Wide Open Spaces

On a snowy Christmas morning in the sleepy town of Canaan, NH, a surprise was waiting for four-year-old Ariel Grald. As she did every morning, Grald went out to the barn with her mother, Carol Rittenhouse, to feed the horses—but was overcome with joy when she noticed something different in one of the stalls. Adorned in a big red ribbon around his neck was a pony of her very own.

Rittenhouse picked up “Pinocchio” a few days prior to the holiday but, wanting to keep his presence a secret, she hid the pony until it was time to feed that morning. But, as life with horses tends to go, things went awry when Pinocchio was introduced to Rittenhouse’s Thoroughbred mares—who proceeded to run the pony right out of the paddock. “I remember, to this day, walking down the snowy dirt road with my grandfather in absolute hysteria,” says Grald. “because we were walking around the middle of nowhere for hours trying to find this pony and I was devastated.”

Pinocchio was found about a mile down the road in a neighbor’s yard and from there on out, Grald was hooked. “My mom tried to get me involved in other sports and I never really had a whole lot of interest in doing anything but riding,” she says.

With 20 acres to roam on the Canaan farm, there was plenty of room to ride. “We lived in a pretty rural area so we could just ride on trails for hours—be kids and have fun, ride around, and jump things we probably shouldn’t have jumped,” Grald recalls.

Then at 10, Grald and her family moved to Plainfield, NH, where they were able to continue with the same riding activities. She spent much of her childhood riding at Hitching Post Farm in Royalton, VT, riding with Rosa McLaughlin for many years, expanding her skills while still having fun as a young girl. “There was a group of girls that were my age and we were able to go out with our horses and go learn to ride on terrain,” she says. “Not many people get the opportunity to just go out and ride on trails and ride in all that space.”

Though she wasn’t always set on becoming a professional rider, Grald vividly remembers watching VHS tapes of the 1993 Burleigh Horse Trials and the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games over and over, even though she knew who won and what happened. It was then that she knew she wanted to compete in eventing at the highest levels.

At 16, she started as a working student for Sue Berrill, and then took the traditional route of attending college. Grald studied microbiology at the University of Vermont and kept eventing and riding on the side. She had always enjoyed school and her mother was adamant that she get a degree, so Grald graduated from college and had a job working in a research lab as a lab tech.

But, after a year, she decided that she wanted to pursue riding full-time and follow her dreams of competing at the Kentucky Three-Day Event. Rittenhouse had purchased a weanling—originally meant for herself—but Grald recognized that LBF O’Leagh’s Image had a lot of potential. “I backed her and realized she was really nice, so I stole her, and that mare went on to be my first Advanced horse,” she quips.

In 2011, Grald moved to Southern Pines, North Carolina to ride and work in the short term for Karen McCollum, who she knew from Vermont. Just weeks after moving to town, McCollum introduced Grald to Annie Eldridge, who needed assistance with one horse in North Carolina and then invited Ariel to go back to her other farm in Massachusetts for the summer.

The rest, as they say, is history. In the seven years since the pair was introduced, they have grown from having a couple of horses each to a full breeding program for Eldridge, a string of horses for Grald, and 30 horses on the North Carolina farm.

Grald’s road to success hasn’t always been smooth, however. Her mother passed away in 2013, leaving a big hole in Grald’s life. “I think I have my mom to thank for most of my successes and where I've gone to at this point,” she says. “She was always supportive of my horse dreams and she didn't really have the financial means, but she was willing to drive the horse anywhere and do whatever she could. As long as I worked hard and put in the effort she always encouraged me.”

That hard work has paid off. Among a number of other notable accomplishments, this past spring Grald achieved her lifelong goal of competing in the Kentucky Three-Day Event aboard Leamore Master Plan (aka Simon)—and finished in an impressive 12th place. The highest-placed first-time competitor at this year’s event, she recalls the advice given to her by coach, Bobby Costello: “He said ‘go out there and ride like you've done this 25 times, don't go out there and ride like a first-timer—you know what you’re doing’ and that really helped.”

Looking back on that fateful Christmas morning, Pinocchio taught Grald how to overcome adversity at an early age. He remained part of the family, teaching a number of young girls to ride at Hitching Post Farm after Grald outgrew him before living out his final years in North Carolina as Simon’s companion. While she knows hardship in life is inevitable, persistence helps drive her. “Happiness is a choice,” she says. “There are some things you don't have control over but there's a lot that you do.”

And so, Grald continues to push on toward improving herself, her horses, and achieving her next goal.

Originally published in Northeast Equestrian Life