By Laura Scaletti
Portraits by Sara Farrell
From her first time on a pony, Ruth Hogan Poulsen has been enthralled with all things equine. “My dad worked with a woman who was a Connemara breeder. One day, they had a meeting at her farm and my mom and I tagged along and I ended up getting a pony ride. By the end of that first ride, I was riding around saying, ‘Look mom, no hands,’” Ruth said. “I was 5 at the time and immediately fell in love with horses and riding.”
Since that first ride, Ruth has participated in a variety of equestrian disciplines—competitive trail rides, Pony Club, 4-H, eventing, hunters, jumpers, equitation and dressage. “I was OK at everything, but not great at anything. When I was in my 20s, I was competing at the Preliminary Level at an event and every time I landed off one of the cross-country jumps, I just kept thinking about my dressage horse’s legs. I was very conservative! My coach, Denny Emerson, told me, ‘If you’re going to ride like that over these fences, you should pick another discipline’,” Ruth said.
Ruth didn’t make dressage her discipline of choice until she moved to Pennsylvania to become a working student. After visiting several eventing and dressage barns, Ruth settled on becoming a working student at a dressage barn and that sealed the deal.
“I had always done well with jumpers, but once I really started focusing on dressage, I just fell in love with the entire process and journey. The relationship that dressage cultivates, by using biomechanics and applying that to help horses understand how to use their body, is different than any other relationship I’ve had with horses,” she said.
Since becoming a professional in 1990, Ruth has been long-listed by the USET multiple times and has been awarded the USDF Bronze, Silver and Gold Medals as well as the USDF Freestyle Gold Bar. All with distinction. She also runs three businesses—Poulsen Dressage, her teaching and training business which splits the year between Plainfield, Vermont, and Wellington, Florida; East Hill Farm in Plainfield, Vermont, a boarding and training facility that stays open all year to serve the equestrian community in New England; and Freestyles from A to C. She is also an author.
Mighty Mentors
After graduating from college, Ruth decided she wanted to go to Florida to experience its dressage scene. “I found a job in the The Chronicle of the Horse that said if I cared for their two horses, they would provide room and board for me and my horse. At the time, I thought, What more could I need?” Ruth said. “I needed a lot more.”
Ruth was also grooming for Jane Savoie at the time. “Jane had been an instructor of mine through my teenage and college years. Once I came down to Florida, I found that Robert Dover also needed a person at his farm, so I became that person for two years while also working for Jane,” she said.
Working for Jane and Robert opened Ruth’s eyes to what was possible for her future. “When I first decided to go out on my own as a trainer, it was risky, of course; but I’m a very hard worker, had good basics and could help a lot of different kinds of horses and riders at different levels. After working for Jane and Robert for several years, I thought, OK, I have a lot more skills now. I can make a living doing this,” she said.
“One of Jane’s favorite quotes was, ‘If you can dream it, you can do it.’ She taught me about teaching details, step-by-step processes, teaching people who don’t have feel and teaching horses that don’t have natural ability. She was a master of breaking things down into smaller segments to teach both horse and rider how to do this or that,” Ruth said. “I worked hand in hand with her for 30 years.”
If you’ve ever flipped through any of Jane’s books, such as “Cross Train Your Horse” or “Your Guide to a Happy Horse,” the rider demonstrating the concepts was frequently Ruth. “We worked on so many projects together. I always enjoyed the biomechanics of the rider and horse and talked to Jane about working on a position program together,” Ruth said.
Ruth and Jane created “Program Your Position,” a program that teaches riders to use a simple set of buzz words or “anchors” to “program” their position corrections quickly and easily. “It was really my baby, but we paired up together like we had on many other projects, because having two people working on something is always better than one,” Ruth said.
Today, Ruth continues to follow in the footsteps of Jane and has published “The Dressage Rider’s Journal,” “The Jumper Rider’s Journal” and “Dressage Freestyle Choreography Composition Book,” and created the program Riding With Soul.
Training for All
Ruth’s dressage students compete at all levels from Intro to Young Riders to FEI. They range from a para rider who was the reserve rider for the Tokyo Olympics to Junior/Young Riders to ladies of a certain age who aren’t interested in competing but want to ride and be better each day. Ruth’s professional jumper riders are currently competing at the four- and five-star level, and their students also work on their dressage with Ruth weekly during the winter months.
“The reason I’m there teaching the jumpers is to help them understand their horses’ biomechanics and strengths and weaknesses so that they can have a more adjustable, straighter and ridable horse when they jump. To be clear, I am not teaching them how to jump. I’m helping them supple, straighten, compress and expand, and help the rideability between the jumps, so they can do their job more efficiently,” Ruth said.
Ruth lives by two big principles when it comes to her training philosophy: The horse must seek the contact, and the horse should conform to the boundary you provide. “While those are my two big pieces of my philosophy, I work with each horse/rider combination to figure out their strengths and weaknesses. Then I help horses and riders work in the most harmonious and productive way possible,” Ruth said. “I’m not a shortcut gadget person; I feel slow and steady wins the race. It may take some time, but I try to teach each horse and rider in the way they need to progress.”
