By Laura Scaletti
Grit, grace, gumption. For fourth-generation equestrian Addison Reed, these characteristics are in her DNA. As the daughter of Derek and Sulu Rose Reed, Addison has spent hour upon hour at the family farm in Mechanicsville, Virginia, watching, learning and absorbing everything she could as her parents have run their Reed Training and Sales business.
“I was really lucky to be born into an equestrian family. My mom and dad have both been in the industry for a long time. My grandmother, Gail Thompson, worked for the Shah in Iran and trained the Iranian show jumping team. My great grandfather was chef d’equipe of the Canadian show jumping team,” Addison said. “Although my dad wasn’t born into a professional horse family, he forged his own path, which took him to Germany to further his skills.” 
Although her lineage may suggest she was destined for a career in horses, Addison was never forced to take on the family business. “She’s always been part of the barn, but we never made it a chore for her to ride. We didn’t want her to view riding as something she had to do,” Sulu said.
As fate and DNA would have it, once Addison sat in the saddle, she fell in love with horses. In December 2022, as soon as she completed her Junior years, Addison turned professional and officially joined Reed Training and Sales as a rider.
Getting Started
Addison sat on her first pony when she was a year old; however, it wasn’t until she was 4 years old that she had a pony she could call her own. “My grandma got me a pony named Little Bit. She was old and sweet, and I was happy just bee-bopping around on her,” Addison said.
If you frequented horse shows in Virginia in the early 2000s, you likely saw Addison and Little Bit on their daily strolls. “I would drag Little Bit to every horse show. I’d get on my big Grand Prix horse, Gannon, and Addison would follow us all around the show grounds,” Sulu said.
It was while riding Little Bit at home that Addison made a proclamation that showed her grit as a horsewoman. While the family was riding in the back ring, several neighbor kids came to visit and get up close and personal with the horses. “As Addison trotted past them, one of the kids reached out to pet Little Bit on the butt; she wasn’t expecting it, spooked and Addison fell off. I was panicking because Derek and I were both on horses and her foot was stuck in the stirrup,” Sulu said. “When I got over to Addison and asked if she was OK, she matter-of-factly said, ‘Yes. If you’re going to ride, you’re going to get dragged on your head sometimes.’ She got up, dusted herself off and got back on the pony.”
After spending quality time learning perseverance at home and riding around the show grounds, Addison was ready to make her way into the show ring herself on her Short Stirrup pony, Playing Possum. “Showing him is what got me started and made me fall in love with the sport. It was exciting to be able to go show like I’d been watching my family do for so many years,” Addison said.
From Possum, Addison moved on to Pickpocket, a tiny white pony who loved to torment her. Although he didn’t buck or stop, he had a bit of naughtiness in him that always kept Addison on her toes.
“We were in Ocala watching Addison have the trip of her life,” Sulu said. “As she came to the last line, Pickpocket decided to make his own path and go around the palm tree at the end of the ring, instead of staying on the inside. He was so naughty all you could do was laugh.”
Incidents like Pickpocket choosing his own path would cause others to ask Sulu and Derek why they didn’t get Addison nicer, easier ponies and horses to ride. “Addison just loved all horses and ponies, it didn’t matter to her if they were the best or not. She was never put on anything dangerous; however, I think giving her the opportunity to ride more challenging animals kept her interested in the sport,” Sulu said. “She really likes having to think when she’s riding and gets along with whatever you put her on. I think that comes from not always getting easy rides growing up.”
Not only did Sulu and Derek teach Addison what it was like to be a competitor and rider, they also taught her what it was like to be a real horsewoman out of the tack. At an early age, she learned how to tack up and care for her own ponies and horses. “The foundation my parents gave me is so valuable. I think everyone should know how to be a hands-on horse person, because you never know when you might run into an issue and you’re the only one in the barn to handle it,” Addison said.
As a child, Addison not only saw the barn as a place to learn and hang out with ponies, she saw it as a giant playground and couldn’t get enough barn time. “When my best friend, Delaney, and I were younger, as soon as lessons were done, it would be time for us to go home. We’d always run off and play in the rings, woods or stalls. We’d go anywhere that we could make a mess or thought would get us just a few more minutes in the barn,” Addison said. “We did that for years.”
Choosing a Path
Much like Pickpocket took an unconventional path around the palm tree in Ocala, Addison followed her own path into the jumper ring. “I did the pony hunters for quite a few years; I had my own ponies and would catch ride some, but the pony hunters never really had my heart. Instead of doing the pony hunters on my pony, Stormy Weather, I started doing the .65m jumpers on him at HITS Ocala in 2013,” Addison said. “I turned my medium pony hunter into a pony jumper.”
Addison believes growing up in a hunter-jumper barn with a larger focus on the jumper side fueled her own desire to venture into the ring with colored rails and timers. “From the time I was a little kid, I loved to watch the Grand Prix each week. I always envisioned that one day, I would be jumping in the Grand Prix myself,” Addison said.
With a solid background in both hunters and jumpers, Addison appreciates both disciplines. “I think there is a beauty in the preciseness of putting together a perfect round and aiming for a score of 100 in the hunter ring. However, I like to go fast and jump high. I think there’s a lot of fun in the ‘chaos’ that’s the jumper ring. It’s different every time and keeps you on your toes,” she said.
