Michelle Gibson - Sponsors

WEF DRESSAGE CLASSIC
U.S. Riders Impress International Judges
By Mary Hilton

(l-r) Germany ‘O’ Judge Goetz Weber-Stefan and Poland ‘O’
Judge Wojciech Markowski.
Photo by Mary Hilton

"There were many good rides and many good horses," said Judge Wojciech Markowski (O) Poland, on the final day of the WEF Dressage Classic CDI*** held in Wellington, Florida, March 14-17. "The quality of the horses that you have here is really high quality."

His colleague Goetz Weber-Stefan (O) of Germany agreed, and added that he had seen a big difference in the past 10 years in U.S. dressage. "There’s a lot of improvement. I’m really impressed."

Markowski concurred, "Your country has made phenomenal progress."

The WEF Dressage Classic was the final dressage show in the Winter Equestrian Festival Series held at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club. The show featured qualifying classes for the USET Grand Prix Championship/World Equestrian Games Selection Trials, USET Intermediaire I Championship, and Region 3 North American Young Rider Championship.

Michelle Gibson and World of Dreams Win Prix St. Georges CDI
and Intermediaire I CDI

The judges were also impressed with Michelle Gibson, 1996 Dressage Olympic Team Bronze medalist, and her stallion, World of Dreams. Judge Weber-Stefan awarded her two 10s for extended trot in the Intermediaire I class which she won with a score of 73.100%. "It was perfect," said Weber-Stefan. "It was excellent and excellent is 10, easily explained. Yes, I think her stallion is a high performance horse and it could be in the future, hopefully, a good team horse for your country. There’s a lot of potential. I think we saw a few good horses, but from my point of view this horse was absolutely outstanding."

Gibson was the highest-point-scoring rider of the entire show in Open CDI competition and in a special ceremony, she was presented with the Diamond Stud Award, which included a .65 carat diamond stud set in a black onyx lapel pin with gold trim and a breeding to the stallion ‘Diamond’. The award is appraised at $4,000 and is sponsored by Diamond Legacy Breeding. Mr. and Mrs. Richard Cannon presented the award.

"It’s about time a man gave me a diamond!" quipped Gibson.

Gibson, who also earned the second highest score in the Open CDI classes with her

70.950% in the Prix St. Georges on World of Dreams, said, "I was pleased with my St. Georges. I had a few little bobbles in there that I knew we could clean up – it’s just a matter of me doing the right thing and him responding to it. Then we went in for the I-1 and he was fabulous. He went in and he was right there. I was very pleased with it. It’s the cleanest test that I’ve ridden this winter season with him. I felt really good about it."

Gibson was enthusiastic about receiving the two 10s. "I mean the horse can trot, I’ll tell ya. And he has fun with it. That’s really where he shines the most."

She said she was pleased to receive the Diamond Stud award. "It’s gorgeous. It’s great that we have sponsors involved in dressage and the riders actually get something for themselves. A lot of times it goes over to the owners."

Since Gibson owns World of Dreams, she "gets it all" including the breeding, but she owns a stallion herself, so will she use it? "I’ll keep it for a couple of years and see what I do with it."

The WEF Dressage Classic hosted over 300 exhibitors competing in 45 classes and offered more than $15,000 in prize money.