Ruth doesn’t care if a rider is just getting started or is at the top of the sport, being part of their journey and success brings her great joy. “I enjoy the process of either a rider teaching something to their horse or teaching something to a rider that their horse already knows and watching them leave the arena giggling and smiling. I don’t care if I’m teaching a rider how to bend their elbows to keep their hands quiet at the posting trot or figuring out why a five-star jumper more often pulls a rail in a combination off the left,” she said.
With her own experience jumping, Ruth truly sees the benefit of cross training jumpers and focusing on flatwork to help them improve in their jumper rounds. “A jumper course is 10% air time and 90% flatwork. Since I’ve done it myself, I feel like I have a better understanding of how to help these jumpers feel good about their ‘flat days.’ Instead of just hacking around, I give the riders projects to notice how their horses move, look at trends—does the horse pull rails off left-hand turns more than right? After we do this analysis, they’re able to do the homework to strengthen their horse’s weak side or supple the stiff side, and hopefully have more clear rounds,” Ruth said.
Ruth also uses her knowledge of horse and rider biomechanics for her training and coaching of her para rider Charlotte Merle-Smith. “I knew Charlotte, as a good young event rider, prior to a four-wheeler accident that left her paralyzed from the waist down. Once she began competing in para dressage, she would come work with me in Wellington for a week or two before some of the CPEDI international shows. She made so much progress during those brief periods, she decided to ride with me full time,” Ruth said.
Learning how to achieve balance and harmony with a relaxed, beautiful topline at the FEI level with a rider who doesn’t have use of their legs was a challenge that fell right into Ruth’s wheelhouse. “Over the years, we’ve had to think outside of the box to train her horses to respond to different aids. For example, how do you leg yield when you can’t use your legs to push a horse over? It’s been a great success and challenge to train both the horses and Charlotte to get to where she wants in the para dressage world,” Ruth said.
The duo was so successful in thinking outside of the box that Charlotte traveled to Europe as the reserve rider for Tokyo. For the three weeks leading up to Tokyo, Ruth and Charlotte trained with the team, ready to fill in at a moment’s notice. “As the reserve rider, it was a great experience. Charlotte had never traveled across the pond with a horse, so it was a great situation for her to learn how to handle all the logistics and be part of the team environment,” Ruth said.
Choreography Queen
Growing up, bluegrass music filled Ruth’s house as her parents played their instruments. Their love for music encouraged Ruth to learn to play the piano, flute and saxophone. When musical freestyle became popular in the late 1980s, Ruth was fascinated by combining her love of music and dressage into one performance.
“When I started creating musical freestyles, the best technology I had was a dual cassette player that you pressed stop and go, over and over, until you had a decent cut. When I decided to try for the Pan Am Games in the late ’90s, I needed a freestyle. I made my own and it won at Devon! People were totally enamored with my freestyle, and I loved doing it, so I started making them for myself and my friends,” Ruth said. “It became a little bit of side gig and a hobby.”
Since starting her Freestyles from A to C LLC, Ruth has been designing and choreographing freestyles that have been ridden at every level of the USDF Championships, World Equestrian Games, U.S. Dressage Finals and more. “I do limit myself to creating five or so freestyles, for clients or students, in a year because they really take a lot of time. But I love doing them,” she said.
For the past 20 years, Ruth has been the choreographer and head coach for Team Winged Foot at the annual Challenge of Americas quadrille freestyle benefit for breast cancer research. “It’s one of the most fun nights of the year because every team has six Grand Prix riders. When I’m choreographing for this event, I must consider every horse and every rider while also considering what the judges and spectators want to see, including costumes,” Ruth said.
Giving Back
Ruth provides educational resources for riders who don’t have access to regular teaching and training. She’s written for numerous horse magazines and currently puts out a monthly newsletter that breaks down concepts in sequential articles. “I feel like through this work, I’m carrying on a little bit of Jane’s legacy of putting good information out there for people who otherwise might not have access to it,” Ruth said. “I’m not out there just to make my own students happy; I want to help anyone who wants to learn.”
Ruth credits her incredible staff with allowing her to juggle so many roles and responsibilities. “Between my working students and my assistant trainer, I feel like we are a little family. I cook dinner for my girls three or four nights a week. It’s not mandatory, but if they want to have a good dinner, hang out and watch a movie, they always have a seat,” Ruth said.
It’s this commitment to providing opportunities to others that sets Ruth apart. “My parents were very supportive of my riding, but I had to work for everything to get to where I am today. This sport is becoming even more expensive, so I want to give these young people a chance to grow their education,” she said.
Ruth doesn’t see her horse lifestyle changing anytime soon. “My girls joke around that I have another good 20 years left in the industry. I don’t think I’ll be good at retirement, so they may be right,” she chuckled. “It’s a hard way to make a living, but I love what I do.”
Visit Ruth’s website at ruthhoganpoulsen.com, her riding center at easthillfarm.org and on Facebook at Ruth Hogan Poulsen and Ruth Hogan-Poulsen Dressage LLC and on Instagram @Ruth Hogan-Poulsen and on Amazon at The Dressage Rider’s Journal
Photos by Sara Farrell, www.threeredheadsandamoose.com
