There comes a time in every parent’s life when their child surpasses them in something. For the Cohens, that something is dressage and that time came a while ago when daughter Rebecca, now 16, overtook her mom Carol on the path to national prominence. But Carol, an accomplished amateur rider and breeder, can’t complain. She and her late husband Alan were accomplices in the coup, exposing Rebecca to the sport early on and providing the level of support and guidance that enables young talent to flourish to the fullest.

USEF National Junior Reserve Champion is the latest entry on the Wellington resident’s resume. Earned during last summer’s Festival of Champions, the title doesn’t tell the full story. Rebecca’s main mount, Downtown, was hospitalized with a leg infection just a few weeks before the Festival. The 17.2 Westphalian recovered from that, then coliced on arrival in Gladstone.

Rebecca is a girl with goals and doing well at the Festival was a big one. Downtown’s setback was a heartbreaker that triggered a few barn-aisle breakdowns, she admits. But once his well-being was established, she refused to freak out over the late-in-the-game schooling interruptions. “I kept telling myself that it was going to be fine and that, if he was well enough to ride, then we’d still show, even though we hadn’t had much time to school. We had worked really hard and I didn’t want to let that go.”

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