By Laura Scaletti
Portraits by Lauren Ann Wagner
As Greylin Booth watched riders tackle the Sea Forest Cross Country Course at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, she was mesmerized. Although the Pacific Ocean separated her from the action, Greylin was immediately drawn to the connections she saw between horse and rider on her television screen.
“I was seeing these jaw-dropping moments where the horse and rider would conquer such crazy technical combinations, especially obstacles like down banks or water combinations, which are very strange coming from the hunter-jumper world,” Greylin said. “It looked so difficult, gritty and fun. I just wanted to get out there and do it!”
At the time, Greylin was competing in the equitation ring and felt like she was at a stagnant part of her equitation journey. “I was in between horses, my lease had ended and we were having trouble finding something new. While in this period of limbo, it felt natural to go out of my comfort zone and try something new,” she said.
Less than a month after watching the Olympics, Greylin officially made the switch to eventing at the end of August 2021. A quick study in the sport, Greylin finished the 2024 season as the top ranked Young Rider at the two-star/Preliminary level nationally on the U.S. Eventing Association leaderboard.
Finding Her Passion
Greylin first sat on a horse while visiting her dad’s family in Kent, England, during summer vacation. “My mom had grown up riding American Saddlebreds until she was in high school. Since she knew how expensive and time-consuming horses were, she tried to get me into pretty much every other sport beside riding,” Greylin chuckled. “It was during our family vacation that I finally convinced her to let me take some pony lessons. I loved my first lesson and ended up going every day for our entire six-week stay!”
Once Greylin and her family got home to San Francisco, she began taking weekly hunter lessons at Sonoma Horse Park, a 45-minute drive from her house. After getting a good riding foundation, Greylin moved to Sonoma Vally Stables where she trained with Ned Glynn and Heather Rhodes.
Under Heather’s guidance, Greylin moved up to the 3’3” equitation classes. Although she didn’t know it at the time, the skills Greylin worked on during her four years of doing equitation would carry over to eventing. “There are a lot of similarities between the two. I think the idea that less is more when riding, especially while jumping, holds true even when you’re going a bit faster. It’s still important to have a beautifully balanced, obedient horse to jump and flat around,” she said. “Equitation and eventing are really similar that way. One of my favorite cross-country sayings is ‘smooth is fast!’ Those in the equitation ring definitely have ‘smooth’ down.”
While Greylin’s background helped her understand the idea of pace, impulsion and stride length, which are all critical to cross-country success, developing confidence in the gallop took time. “It took me a year to really feel confident I could speed things up successfully. I had to get confident that I had brakes as well as a gas pedal, so I had a lot of time faults in the beginning,” she said. “Even now, although I’m comfortable going faster, I try to pay more attention to how my horse feels underneath me than to my watch.”
Because Greylin had jumped up to 1.0m in the equitation ring, she was able to start competing in eventing relatively quickly thanks to Andrea Pfieffer and Chocolate Horse Farm. Four months after changing disciplines, Greylin got her first eventing horse, Extra Eager, and by February 2022 she began competing.
Greylin was in for a bit of culture shock at her first competition. “Unlike hunter-jumper competitions where there are no real set ride times, eventing is very scheduled! You’re given ride times and you’re eliminated if you’re late. My first dressage test was at 8:45 a.m. and everything took longer than we expected—braiding, walking to the ring, etc.—so I ended up getting to the warmup ring at 8:40 a.m. I thought we could just bump back a few riders, but Andrea was like, ‘Well, you might leave yourself more warm-up time next time. Trot on over there and do your best,’” Greylin said. “So, I had to go in with almost no warm-up, which, on a tense OTTB, isn’t a great recipe for success.”
By that fall, Greylin competed in her first FEI competition in the one-star at Tryon International Equestrian Center. “It was my first international competition, my first time competing on the East Coast, and I ended up having my personal best in all three phases, despite the hurricane that swept through and delayed cross-country by a day,” Greylin said. “We took 14th overall, out of 45, in a field of fancy-moving warmbloods with my little OTTB who typically doesn’t score below a 35 in dressage because he gets so excited for cross-country. It was quite the adventure!”
Extra Eager was the perfect name for Greylin’s first eventing horse, as he truly made her eager to work to advance in the sport. “He took great care of me while I was learning the craft of eventing from the beginning. I feel very lucky to have started with him,” she said.
Sharing the Sport
As Greylin was finding her way in the world of eventing, she was joined by her mom, Jen Fetner. While Jen had enjoyed riding as child, she let her passion lay dormant for a long time. It wasn’t until she saw how much fun Greylin was having galloping cross-country that she decided she could no longer just be a spectator on the sidelines.
“The eventing community both at Chocolate Horse Farm but also beyond is so unusual and fun; I’m very grateful Greylin chose to explore it,” Jen said. “It’s been wonderful to dig into such a complex and nuanced sport, and the three disciplines keep it interesting—if you feel stagnant in one, you can focus on another and they all interrelate.”
“Andrea had an awesome older Intermediate horse, Louie, up for lease and my mom said yes to leasing him,” Greylin said. “Over two years, he took her from never having jumped to Training Level, which is 3’3”. Once she got back into the sport, she was all in and she now helps support me in a million different ways, from grooming to fitness rides to bodywork and nutrition. She loves the horses as much as I do and gives them the best care.”
From Greylin’s very first time in the saddle in England, Jen has been along for the ride. “She’s taught me the importance of hard work, patience and also to have faith and confidence in myself and the training I’ve put in,” Greylin said. “My mom is a great horsewoman who taught me how to really listen and learn from the horses, figure out what they need and how they thrive. It’s from her that I learned the time in the barn is just as important as the time in the saddle.”