Michelle and World of Dreams

by Susan Laidlaw

In The Beginning....
The youngest of three sisters, Michelle Gibson was the last to get into horses. Originally from a farm in Maryland, Michelle remembers riding bareback and barefoot around their property with her sisters. After the Gibson family moved to Georgia, Michelle took her very first riding lesson with a local trainer. She was hooked. Six months later, needing to find a way to pay for her lessons, she secured her first position as a working student. It was then Michelle acquired her first horse, an Appaloosa/Thoroughbred gelding named Allspice who was, in Michelle’s words, “crazy as a loon.” Allspice was soon replaced by a Trakehner mare named Chaussee whom Michelle took to a new working student position where she began to focus more seriously on Dressage. Michelle’s father, Marshall Gibson, remembers driving Michelle to the barn every day, dropping her off to work, and driving back to pick her up late in the evening. Parenthetically, it was during one of these quiet moments in the truck that Michelle joked with her father that by the time she	made it to the Olympics they would probably be held in Atlanta. But more on that later. By now Michelle was unambiguously determined to learn more and excel in the sport of dressage. She had an opportunity to take yet another working student position, but needed to finish her high school course work first. Refusing to allow this to impede her chances to advance, she took extra classes and attended summer school so she could graduate four months ahead of her peers. That done, her next stop was Maine where she spent a year and a half working with Michael Poulin. During that time Michelle dug in harder than ever and advanced Chaussee from second level to Prix St. Georges before having to pause because Chaussee lacked the talent to progress to the next levels. This was when a little luck and a lot of determination established Michelle’s position in the dressage community and ultimately paved the way for subsequent American riders to benefit from the knowledge and experience of the European continent.
A German Education
Michelle didn’t exactly cherish the idea of leaving the country, but wanted to progress under the best of the best, and for her that meant Germany. The Gibsons arranged an exchange student program for Michelle and sent her overseas with a suitcase, some photos, and a lot of encouragement. In Germany, Michelle characteristically wasted no time, and asked her German housemother to take her to Willie Schultheis’ barn. Michelle says as a favor to her housemother, Schulteis “put me on one of his horses with no spurs or whip and we did everything – it was an unforgettable ride. This meeting was pure luck.” Luck might have brought them together, but her talent secured her a position in his barn. He started her out schooling his wife’s racehorses in dressage, but Gibson’s abilities impressed Schultheis enough to eventually coach her on his own horses. Schultheis wasn’t the only one impressed with Michelle’s talents. Schultheis’ most gifted bereiter was watching from the sidelines, and soon asked Michelle if she would come work and train with him. She accepted what she saw as the “opportunity of a lifetime” and went to train in Rudolf Zeilinger’s barn. This is how, at age twenty, Michelle created one of the most formidable rider/trainer partnerships in dressage history. In the beginning, Michelle rode one horse a day,	but as she proved her talents to her new coach, she worked her string up to ten horses a day, their abilities ranging from the beginning levels through Grand Prix. Under Rudolf’s tutelage, Michelle quickly mastered the now widely respected Schultheis system and developed a seat that was voted “Best Seat” by German judges. When asked what it is she likes the most about the Schultheis system, she is hard pressed to come up with a single response: “I think one thing that impressed me most about working in Rudolf’s barn is that day after day the horses were worked as hard and as honestly as they could be worked, but day after day they all came into the ring eager and schooled with unrestrained freedom.” When it was clear that Michelle was going to stay at Rudolf’s barn longer than a year, Rudolf’s wife Sabina decided Michelle needed to learn German and Michelle suddenly found herself enrolled in a total immersion program. No one was allowed to speak any English to the American. Michelle laughingly admits it was a challenge, but quickly became conversational and now is fluent in the language. In the end, Michelle admits knowing German has been essential for her complete understanding of the German training methods, as many German dressage expressions get lost or confused in their translation to English.
Gibson and Peron Make History
By now Michelle had the language, the proficiency, and the resolve. But a critical component was missing, her horse. Luckily, that part of the equation was solved with a trip back to the states and a newspaper article about Michelle in the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. In one of the many seemingly pre-destined turns in Michelle Gibson’s career, she managed to time her search with the exact moment a certain Trakehner stallion, previously in dressage training in Florida, happened to be languishing in a field of timothy. After the article was published in the paper, Michelle got a call from the owners of the stallion, she went to give him a try, and immediately paired herself with the stallion to form yet another commanding partnership in the dressage world, that of Gibson and Peron. “They have a kind of spark,” Peron’s owner commented, “they’re a special kind of team.” This seems to be an accurate description of a pair that went back to Germany and immediately earned national respect and admiration by becoming top-level contenders in a country where Americans were typically not to be worried about. Competing at such prestigious shows as Aachen, Dortmund, Stuttgart, Frankfurt, and Bremen, Michelle’s fellow competitors had names like Werth, Klimke, Balkenhol, Uphoff-Becker, and Schaudt. Not only did Gibson hold her own with such names, she began to best them, with scores like the 74.42 percent she attained for the Grand Prix Special in Bremen. Gibson’s immersion in the country generated