The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1)

Publisher: In-Sight Publishing

Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014

Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com

Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada

Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal

Journal Founding: August 2, 2012

Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year

Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed

Access: Electronic/Digital & Open Access

Fees: None (Free)

Volume Numbering: 12

Issue Numbering: 1

Section: A

Theme Type: Idea

Theme Premise: “Outliers and Outsiders”

Theme Part: 29

Formal Sub-Theme: “The Greenhorn Chronicles”

Individual Publication Date: September 22, 2023

Issue Publication Date: January 1, 2024

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen

Word Count: 2,123

Image Credit: None.

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN): 2369-6885

*Interview conducted December 22, 2022.* 

*Please see the footnotes, bibliography, and citations, after the publication.*

Abstract

Beth Underhill’s biographic sketch states: “Beth Underhill’s International Show Jumping career places her today as an impressive veteran of Pan American, Olympic and World Equestrian Games. Beth is one of Canada’s top coaches for junior/amateur riders through to Grand Prix athletes. Beth’s successful career and the knowledge she has gained allows her to guide, train and mentor both horse and rider from junior to world class competition level. Beth has a wealth of experience to share with students; as the Leading Woman Rider in the World in 1995, also the first woman to win the Canadian World Cup League as well as representing Canada in the Olympics and many Nations Cup Competitions across the world: Italy, Spain, Luxemberg, Germany, Equador, USA, Holland. Today Beth is still competing at the highest level and is a great asset to any rider who is looking for coaching from an extremely passionate equestrian. Beth is also successful in training riders and horses in the Hunter and Equitation divisions, guiding one of her students to win the CET Medal Finals at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. Beth was also the leading trainer of the Ultimate Hunter Challenge and has twice been named Coach of the Year in Canada. Beth has acted as Chef d’Equipe for the North American Young Riders Team and oversaw the National Talent ID Program. Beth identifies up and coming talent for Canada’s future team riders. She is also a member of the High Performance Committee that selects our team riders for international and major games competitions. Canadian Grand Prix riders have elected Beth as their Grand Prix rider representative to the Jump Canada Board for the past 8 years as well as the FEI Competitions Approval Committee representing Canada. In October 2015 Beth was appointed Jump Canada’s Young Rider Development Program Advisor, a position she held until 2019. During Beths tenure with the team, Canada won an unprecedented number of medals. Including in 2017 when the Canadian Senior Young Riders team swept the podium individually, a feat that had never been done before.” Underhill discusses: becoming an equestrian; development as a rider; and culture and standards of show jumping over time.

Keywords: Beth Underhill, Beth Underhill Stables, Christilot Boylen, horses, Hugh Graham, Jimmy Elder, Jump Canada, Olympics, show jumping, Tommy Gayford.

The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1)

Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Am I audible? Is everything good on my side for sound?

Beth Underhill: Yes, I can hear you just fine.

Jacobsen: What were your first moments of becoming an equestrian, riding horses or being introduced to horses?

Beth: I didn’t come from a family with a history of horses at all, but my mother was of the mindset that I should have all different kinds of experiences. So when I was seven or eight years old, I had all sorts of lessons: singing lessons, piano lessons, and part of it was, “Oh, maybe you should try riding,” because I always had an affinity to animals in general. So, she got 12 lessons for 12 dollars at the YMCA, which was my first. The first time I fell off the first pony, I had my riding lesson on, and my mother thought that would be that trial’s end. But no, I went the next week, and by the end of the year, my parents had caught the bug of enjoying horses in general and the country life sort of thing. So we ended up moving to the country, and my father bought an old, dilapidated stone house, and he spent the next ten years renovating it.

We got my first pony at an auction, a family affair. My dad built me my first couple of stalls for my ponies, and we used to look after them before I went to school and after school. It just grew into a family project. So, it came through very organically and without much professional help. We just learned as we went and read many books and then gradually got involved in the Pony Club. A local pony club in Toronto gave us a lot of support. Yeah, that was my first introduction to some professionals, and we’re fortunate to have some top international riders: Christilot Hanson-Boylen, dressage rider, Jim Elder, Olympian, who helped the pony club and gave us support. That was how I got my start.

Jacobsen: What other things did your parents introduce you to besides ponies?