Not only has Jen helped Greylin strengthen her bonds with her horses, their mother-daughter bond has gotten even closer as they share their love for horses. “She’s the reason I’m able to ride at the level I do. She’s my biggest cheerleader and psychologist at shows, and helps with a ton of my horses’ care since often my ride times are close with two horses in the same division,” Greylin said.
“I’m so incredibly grateful for this shared passion with Greylin,” Jen said. “We always have something fun to discuss—and lots of car time to do so!—but at the end of the day, I really just love watching her ride. It’s rewarding to see your kid deeply in flow doing something they love.”
After Jen graduated from Louie, she took the reins of Extra Eager. However, with goals of competing Preliminary in the future and Extra Eager being 16 this year and coming back from a previous injury, all involved thought it was best to find a young horse who could help Jen make it to the upper levels.
Andrea found Jen a 6-year-old, Apollo, a flashy chestnut with four white socks, who is incredibly smart and mellow. Jen rides Apollo two to three times a week, mostly flatting, while Greylin does the rest. “The current plan is for me to put miles and education on him this year in competition and then we’ll see where we are,” Greylin said.
“Greylin and I both feel immense gratitude to Andrea Pfeiffer. She’s a gifted teacher who can unlock worlds for you. Andrea is one of the best I’ve ever experienced in any aspect of my life,” Jen said.
Horses First
Now that Greylin is an active member of the eventing community, she gets to experience the close bond between horse and rider that initially caught her attention as she watched the 2020 Olympics. “I still think it’s incredible how horse and rider can go out cross-country, on varied terrain, and compete together, making split-second decisions basically as one brain. I’m so happy to be part of a community that strives for that close bond, based in trust between horse and rider,” she said.
Greylin closed out the 2024 show season at the two-star-long at Galway Downs with her horses Modesto RE, aka Shark, and Quick Quinn. Shark finished first in the U25 and fourth overall, and Quinn finished third in the U25 and 12th overall. “Both horses were double clear on cross-country and so confident, which is what I’m happiest about. They are both 8 years old this year; in eventing this is very young, as eventers often peak in their late teens. I truly hope they will have long, happy and amazing careers,” she said. “That’s my number one goal.”
Shark taught Greylin the importance of doing her training homework and building up his confidence prior to focusing on competing. “Shark’s answer to harder questions in the beginning was to go bigger. He has plenty of scope, so that works for a while, but as you go up the levels, the questions get really wide. So, Andrea helped me understand that’s not the response we want in a young horse and we intentionally dropped him down after moving up to Preliminary last year to show him that every time he heads out on cross-country it isn’t going to feel harder,” Greylin said. “It’s been fun to have some success with him now that we’ve done our homework and worked on rideability.”
While Shark is a bouncing ball of energy, Quinn can be both hot and lazy. “He’s longer in every way—legs, back, neck and his stride—so packaging him up appropriately took some learning. He’s got a massive stride, and I can sometimes safely leave a stride out on cross-country and it actually works better,” Greylin said. “Quinn loves to be the center of attention, and he literally gets jealous if I go get Shark out first.”
Greylin believes that no matter what your discipline is, you and your horse are a team and a team is only as strong as the weakest link. “It’s so important that all team members are getting what they need to feel and perform their best, mentally and physically. You have to surround yourself with amazing support in the form of a trainer, vet team, farrier and program,” she said. “I need to really understand what my horses prefer tack wise, fitness wise, mentally and in our training.”
To further strengthen her connection with her horses, Greylin takes time to notice their patterns both on the ground and in the saddle to understand how they think and learn. “This kind of deep connection, partnership and understanding is so vital in all three phases of eventing: in dressage to get the good scores and achieve harmony, and in show jumping and cross-country for both safety and success,” she said.
Gap Year
While moving up the ranks in eventing, Greylin has been attending school in person full time. “I have been balancing pretty intense in-person school as well as training five times or more a week. I live in San Francisco and my barn is 50 minutes north in Petaluma and my high school, where I am a senior this year, is 50 minutes south in Hillsborough, so I do a lot of commuting,” she said.
Thanks to a lot of hard work and determination, Greylin has been excelling in both the ring and the classroom. In December, she was accepted early into Stanford University. “I’m incredibly grateful that Stanford let me defer my enrollment to the class of 2030, so I will be starting in the fall of 2026. This next year and a half I plan to fully immerse myself in training with both Shark and Quinn while also working with Apollo,” she said.
Greylin plans to spend 2025 doing a lot of learning and competing on the West Coast. “The USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC) are at Galway Downs in August, so I’ll aim for an educational year at Intermediate then AEC and then possibly a move up to the four-star-short or aim for a beefy three-star-long somewhere like Fair Hill. The horses will let me know when we’re ready,” she said.
She’s also considering moving to the East Coast or UK for three to six months to train next January. “I think both from a personal and riding perspective, it will help me grow to experience life and competition outside of California,” Greylin said. “I’d love to try and run a four-star-long before I start at Stanford, but that will only happen if all three of us are feeling ready. There is so much work, patience and luck needed for us to get there.”
Once fall 2026 comes around, Greylin is ready to go all in on her collegiate experience. “I’m interested in lots of different paths at Stanford at the moment, with an emphasis on math and physics and potentially engineering. My hope is to keep competing and moving up while I’m at school, but it will depend on where my horses are in their competition timeline and what they need at the time,” she said. “I also want to feel I can truly immerse myself in the Stanford community and have a real college experience. Beyond that, I know horses will always be in my future. They are home to me, and I can’t imagine a world without them.”
For more information follow Greylin on Instagram @daysanddaysofgrey
Photos by Lauren Ann Wagner, laurenannphoto.art
