it.’ It’s always been so natural for me,” she adds. “I’ve been working really hard at it, and it’s nice to see it all come together. Obviously, success isn’t everything; and it is about the journey, but it does feel good when you’ve been working at something for so long. It’s such a team effort, so to have that come together for me and my whole team is really nice.” Jessica has forged her years of training and competing into a thriving professional career. Even during her college years at Duke, she never seemed to falter in envisioning horse sport as a career. “I really wanted to go to college and have that full college experience to see if there was something that I was as passionate about [as riding],” she reflects. “There was never anything that I loved as much, but it was important for me to take that time and immerse myself in school. I loved school. I had such a great experience studying psychology, and I’m grateful that I was able to have those four years, and that I was able to study and ride during that time. It was difficult to balance, but it made me realize that I had already found my passion.”

She shares the gift of recognizing her passion early in life with her parents, who were each lucky in that regard. “I can relate to them in a lot of ways,” explains Jessica. “They also had this incredible career path that they’ve both followed their entire lives. They’ve been able to push me in that sense when they saw that this was something I was passionate about and worked hard at. They were always able to motivate me and make me realize how special it is to have found my passion at a young age. I feel lucky that I’ve been able to turn it into a profession.”

Jessica abides by a pragmatic approach to the sport—taking one jump and one competition at a time. She’ll be fit and ready when competitions resume. For now, she looks forward to the next “go” bell and the “eighty-something” seconds of adrenalin rush.