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Sidelines News Article, January 26, 2002
Dressage Profile
Michelle Gibson Returns To FEI With World Of Dreams
by Mary Hilton
Michelle Gibson holds the record as the highest scoring American in dressage at the Olympics for her performance with Peron in 1996—they earned a 75.20% and a Team Bronze. But she hasn’t shown in the FEI levels since then, until the Gold Coast Dressage Show in Wellington, Florida, January 18-20, 2002, where she introduced her new stallion, World of Dreams, at Prix St. Georges and Intermediare I.
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Michelle Gibson returns to the FEI ring
Photos by Mary Hilton
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Gibson, who had been in training from the time she was 10 years old through the Olympics when she was 27, hasn’t taken a riding lesson in five years. She’s been working on her own, training others, and discovered something very significant: she’s a talented rider, an attribute she claims she never knew until her clients began "banging it into my head." She owns World of Dreams outright, no sponsors, syndicates, or partners are involved, and she plans to go back to Rudolph Zeilinger’s barn in Germany for two months to start training again. Zeilinger was her trainer prior to and through the Olympics. Is World of Dreams her next Olympic horse? She says she’s "not counting her chickens before they’re hatched," but her immediate goals are to compete during the Florida season and qualify for the I-1 Championships at Gladstone. "I’m taking first things first. He’s not doing the Grand Prix yet, so that’s what I’m going to spend the summer doing—getting the one tempis on him, really getting the piaffe/passage more solid, more reliable, and then take him out at Grand Prix."
Gibson said she found World of Dreams by accident. She and her father, Marshall Gibson, were in Germany in November of 2000 looking at horses when she called Zeilinger unexpectedly and told him what her parameters were. "I wanted anything between seven and nine years old that was talented enough to go on and do more, and that was doing Fourth Level/Prix St. Georges and schooling some of the Grand Prix. He was all of those things." Gibson rode World of Dreams once, and then continued her search. "We looked at everything else. We looked at every price range because I wanted to get a feel for what was out there. We looked at young horses at $30,000 and $40,000 to over a million." But World of Dreams stayed in her mind and she went back and rode him again, telling Zeilinger she was interested, but having only ridden him twice, she wasn’t ready to commit. She went back to the States horse-less. "I knew he was a little bit hot. I know his bloodlines. I made a trip back in December so I could make my final decision. I went for four days." That was enough to convince her.
At their first show together, the Gold Coast Opener, Gibson and World of Dreams placed second in the Prix St. Georges on Friday with a score of 69.25%; she won the Intermediare I with a score of 74.5% on Saturday—even though she went off course. She had a $50 bet with her father that World of Dreams would run off with her in their first extended trot, but luckily she lost that bet.
Gibson said that part of the reason she brought him to the show was to get him used to crowds and the show atmosphere. "He has been wonderful. He walked off the horse trailer, didn’t scream, walked into the stall and settled right in. I couldn’t ask for more." World of Dreams is the only horse Gibson owns. She describes him as a "sweetie" and says, "I adore him. Of course, he can be a stallion. You can never forget that with any stallion, but I go in every night and do barn check and pet him and scratch him and he loves it.
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World of Dreams and Michelle Gibson
scored 74.5% at Intermediare I.
Photos by Mary Hilton
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He has ambition. He’s just a really cool horse. I’m lucky that he’s part of my life. He challenges me. I have to really think and I have to really work. That’s what motivates me." According to Gibson, World of Dreams’ piaffe and passage are going to be very special. "And he has an extended trot that’s not too shabby," she added with a wry expression that indicated gross understatement. She plans to start his breeding career next year.
World of Dreams is called "Indy" at the barn, because he is independent from owners and trainers, and sponsors. The lack of sponsorship was not by choice. "Certainly I looked and I asked. We tried," she said. "For whatever reason, it didn’t happen. I have product sponsors, and they’ve been very supportive, but I don’t have any money sponsors." Gibson’s product sponsors include Konigs Riding Boots, Pikeur Riding Breeches, Grand Prix Riding Jackets, Perma-Flex Arena Footing, and Sundowner Trailers.
