At Next Level Eventing, Tamie Smith utilizes a physiotherapist, chiropractor, acupuncturist, PEMF, BEMER blankets, Revitavet, laser therapy, and other therapeutic resources to keep her horses in top shape.   

Jo-Ann Wilson, the United States Eventing Team sports therapist, helps riders and their grooms come up with an ideal therapy plan and makes sure to check in with the riders consistently, even though they are spread across the country. She works closely with Tamie to determine which therapies are best for her horses to keep them feeling and going their best.  

Keeping up with fitness and bodywork is not just important for Tamie’s horses, but for Tamie herself.  

“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to incorporate taking care of my body more,” she says. “I’m lucky that I’m a pretty fit, healthy person. I go to the gym three to five days a week in order to be good enough to be at the top of the sport.” 

While Tamie rides multiple horses daily, she says that riding alone is not enough to maintain the level of fitness she needs.  

“Most people would think that was enough,” says Tamie. “It absolutely is not. I do a lot of cardio work, like the Stairmaster. I do light weights but high reps. It’s mostly about keeping my cardio [fitness] and my muscles strong so that I can be in the best shape for my horses.” 

Eventing requires a strong partnership between horse and rider, and putting in the extra work off of the horse has clearly paid off for Tamie and her herd.  

This article about Tamie Smith’s approach to alternative therapies and fitness is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine’s “Next Level” series. Click here to subscribe!

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While Tamie Smith, winner of the 2023 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event 5*, rides and competes in eventing on many types of horses, Thoroughbreds are one of her favorite breeds.

“So far, I haven’t had the honor of having a Thoroughbred that I could ride at the top level,” she says. “I’ve yearned to have [one] that can compete at the top of the sport.”

Tamie personally owns her own off-track Thoroughbred, named No App for That.

“I absolutely love him more than life, but he is not an easy individual,” she says. “I got him to the 4* level [but needed to] take him back down the levels. Now my assistant rider is riding him. But I always say there’s nothing better than a good Thoroughbred.”

Thoroughbreds and Bloodlines in Eventing

When picking horses, Tamie considers the amount of Thoroughbred they have in their breeding.

“I have selected a couple horses that I’m riding now that have much more Thoroughbred in them,” she says. “I’ve learned that is an important piece to being able to do this at the top of the sport.”

However, she says that the amount of Thoroughbred blood alone isn’t what makes an event horse successful (or not successful).

“I’ve seen full Thoroughbreds competing at the 3* eventing level that didn’t have the endurance to do 5*, or even 4* for that matter,” Tamie says. “So I think each horse is individual. I’ve had full Thoroughbreds be very appropriate for amateurs and even beginning riders. So it really depends on the personality of the horse.”

In 2023, five full Thoroughbreds were in attendance out of the 39 entries at the Land Rover Kentucky 5*, making them the third most represented breed. Three of the five began as racehorses, and are now thriving in their second career as event horses.

This article about Tamie Smith’s take on the importance of Thoroughbreds in eventing is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine’s “Next Level” series. Click here to subscribe!

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“I feel like it helped him with his overall base conditioning,” Tamie says. “He came out much stronger this year than he has in years past. I think of dressage like weightlifting. Dressage horses are more heavyweight builders than marathon runners. It helped him gain more muscle and strength, and I felt like that was such a great exercise for both of us.”

Tamie Smith competed through Grand Prix dressage as a junior, and strongly values the skills and refinement that dressage training brings to her event horses. She says that going back to the dressage ring with 18-year-old German Sport Horse gelding Mai Baum and finessing the refinement in their riding before amping up his fitness and galloping work for the eventing season pays off in their dressage scores.

If you have the chance to get on a dressage horse that already has lots of training, Tamie highly recommends doing so.

“If you get to sit on well-trained dressage horses, you’ll be able to take it over to your personal horse and try to emulate that same feel,” she says.

Tamie adds that learning “feel” is critical to becoming a top rider, and learning dressage is a key part in that.

She feels the days of being able to do well in the sport of eventing without a heavy focus on dressage are over. This mentality has kept dressage as a strong focus in both her own and her daughter’s riding careers. (Tamie’s oldest child, 27-year-old Kaylawna Smith-Cook, is also a professional rider.)

“When my daughter was growing up, I had her go work for my dressage trainer for three years and learn dressage,” says Tamie. “She rode through the Intermediate level, and you can see that in her foundation when you watch her ride now.”

While impeccable dressage is a requirement to finish at the top at the 5* level, clean and fast jumping is also a must. Tamie’s training program is clearly working, as she and Mai Baum finished on her dressage score of a 24.2 at Land Rover this year, jumping around both cross-country and show jumping clean and within the time. This put her into first place ahead of Tom McEwen (22.6 in dressage, 5.2 time penalties on cross country) and dressage-leader Yasmin Ingham (22.1 in dressage, 20 jump and 20 time penalties on cross-country).

This article about Tamie Smith’s approach to dressage is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine’s “Next Level” series. Click here to subscribe!

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Tamie Smith, winner of the 2023 Land Rover Kentucky Three-Day Event CCI5 aboard the 18-year-old German Sport Horse gelding Mai Baum, tailors her fitness and conditioning program to each horse to focus on their specific needs and goals.

“Going into a top five star, I would be galloping typically every four to five days,” she says. “We have wonderful mountains in our area [Temecula Calif.], so I have access to probably the best gallop that I’ve been able to find in the whole country.”

She explains that having hilly terrain is paramount to being able to get her horses’ heart rates up, especially the non-Thoroughbred horses. The steep inclines test the horses’ hearts and lungs without putting unnecessary wear and tear on them.

For the horses at the lower levels, Tamie does a lot of pole and cavaletti work to get their heart rates up. This works on their rideability, while also improving their endurance.

Once a week, Tamie aims to take her horses for a trot-hack, which she finds extremely beneficial.

“We have all kinds of different types of footing, like a river bed, hard-packed road, uneven slopes, and whatnot,” she says. “I take the horses out and just play and just get them through all the different types of footing. I think that that’s really important for their bones and their tendons and ligaments.”

As far as recovery for the horses coming off of big events, Tamie always gives them ample time off.

“For instance, Mai Baum came home after Kentucky and got three weeks in a field of doing nothing,” she says. “I try to leave them out there to just be horses and let their legs and bodies recoup. During those three weeks, we would go over him to make sure that there’s been no new injuries or anything that might have popped up after a competition—typically if you’re going to have some sort of small injury, it might show up a few weeks after.”

For all of Tamie horses, she tries to give the whole month of November and into the start of December off. The older horses go on hacks to keep muscle and fitness intact, and all of the horses are checked on. Otherwise, they get a chance to just be horses and enjoy some time off.

This article about Tamie Smith’s fitness and conditioning approach is a web exclusive for Horse Illustrated magazine’s “Next Level” series. Click here to subscribe!

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