Charlotte Jacobs has spent four summers competing in the Traverse City Horse Shows. She grew up in Buffalo, New York, where equestrian became her passion at a young age.
“I came from a horse family. My dad was a top rider for the U.S. team. He jumped at some of the biggest shows in the world. My mom was a top groom for team USA. they met through that. And so, I grew up in a horse family and grew up on my grandparent’s farm in eastern New York and Wellington, Florida,” said Charlotte Jacobs.
If you didn’t grow up around horses or an equestrian family, you might not realize the endless amount of hours and hard work that goes into each show these athletes attend.
“I mean, I think a lot of people see it and they’re just like, oh, what an amazing horse or what an amazing, you know, they see sort of the highlight reel of it. They don’t see the amount of behind the scenes. I mean, I have four incredible grooms here that work, you know, day in and day out. I have an incredible manager, two great riders and what they see is just the ring, me and the horse. But there’s a lot that is behind the scenes there. And it is a full-time job. It’s incredible how hard these people work. And yeah, we’re very lucky,” said Jacobs.
Something that caught me by surprise are the number of horses accompanying the athletes when traveling to the shows.
“We brought 12 horses here each week. I have two horses, and we switch them up each week depending on what we want the horses to do. Other than that, we have a total of six sort of younger horses. we have a rider that rides four of them, and then I have two. so yeah, it’s a real mash of different horses,” Jacobs said.
Competing at the horse shows call for long and intense days. It’s not just about the couple of minutes of showtime.
“The first week was really my busiest week. I had eight horses showing. And so, day one Wednesday, it was like full force. All eight horses showed. and then we sort of changed the schedule and see where the horses are at and what they need. This week I only have four horses showing, so it’s a bit quieter. I showed one horse this morning at eight, and then I have two horses showing later around 3:00, so I have some downtime now. I’ll go and flat the two horses that are showing later, and then one other that’s showing next week. Have a bit of lunch with my family and then go and compete again,” said Jacobs.
Jacobs has already seen an incredible amount of success in her career.
“Actually, I had a very good junior career. I trained with Missy Clark and John Brennan at North Ranch. They’re here. They’re great people. and then I went away to college for four years, and I really sort of put riding on the back burner, which was a hard thing to do. But I showed a little bit as an amateur. And then I actually graduated and went and worked in the real world for a year and then I really missed my horses and missed showing. I’m lucky that I have a great group of horses now. Really, in the last two years, it’s been just about building, and now I feel like I have a great base. The horse that I won the Grand Prix on has had a bit of experience. He’s nine years old, but I just got him myself. So, it was a really big win for us, and it was exciting,” Jacobs said.
I asked Jacobs what it is that makes her so passionate about showing in these competitions and turning it into her career.
“I mean, I think my love for animals, that’s the biggest thing. I grew up around it. I, I love horses, I really don’t know anything different than, you know, showing and competing. I’ve done it since such a young age. when you’re competing at the highest level, the thrill of it all is just it’s incredible. It’s steep. I can’t really put it into words what it feels like on that day when you’re in a jump off and everything is just clicking in a really, in a really nice way. So yeah, it’s fun then I can’t imagine doing anything different with my life,” said Jacobs.