If top name dressage riders are convening to compete in the West, it’s likely Glenda McElroy has something to do with either creating it, shaping it, producing it or directing the show.
Consider this list of dressage events organized by her company, Cornerstone Event Management: the USEF National Grand Prix and Intermediaire Championships, the U.S. National Freestyle Championships, the Olympic Selection Trials in 2004 and 2008, the World Cup Finals in 2005 and 2007, and the FEI Young Rider Championships in 2008.
If that isn’t enough to impress, McElroy’s Los Angeles Equestrian Center (LAEC)-based operation will run the dressage division of the 2010 World Equestrian Games to be held in Kentucky.

Glenda McElroy, owner of Glenroy’s Equestrian Gifts, shows off some of her many figurines from the Popular Trail of Painted Ponies collection. Photo: David M. Rubin

Born in Shawnee, OK, Glenda arrived in California’s San Joaquin Valley at age 5. In college, she found horses and rode hunter/jumper. Eventually she landed a position at LAEC as the operations manager. All was well until one day in 1983 when her supervisor handed her the checkbook for the dressage shows and assigned her to run them.
“I did them for a year kicking and screaming. I had no interest in them, until I helped at the Olympics in 1984 and I saw a whole other sport. I was fascinated with dressage and with riders like Reiner Klimke. This was the type of event I wanted to produce. I was looking for something more interesting and I saw how I could do it.”
Today Cornerstone Event Management produces about 20 multi-arena shows a year and employs three full time staff members, three freelance show secretaries and a crew of self employed people that she often hires for specific tasks or for show staff.
A person who really loves business and to shop, Glenda also operates a gift store next door to the Cornerstone offices at LAEC called Glenroy’s Equestrian Gifts. It is a place for great equestrian gifts, a coffee bar and a trophy business. Cornerstone has had offices at the Equestrian Center for over 20 years.
Freelance writer Patti Schofler asked Glenda for her insights into the show world of dressage for both California and the country.

Patti: California and the West recently have hosted important dressage events and you have earned your share of credit for that. Have they had an impact on dressage in California and the U.S?
Glenda: For a long time we have been lucky enough to have some of the best riders in the country reside in Southern California. Because we have so many FEI-level riders, about 10 years ago the U.S. Equestrian Federation (USEF) began giving us serious considerations for hosting major championships. Hosting the 2004 Olympic Trials was a major accomplishment for Cornerstone. The USEF had never held an Olympic Selection outside the East Coast. In fact, we are going to host it again in June of 2008.
To move the numbers you have to increase the spectator base and that has been a major goal of mine. When you get a bigger audience to look at the sport, as we saw with events like the L.A. and Atlanta Olympics and the 1995 World Cup Finals, it grows. I think the World Cup Finals in Las Vegas will have a very important impact. You can only see many of those horses and riders if you go to Europe.
We have been working with other managers around the country on ideas to increase crowd numbers at events, but it’s frustrating. You have to have something people want to see. The reining freestyle people, for example, get big crowds to their events. But they have a lot more freedom in their freestyle choreography to make it very entertaining. I would like to see dressage be more entertaining. Because it is expensive and takes time to develop freestyles, it’s difficult to get some of our riders to prepare new ones. From the manager’s point of view, we need a product to promote to the public.

Patti: Are freestyles the best way to grow the sport?
Glenda: I’m not so sure if this is the case. With the National Freestyle Championship, we were introducing the public to dressage. But for someone new to the sport, it’s difficult to learn about dressage from freestyles. Spectators go to a few freestyle events to listen to nice music and watch pretty horses, and, after awhile, they think, now we’ve done that, and they stop coming.
With an afternoon of good Grand Prix rides, spectators can learn about the sport and then they get more committed. A great tool for educating the public is the headsets through which a judge narrates what is going on in the arena. The listeners hear his thoughts on the ride and gain a greater understanding of dressage.

Patti: Then one key is for people to learn about the sport?
Glenda: The European audience is educated. They understand what they are watching. If you compare North American dressage to European dressage, we are like a third world country.