a warm response from the people there. “Germany is like a home to me,” Gibson maintains, “people there made me feel welcome, not like an outsider trying to get in.” This must be true if in 1996 the German dressage community honored Gibson with Germany’s Golden Rider award, something no American had ever achieved. After three years of successful campaigning in Germany, Michelle found herself bearing toward home again. Not because she was homesick, but because in a strangely self-fulfilling manner, Michelle’s joking prophecy a decade earlier had come true with a vengeance: the 1996 Olympics were going to be in Atlanta. Gibson was going to be in them. Gibson considers the 1996 Olympics to be the biggest moment of her life. It was also the biggest moment of Olympic dressage for the United States since Gibson’s 75.20%	was the highest score ever awarded an American at the Olympics. “I rode the best Grand Prix I’ve ever ridden. Peron was so on. That was definitely awesome.” After the Olympics, Peron’s owners decided to keep him in the states to breed and the magnificent stallion faded from the dressage scene. Gibson made the difficult decision to move home to Georgia. “My family is here and I’d like to be more involved in dressage in America,” she said at the time. Gibson established herself at Applewood, the lovely farm of Brad and Laura Thatcher, in Alpharetta GA. For the next five years, Gibson distilled all her previous education into a seamless training methodology, and began to hone her skills as a teacher. Gibson tackled her new role as educator with the same concentration and dedication she applied to her own riding. She quickly built a clientele base at Applewood, as well as in Wellington, FL where her students come from all over the country. Michelle enthusiastically welcomes riders from all levels to come and train in her program. Gibson established an apprenticeship program with Amanda Persons, who manages students and affairs at Applewood while Gibson is in Florida. Under Michelle’s auspices, Persons coaches beginners until they are ready to move into training with Michelle. Coming into Gibson’s system early in one’s riding career ensures that a student will receive the proper foundation to advance correctly toward their ultimate goals. Despite this, Gibson muses over the fact that “most of my clients are professionals. The first thing I say is, I can help you and I can be a person on the ground if that’s what you want. If you want to learn my style, if you want to learn how I do it, then you have to tell me because it’s going to change everything. It’s going to change how you sit, how you think, everything; because the style that I ride is different from the norm. To ride this system you need to get back to basics and get down to work.” Gibson’s legion of dedicated and successful clientele are a testament to her teaching achievements. As one student said, “Michelle is a perfectionist, and her goals to this end are contagious. She’ll push you in a particular movement with a power and enthusiasm that is almost unnerving, but she’s with you all the way, and when you finally get it, and grasp what she is looking for you realize how phenomenal perfection can feel. It’s addicting. There’s no going back.”
Gibson and World of Dreams - a World Class Pair
Despite Gibson’s vicarious fulfillment from her student’s accomplishments, the seasoned campaigner began to yearn for the FEI ring once again. It was time to look for a horse. Michelle and Marshall Gibson flew to Europe to begin the search. Gibson contacted Zeilinger prior to going to Germany and asked if he had anything that fit her parameters: something between seven and nine that was schooling Prix St. Georges and talented enough to go on to do the Grand Prix. Michelle calls what followed an accident, but it has all the makings of another uncanny twist of fate in her pre-determined career. Of all the horses Michelle looked at in Europe, her old coach ended up having the one, a stallion by World Cup who was appropriately named World of Dreams. Though Gibson is quick to maintain that World of Dreams, or Indy as he is known around the barn, should not be compared to Peron, one thing is for certain; Gibson and her new stallion combine to make the same redoubtable contenders for which the previous Olympic duo was known. To illustrate, in Wellington Gibson and World of Dreams debuted at Intermediare I with a 74.5% despite going off course. With her usual good humor, Michelle quipped about the error, “We’re only allowed to do that once in a show season.” But behind her laughter was the same steady resolve that clearly makes this dressage pair the warm air breathing down the backs of the competitors over in the Grand Prix ring. Indeed, Gibson and Indy went on to win every Intermediare I class they competed in for the remainder of the season in Florida.	Gibson is hoping to eventually return to Zeilinger’s barn for a couple months. There she will work on refining Indy’s one tempis and his piaffe/passage, the necessary finishing touches for a perfectionist looking to the Grand Prix arena with world-class design. Gibson’s sponsors include Sundowner Trailers, Horseware/Triple Crown, Pikeur, Koening, and Grand Prix. When not in her breeches, Michelle’s preferred attire is relaxed, jeans and tee shirts. She loves to fish, garden and dance. When she has the chance to pick up a book it has to be an action that grabs her from the first page, like John Grisham’s The Chamber. Her favorite movie genres are action and drama; her television choices have the same blend, Crime Scene Investigation, Scrubs, and Judging Amy. She likes all kinds of food. Michelle is quick to thank the people in her life that have helped her along the way, “without Rudolf’s help and my family’s sacrifices I wouldn’t be here now. It’s really just a huge group effort.” That said, Michelle admits she is definitely not afraid of hard work, and her mother, Marie, attributes Michelle’s successes to her thirst for knowledge, her desire to excel, and a little bit of providence. What would Michelle do if she weren’t in horses? Michelle thinks for a minute, “I have absolutely no idea, I can’t imagine not riding.” From the seemingly predestined course of her life so far, it’s probably not something Michelle will have to worry about any time soon.

