The first time Tristan Caswell saw a horse, she was hooked.
For the last 35 years, she has been riding and competing in the equestrian world and coaching for 25 years.
“Riding is a stress relief. It’s my mental health reprieve. It’s a part of me,” she said.
Caswell is a busy mom of three hockey boys who attend Centennial School. She and her husband bought their current farm, Stonehurst Stable north of Stonewall in 2022. Since moving to the property, Caswell said they have built a good community.
Urban Stable, a program that helps at-risk youth connect, learn, and grow through interactions with horses, runs out of the facility, providing them an alternate learning opportunity.
“We have lots of amazing people that take weekly lessons with myself or Mya Oakley. Many of our riders part board or lease horses from us and go to competitions,” she said
Caswell did not come from a horse family. She started with formal lessons at 12 and had her first pony ride at age four.
“It’s been a passion since day one,” she said.
Caswell grew up riding off-track Thoroughbred (OTTBs) horses. These horses race first as young horses, and then after that career, they are retrained in various other disciplines. They are refined, sensitive, forward-thinking animals compared to the bigger, often slower Warmbloods. They are usually available at a fraction of the price and an OTTB is all people used to ride before society started to import a lot of Warmbloods from Europe in the 1990s, she said.
Unfortunately, she had to sell her horse to attend Old’s College in Alberta where she got her degree in Equine Science and learned the essential components of producing, training, and marketing horses.
After getting her degree, she travelled and worked at farms in Australia and for the Canadian Equestrian team before settling in the greater Winnipeg area.
At 19 years old, she began coaching at a farm near Oakbank.
Today, Caswell coaches competitive hunter riders, who are evaluated subjectively by a judge; jumper riders, on the other hand, are evaluated objectively through a combination of time and faults. She takes the show team to competitions in Western Canada. She is an Equestrian Canada NCCP Certified Competition Coach Specialist and Coach Developer.
With two and a half decades of competitive coaching experience, Caswell said she has spent a lot of time getting here, focusing a lot of her time and efforts on coach development.
“This involves training and mentoring many Manitoba Equestrian coaches at all levels on their journey to becoming certified,” she said.
More recently, in her coaching career, she has started to work on initiating and running grassroots horse shows. These are events that prepare horses, as well as the riders, for bigger shows.
When Caswell won the Sport Manitoba Coaching Award, she was shocked.
“It’s not common for an Equestrian to get a Sport Manitoba Award,” she said.
“Receiving the award is an honour. I am very grateful to Sport Manitoba for presenting the award and to the Manitoba Horse Council for the nomination. It’s great to bring a positive spotlight to the sport I love so much.”
Caswell is inspired to continue increasing her knowledge and ability in new ways, and she is simultaneously encouraged to pass on what knowledge she can to the next generation of riders and coaches.
The award recognizes her support of the Urban Stable program, the development of more provincially sanctioned grassroots competition opportunities, and the development of athletes and coaches.
Caswell has contributed her time to the industry by volunteering. She spent many years on the Manitoba Horse Council Coaching Committee, helping provincial coaches navigate the certification process. More recently, she became the Manitoba Hunter Jumper Association Athlete Development Chair.
When asked why she was chosen for this award, Caswell humbly says she doesn’t know why she was chosen above her peers in an industry with many great people working in the sport.
“It’s a really hard industry to make a living in as a professional. I do try to always do my best, and hold my students and to a high standard both in performance, horse care and ethically with Social Media etc. I try to be kind to everyone, mind my own business and help the sport whenever I have the opportunity,” said Caswell.
If Caswell had to give one piece of advice to others striving to do what she does and are just getting into the sport, it would be to lead with a love for the horses and the sport in general.
“If you love what you do, everyday is a good day and the endless work won’t feel like work. That will get you through the tough times, cold winters, difficult clients and set backs.”
One of her future goals is to return to the States with a crew of her clients. Caswell said the COVID-19 pandemic shut that down, and they have not shown horses in the States since then.
Tribune Photos Submitted
