Robert Redford’s title character in the movie “The Horse Whisperer” would be nodding knowingly at Emily Midgley’s discussion of her relationship with her 10-year-old horse Jonathan.
The Bishop’s equestrian talks about the need for her to hide her nervousness about “Johnny” from Johnny. At times she says she has been anxious about his performance before a dressage competition. But if she isn’t careful, her anxiety will be transmitted to him, causing him to sense it and react. Fascinating stuff.
“The horse’s owner says, ‘If you’re nervous, he’s going to be nervous,’” says the 17-year-old rising senior of her 14-hand mount (about seven feet high). Most of us, even without an equestrian background, would have guessed that.
But even more revealing of the close relationship horse and rider share is this: “If I’m nervous that he’s going to be nervous, he will sense that,” says the 5-foot 2-inch tall Midgley, who on the academic side writes literary pieces about her horse.
Learning to conceal her butterflies from the horse, while letting her confidence that they’ll have a good day flow through her body to Johnny, has transferred into Emily’s human interaction as well. Says she, “I’ve noticed in social situations that this happens. If someone is freaking out, I realize I try to not feed into that.”
“I had a friend tell me a few years ago I always have the right thing to say,” says one of Bishop’s equestrian coach Dr. Anthony Pelletier’s best riders. “I don’t agree.” Midgley, intense, a good listener in conversations, shakes her head.
The diminutive senior began her creative writing career as a young girl stapling together booklets she wrote on her love of riding horses. That skill has blossomed into having a play she wrote selected by the Playwrights Project this past winter to be performed by professional actors. She hopes to pursue creative writing in her post-high school education and career.
Showing a good sense of humor while sharing the “inner game” between horse and rider articulately, Midgley, who when not riding or writing is singing soprano in The Bishop’s Singers at her school, laughs about the travails her love of horses has put her parents through.
“I think they were hoping I’d always quit, once I started riding,” she says with a twinkle. “It’s an expensive sport.”
But she points out, Joanne and Michael Midgley started it.
“When I was two, they took me to a fair and put me on a horse. I was balling my eyes out. It wasn’t my idea. I sat on the horse as it walked around the circle. When it was finished, I said, ‘I want to do it again.’ They must have thought, What have we done?’
The love of horses has led to her accomplished status in dressage, which not too many riders go into. Dressage is a discipline in which riders direct their horses through an intricate set of movements – originated back in history in Europe as battle maneuvers – that are scored on a number of criteria by judges in competition.
There are requirements the judges score the horses on, “but not all judges score the same way,” says the Bishop’s senior. “I ride horses that weren’t intended for dressage. One judge has a bias against that. He marked me down and put in his comments, ‘I don’t like the horse’s movements,’ etc.” In relating the incident, Emily remembers vividly but avoids gritting her teeth. Her ability to control her emotions, developed to be a more effective rider, seems to kick in.
About horses, she first says, “They’re just like people.” Then she says, “Some are like dogs.” Asked to explain, she says, “Johnny has a personality. He is a troublemaker. I call him a big dog, because he acts like one. But he’s incredibly smart like a human. He takes in new dressage movements within minutes. He figures it out.”
Expanding on their relationship, she says, “Like any two living things, we have good days (together) and bad days. Some days I don’t want to put up with his trouble-making. Other days it doesn’t bother me.”
In admiration of her mount, she says, “He always gives 100 percent. He’s not perfect. But horses are among the best for doing this.” Energy-wise, “the more energy he has, the better it can go.” But then she modifies that. “There is a happy medium between crazy and blahed-out.”
Of his fears, she says, “Johnny is really scared of tarps.” Going further, she reveals, “I don’t necessarily agree with this, but they will do some things that will make Morgan horses high-spirited, which they are known for. They do things to scare them, like yell and wave plastic bags.”
Of her landing as a dressage rider, Midgley says, “I wanted to do jumping originally. My first trainer said I had the patience to do dressage. Do I have patience? I think so. But I get impatient in dressage like any other dressage rider.”
Jonathan, she says, has a beautiful form. “As a Morgan horse, he has a prancing up-and-down motion,” she says, cocking her wrists to demonstrate the movement. “It’s really pretty. They train Morgan horses from a young age.”
Dressage gets an unfair rap as being less dangerous than jumping and being less demanding than other riding disciplines. “In dressage, people don’t think you’re doing anything. The goal is to look like you’re doing nothing. It’s like a giant mental puzzle,” she says.
Asked if in competition she blanks her face out to achieve this no-effort facade, she exclaims, “No, in photos I look real mean. I look like I want to kill someone.” Maybe this harks back to the origins of dressage, whose military maneuvers were meant to intimidate. Horses were taught to lunge, leap, and rear up, according to the young practitioner.
Asked if she has any siblings, Midgley says with a laugh, “No, except for Johnny,” When an interviewer comments, “There are advantages to being an only child,” she says, “Yes, that’s why I get to have Johnny.”
Being a wordsmith, she enjoys patterns of words. She discusses the fact all the letters from her first name are contained in her family name. Also, there’s a family acronym for her first name: “Every Moment I Love You.” After the interview, when reminded of the acronym, her mother smiles in enjoyment.