Sidelines News Article, January 26, 2002
Dressage Profile

Michelle Gibson Returns To FEI With World Of Dreams

by Mary Hilton

Michelle Gibson
Michelle Gibson returns to the FEI ring
Photos by Mary Hilton

Michelle Gibson holds the record as the highest scoring American in dressage at the Olympics for her performance with Peron in 1996—they earned a 75.20% and a Team Bronze. But she hasn’t shown in the FEI levels since then, until the Gold Coast Dressage Show in Wellington, Florida, January 18-20, 2002, where she introduced her new stallion, World of Dreams, at Prix St. Georges and Intermediare I.

Gibson, who had been in training from the time she was 10 years old through the Olympics when she was 27, hasn’t taken a riding lesson in five years. She’s been working on her own, training others, and discovered something very significant: she’s a talented rider, an attribute she claims she never knew until her clients began "banging it into my head." She owns World of Dreams outright, no sponsors, syndicates, or partners are involved, and she plans to go back to Rudolph Zeilinger’s barn in Germany for two months to start training again. Zeilinger was her trainer prior to and through the Olympics. Is World of Dreams her next Olympic horse? She says she’s "not counting her chickens before they’re hatched," but her immediate goals are to compete during the Florida season and qualify for the I-1 Championships at Gladstone. "I’m taking first things first. He’s not doing the Grand Prix yet, so that’s what I’m going to spend the summer doing—getting the one tempis on him, really getting the piaffe/passage more solid, more reliable, and then take him out at Grand Prix."

Gibson said she found World of Dreams by accident. She and her father, Marshall Gibson, were in Germany in November of 2000 looking at horses when she called Zeilinger unexpectedly and told him what her parameters were. "I wanted anything between seven and nine years old that was talented enough to go on and do more, and that was doing Fourth Level/Prix St. Georges and schooling some of the Grand Prix. He was all of those things." Gibson rode World of Dreams once, and then continued her search. "We looked at everything else. We looked at every price range because I wanted to get a feel for what was out there. We looked at young horses at $30,000 and $40,000 to over a million." But World of Dreams stayed in her mind and she went back and rode him again, telling Zeilinger she was interested, but having only ridden him twice, she wasn’t ready to commit. She went back to the States horse-less. "I knew he was a little bit hot. I know his bloodlines. I made a trip back in December so I could make my final decision. I went for four days." That was enough to convince her.

World of Dreams and Michelle Gibson
scored 74.5% at Intermediare I.
Photos by Mary Hilton

At their first show together, the Gold Coast Opener, Gibson and World of Dreams placed second in the Prix St. Georges on Friday with a score of 69.25%; she won the Intermediare I with a score of 74.5% on Saturday—even though she went off course. She had a $50 bet with her father that World of Dreams would run off with her in their first extended trot, but luckily she lost that bet.

Gibson said that part of the reason she brought him to the show was to get him used to crowds and the show atmosphere. "He has been wonderful. He walked off the horse trailer, didn’t scream, walked into the stall and settled right in. I couldn’t ask for more." World of Dreams is the only horse Gibson owns. She describes him as a "sweetie" and says, "I adore him. Of course, he can be a stallion. You can never forget that with any stallion, but I go in every night and do barn check and pet him and scratch him and he loves it. He has ambition. He’s just a really cool horse. I’m lucky that he’s part of my life. He challenges me. I have to really think and I have to really work. That’s what motivates me." According to Gibson, World of Dreams’ piaffe and passage are going to be very special. "And he has an extended trot that’s not too shabby," she added with a wry expression that indicated gross understatement. She plans to start his breeding career next year.