Beth: Other than ponies? As I said, I was firmly into singing and piano, tennis, swimming, cross-country running, you name it. It was crucial to my parents that I had an overall introduction to all kinds of things. Whichever way I seem to gravitate, they created those opportunities. It was mostly through school endeavours or just French lessons and like all kinds of things, and it was an education that gave me… I met lots of friends through doing these different things. I would say the singing and the piano were vying very strongly alongside the riding for five or six years. Then, gradually, I became more involved in the riding the pony club, and then I gravitated more towards the show jumping, and that’s kind of where I started. 

Then, it was just about navigating how to do that. Despite not having an education in the sport, my parents looked into local people who could help me. As I said, the Pony Club gave us lots of opportunities, and they were smart about asking questions and doing research and helping me find people who were beneficial not just in the education of the sport but also were good people and good mentors. So, I was fortunate with those who gave me that opportunity when I started.

Jacobsen: Who would you consider the people who were keystone individuals to your development as a rider?

Beth: Starting with a pony club, as I mentioned, I would say, Jimmy Elder, Christilot Boylen in dressage, Tommy Gayford, who went on to be the Chef d’Equipe for the Canadian team that we were involved with; he was accommodating, donating his time to the pony club when I was nine or ten years old. When I was on the team at 29, he was the Chef d’Equipe. So we went full circle. I was a junior rider, and Hugh Graham was one of my first instructors. Then, I was a working student for Mark Laskin, who was also ironically a Chef d’Equipe for Canada many years later, and we remained friends throughout that time. 

And then Torchy Millar is again another Chef d’Equipe for the Canadian team. He offered me my first riding job, and that’s how I was able to get the ride on Monopoly because my parents weren’t in a position financially to purchase the horses I needed to get on the Canadian Equestrian Team, but, as I said, they were very good at helping me find people that could help me on my way. I was prepared to work hard, be a working student, and do whatever it took to get the education and experience behind the scenes as a horsewoman and rider. So, the people I mentioned helped me to be a mentor and trainers.

Jacobsen: Aside from Gayford, Laskin, Elder and so on, who are individuals not involved in your life personally and professionally but who were on the scene that inspired you?

Beth: I used to keep a scrapbook of all the Canadian team riders because I always aspired to represent Canada at the top level. So, I was always someone who, regardless of what I was part of, would take it to the nth degree and dig deep and learn as much as possible. Of the team members at that time, I was very much enamoured with and followed their careers. And go to the Royal Winter Fair and be at the warm-up ring and follow them, watch what happens behind this. I was very fascinated by all aspects of the sport. I dabbled a little bit when I was in pony club with eventing. So I would say I had a pretty well-rounded… And the good thing about the pony club in those days was, unfortunately, there’s not as much of a pony club presence as there was when I was growing up, but we used to have these fireside chats on a Friday night, and they’d bring guest speakers in. So, we had the opportunity to meet a lot of the Canadian team members.

My parents are British, so I was also very knowledgeable and interested in the British team at that time. Marion Janice Mould, The Whitakers, Nick Skelton; all those people that were people that I idolized. It would be people that I wanted to emulate and that I wanted to be close to.

Jacobsen: And how did this develop more as you went professional in the sport as you basically pursued it as a career?

Beth: I would say I always aspired for it to be a career choice, but I also had become quite interested in acting, and it was ironic. Also, I’ve written a letter to Mark Laskin because he put an ad in the Horse Sport magazine looking for a working student and I’ve written a long letter about why I wanted to be a working student, and at the same time I was dabbling and acting and interested in workshops. I’d gone on an audition for a show that was coming on in Canada, and it was so bizarre because this one day, I got a call saying I got the part in this TV show, and the same day, Mark Laskin called me and said I got the job. I had to go to Edmonton. I lived in Ontario, and Edmonton was quite a long distance from my family. I was very close to my family. I asked my mother, “What should I do?” She said, “Honestly, this has to be your choice at this juncture.” I was 18 years old, and I was considering going to University as well. These two other forks in the road presented themselves, and I had to really consider what direction I wanted my life to go in, and I chose the horses. 

I had a junior jumper at the time. I couldn’t afford to take my heart and my horse with me, so I just went to Mark’s as a working student, knowing that I probably wouldn’t have the opportunity to compete, but I was just so hungry for knowledge and was determined to experience that wherever it went. So, it was a difficult choice, but I felt very strongly that that was the direction I wanted to go. And I have to say my family gave me the support but didn’t make the final decision on what direction to go. So that was very much my decision.

