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Equestrian
Coach Featured in Practical Horseman
The following profile
on Sue Payne, senior coach of riding at Smith, is reprinted
from Practical Horseman magazine, December 2007.
By Marcheterre Fluet
 Sue Payne has owned Fox
Meadow Farm in Northampton, Massachusetts, and directed
the Smith College equestrian program since 1974. Did
she plan this career path? Yes and no.
When Sue
told her eighth-grade guidance counselor she wanted to have
her own business in the horse industry, she recalls, “It
was not the ‘right’ answer! He
actually told my mother.” But although Sue was
headed for horses from the moment she patted a roadside horse
at age 2, she didn’t dream
of an entirely equestrian career. “I envisioned
a ‘real job’ teaching
in the public schools, and my own barn at home where I could
teach riding.”
As it turned
out, her preparation for that “real” job—a
master’s
degree in remedial reading and humanistic education, then
three years of classroom teaching—became an excellent
foundation for Sue’s lifelong career
as an educator at Fox Meadow Farm and Smith. “Humanistic
education is all about value clarification and why people
learn, and why they fail to learn. It’s about
motivating in an appropriate way and having a teaching style
that encourages and inspires rather than devastates—it
is the basis of my teaching, training and coaching to this
day.”
Fox Meadow
Farm provides instruction for both a public community riding
program and the Smith equestrian program. Smith students take equitation
and jumping lessons and have the opportunity to try out for the school’s
Intercollegiate Horse Show Association team. Sue began coaching Smith’s
IHSA team in 1981 and terms IHSA’s growth “mind-boggling,” with
the formerly college-hosted IHSA National Championship Show now requiring venues
on the scale of Atlanta’s Olympic facilities, the Kentucky
Horse Park and the Los Angeles Equestrian Center. Sue
has been IHSA Region III President for 19 years, and in 2000
she received the highest tribute of her peers—the
IHSA Lifetime Achievement Award.
College
students naturally come and go, but “many of my Smith
students stay in touch forever,” Sue says, “and
some of my community riders have been with me for years.” June
Wilby, a math teacher from nearby Amherst, has ridden with
Sue since 1984. “Sue is very knowledgeable,
and she has a great eye,” June says. “She
can see exactly what a rider is doing and how it affects
the horse, and can easily communicate what to change to make
a difference. She’s a very kind instructor. Her
style of teaching makes the students feel respected.”
Sue’s
own equestrian training began with Captain T. Frederick Marsman,
director of Dana Hall Riding School in Weston Massachusetts. “I showed
in equitation, and I worked at the barn from dawn to dusk to pay my way. Captain
Marsman, classically trained in Europe, would tell us that he ‘brought
dressage to this country,” Sue recalls. “He also ‘gave
Billy Steinkraus his first blue ribbon!' Although we rode in hunter
seat tack, he started us all with dressage. Until we could do renvers,
travers, flying changes and leg-yields, we didn’t jump.
“As
an adult, I showed my own horse in hunter classes all over
New England. Those
were the day of outside hunter courses. You jumped
out of the ring over a brush box, jumped a field of natural
obstacles and came back in over a coop. I
love hunters, but I’ve also shown in jumpers for fun
and quite a lot in dressage—but more for schooling
than competition. Having an
extensive background in dressage from those early years is
certainly reflected in my teaching, especially in starting
young horses.”
At Smith,
a love of teaching and training gradually replaced Sue’s
love of showing. “I
started working with young horses and found that, to me,
nothing is more rewarding. I’ll
never forget [Show Jumping Hall of Fame member] Gordon Wright’s
words: ‘You
haven’t made a horse until your students can ride it.'”
Sue
takes pride in the supportive “family environment” created
by a diverse group of Smith students, faculty, staff and
community riders of all ages at Fox Meadow Farm. “I
encourage even the smallest ones to watch the older ones,
and I let the older ones know they are role models.” Sue’s
methods have advanced the skills of hundreds of students,
and she has consistently coached Smith riders to a long list
of Regional, Zone and National IHSA awards.
“Intercollegiate
riding can be very stressful, and I remind students that
when we’re gearing
up for a show, then yes, the focus is on the competition
and the skills needed to adjust to a new horse, literally in a heartbeat. But
it’s about
fun, not just competition. A horse show is a homework
assignment. Find
out what you need to work on and improve, whether it’s
for the next horse show or some other challenge. For
many, riding is a lifelong sport. In
the long run, students want to develop the skills to continue
to enjoy it, whether competitively, or just for sanity.”
As
for Sue, she continues to enjoy the work with horses and
students for which she’s
so uniquely qualified. “I’ll continue as
long as I can, and as long as I love it like I do.”
“I
love horses, I love people, I love to teach. I love
to ride! I
feel eternally grateful that I’ve been able to build
a career on what I love.” |
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