While Addison knew jumpers were her “thing” from an early age, she was active in the hunter, jumper and equitation rings throughout her Junior career. “When I was 13, I started to take equitation more seriously. As my Junior years started to tick away, I focused harder on the equitation classes as I ran out of time,” Addison said.
In 2019, Addison captured two equitation championship wins with Bridget Phillips’ Dreamland. The first was in Ocala at the HITS Equitation Championship, where riders walk the course and school themselves while their trainers sit in the stand. The second victory was at Addison’s “hometown show” Deep Run, when she won the Bryan Trophy Horsemanship Class. “Dreamland was such a special horse. It was so kind of Bridget to share him with me for all the years she did,” Addison said.
When Addison’s last Junior year came around in 2022, her equitation mount was her mom’s 6-year-old Quidambar Van De Vondal. Together they won the Bryan Trophy and the Zone 3 Equitation Championship. “It was really fun to win those classes at shows I grew up attending,” Addison said.
Prepared to take the young horse to equitation finals, Addison got a pleasant surprise when renowned equitation trainer Andre Dignelli reached out to Sulu to see if Addison had a horse for finals. “We had worked with him, when my friend Agnes Hahn leased my horse Charon for the 2022 show year. After Andre saw us at Young Riders in Michigan, he called to see what my plan was for finals. My young horse wasn’t the most suitable for finals, so when Andre said he had an older horse available, we worked together and made it happen,” Addison said.
With the help of Andre, his team at Heritage Farm and mount Janus Union, Addison came home with a ribbon at both USEF Hunter Seat Medal Finals and Maclay Finals. “It was such a great experience working with everyone at Heritage. They were kind, very generous, welcomed me so nicely and gave me great opportunities while I was there,” Addison said. “It was really interesting to get a glimpse into a program that has produced so many winners.”
Full Circle
At the 2021 Lexington Spring Premiere horse show at the Virginia Horse Center, Addison’s dream of competing in a Grand Prix finally came true with her partner Goliath. With the course set by one of the world’s most respected jumper course designers, Steve Stephens, and her mom also competing, it was destined to be a memorable night. “I told her, ‘This is your first Grand Prix, we are both doing it, Steve Stephens is the course designer—this is going to be awesome,’” Sulu said.
Having grown up showing and hanging out at the Horse Center, Addison felt like it was a full-circle moment. “I felt prepared when I walked into the ring; I wasn’t doing it just to say I had done a Grand Prix,” she said. At the end of the first round, there was one clear round and Addison was the fastest four-faulter. “I finished up second and mom was sixth. It was pretty cool to do that with her and have my first Grand Prix be such a great result,” Addison said.
Sulu agrees it was a magical night. “It was really fun for her to get a ribbon in her first Grand Prix, because for most people, when they start doing the Grand Prix there is a lot of failure that happens before they end up having success. For Addison to come out of the gate and have success as a Junior rider was really nice,” Sulu said.
Another thing that made the Grand Prix debut sweet was that Addison did it on her trusty partner Goliath, whom she started riding in 2019. The first summer the duo was together, they won the Zone 3 and 4 Low Junior Jumper Team and Individual Finals.
“Goliath and I have now been together for about five years and we’ve really learned the sport and worked up the levels together. We won our first Grand Prix together last summer, finished the 2023 winter circuit at WEC by finishing seventh in the $100,000 Wheels Up Grand Prix, won the Lexington Spring Premiere Welcome Class and Lexington Spring Encore Welcome Class,” Addison said.
Just like Goliath’s always been there for Addison as she’s moved up in the sport, so have her parents. That’s why the decision to go professional came so easily for her. “I’ve always ridden customer horses and been part of the family business, so to keep doing that, I had to go professional. It’s been a very smooth transition; I don’t really feel like much has changed except now my catch riding is done in a business manner,” Addison said.
At Reed Training and Sales, it’s a team effort to get the best results possible for the Reed family and the larger barn family. “We all ride, train and do horse care. I mostly take on the role of rider, but I also help with teaching the kids on ponies. I do whatever needs to be done around the barn,” Addison said.
It’s this willingness to help each other that Addison believes is a benefit to being a family business. “We truly care about each other’s success. While we are each hungry for our own success, we want to see it for each other and our clients,” she said.
Addison credits her family for her own rise in the sport. “My family does everything they possibly can to support me, encourage me to ride my best and be as successful as I can be. They’ve always been very encouraging of my riding,” she said. “We work together quite well and have fun doing what we do.”
As a fresh face in the professional ranks, Addison is looking forward to bringing her young horse, Rikki Tikki Tavi, through the ranks and would like to start jumping some of her more experienced horses—Goliath, Doc Di Villigana and Doirin Clover Boy—in the two-star and three-star classes this year. “I’d like to keep riding, learning and producing good horses along the way that are safe and kind,” she said.
“It’s fun and refreshing to say I’m a professional. I’m really excited about this next chapter of my life,” Addison said. “But I’ve just opened the chapter.”
Follow Addison on Instagram @_addison_reed
Photos by Melissa Fuller, melissafullerphotography33.mypixieset.com
