DELAFIELD, Wis. — Richie Dallen is one of the most accomplished teens in Southeast Wisconsin.
"A world champion of champions. Thirteen and under," Richie Dallen says.
In a sport that gets even less coverage.
"Everyone knows horse racing," Dallen says. "Everyone knows show jumping. Dressage. It's a lot like dressage, but not quite the same. So we do patterns like them, we'll try to get the horse to do different things that they wouldn't normally do. But we'll also have a part where we'll just show off a horse as best we can. We'll walk them, trot them, canter them around, making them look as nice as they possibly can."
It's a family that got him in.
"My sister, who is two years old than me, started doing this. I was dragged along to watch her every week," Dallen says. "So I kind of got bored of that. I'm like, I wanna do this myself. So my mom told me, 'once you're seven years old, you can start group lessons here at Knollwood Farm with a bunch of other kids.' So that's when I started. It took me about two years before I won something really big. So I would get down on myself. I'd think oh, maybe this isn't for me. I'm not able to compete with some of these other kids, because (at) some of the big shows you have the riders from Kentucky, and Kentucky is a huge, huge horse area."
And only now does he feel he's becoming part of the family in the sport fighting through bias.
"Come across judges that just don't like you," Dallen says. "And that does give you motivation. So it makes you want to push even harder to show them yes, I can do this. I am just as good as the rest of them. So yeah, that actually probably motivated me being the only boy out there."
Clearly, it's all about the chemistry between rider and horse.
"You have to get to know them," Dallen says. "All of them have their special little quirks that they will eventually show you. Once you just develop that special relationship with them, it's really, really cool."
And with his skill level, there are big goals with a bright future.
TMJ4's Lance Allan asks, "There is something in your sport called the Triple Crown. Is that like a tangible goal or is that something that hey, that would be cool to try to achieve?"
"I would really, really love to do that but I only have a limited amount of years," Dallen says. "You can only do it when you're under 17 years old. As soon as you become 18, you have to compete as an adult. So yeah, that's my dream."
Dallen will continue to defy the odds and blaze a trail, and who knows, maybe we'll see him on even bigger stages and events as an adult.
