As many of you know, I went to Lendon Gray and Dressage4Kids’ Winter Intensive Training (WIT) Program in 2020 and 2021. The WIT program is where Lendon chooses around a dozen people under 26 years old to train with her in Wellington, Florida for 3 months. In addition to lessons, the participants are responsible for their horse’s care and have a lecture and fitness training almost every day, among many other responsibilities and events.
This post is part one of a series of posts about WIT 2021. In these, I will be writing about preparing, participating, and experiencing what WIT has to offer. In this post, I will take you through my experience of preparing for WIT 2021, starting with the application process, all the way up through arriving in and the experience of Wellington.
The Application
Year 1
The first time I applied was summer 2019. I had been doing research since April to try and understand the program and convince my parents to let me apply (I was 13). I spent many hours talking with former WITees, searching online, and trying to research out as much as I could, to persuade them to let me apply.
Finally, I started my application. The first part of the application was fairly straightforward. It asked you your name, age, a little bit about your horse, etc. Towards the middle of the application, you are asked about school, whether you have housing and transportation, and your plans to show or not show. Most of those questions I wrote a few sentences to a paragraph. The last few questions are about your goals for the future, how you would stand out, and why you should be selected. I wrote long, large paragraphs for each of those, and spent hours writing, editing, and revising. The last part of the application was to submit a video of you riding. My trainer and I worked together to create a pattern for us to ride, and set aside a day to film. The video went well, so we submitted it. I was so nervous, I think I got maybe 3 hours of sleep that night. I got the acceptance letter about 4 days later.
Year 2
The second time through I was less in my head about it. I had saved my responses from last year, so I used them as a template to write my new paragraphs. The video was also a lot less stressful for me. We were testing out some of my instructor’s old freestyle music, and I was improvising a pattern as we went along. I never intended for that day to be when we were going to film, but my instructor got a video of us riding, and I was really happy with it, so we submitted it. I got the acceptance letter about 3 weeks later.
Preparations:
There is so much to do to prep for WIT. You get many forms to fill out, emails to read, and a whole handbook to study. You also need to figure out how you are going to get to Florida, and to start packing. Lots and lots of packing.
Forms
Before you leave for Wellington, you will need to fill out multiple release forms (for Lendon, for D4K, and for the farm), a set of medical consent forms, and a questionnaire about you ,your horse, your current riding status, and your goals.
Emails
In addition to Lendon’s frequent emails to the WITees (what she called the WIT participants) with information about the program, the farm, and what we need to know in advance, you will need to have lots of communication with all of the professionals associated with your horse. The WITees themselves also often converse, sharing info about themselves and their horses. Then there are the MANY emails sent in reply to your questions. Lendon was probably sick of seeing my name in her inbox by the time WIT started.
WIT Stable Management Handbook
In mid-November, the stable manager and Lendon send a whole series of messages about WIT. These include a list of your fellow WITees, and the Stable Management Handbook. In this handbook, the Stable Manager provides us with her expectations for the program, a daily and weekly guide, some information about the barn, a guide for preparing to travel, and a packing list.
Preparation for travel
There are lots of different ways to get a horse to Florida, including trailering it down yourself and hiring a professional shipper. For Harmony, we chose the latter, though that still left the question of when and to where. The Leah-Harmony team (myself, my trainer, the barn manager, and my parents) looked at a bunch of options before settling on one plan. Some of the early versions of our travel plans were Harmony and I leaving and arriving in Florida at the same time (though winter in New England means you cannot always count on travel timing going as planned), Harmony going early and getting a fellow WITee to care for her until I arrived, or Harmony staying at another barn in Florida to acclimate . Finally we decided on the last one and set a plan for her to spend the week of Christmas with a friend who we sometimes train with, then my mom and I would arrive and we would all take her to the WIT barn. We organized her transportation, set up a vet and farrier, got her health and coggins certificates updated and packed everything.
Packing
In the aforementioned Stable Management Handbook, there is a suggested packing list. We took this list and used it as a baseline. We took out some things we didn’t need, and added a few. Space is very limited at the WIT barn, so we carefully selected each item with a plan on how to make it the smallest and most convenient version of itself.
Because Harmony was leaving before I was, we packed in 2 stages. To go with Harmony, we packed her immediately important things first: a few pads and wraps, tack, feed, basic medical supplies, etc. Once she left, we packed the rest (most)of her stuff: show supplies, blankets, the rest of her tack, and some other things that she has but doesn’t get used everyday. All of this packing took many days, lots of lists, a large cork-board, an entire stall used to organize everything, and many small bags and containers. We had a plan to sort everything into little boxes and bags inside the trunk to make it easier to pack and organize. We had already sorted most of what we planned to pack, so it took very little time to pack everything. Fortunately, it all fit in my mom’s car (with a little room left over for human luggage and supplies). We left on the 27th of December, and arrived in Florida with the rest of our stuff on the 28th.
If you want to learn more about WIT, and all of the other incredible programs from Dressage 4 Kids, click here.
Stay tuned for part 2!
Leah Drew 