What this Dressage Rider Learned From a Cowboy - Kasey Perry-Glass

You get the thing you chased for five years.

And the ride is the worst one you've ever put down.

Kasey Perry-Glass reached the Olympic Games on the horse she bought to take her there — Doublé — and came home into a depression that blindsided her. This is the conversation under the medal photo. What it costs to want something that badly, and what she found on the far side of it.

She married a cowboy. Dana Glass starts colts and takes in the horses other people gave up on — the rearers, the buckers, the bolters, carrying baggage nobody unpacked. Two worlds under one roof: her classical dressage, his groundwork. What one taught the other is most of this hour.

We get into the perfectionism that dressage rewards and then punishes — a score out of 100 that stays out of reach, a sport where the best mark is a C or a D on a good day. Why she stopped posting to social media. The line Martin Black uses, let them cook, and why ending a ride a little early beats grinding it into the ground. Pain versus behavior, and the checklist she taught Dana: clear the ulcers, the hindgut, the teeth, before anyone calls it attitude.

Then the mental game she learned the hard way. Finding her number with Annette Paterakis — the exact pitch of nerves and calm that lets her ride her best. The work with Dr. Jenny Susser. Blacking out in the saddle, ten minutes gone, grinding the same movement. Boundaries. Getting told she was "too nice" for this sport, and what she kept anyway.

Behind the vertical, point of balance, throughness without a single draw rein — she explains the dressage the way she explained it to Dana, the sport he first met through her.

This one is for anyone who has wanted something so badly it made them small, and found their way back to the size they actually are.

Kasey Perry-Glass is a US Olympic dressage rider — team bronze at Rio 2016 (America's first Olympic dressage medal since 2004) and team silver at the 2018 World Equestrian Games — who competes as Kasey Perry. Her longtime partner was the Grand Prix gelding Doublé (Goerklintgaards Dublet), now retired; she currently campaigns Heartbeat W.P. She and her husband, cowboy and colt-starter Dana Glass, run Two Worlds Equestrian, joining Western horsemanship and Grand Prix dressage under one program.

To Learn more about Kasey Perry-Glass: website | instagram | facebook

In This Episode You'll Learn

• What it costs to reach an Olympic Games and ride your worst test there, and the depression Kasey came home to
• The perfectionism dressage rewards and then punishes, chasing a score out of 100 in a sport where a great mark is a C
• Let them cook: why ending a ride a little early beats grinding a movement into the ground
• The pain-versus-behavior checklist Kasey taught Dana — ulcers, hindgut, teeth, before anyone calls it attitude
• Finding your number with sports psychologist Annette Paterakis — the exact pitch of nerves and calm that lets you ride your best
• Blacking out in the saddle, ten minutes gone on the same movement, and the mental work that pulled her out
• Behind the vertical made plain: the poll as the highest point, and why a horse's own point of balance can't be copied and pasted
• Throughness without a single draw rein, and how groundwork gave an Olympic rider tools her dressage babies never had

Chapters:

0:00 How Kasey met a cowboy
4:51 What Dana does: colt starting & unpacking a horse's trauma
8:41 Groundwork, the rope halter & being a beginner again
14:34 [ad: Total Feeds]
15:14 The perfectionism dressage rewards and punishes
19:51 Let them cook: ending on a good note
23:17 Pain vs. behavior: what we blame on the horse
29:05 Bringing two worlds together
30:36 Welfare, eliminations & the "blood" rule
33:44 [ad: Noëlle's Substack]
36:07 Judging transparency & educating the viewer
39:21 Behind the vertical, explained
41:44 Point of balance & throughness without draw reins
44:47 Training aids as tools; groundwork informs the saddle
49:34 The Olympics — and the depression after
53:44 Patience in a same-day world
57:22 The mental game: finding your number
1:02:29 Boundaries, thick skin & remaking herself
1:07:19 Tough vs. strong; raising horses and kids
1:12:50 Rapid-fire questions

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Thank you for your listening!