Featured Rider:
Spotlight on John Grott        [back]

I would like to introduce one of my students to you. His name is John Grott. I have had the pleasure of knowing and working with John for a number of years. I met him because I was teaching his wife Donna to ride. He became interested in the horse thing, and started to ride. He could hang on through just about anything, had fun galloping through the woods, hunter pacing and the like. Donna and I would watch him careening around and think, boy, wish that he would take a few lessons. We would love to have him learn his leads, ride his horse on the bit, learn how to direct his horse to a certain distance and know why, among about 100 other goals. John was very happy doing what he was doing and resisted us.

As time went on, he started to want to know how to make his horse go better. He is very brave, yet sometimes would get into trouble through a technical difficulty. He started to ask questions. Donna and I would answer. He started to take lessons, then became more intrigued with the why. (This was very exciting to me as I love the technical). He has slowly taken over Donna’s lesson slot. (She is very generous to let him!) We marvel each week how far John has come. He now analyses the jumping exercise, thinks it through, then executes it in a beautiful manner. Donna and I are so proud of him that we actually preen on the rail as he is riding. (I think that he must think us silly at times.) John is now on his second green horse, teaching Blue how to jump. Now John is as excited as Donna and I when Blue understands something. Donna does the flatwork and John does the jumping. It is truly a rewarding trio to work with. This past Monday, John jumped a difficult 2’6” – 2’9” course on Garcon that was perfection. The excitement in the ring would have rivaled the latest Giants game on TV.

A bit about John himself. He started to ride at the age of 42. He did not do a lot of sports growing up, always more interested in drawing, creating, building and carving. He was in the Navy, continued on to EB, then retired to work even harder designing and building furniture, woodworking projects, plus play with his older model cars. (He is the one that redid our bathrooms!)

John started to ride because of his wife Donna, and coming over to MVHC and watching the open jumpers. (A man after my own heart!) As soon as he saw the jumping, it gave him chills and he really wanted to do that. Eventing, especially the cross country and stadium jumping phases, were a rush to him, and he figured that he could learn the dressage part.

When asked about riding, John said that he thoroughly enjoys it, still gets a rush from jumping, and gets to spend as much time with his wife as he thought that he would when he took up riding. His advice to men that want to ride? It is never too late to try something that you might enjoy. You will need a good sense of balance and love of the outdoors to enjoy riding.

John enjoys hunter pacing, eventing, taking his grandchildren out on trail rides, and keeping his horses at his house. He loves to look out of his window and see “the boys” out in their paddock. It is a lot of work, but well worth it. See you down the trail John.

Sally Hinkle Russell