Jacobsen: How do you frame sort of the culture and standards of the sport at the time? I’ve been told multiple times that there’s been a change in safety standards, the breed of the horse, and the style of the riding. How would you characterize that development over time to today?

Beth: The sport has become obviously much more sophisticated. It’s also probably harder to break into. I would say in those days when I was starting, you had the opportunity to jump in all different venues. I mean, you had to learn to ride on grass, like what we used to do at Spruce Meadows; the derbies, the banks and the grubs and the ditches, and you don’t see as many of those events anymore, so I think for sure it taught us to be brave. It wasn’t a sport that you entered into lightly, and it wasn’t for the faint of heart. When I started, there were pony jumpers, and they jumped quite big, and again, you had to be prepared to jump in different venues in different environments. You didn’t really start at the same level; you didn’t start in 100 divisions and work up to the jumpers. 

I started in the jumper division, and it was 4’3 – 4’6, and if you weren’t good enough, you either learn to be good enough or you quit. I think that it was a bit of a trial by fire. Now, there are many more divisions like 0.8 even, 0.9 meter. So, it’s become much more of a business than an industry. You saw more in those days the professionals; the riders that they taught, they would provide them with horses. There was definitely more access to horses for the professionals. It’s become, I think, more difficult for professionals to stay mounted. It was not as many great riders for sure, but the ones that survived, the ones that were able to jump at that level, were very strong. We had a very strong Canadian contingent.

So, there’s pluses and minuses. Like I said, the sport has become so much more technical and sophisticated, but I think there were definitely benefits in my day and that you’ve learned very quickly to survive to learn by experience, and those experiences were tough. Like I said, it wasn’t for the weak at all. So I think we learned to be brave; you very quickly had to decide your path. It became very clear early on where you were destined to go.

Jacobsen: When did you make a decision to pursue the Olympics very seriously?

Beth: It’s not like you say, “I’m going to the Olympics. That’s what I’m doing.” I think you have to be mindful that there is a process, there’s a pathway, and you take it one step at a time. It’s never going to be a smooth path upward. There’s going to be plateaus, there’s going to be dips, there’s going to be moments when you think, “Oh, I’ve got this all figured out,” and then horses quickly tell you that you don’t. I think I aspired to be a top contender. Of course, the Olympics were my long-term goal, but it was never the exclusion of the process. I recognize that, as we all did, you need to have the experience. You have built through that process, and you’re not going to skip steps, especially if you don’t have the financial backing to maybe skip those steps. It was very much a matter of trying to find the horses, trying to create owners that would help me, and creating situations where I had the experience and the opportunities, whether that was competing in Europe, whether that was competing at Spruce Meadows and the Masters on the team, it was always a stepping stone. 

You learned when you succeeded, you learned when you failed, and you were hopefully able to take those experiences and not have them break you but have them make you stronger and have people around you that would help you learn your craft, improve and mentally be strong enough to withstand the knocks that were inevitably gonna will come your way.

Bibliography

None

Footnotes

None

Citations

American Medical Association (AMA 11th Edition): Jacobsen S. The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1). September 2023; 12(1). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/beth-underhill-1

American Psychological Association (APA 7th Edition): Jacobsen, S. (2023, September 22). The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1). In-Sight Publishing. 12(1).

Brazilian National Standards (ABNT): JACOBSEN, S. The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1). In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, Fort Langley, v. 12, n. 1, 2023.

Chicago/Turabian, Author-Date (17th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. 2023. “The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 1 (Winter). http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/beth-underhill-1.

Chicago/Turabian, Notes & Bibliography (17th Edition): Jacobsen, S “The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal 12, no. 1 (September 2023).http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/beth-underhill-1.

Harvard: Jacobsen, S. (2023) ‘The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, 12(1). <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/beth-underhill-1>.

Harvard (Australian): Jacobsen, S 2023, ‘The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1)’, In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vol. 12, no. 1, <http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/singer-3&gt;.

Modern Language Association (MLA, 9th Edition): Jacobsen, Scott. “The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1).” In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal, vo.12, no. 1, 2023, http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/beth-underhill-1.

Vancouver/ICMJE: Scott J. The Greenhorn Chronicles 45: Conversation with Beth Underhill on Upbringing (1) [Internet]. 2023 Sep; 12(1). Available from: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com/beth-underhill-1.

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