Christy Lynn Hart
Director of Equine Services at Hiwassee College
christylynnhartdressage.4t.com

Hard Work is Paying Off for Christy Lynn Hart

While Christy Lynn Hart's career is clipping right along, she didn't get where she is without hard work. She cites finances as her biggest challenge in the road to where she is today. "I was a working student for as long as I could remember and didn't have the means to buy a fancy horse, tack, or a horse trailer! I bummed a lot of rides to shows and clinics until my parents bought me an older, but safe horse trailer. To me it was like a brand new KieferBuilt with living quarters, not the little red trailer with a leaking tack room! I rode in borrowed tack until I was able to get my own, and my mom made my show coat which I rode in up until three years ago. I tried to make the best horses that I could out of what I had to ride, and I was successful at Training and First Level with several of them. There have been quite a few disappointments in my life, but I am resilient and try to not let them get me down. I am not a quitter. I will just grit my teeth and soldier on."

Of the disappointments that Christy has faced in life, she places as number one the foundering of the horse she trained to Fourth Level. He made it through the first bout and despite changes to his diet, he foundered a second time. "My vet suggested a dry lot, and he foundered twice in the dry lot. We ran tests, and nothing came back conclusive. By this time, my horse had foundered four times. Thankfully, the rotation was mild, but I felt like I was doing all that I could and I couldn't stop the foundering from happening. My vet started treating him as if he were insulin-resistant even though the test was inconclusive. The culprit was revealed. My horse was insulin-resistant, and now I had the founder under control, but I was left with a horse that was no longer able to compete. I am grateful to God that he is pasture sound and can do the occasional trail ride, but we were on the brink of training the Prix St. Georges, and it was all gone in the blink of an eye or better yet, in the founder of a hoof. It was really hard to deal with," Christy said.

Christy Is Truly a Lover of Horses – All Horses