By Laura Scaletti
Portraits by Melissa Fuller
From her first pony to a 2024 Paris Olympics dressage horse and numerous horses in between, amateur rider Alice Tarjan has found her niche discovering young prospects via video and developing them herself. “Early on, I realized that it was foolish to spend money on trained horses. For me, it makes more sense to invest every penny I have in potential and quality. Then it’s on me to figure out how to train and ride each horse,” Alice said.
In fourth grade, Alice caught the horse bug. It didn’t take long for her mom to find Alice a pony and enroll her in Pony Club. “My mom was super supportive and figured the cheapest way for me to ride was to buy a pony and keep it in the backyard. She then signed me up for Pony Club, because they basically gave us free riding lessons,” she said.
Licorice, Alice’s first pony, left a lasting impact on her. Not only did Licorice teach Alice how to ride a young prospect from the start, but her look—black with white socks—has been replicated in several of Alice’s dressage mounts since.
Alice’s mom found an ad for Licorice in a newspaper and requested a VHS tape of the pony. “Two weeks later we got a video of a girl jumping Licorice around a backyard. It was definitely cheaper to buy a green pony, so my mom bought him sight unseen, other than the video, and he was delivered to the field across the street from our house,” Alice said.
As a green rider on a green horse, Alice had to learn perseverance to stick with riding. “It was kind of horrible at times. I fell off a lot, but I still loved riding,” she said. “I didn’t have a formal riding education, but Licorice taught me that I had the ability to figure out what makes each horse tick.”
Perspective Change
With a Pony Club background, Alice gravitated towards eventing and did that through college. “I was a working student in high school. I saw the lady I worked for bring along some dressage horses and I was awestruck by how she was able to have that much power at her fingertips and communicate so well with each horse. From that moment on, it was my goal to start doing dressage seriously at some point,” she said.
“Some point” was delayed by Alice going to law school and subsequently passing the bar. Shortly thereafter, at age 27, she was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. “I was really sick for a while and couldn’t do much, so I began reading up on breeding warmbloods and dressage. I decided that I was going to buy a foal, wait three years and then do the 3-year-old materiale class at Dressage at Devon, because you didn’t have to qualify for that class. I never imagined I’d qualify for Devon as I didn’t have a Fourth Level horse—or a double bridle,” she said.
In 2009, Alice fulfilled her wish as she showed her Somer Hit at Devon. Not only did she show at Devon, she won the 3-year-old colt and gelding materiale. “It certainly exceeded my expectations, because I didn’t think I would be that competitive. I thought, If I can just go and ride there I will be happy. To be able to go and do well was quite surprising and very exciting,” Alice said.
Alice ended up taking Somet Hit to Devon two more times and then won the 6-Year-Old Markel/USEF Young Horse Dressage Championship in 2012. It was through Somer Hit that Alice truly realized how much she loved developing young dressage horses.
Sight Unseen
Alice’s true passion in life is training horses. “I love how it’s a constant puzzle to try to figure out how to explain to them what you want them to do. To have that kind of communication and build a partnership is so special. I also think it’s so cool that you never know what you’re going to get when you start developing a young horse,” she said. “It’s like Christmas morning each time.”
Most of the horses Alice buys are via videos on the internet. She doesn’t ride them until they are hers. “While I try to look for a horse with a certain type of mechanics, it’s really made me figure out how to train all types of horses, because I end up with all types of horses in my barn. Once they land in my barn, I’m like, ‘Alright, I’ve got to figure out how to train you,’” she said.
Alice doesn’t believe she’s taking a chance by purchasing horses she hasn’t sat on. “Even if they end up not being the exact horse I want to keep long term, I still learn so much from the process of training them. Each horse I train just adds more tools to the toolbox to use on the next one,” Alice said.
Buying untrained prospects allows Alice the chance to make her imprint on them from the start. “If you buy a trained horse, you’re going to untrain what they came knowing and retrain them to how you ride. I’d rather start with a clean slate,” she said. “I feel like I should be able to put proper training on them.”
When it comes to training horses, Alice believes the only wrong answer a horse can give her is no response. “The horse has to want to play the game. If I ask something, they have to give a response. If it’s a response I’m not expecting, then it’s my job as a trainer to figure out a way to get the response I was looking for,” Alice said. “That’s what I think is cool: Obviously they don’t speak English, but I have to figure out how to have a conversation with them to bring them along.”
