Gabby Dickerson and Traditionally Fernhill. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
It’s easy to get distracted as a rookie in the Defender Kentucky Three Day Event CCI5*. There’s a lot of external chatter on how first-timers will fare. Plus, translating a lifelong dream into the actual leaping into the Head of the Lake and the rest of Kentucky’s many big moments.
But 30-year-old Gabby Dickerson is firmly focused on the process that got her to this point, even if it took a little longer than she might have liked.
Gabby and her Kentucky partner, Traditionally Fernhill, came together in early 2024. “Ken,” a 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse by Killinick Bouncer, came from Alex Green Kerby with one 4*-short outing on his resume. Gabby brought the experience of developing several horses to the 3* level, and years of work with and the ongoing guidance of luminaries and Olympians – Great Britian’s Nicola Wilson and the USA’s Kim Severson.
An Early Inspiration
Gabby competes at Kentucky Horse Park in 2009.
Kentucky has personal roots for Gabby. At about 11, she’d ridden with Kim in a clinic and lessons, then found herself helping Kim out on the Kentucky Horse Park’s hallowed grounds. “My mom and I were planning to go watch Kentucky anyway, and Kim allowed me to get involved. Since then, it’s always been the ultimate goal to get there and, eventually, to do pretty well.”
At 12, Gabby moved from her family’s home in Outer Banks, North Carolina, to work with Kim full time. “My folks looked at it like sending me to boarding school, except that I was getting an equine education. I went to online high school before it was normalized by COVID.”
Her next leap of independence took Gabby to England, at 17, to work with Nicola. The opportunity started, again, with a clinic. “I could just tell she was going to be a great person to spend time around,” Gabby recalls. “I knew college wasn’t going to be right for me, so I asked her if I could do a little trial working for her. And the rest is history!”
Gabby spent a year in England with Nicola, followed by shorter stints with German legend Ingrid Klimke and German Olympian and dealer Dirk Schrade.
Catching Up On The Competitive Side
Gabby Dickerson and Traditionally Fernhill. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography.
She returned to the United States, in 2016, at 20, ready to go professional. “I naively decided it was time to go out on my own then,” Gabby shared. “I’m not sure why people are in such a rush to do that. For me, I did make it work and I had some success, but more like success with business and life skills. It took me a while to even have an Advanced horse, and I feel like now I’m catching up on the competitive side of things.
“I just always believed that if I kept working at it, and taking opportunities to make connections, I could catch up. Hopefully, that’s what’s happening now.”
Through her early professional years, Gabby produced over a dozen 3* horses. They excelled there but, for all the familiar reasons, didn’t go beyond that.
Enter Roland Millican, a real estate investor and amateur competitor whose support enabled Gabby to get over the horsepower hump.
“He’s been a game changer.”
Along with Traditionally Fernhill and other promising horses in Gabby’s now solid string of confirmed and likely Advanced horses, Roland purchased a beautiful farm in Gordonsville, Virginia. Milltop Farm is Gabby’s homebase for her competitive ambitions and sales business, and a hub for the region. It has a full-size show jumping arena, mirrors in the dressage court and a cross-country schooling course modeled on Boyd Martin’s.
“We started with a few young horses, and at some point, I put a bug in Roland’s ear about buying a ready-to-go horse that would help me catch up,” Gabby shared. “Since we picked up Ken, the experience I’ve gained with him has helped me now produce three others to the CCI4* level.”
Wilton Fair Gives Wings
Gabby Dickerson and Casalto. Photo by Sally Spickard.
Receiving the Wilton Fair Grant from the USEA Foundation in early 2024 was another career catapult. Gabby applied it to a summer based with Nicola in the U.K. “We ticked along and checked off boxes” in CCI4*-Ss including Aston le Walls and Burgham International in England and Scone Palace in Scotland. Having both Ken and Casalto, a 13-year-old German Sport Horse by Casalito, doubled the tour’s benefits as an experience builder.
“One big result” could make Gabby the proverbial “overnight sensation 10 years in the making,” but she’s determined stay focused on the process. “It’s easy to get caught up in thinking about the outcome you want, but I’m trying not to belabor that. I’m trying to focus on the process and keeping it all moving in the right directly.”
It’s one of many areas where Nicola’s influence is especially valuable.
“Nicola has done everything I want to do, and accomplished it all, many times over,” Gabby said. “Whenever I’m feeling a little unsure, I always get a really clear answer from her. She’s also super detail oriented and very good on the coaching side. I’m very grateful to her.”
WhatsApp-ed schooling sessions are critiqued from across the pond and Nicola comes to the States frequently for in-person sessions.
One of Nicola’s recent visits was Morven Park, one of two CCI4*-Ls Gabby and Ken completed last year. “I’d been trying to tell her how hard that course was, and when she finally saw it, she said, ‘This is a 4.5* course! It’s worth me coming out of retirement for!’”
As Kentucky prep, “It felt really good to get that one out of the way,” Gabby said. “Ken’s spring season has gone to plan and we feel pretty prepared.” Morven Park built on an #8 finish in their 4*-L debut, at Tryon International last May, after a solid 4*-S run at the Cosequin Kentucky CCI4*-S last April.
Gabby is grateful to have both Nicola and Kim Severson on speed dial. Both help with the big picture planning for each horse and granular details like how many gallops, and at what distance, to get in with Ken in these finals weeks before Kentucky.
Simple Strategies In Care
Gabby Dickerson and Traditionally Fernhill. Photo by Sally Spickard.
Beyond the training, Gabby roots her horses’ development in simple, proven management strategies, while also being open to new solutions.
Airlite Cardboard Bedding is one example of a new solution Gabby found while supporting an allergy-prone horse. Popular in the high-performance jumping world, the bedding is made of pre-consumer cardboard and is virtually free of dust and other allergens. Gabby was first impressed by significantly less dust in the trailer coming home from Florida earlier this year. “We noticed a huge difference in air quality in the trailer. That’s always been a concern when you have so many horses in a tight space – the air can get really bad, really fast.
“We’re really happy with the cardboard bedding and I’m now using it for all our Advanced horses,” Gabby continues. “More people are paying more attention to their horses’ respiratory health because it’s so important in our sport.”
All her horses spend as much time outdoors as possible and their days usually begin with an hour on the horse-walker by Kraft, a free-walker that’s common in Europe. “They walk in both directions and it’s a smooth, flat rubber surface, so it’s a bit like doing roadwork.”
“We try to keep the program simple,” Gabby shared. “We’re not giving a thousand supplements because they get what they need through good feed from Nutrena. We keep everything as high quality as we can regarding their care, then ride them as correctly as we can.”
Simple stable management is part of the “consistency and slow steady steps” that Gabby trusted to bring her to this point. “Of course I’d love to push out a personal best at Kentucky, but I am aiming more for a solid result. It’s a 5* and anything can happen!”
EN’s coverage of Defender Kentucky is supported by Kentucky Performance Products, your one-stop shop for all the science-backed nutritional support your horse needs. Learn more about KPP here.