World of Dreams is called "Indy" at the barn, because he is independent from owners and trainers, and sponsors. The lack of sponsorship was not by choice. "Certainly I looked and I asked. We tried," she said. "For whatever reason, it didn’t happen. I have product sponsors, and they’ve been very supportive, but I don’t have any money sponsors." Gibson’s product sponsors include Konigs Riding Boots, Pikeur Riding Breeches, Grand Prix Riding Jackets, Precision EQ Arena Footing, and Sundowner Trailers.

"Definitely it’s nice having my own horse, but there’s a price you pay for everything and my sacrifice for getting this horse was more clinics, working weekends, not having days off, and giving up a lot of my personal time."

She is getting funds from the Applewood Foundation, which is a tax-deductible foundation created to financially support horses and riders competing and training.

Gibson will be in Wellington for four months and then return to her home base, Applewood Farm in Alpharetta, Georgia. She has a clientele for each location. While in Wellington, many of her clients come from all over the US. At the barn in Georgia, Amanda Persons fills in for her. Persons also teaches the beginning students, then Gibson takes over when they reach a certain level. "Honestly, I haven’t had a whole lot of beginners come to me and say ‘I want to get into this and how do I do it?’ I teach a lot of professionals—Nancy Sharpless, Karen Lipp, and Silke Rembacz. The first thing I say is, I can help you and I can be a person on the ground if that’s what you want. If you want to learn my style, if you want to learn how I do it, then you have to tell me, because it’s going to change everything. It’s going to change how you sit, how you think about it, everything, because the style that I ride is different from the norm. It’s normal for me, but for whatever reason, other people think it’s not so normal. If you want to change your seat, you have to tell me, and then we’ll get down to basics and we’ll get down to work."

Gibson has been developing her style since she was a baby. She started riding before she was a year old. Her two older sisters each had a horse on their five-acre farm in Takoma, Maryland, and they carried her around with them on horseback. She called herself a backyard rider, and said she had fun with English, Western, and bareback riding, but when the family moved to Atlanta when she was 10, she finally convinced her mother to give her riding lessons as a birthday present. She rode with Kye Smarslike, and then Laura Wharton, who introduced her to Michael Poulin. "Just before my 18th birthday, I graduated from high school and went to Michael’s. I was with him for a year and a half. Then I went to Germany when I was 19. I met Rudolph there through coincidence, through accident, through luck."

She says she has categories of "mentors" but as far as riding, Rudolph Zeilinger is her mentor. "He was an excellent teacher for me. Without him I wouldn’t be here. Without my determination, my hard work and my family making their sacrifices I wouldn’t be here. It’s really just a huge group effort."

Having been a student for 17 years, the past five years without an instructor allowed her the chance to "let everything sink in. I experimented a little bit, because certainly with my body type I can’t compete with Rudolph who’s over six foot tall and a man. I’ve spent the last five years figuring myself out. I’m much happier with myself than I was five years ago. Now that I have a good horse, I’m going to go back to Rudolph and I’m going to get the help because I know nobody can do it alone. You never finish learning, you’re never done, and I have so much to learn from this horse—just give me the information!"

Gibson has devoted her life to horses and said that though she has thought about doing other jobs, she has no idea what she would do if she didn’t ride. "I could not do a desk job. I’d have to do something where I could be outside. I’m fascinated with dolphins, they are the coolest animals." Gibson did have one job outside of horses, and that was as a salesperson at a department store called Rich’s when she was 16. "I hated it. I couldn’t be inside."

Though there is not a ‘significant other’ in Gibson’s life right now, she envisions that 20 years from now, she’ll be married, possibly with a family, but one thing she knows for sure, "I’ll still be riding, definitely."

Gibson says the biggest moment in her life so far occurred in 1996. "The one moment that was probably the coolest was at the Olympics in Atlanta. I rode the best Grand Prix I’ve ever ridden. Peron was so on. That was definitely awesome. The most exciting time I had as a rider was the winter from January until the end of March before Atlanta when I was still in Germany. I did Frankfurt, Bremen, Dortmund, Munster, and I won either the Grand Prix or the Special, or both, at all of those horse shows."