Alice has owned several notable horses including Candescent, Donatella M, Harvest, Serenade MF and Jane. “Candescent made it to the short list for the Tokyo Olympics, Serenade was named first alternate for the 2022 FEI World Championships and Jane just went to the 2024 Paris Olympics with Marcus Orlob,” Alice said.
At the 2020 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions, Alice was the Markel/USEF Developing Grand Prix Dressage National Champion with her mare Donatella M, and Reserve Champion with her stallion Harvest. The following year at the 2022 Festival of Champions, she won the USEF Grand Prix Dressage National Championship with Serenade MF. The duo went on to win the CDI-W Grand Prix and Freestyle at the 2022 Dressage at Devon.
“I really enjoy the whole process, from buying to developing to selling. Sometimes I sell horses in the middle of their careers and it’s really fun to follow their careers and cheer them on when they do well. Then other times I sell them to more amateur schoolmaster-type homes and that’s really neat to know I planted the seed and gave them the education for their next career,” Alice said. “I love when it’s time for them to graduate and find their new homes, and then I can start with the next one.”
Unexpected Journey
For the first seven years Alice owned Jane, she developed the mare herself. However, that all changed in March 2024 when she handed the reins over to Marcus Orlob during one of their training sessions.
Marcus had begun helping Alice with her stallion Harvest in 2016 and steadily began riding more of Alice’s horses as needed, including Jane. “I didn’t do the young horse circuit with Jane because she was too strong, spooky, taking forever to train and not ready to compete. She’s very sweet and I enjoy riding her each day, she always wants to play the game, but she was frustrating as whatever she learned one ride she didn’t retain the next time you tacked her up,” Alice said.
Although Alice liked Jane’s hot temperament and eventually did the Developing and Medium tours, she felt like she could never put her leg on Jane, ride her in a forward manner and still be able to hold her in the bridle. She approached Marcus with this issue.
“He told me he’d get on and see if he could help me out. He’s so much stronger than I am that when he got on her, I was just like, Wow. When he told me to get back on and we could figure out how I could get the same response, I said, ‘No, she’s yours to ride. I’m done,’” Alice said. “Marcus told me don’t be grumpy, and I said, ‘I’m not being grumpy, I’m being realistic.’”
Alice realized that the horse needed miles in the ring, while being able to go forward, and Marcus was the rider to get it done. “I thought I could keep riding her in the ring underpowered or Marcus could give her what I couldn’t. Obviously, it worked out well,” Alice said. “The idea was just to get ring miles; it’s quite impressive that those miles took her to the Olympics.”
With a shortened timeline to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Marcus and Jane made the most of every time in the show ring. By their last qualifying competition in Kronberg, Germany, the duo scored 73.913% in the Grand Prix and a 75.340% in the Grand Prix Special.
Because Jane is a horse who’s very reactive to the environment and crowds, Alice was a bit concerned when she saw how Jane and the other horses had to get from the warm-up to the arena at the Palace of Versailles at the Olympics. “The night before she competed, I told someone, ‘She’s going to be fine in the warm-up, we’re going to pull her boots and then we have to get her into the ring with all the crowd noise. That’s where her weakness is going to be,’” Alice said.
Unfortunately, Alice’s premonition was spot on. Jane nicked her right hind fetlock while entering the ring and was eliminated mid test because the judge at C spotted blood. As a result of Jane’s elimination, the entry and exit protocol was changed the following day.
“Even though it was abbreviated, it was such a cool experience to have a horse at the Olympics. Showing has never been a huge goal of mine, but it’s a way to keep you honest about how good your training is. If the scores are good, you can keep going; if the scores are low, you go home and train your horse to be a little bit better,” Alice said. “I may not be a goal person, but the Olympics is an experience I will never forget.”
While Marcus still has Jane’s reins, Alice is hard at work starting a new group of young horses. “I’ll have everything from a 2-year-old all the way up to some 7- and 8-year-olds. So, the next year will be mostly training all of them at home,” she said “The future looks like more of the same for me. I love training horses.”
And Alice’s future will be bright. “I’ve always thought I was easygoing, but after you get a cancer diagnosis you just have to value every minute you live no matter how horrible or good it is,” she said. “I try not to be very emotional about it and not worry about the little things, because at the end of the day they are so insignificant. The only thing that really matters in life is that you’re alive and hopefully in good health. Living through cancer has put everything in perspective: It’s a privilege just to wake up every morning and go to sleep each night.”
Photos by Melissa Fuller, melissafullerphotography33.mypixieset.com
