It’s a marriage. It’s a partnership. It’s hard work.
It’s dressage.
The most disciplined of equestrian disciplines — where horse and rider perform from memory a series of predetermined movements — is not for the average rider nor the average horse.
EQUESTRIAN EVENT: DRESSAGE
At the Olympic Equestrian Centre
>> When: Aug. 6-15 (team and individual)
>> Who: Allison “Ali” Brock (Kailua High 1997)
Passion, persistence, patience … on both sides of the saddle … is needed to reach that elite competitor status. It’s a sport where trust is earned and learned daily, by working together for hours, so that when it’s “Show Time” the performance looks effortless.
It is anything but.
It has taken seven years for Allison “Ali” Brock and Rosevelt, a Hanoverian dark bay stallion born in Germany, to become a team within the U.S. Olympic Equestrian Team. The pair is one of four that will compete at the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Brazil.
For Brock, her road to Rio began in Waimanalo, first at New Town & Country Stables at age 7, and then Circle C a year later.
“I was just a horse-crazy young girl growing up in a strong riding community,” the 1997 Kailua High grad said. “I did dressage, Pony Club, polo … all the aspects of riding.
“There was a bunch of us kids growing up together and, what’s amazing, is that five went on to become professional horse trainers. It’s Hawaii, hardly a hot spot for going on to the next level, but from 1987 to 2000, it was.”
But Brock knew the limitations of staying home. After graduation, “I left Hawaii that summer to pursue a career in horses,” the 36-year-old said. “I have basically dedicated my life to learning how to ride and train horses at this (international elite) level.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to compete in the Olympics. That has gone hand in hand with my goal of being an International Grand Prix Dressage competitor and trainer.”
To do that, she moved to Florida, first as a groom. She also has lived on and off in Europe — the hotbed of the sport — over the past 10 years. She’s been training in Germany, Sweden and England with Olympic and World Equestrian Games competitors.
Most recently she was in Belgium where the U.S. team was based at a breeding and training farm.
“We work the horses, usually with the coaches, and spend the day taking care of them,” she said. “All of them come out of their stalls at least twice a day, once to be ridden and the other to be hand-grazed, turned out or hand-walked. It ends up being quite a long day.”
But it’s been worth it for Brock and Rosevelt, ranked No. 34th in the world. They finished the 2016 winter show series in Wellington, Fla., with three first-place finishes in the Adequan Global Dressage Festival series, were part of the U.S. gold medal-winning Nations Cup and placed well in the Rotterdam selection show.
Her success had Brock feeling fairly good about her Olympic team selection but “nothing was a guarantee.”
“It was a relief when I found out, I was overjoyed and I cried when I left the meeting after being told,” Brock said. “Many people want to be on their county’s team but it doesn’t always happen. This is such a big honor. To represent your country is really special.”
It’s the same term she uses when describing “Rosie.”
“We’re like an old married couple,” she said. “We know each other really well, have lived through a lot together. I trust him, he trusts me, and we fully understand each other. I love and respect him immensely.”
Her selection came as no surprise to Michael Baritone, a traveling reserve for the 2008 U.S. Olympic team and a top rider for the past two decades.
“Ali is the most diligent and detailed horse person I have ever known,” he said in an interview with dressage-news.com. “And the very best student … a model of how to accept correction and criticism.
“That’s why she is an Olympian.”
In a sport dominated by Europeans, the U.S. has never earned higher than a bronze medal in the Olympics in either team or individual dressage. The only American to win an individual medal was Hiram Tulle in 1932. The U.S. has six team bronze, the last in 2004.
Can that change this summer? In a sport that is judged very subjectively, Brock is diplomatic.
“What I will say is, coming into Rio, the U.S. has a much stronger team than in years past,” she said. “The Brits won in London, the Germans are super strong, the Swedes are in the running. But if things go well, we hope we could medal.
“Above a bronze? It’s too early to say. But we are very excited to compete.”
Brock’s “real” job is as a horse trainer, where she splits her domestic time in Florida and Virginia. She returns often to Hawaii to give back with clinics.
“I would do it for free,” she said of her trainer job. “I love what I do. I knew this is what I wanted to do from the beginning.
“We’re all passionate about our horses, love to work with these animals. It’s very special to be working with the cream of the crop.”
NOTE: Brock is the second equestrian to compete in the Olympics from Hawaii. The first was Sandy Pflueger-Clarke at the 1984 Los Angeles Games; she finished 16th individually as the U.S. placed sixth.