Does she ever compare Peron and World of Dreams? "No. I was very lucky and fortunate to have Peron. He was such a special horse. If you have one horse that is that special in your life, you’re blessed, so having a second horse is just awesome."

Michelle’s parents, Marshall and Marie Gibson, traveled with her to the Gold Coast show and were there to support her along with Missy, their Brittany Spaniel, and Markie, Michelle’s Border Collie. After the show, Gibson says they like to have fun and a drink and there’s always some kind of bet going on, whether for money or ice cream or a steak dinner. Her clients from Atlanta are coming to Florida for the next show to watch her and to celebrate her birthday. She calls them a great group that can pick up the slack when she’s not there.

Life is good for Michelle Gibson and World of Dreams. She says she’s got a lot of things on her mind right now, but one thought is uppermost. "The biggest thing for me is that this is supposed to be fun for me. I haven’t shown in the FEI levels since the Olympics, so it’s kind of a leap. My horse is special to me and that’s what really matters."

Michelle’s Favorites	Michelle’s New Horse	Michelle’s Stats
Color: That would depend on my mood. Probably blue. Movie: I don’t have one particular favorite movie. I like thrillers the best. Food: Every kind. It would be easier to ask me what I don’t like. I don’t like Thai or Korean. I hate onions. Clothes: Relaxed. Jeans and a cute tee shirt or a comfy sweat shirt. Comfortable. Book: The Chamber by John Grisham. I flipped through it as fast as I could go. TV: CSI-Crime Scene Investigation; Scrubs; and Judging Amy. Hobby: Riding	Name: World of Dreams Height: 16.2 Color: Liver chestnut Sex: Stallion Breed: Hanoverian Age: 8 Sire: World Cup Dam’s Sire: Cardinale xx Favorite treat: "He’s a chowhound. Carrots, sugar, he just likes to eat. We have a lot in common."	Height: 5’ 5" Weight: 135 Eyes: Blue Hair: Brown Age: 32—my birthday’s next month, February 25 Sign: Pisces

Southeast Equine Monthly, August 2001, Feature Story

Groomer gets training of a lifetime with Olympian

By David Gower and Brad Thatcher

Kristi Livingston with her equine friend in his shipping container. Livingston is helping Olympian Michelle Gibson, who is training for the 2004 Games.

Twenty-one-year-old Kristi Livingston has worked for two years as a groom for Michelle Gibson, a member of the 1996 U.S. Bronze Medal Olympic team. She got the job by answering an ad on the Internet.

Having ridden hunter/jumpers since age 5, Livingston found exactly how linked she was to horses after spending a year in the Dominican Republic without a horse being a part of her daily activities.

“It was the worst year of my life,” Livingston says, adding that this year was an integral part of her decision to answer Gibson’s ad. She had always been responsible for the care of her own horses and had groomed and readied her pony for shows. She was confident that she could earn a living and gain valuable experience working under someone like Gibson.

She viewed her position as her “college” education and realized that with it came hard work and dedication. She was given the responsibility for the maintenance of the horses Gibson trains. From scheduling vet and farrier visits to untacking and cooling out mounts, she was assigned to manage the healthcare of each mount. She always thought that international travel might become part of her duties. “If you work for a person like Michelle, you are going places,” she used to tell herself. That became a reality. She was honored but also apprehensive about the responsibility of her latest assignment, to accompany and assure the safe transport of Gibson’s new stallion, World of Dreams, on his trip across the Atlantic.

As the big 747 lifted off the runway in Germany, all she could hear was the roar of the engines and the rumble of the pavement rolling by. A fully loaded cargo transport, it was a lonely sensation to be on board with only 4 people, 12 horses, and tons of cargo. Livingston had a good seat though, only available to transport grooms during take off and landing, a jump seat in the cockpit with the pilot and co-pilot.

The trip for Livingston had started a week before at Applewood Farm in Alpharetta, Ga. Her trip to Germany was uneventful, but for a person who has never been to Europe, the process of German customs was intimidating. Then there was the week of getting to know the horse, and getting to know the “German way” at the stables. Livingston stayed in a small hotel within walking distance from the farm. The first several days were great. Gibson was there and could help with the translation of German. But after the third day, Gibson returned home, leaving Livingston to tend to World of Dreams. Despite all of her study of the German translation books prior to her trip, she never found words like “lead rope” and “hoof pick.”

