Vet tech shares her enthusiasm for equestrian sports

When not working as a veterinary professional, Andi Davison, BS, BA, LVT, CAPP, positive change agent with Flourish Veterinary Consulting, is partaking in—you guessed it—more animal-loving activities. She competes in the equestrian sport, three-day eventing. “Think of it like a horse triathlon,” she said in a dvm360^® interview. It consists of a horse and rider duo (Davison’s teammate is a dapper off-track thoroughbred named Boston) competing in 3 phases, including dressage, stadium jumping and cross country, of 1 competition. They earn scores for each phase and then receive a total score at the end.

Davison and Boston partaking in the stadium jumping phase of three-day eventing.

“We always start with dressage, that's where you go into the little white box, and you're all fancy and you prance,” Davison explained. “And then the stadium jumping is where you go into the arena, and you jump the poles that are always brightly colored and super fun. And then there's cross country, which is my favorite part. That's where we go out into the field and gallop through the water and through the woods and jump over things out cross country.”

Natural born horse lover

Always fond of horses, Davison has been riding them practically her whole life. “Horses are, it's a lifestyle, it’s like a DNA malfunction. It is one of those things that you're just born with this quirk, and it's horses, and that is me, 100%,” she said.

She became interested in three-day eventing when her friend urged her to tag along to volunteer at a prominent competition in the country, the Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event. This was about 20 years ago. “Once I saw that, I was hooked. I mean, it looked like so much fun. And the whole idea of being able to gallop through the woods and jump over logs, that is just so cool, and to be able to go out and do that was something I couldn't resist.”

Love at first sight

Davison knew Boston was meant to be her horse the day she met him.

Davison shares an unparalleled bond with her horse Boston or as his show name deems him, “Like a Boston.” She acquired him through a Facebook ad. “I just happened upon his ad on Facebook and something about it made me go, ‘Gosh you know, I think I need to go and meet this horse,’” she recounted. At this time, Boston wasn’t in an ideal situation and appeared scrawny and just overall unhealthy. “But there was something about him, some little spark in his eye, and he looked at me and I looked at him, and I knew he was coming home with me,” she added, “I love him, he is my heart horse, he is my unicorn, we have so much fun together…we just go out there and laugh and smile, and we just enjoy each other so much.”

The camaraderie of the sport

Ironically, what can make three-day eventing challenging, also makes it rewarding, according to Davison. A main component of the sport is developing a relationship with your horse to build trust, skills, and work together to get the job done during the competition. “You have to put in the time and put in the hours and put in that dedication, that can be the challenge. You can have a bad day, that can be a challenge. But I'll tell you what, that's exactly the same thing that makes it so rewarding,” said Davison. “Because you've developed a relationship with your horse. Your horse loves this just as much as you do.”

Davison added that the competition is not about winning, but rather about having fun, making connections, and being with other people and animals and finding joy in what you’re doing. She emphasized that it has a supportive family environment and camaraderie that makes it stand out to her among other horse sports. “We're not trying to elbow each other out so that we can earn that top spot. It's more, we're there to have fun. We're there to learn, we're there to grow, we're there to laugh. We're there to help each other and support each other.”

Boston strutting during the dressage portion of the event.

Davison posing with her companion animal and teammate.

Boston jumping over obstacles.

A run in with an Olympian

Several years ago, Davison shared, she was competing at a three-day event show in Florida and when walking up to the warmup arena with Boston, noticed David O’Connor was next to her. “He was one of the most well-known riders in our sport. I mean, we're talking Olympic level. He's been in this sport and a very prominent player in this sport for years,” she explained. Boston the horse began to communicate with O’Connor’s horse, through their signature “neighing” lingo, and Davison said, “I was super nervous, because who am I, this little old adult amateur. And here's this amazing Olympian like gold medal winner, amazing rider. And he giggled and asked me about my horse, and he asked me about my ride. And we had a really great conversation, walking up to the warmup arena.”

After this encounter, she felt less nervous and more confident. This instance displayed the family feeling of three-day eventing, according to Davison. “To be able to have that conversation and to interact with somebody of that caliber in our sport, it was such a cool opportunity to kind of embrace that family feel and see that everybody embraces that family feel,” Davison remarked. “And it was definitely a story that stands out for me when it comes to my experiences and eventing.”

To watch the full-length video interview featuring Davison, go here.