For the past 21 months, trust has guided 16-year-old Atlanta dressage rider Virginia Woodcock. Her faith in herself and her nine-year-old Danish Warmblood mare, Mollegardens Sans-Souci, has propelled her on a path of victories in a pair of major dressage competitions this summer.
At the end of July, Woodcock and her horse, known as Souci, picked up three gold medals at the FEI North American Youth Championships in Traverse City, Michigan. Two weeks later, the pair won the Adequan/USEF Junior Dressage National Championship at the 2024 U.S. Dressage Festival of Champions in Wayne, Illinois.
Woodcock and Souci also picked up wins in events at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida in March. Since it was a Concours de Dressage International (CDI) or international competition, the pair’s percentage ranked them among the top 50 junior riders in the world in the Fédération Équestre Internationale, FEI, standings.
“I mean, it’s a pretty cool feeling to realize that you’re that well ranked in the world and doing that kind of thing for your nation,” Woodcock told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
She said she needed a shift in perspective as she and Souci worked to build trust with each other.
That process began in January, when Woodcock and her family flew more than 4,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean to Denmark where they would meet the mare who would become Woodcock’s heart horse.
Woodcock, who played youth soccer, understood that she and Souci would have to go through a feeling-out process as they learned to trust each other. But unlike the soccer field, she and Souci would not have the benefit of being able to speak to each other. In the horse world, experts say it can typically take at least one year for a rider to get to know their horse.
Souci had a few quirks that Woodcock and her team would have to work through. With the help of her coach, Karen Lipp, Woodcock learned how to manage Souci’s anxiety and fear. The mare, who was born in 2014, had only one owner before Woodcock purchased her from Lipp’s friend in Denmark.
The nine-year-old, who Lipp called an “alpha mare,” made the journey to the United States after the Woodcocks purchased her but had to go through quarantine for two weeks. During that time she went through a series of medical examinations and the increased number of people handling her, coupled with the close quarters, may have left her agitated.
“The first time we went out there to ride the horse, she was just out of her mind,” Lipp shared. “And of course, she’s unhappy. She doesn’t want you to touch her, because they’re handling her and doing all that.”
Once quarantine ended, Lipp sent a friend to pick up Souci with a horse trailer and they couldn’t get her in. To avoid further trauma, they spent hours trying to coax the mare into the trailer.
So, Lipp enlisted the help of her friend Dana Glass, who is a horsemanship expert and cowboy. Glass, who Lipp called a “horse whisperer,” helped Woodcock with the groundwork and taught her how to handle Souci when the mare had behavioral issues.
“So much of what goes into kind of working a horse that way is utilizing their feet and their body in order to connect to their minds,” said Woodcock, who has been riding since she was five. “So, because we have no way of verbally communicating to them, you have to use your own body and use their body to kind of tap into their minds.
“And, so really learning how to do that, and teaching the horse how to do that, in and of itself, was a bonding experience. But it changed how I thought about things, and it made me very intentional with my riding and all the things that I do with my horse.”
Credit: Andrew Ryback Photography
Credit: Andrew Ryback Photography
As she became more deliberate in working with Souci, she began to see her horse as more of an extension of herself at the encouragement of Lipp. That allowed her to shift from blaming the horse to thinking about what she needed to do to help the horse.
“I think I certainly would not have had the success that I did if I didn’t have this bond and trust with this horse,” Woodcock said. “I think that’s the only reason I was able to perform the way that I did was because I kind of flipped a switch and turned my riding up to the next level, and she was right there with me.
“And I think that was super vital for the success that we had. And I think really the amount of work that we put in inside the riding, outside the riding, I did a lot of mental preparation and reflecting and that really you have to (because) there’s a whole separate side of this kind of competition because it’s not only you (that) you have to worry about. You have to realize that the way that you are emotionally reacting in a situation directly affects the way that the horse feels. They’re extremely perceptive animals.”
Part of that meant managing her own emotions and expectations.
At the Adequan Global Dressage Festival in Wellington, Florida, in March, Woodcock initially fell behind. Since it was an international competition, Woodcock faced a highly competitive field and did not do well on the first day.
But Lipp, who Woodcock began training with in January 2023, gave a frank assessment and reminded her of her carriage of the horse. In that moment, Lipp said all the advice of helping the horse, managing emotions seemed to click.
“That was the day that it was like she went in the ring and instead of saying, ‘the horse this, the horse that,’” Lipp said. “She decided. She actually went and said, ‘OK, I’m gonna help her. I’m gonna help her.’
“And she did it and got a really good score. And then from then on, she’s gone in the ring and really ridden well. I’m not saying she hasn’t made mistakes, but she hasn’t fallen apart and come out and said the horse didn’t do this, so the horse didn’t do that. So I feel like that was the moment that she grew up the most.”
With a little more understanding and trust between Woodcock and Souci, the teenager has been able to fully appreciate the personality of her heart horse. Unlike Lipp, Woodcock describes Souci as the “sweetest mare ever” and calls the Danish Warmblood her bear.
“She’s like a big teddy bear,” Woodcock said. “She just loves to snuggle. She’s very affectionate, super food-motivated.”
Woodcock does concede that Souci still doesn’t let just anyone touch her and takes her time to trust people.
More than anything though, Souci loves to compete.
“She definitely likes to show off a little bit and loves to get dressed up,” Woodcock said. “So it’s really cool, as a rider, to have a horse that really enjoys what you’re doing because they’re very expressive in the way that they feel. So you can certainly tell when they’re unhappy. But she really loves training, and we’re working on a lot of new things right now because we’re moving up and she’s just really enjoying that.”
After mastering the junior level, the two will move from FEI North American Youth Dressage Championships junior (ages 14-18) competitions to the young riders (16-21) level. Now, Woodcock will work through harder movements.
“So the intent of the levels is that it’s a progression of training,” said Laura Roberts, Managing Director of Dressage of U.S. Equestrian. “So, once you’ve mastered in her case, once she’s mastered the junior level, she would move to the young rider level. Then the training gets harder and asks for more flying lead changes. It asks for more lateral work from the rider and the horse. So, the technicality of the test gets harder.”
But Lipp has confidence that Woodcock and Souci can make the shift. Lipp teaches the horses of her students the movements before they get on the horse and learn everything with them.
Woodcock and Souci will travel to Mill Spring, North Carolina in late October. They’ll compete in their first CDI competition in their new level the following month and will count toward next year’s young rider FEI rankings.
Woodcock’s goals extend beyond just logging her name in the rankings.
Over the next few years, Woodcock hopes to represent the United States at the Future Champions CDIOY competition in Hagen, Germany. The competition gives youth dressage athletes who want to represent the country on future senior teams a chance to compete on the international stage.
This year, Atlanta native Kat Fuqua and her 2008 Dutch Warmblood mare, Dreamgirl was among the three riders selected for the tour.
Making the team has been a longtime dream of Woodcock’s and qualifying for it this winter is a goal.
“You never know how that’ll go,” Woodcock said. “So, maybe it’ll be next year or the year following, but certainly that and then going back to the North American Youth Championships, for sure, it’s such an incredible competition. I have lots of friends that go there, so it’s super fun from that perspective. I just love competing on a team. And then again, of course, the Festival of Champions is great, as well.
“So it really depends on how the qualifying season goes, and it’s always a goal to get to those championships at the end of the summer. And it’s a new goal for me now to possibly go with the U.S. to Europe.”