"Definitely it’s nice having my own horse, but there’s a price you pay for everything and my sacrifice for getting this horse was more clinics, working weekends, not having days off, and giving up a lot of my personal time."
Gibson will be in Wellington for four months and then return to her home base in Alpharetta, Georgia. She has a clientele for each location. While in Wellington, many of her clients come from all over the US. I teach a lot of professionals— Karen Lipp, and Silke Rembacz. The first thing I say is, I can help you and I can be a person on the ground if that’s what you want. If you want to learn my style, if you want to learn how I do it, then you have to tell me, because it’s going to change everything. It’s going to change how you sit, how you think about it, everything, because the style that I ride is different from the norm. It’s normal for me, but for whatever reason, other people think it’s not so normal. If you want to change your seat, you have to tell me, and then we’ll get down to basics and we’ll get down to work."
Gibson has been developing her style since she was a baby. She started riding before she was a year old. Her two older sisters each had a horse on their five-acre farm in Takoma, Maryland, and they carried her around with them on horseback. She called herself a backyard rider, and said she had fun with English, Western, and bareback riding, but when the family moved to Atlanta when she was 10, she finally convinced her mother to give her riding lessons as a birthday present. She rode with Kye Smarslike, and then Laura Wharton, who introduced her to Michael Poulin. "Just before my 18th birthday, I graduated from high school and went to Michael’s. I was with him for a year and a half. Then I went to Germany when I was 19. I met Rudolph there through coincidence, through accident, through luck."
She says she has categories of "mentors" but as far as riding, Rudolph Zeilinger is her mentor. "He was an excellent teacher for me. Without him I wouldn’t be here. Without my determination, my hard work and my family making their sacrifices I wouldn’t be here. It’s really just a huge group effort."
Having been a student for 17 years, the past five years without an instructor allowed her the chance to "let everything sink in. I experimented a little bit, because certainly with my body type I can’t compete with Rudolph who’s over six foot tall and a man. I’ve spent the last five years figuring myself out. I’m much happier with myself than I was five years ago. Now that I have a good horse, I’m going to go back to Rudolph and I’m going to get the help because I know nobody can do it alone. You never finish learning, you’re never done, and I have so much to learn from this horse—just give me the information!"
Gibson has devoted her life to horses and said that though she has thought about doing other jobs, she has no idea what she would do if she didn’t ride. "I could not do a desk job. I’d have to do something where I could be outside. I’m fascinated with dolphins, they are the coolest animals." Gibson did have one job outside of horses, and that was as a salesperson at a department store called Rich’s when she was 16. "I hated it. I couldn’t be inside."
Though there is not a ‘significant other’ in Gibson’s life right now, she envisions that 20 years from now, she’ll be married, possibly with a family, but one thing she knows for sure, "I’ll still be riding, definitely."
Gibson says the biggest moment in her life so far occurred in 1996. "The one moment that was probably the coolest was at the Olympics in Atlanta. I rode the best Grand Prix I’ve ever ridden. Peron was so on. That was definitely awesome. The most exciting time I had as a rider was the winter from January until the end of March before Atlanta when I was still in Germany. I did Frankfurt, Bremen, Dortmund, Munster, and I won either the Grand Prix or the Special, or both, at all of those horse shows."
Does she ever compare Peron and World of Dreams? "No. I was very lucky and fortunate to have Peron. He was such a special horse. If you have one horse that is that special in your life, you’re blessed, so having a second horse is just awesome."
Michelle’s parents, Marshall and Marie Gibson, traveled with her to the Gold Coast show and were there to support her along with Missy, their Brittany Spaniel, and Markie, Michelle’s Border Collie. After the show, Gibson says they like to have fun and a drink and there’s always some kind of bet going on, whether for money or ice cream or a steak dinner. Her clients from Atlanta are coming to Florida for the next show to watch her and to celebrate her birthday. She calls them a great group that can pick up the slack when she’s not there.
Life is good for Michelle Gibson and World of Dreams. She says she’s got a lot of things on her mind right now, but one thought is uppermost. "The biggest thing for me is that this is supposed to be fun for me. I haven’t shown in the FEI levels since the Olympics, so it’s kind of a leap. My horse is special to me and that’s what really matters."
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