Patti: Specifically what do you mean?
Glenda: You take a show like Aachen that can attract 40,000 people. The spectators are not just other riders or someone’s grandparents. They are a very equestrian savvy audience. Aachen has a whole different approach to shows than we have. The European associations and national federations spend a lot of time and money to promote their riders, horses and sports. And in Europe a great deal is about selling horses.
I was talking with Willy Arts (co-owner and head trainer at DG Bar Ranch, breeders of Dutch Warmbloods) about my frustration with trying to get the dressage horse breeders as involved as they are in Europe. He told me that 3,700 Dutch horses were born yearly in the U.S. I said that’s a good sign. He said over 18,000 were born yearly in Holland. With Holland being about the size of Southern California, that was eye opening for me. It just points out that Europe looks at dressage and the business of dressage much differently than we do.

Patti: Part of your philosophy is to bring in the best and the brightest to ride. Is this a way to keep dressage a vibrant sport?
Glenda: It’s wonderful to have events that draw riders from all over the country, or even the world. But private show managers could not have accomplished half of what we have if not for the California Dressage Society. CDS built the infrastructure of chapters and shows that allowed me to build on what it created. From the 60s through the 90s everyone in the country looked to CDS for ideas and innovations. Today we still need fresh ideas. I would like to see dressage competition more intense. Maybe we need to offer more types of tests. Maybe we need a more basic division to get people started. The usual formula has worked for a long time, but it’s a staid format. We need to step it up and make it more interesting.

Patti: Among the shows you manage, you hold one at Woodside Horse Park that was a CDI, but no longer. Why?
Glenda: We were hoping if we promoted both Pebble Beach and Woodside CDIs we could attract Southern California riders to come up north to do two shows within two weekends. But since the shows are right after Gladstone (the National Championships in New Jersey), it was hard for them to make another trip so soon. On the advice of the riders we dropped our CDI and became a High Performance show. This year we have doubled our number of horses.
You try to create shows that appeal to the riders. When riders in the North start competing at multi-ring shows, it will make a huge difference.

Patti: Why?
Glenda: A bigger show is a whole different environment and changes a rider’s perspective. You are watching more riders and different riders than you see all the time. You feel different, like the show is more important. If you get a better score, you think it’s fabulous. It gives you confidence.

Patti: What changes would you like to see in the South and in the country?
Glenda: I manage shows all over the United States and the most glaring problem to me is that we need better educated trainers. It doesn’t matter how well run the shows are or if you hire the best judges or how much money the exhibitors are willing to spend on horses. Without trainers who understand the sport, who can ride and teach, an area will never develop to its full potential.

Patti: Speaking of important shows, will we see the World Cup Finals return to Las Vegas?
Glenda: We put a bid in for 2009, but so have other countries. The FEI hasn’t decided yet and we may not hear until the first of year. The Las Vegas Events people want to promote dressage, but they need help. Rolex sponsored dressage in 2007 but only because of jumping.
People are ready with sponsorship commitment, but dressage people are funny. If there is prize money, they take it. If not, they still come to the show.

Patti: What does it mean to have the World Equestrian Games coming to the United States in 2010?
Glenda: The WEG has never been held outside of Europe. It is a very important event for us. I worked on the ’84 and ’96 Olympic Games, and the WEG is much more involved because it is so concentrated on so many equestrian sports. It will be a challenge and a big responsibility that we do a great job with it. The people in Kentucky are very serious about it and have the best place to showcase horses to the country.

Patti: How do you like people to view your shows?
Glenda: I want exhibitors to feel confident that we are there to make their show experience positive and successful; that the ride times get out on time, that riders have all the information they need, that it runs on time, that the scores are up quickly, that the people in the show office are helpful. These things make a big difference to a rider.

Patti: Thank you.

Patti Schofler is author of Flight Without Wings: The Arabian Horse and The Show World, available at tack stores, bookstores, Amazon.com and from the author. She can be reached via e-mail at darkhorsezin@hughes.net.