The trip for the horse had started the day before at Rudolph Zeillenger’s farm as her charge, World of Dreams, was loaded onto a shipping truck for the half-day trip to the airport. This was the beginning of her return home with World of Dreams. After arriving at the airport, the horse was allowed to rest in a stall for a period of time and was loaded into an aluminum shipping container. The container is a mobile barn stall. Three horses are loaded into the three slots and the entire unit is lifted high onto the cargo deck of the 747. Livingston originally wanted to ride with World of Dreams during the loading process. But as the time came and she saw how high the containers had to be lifted, she opted to wait on the ground until the horse and his two shipping companions were safely aboard. There is a small area at the front of each container where a person may stand, but it is so small that extended stays are impossible. World of Dreams was loaded on the far right of the container. In the center was a veteran of international air transfers, who took the entire flight as just another day at the office. On the far left was a young horse that spent most of the flight nervous and sweaty.

After take-off, Livingston and the other groom who traveled with the horses made rounds, giving much-appreciated hay and water to all 12 horses. The pilots also appreciated that someone else was on the flight to deal with the equine cargo. The entire flight was spent on the upper deck of the 747. The lower deck where most people would normally fly was filled with nonliving cargo. Fortunately, Kristi was small enough to fit between the wall of the plane and the horse-shipping containers and back into the small space at the heads of the horses. She spent most of the flight sitting with World of Dreams, talking to him in calm tones, maybe somehow giving him a hint of how his life was about to change now that he had met Michelle Gibson.

Kristi knows horses, but the paperwork and process of international customs was her biggest fear. She spent most of the last hour of the flight worrying about clearing World of Dreams through the customs process. These fears evaporated after arriving at the freight terminal, and the experienced men from the shipping company took over the process and sent her on to clear customs herself. She waited with World of Dreams and stroked his nose while the final preparations were made to transfer him into the Miami quarantine center for the next three days. After that, he would take a long truck ride to Virginia, where he would spend four weeks in further quarantine for breedable stallions. From there he would be shipped by truck to his new home at Applewood Farm in Alpharetta, Ga. Livingston waited until he disappeared behind the gates of the quarantine area. As she left, she knew it would be about four weeks before she would see her new equine friend again. But then she knew they would spend lots of time together as they started with Gibson on the road to the 2004 Olympics.

W. Bradford Thatcher is an electrical engineer and is general manager of Applewood Farm in Alpharetta, Ga. David J. Gower, MD FACS, is a partner in the Atlanta offices of The Northwest Neurosurgical Associates, P.C. They are directors of Applewood Foundation for Excellence in Dressage. Applewood Foundation, a charitable 501(c)(3) Georgia corporation, was developed by Applewood Farm to underwrite the training of individuals exhibiting extraordinary talent in the sport of dressage. Individuals and corporations can make tax-deductible contributions to the foundation in an effort to support future Olympic competitors from this region. All proceeds from the foundation go directly to selected students for training, equipment, travel and equine needs.

Profile, Sidelines Equestrian News Magazine
July 28, 2001

Resolutions: Michelle Gibson

By Romy Colleen du Jong reprinted with permission of Sidelines

Every dressage rider has heard the story of Michelle Gibson and Peron -- the duo that secured the Bronze Medal for America in the Atlanta Olympics -- how they triumphed, and then, how she lost the ride on her partner of so many years. Finances -- the realities of the horse industry -- played a part, but no matter the reason, that was a partnership that was lost to the Dressage Community as a whole, and an especially telling blow not only to the USET's dressage team, but to Michelle herself.

Another, more recent Team partnership that was dissolved was Christine Traurig and Etienne. After competing in Sydney as the team anchor, Etienne's owners, Mr. and Mrs. Hans decided to sell him. While Christine tried to put together a syndicate to purchase the big guy, it didn't happen. Another loss for the Team.

Having known personally how hard it is to work and work and establish that rapport only to have financial reality intervene, Michelle has become a moving force in establishing The Applewood. Foundation that someday should make those special relationships more permanent.

