Rising Star: A Profile of Young Dressage Rider Nash Gagnon

Dressage rider Nash Gagnon, 19, spent the last month competing with his horse in France and Germany on the U.S. Dressage European Young Rider Tour.

Gagnon credits his love for horses to being around his neighbors’ horses when he was younger. He first started riding his neighbors’ horses when he was 4 years old. As he got older, he got more serious and began taking more lessons.

Gagnon has always been aware of the financial reality of being a horseback rider. He started working in restaurants when he was 14 years old.

“My biggest challenge, and something I am still managing now, is that this is a very expensive sport. I have a very supportive family, but financially, I am supporting myself through this journey,” Gagnon said.

He graduated from high school a year early at 18 years old and moved to Wellington, Florida, to pursue his riding career. The decision to move to Wellington was a turning point for him.

“It was a totally different ball game. It was a mind-blowing experience seeing how normal it is down there compared to up north. It’s a horse Disneyland, there is a horse on every corner,” he said. “The whole community is so horse-oriented whereas in Maine everything is spread out and the horse community isn’t very organized.”

The day he arrived in Wellington, he went around to every restaurant and asked if they were hiring servers. The restaurant jobs helped him pay for horse shows and vet bills, and he worked days at the barn to cover his room and board.

After Wellington, he moved to Concord, Massachusetts, to work with trainer Jane Hannigan.

“A typical day in the life starts at 6 a.m. We do stalls and feed, and then I would start getting horses ready for clients. Once all the horses are done for the day, I ride my own. Then we would do all of the afternoon tours and finish up around 3:30 or 4 p.m. Then, I would either go to the restaurant or go and ride other people’s horses for some extra money. We would be done with night checks around 8 p.m. and then go to bed and do it all over again,” Gagnon said.

Despite these hurdles, Gagnon’s perseverance has led to significant achievements. He earned his gold medal in Grand Prix dressage, a childhood dream he once thought unattainable this early.

“I got my gold medal, which was always something I thought was way off in the future. To get those scores and do my first couple of Grand Prix was just an incredible feeling,” he said.

After winning his first international competition with two back-to-back wins and a personal best each day, he qualified for the European tour and was named to the U.S. Dressage European Young Rider Tour with his 17-year-old Oldenburg gelding, Happy Texas Moonlight, nicknamed Mr. Big, in May.

Mr. Big and Gagnon began training together last year after Gagnon’s horse, Eros, died after the North American Championship.

“He is a big old-school Oldenburg, so he is just a big chunky boy,” Gagnon said. “He is an incredible horse.”

Gagnon competed at the Le Mans CDIO-Y in Le Mans, France, and the Hagen CDIO-Y in Hagen, Germany, this past month.

Mr. Big will be returning to the U.S. to retire, and Gagnon will stay in Germany and work at Hof Kasselmann, a horse breeding facility in Germany, where he will get experience riding young horses and stallions.

“He is older and he has done so much for me, and there is no point to keep pushing him. He has pushed me as a rider more than I ever thought. He’s gonna slow down and I am going to stay in Germany and try and speed up,” Gagnon said.

The young rider level is just the beginning for Gagnon.

“The biggest challenge I have had is that there is not a step-by-step process on how to be a professional rider,” Gagnon said. “Everyone has their own journey, so it is trying to figure out what is the next best step for me to build my education and resume to become a professional.”