Following the 2025 Adequan®/USDF FEI-Level Trainers’ Conference held at the late Mary Anne McPhail’s High Meadow Farm in Loxahatchee, Florida, last January, USDF bronze, silver and gold medalist J.J. Tate noted that clinicians Christine Traurig and Monica Theodorescu provided a beautiful example of the way riders should train horses.
“They reminded us to constantly commit to the beautiful, classical principles of dressage. Then, simply let those ideas work for you and your horse,” she said. “Working with Monica and Christine—the absolute best of the best—and having that same thread of committing to proper, good riding was incredible.”
Tate, who rode 10-year-old Hanoverian gelding Denali owned by Cackie Vroom and Dean Wright, has learned the importance of emphasizing correctness in all of her work. “You have to do the work and the work must be correct. But if you stick with it and give your horse the time to learn and understand and get stronger, then you can develop that foundation and confidence,” she said. “And that will make everything easier as you move up.”
Denali was one of Tate’s more challenging young horses, but she firmly believed in his potential. “I’ve always felt like if I could only break his code, he might be one of my most straightforward, uncomplicated Grand Prix horses. And I’m starting to see little glimpses of that,” she said. “Like I tell my students, you have to keep chopping a the wood, and Denali is a beautiful example of how that works. You never know what might happen.”
Behind the scenes, Tate says Denali is a complete ham and keeps her laughing. “And he’s all gelding. He doesn’t know where he ends and the world begins,” she joked. “But he’s so sweet and tries really hard.”
Tate’s lifelong passion for all things horse continues to keep her committed to the sport, and she’s found that in its essence, dressage represents the embodiment of the relationship you share with your horse.
“I love everything about horses. I love talking about them, being with them, watching videos about them, making videos about them—all of it,” she said. “When you can get this beautiful, athletic animal to work with you, it’s an amazing feeling.”
Through all the little diligent work, Tate says you will start to feel your horse get stronger, and from there, the exercises will get easier. “Eventually you’ll find that beautiful, harmonious feeling of two beings really being in the same thought. I call it the moment when the clouds part and the sunbeam comes down and the whole world makes sense,” she said. “It’s those amazing moments of partnership and your horse doing it because he wants to—not because he’s forced to. It’s just this beautiful communion. That’s what gets me up and out of bed every day and why I dedicate all my time to these animals.”