If we Americans want to compete with the big guns in Europe, we must go there. They aren't coming here. Training in Europe is essential. Get the experience. Let the judges see you!

"America deserves a gold medal in the 2004 summer equestrian Olympic Games," 94 Michelle says with feeling. The Applewood Foundation for Excellence in Dressage (a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) charitable foundation) was recently formed in Marietta, Georgia with the goal of aiding top-level horse/rider combinations to the US Olympic Dressage team. The inspiration behind this was Michelle Gibson. Dressage, especially at that level, is incredibly expensive. A million dollars is not unheard of to get one horse and rider to the Games. Hopefully, the Applewood Foundation will become a financial force in mounting an Olympic team for Athens and future competitions. These types of foundations are needed because of the burden that could deter the talented horse and rider combinations that are here in the United States. This way, says Michelle, the riders can concentrate on the training and not the costs of competing -- and then, the US can move up the medal ladder more realistically.

"I always wanted to go to the Olympics," she says candidly. "What kid doesn't have that dream at one time or another -- but I've learned it takes more than just desire. It takes dedication, hard work, perseverance, talent and luck." And the right horse and the money to campaign him.

For Michelle Gibson, all those things eventually came together -- and then some of them fell apart. Michelle had the support of her family, and in fact, they organized her first trip to Europe when she went as an exchange student at a jumper barn. But then she met Willi Schultheis, who changed her life. "He wanted to see if this American girl could ride. He put me on one of his horses without whip or spurs. He asked me to do every thing. I never sat on a horse who was so quick to the aids before."

Michelle was better than he expected, and she was told afterwards that although there was no room in his barn, she could come and work his wife's Thoroughbred racehorses on the flat, and he would teach her once a week. She did that for three months before Rudolph Zeilinger offered her a job as a working student in his barn.

"It wasn't a glamorous job," she grins. "I mucked stalls for four and a half years. I worked hard all day long, even weekends. If I went to a horse show and it was my weekend to work, it didn't matter; going back to the barn and working was just part of the industry." All told, Michelle spent seven years in Germany. "I was very zealous and wanted to learn more," she sighs.

Michelle says she was able to ride 8 to 10 horses a day. Zeilinger taught her the importance of a stable seat, developing close contact with the horse so that he maintains self-carriage without rider interference. Michelle says she learned the importance of really communicating with an equine partner; a true relationship between equals.

In 1993, she was ready. Michelle returned home to the States and actively campaigned for an Olympic mount. The Websters saw an article about her in the local paper and called her. "When I first saw Peron, he was out of shape and in a pasture," she says. "I took my saddle. I had nothing to lose. It was a long shot that paid off.

"I liked him immediately. He did everything I asked him to do and more.

"I took a clinic later with Zeilinger in New Jersey and he asked me to return to Germany and work for him. He said "We'll see how far the partnership [between me and Peron] could go." I worked for my training, and the Websters paid for the veterinarian and farrier.

I wanted to be the best rider I could be. Peron had a good attitude, and he was kind. He didn't like to be fussed over. He liked his carrots, but be needed his quiet time. He had the biggest heart! I was inspired by him, but he made me work for the scores. He gave as much as he took. He was better than most horses. He was a rare combination -- he stood out!

Understandably, after the years of training, the struggle of preparing, a trust -- an absolute trust -- developed between horse and rider. That made that last ride harder than can be imagined -- and perhaps was the seed that was planted that became the Applewood Foundation.

"I was devastated," Michelle says, remembering that last ride. "I put on my game face, but it was not the way I wanted to end the Olympics or my partnership with Peron. I never really had closure with him. The fact that he's now dead is a real tragedy.

"Peron will always have a special place in my heart."

Sponsorship is important to any serious dressage rider, and while Michelle has her share -- Sundowner Trailers, Koening, Pikeur, Triple Crown Horse Wear and Grand Prix -- it takes more still. She, and other talented riders like her, need to find that one special horse, and have the assurance that the partnership they form will be a lasting one. What began with Peron can continue -- and some day in the not-too-distant future, Michelle may find another horse to take her to the Olympics in Athens. And so might other riders, as well.

For anyone interested in supporting the Applewood Foundation, contact David Gowers at 770-891-3914 or visit www.applewoodfoundation.org.