Randon: One Horse Changed the Direction of a Rider’s Life

Posted by By WDN Staff at 13 March, at 14 : 31 PM Print

Randon has given Polish rider Michael Rapcewicz many firsts, including first Polish dressage rider to represent his country in the Olympics, in the World Equestrian Games and now the first Polish rider to take a win in a World Dressage Masters CDI5* competition. But the better story is how much Randon represents the statement that a horse can change our lives. Eight years ago, Michael was ready to walk away from competitive riding and start a law career. An attack of colic had taken the life of his grand prix partner and he was devastated at the loss of his partner and friend and he found himself in a deep depression and re thinking the direction of his life.

“I had studied the law and was thinking that I would stop riding horses and go into law,” Michael recalled. “I realized it was too hard for me to lose my best friends like that and I don’t much like selling horses for that reason either.” But then destiny – and Randon – intervened. A friend of Michael’s had been injured in a riding accident. He asked Michael to take over the reins on one of his event horses and see if it could be sold as a dressage horse. That horse was Randon.

“He was not good as an event horse because no one could stop him on the cross country course,” Michael said. Randon had shown some talent for dressage. A young rider had actually competed him in the sport and showed promise but was a challenge to ride. “She fell many times with him. He was really fresh, not mean, just fresh and too much for less experienced riders,” Michael said.

It was eight years ago that the now 14-year-old Polish Warmblood gelding arrived at Michael’s barn to pull him out of his depression and save his competitive career. “I got him to prepare him for sale and after two weeks, I recognized that he was an amazing horse,” Michael said. “And so, I decided to buy him.” It turned out to be one of the best decisions of his life. “He came and it was like he put a new fire in my life.”

Randon turned Michael’s life around and Michael turned Randon’s career around. He used a less than traditional training approach. Rather than hours in the ring developing their dressage, the pair rode the trails and galloped through the forest working on fitness and slipping in dressage movements along the way. “I let him exercise in the forest and I prepared him to grand prix in the forest – the piaffe, passage, we just had fun.” The outdoor training program suited the ex-eventer much more than a ring.

Now that they are an international success, Randon and Michael work much more often in the ring but still spend some time each week out galloping through the forest. “We do two or three days of work and then a day in the forest. I want him to enjoy this.” Randon also gets his time in the field and daily walks with a groom. Even jumping is part of Michael’s training program. “I want horses to be moving and not standing all day long,” he said.

Michael says that he knew within those first two weeks with Randon that this horse would one day be his Olympic partner, which he was. Randon has, as Michael put it, “brought miracles into my life.” Were it not for Randon entering Michael’s life at just the right time, Michael just might be one of Poland’s best lawyers rather than best dressage rider. “He’s made my dreams come true. Everything that I dreamed has happened because of him.”

Photo by Sue Stickle

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