From eventer to reiner: Emma Gedge’s story.

Exploring the wilds of Wyoming on horseback is what made Emma Gedge fall in love with western riding. One trip to Cody, Wyoming in the United States of America over a decade ago, turned into a second, and then a third to the remote Big Horn Mountains years later, which then led ultimately to José, here in the United Kingdom and a budding partnership as British Reiners having made the transition from English riding to Western.

“I felt like my soul belonged, it felt so familiar even though I’d never been out there,” Emma shares as she recalls her time in Wyoming. “It was the summer of 2010, I went out on one of those gap year packages where you go and work on a working ranch,” she explains as rain thunders down in the background of our call, typical of our British summer.

Emma’s first stint was a three week trip, though having loved it so much she returned the following summer and helped the ranch owner to run the programme. Western riding, and riding the trails in Wyoming taught Emma to, “appreciate what’s around you. Here, we like hacking but often we’re so focused on getting round the route in one piece and getting home in time for the next thing, whereas out there, we’d head out for hours, maybe hang around a lake for an hour and just enjoy being out there with the horse. It’s so different.”

The last time Emma travelled to Wyoming was in 2017, when she stayed with a friend who enjoys Dual Citizenship, allowing her to work without the visa limitations many of us face, Emma shares how, “I stayed in the staff cabins for free and basically just rode around and had a great time moving cattle and just riding around enjoying the scenery basically.”

Upon her return, she couldn’t seem to shift that pull towards western and after sitting down and asking herself, what was it she really enjoyed? She landed on the idea of riding western over here. After all, it couldn’t be that hard, could it?

Prior to her western inspired way of life, Emma grew up with horses, she told me how, “I was very fortunate, my mum was super into horses so I was brought up with them really. We had the classic shitland at home and a little, cheeky Welsh Section A pony. I remember going to try him on Salisbury Plain, he kept turning around and biting my feet as I was riding and Mum was like, ‘we’ll take him,’ I was like really?” She laughed at the memory.

Towards the end of her time at university, Emma rode for a couple and she tells me how, “I did the classic thing where I fell in love with one of the horses and ended up finishing uni and returning home with a 17.2hh five year old, which is when my eventing days started.”

After producing the event horse up to Novice, Emma explains, “I was quite aware he was at his most marketable then, and competing was so expensive, so I decided to sell him. I was horseless for a while and originally thought this is quite nice, but I quickly realised I missed it.”

Cue, Mustard. After spotting an advert for a barely 14hh Buckskin, New Forest x Appaloosa in Dorset, it was like a lightbulb moment for Emma as she thought, she could do western with him. Mustard came to live with Emma and she shares how, “we gave it a go, I pretty much taught myself, and him.” By this point, in 2019, it had been a couple of years since Emma’s last trip to the wild west, and so, she explains, “through Instagram and YouTube mainly, I found the area I was into which at the time was ranch and western horsemanship, the likes of Buck Brannaman’s teachings which was around producing a horse that is useful to have on a ranch.”

With the luxury of a private yard, “no one was really judging what I was doing whilst I figured stuff out. I tried to learn as much as I could. Mustard had never done western either, but he would do a lovely little stop and was nice and free in the shoulder, which helped when we did cow work together as he could get to where I needed.”

It was the cow work which opened up a new avenue of possibilities for Emma when it came to the UK’s western community. At the time, Emma was based in Gloucestershire (now in Hampshire), just a 30 minute drive from Bob Reader and Alison Bucknell of Reinhill at the Hyde, who breed a small amount of American Quarter Horses and host cow clinics, so Emma embraced the opportunity and joined with Mustard, gaining experience and getting to know Bob and Alison.

After completing a couple of cow clinics with Bob and Alison, and also up at Sudbrooke in Lincolnshire, where she had a go at team penning and ranch sorting, Emma explains how, “I had a super time, but I realised I was kind of pushing Mustard to his limits, he was only a little 13.3hh New Forest and so I started to explore the idea of wanting a Quarter Horse and maybe getting into western more, so I spoke to Bob and Alison.”

It was this conversation that bought about José, “if it wasn’t for Mustard, there’s no way I’d have been able to afford José, I owe a lot to him really. Bob and Alison had got to know Mustard and loved him and so I was lucky enough that we did a part exchange of sorts.”

Coming to Emma as a relatively blank canvas four year old, she admits, “I realised I had quite a talented horse in Jose, who is reining bred by a popular stallion, Magnum Chic Dream. The stud’s offspring have earnt over $9million in the shown pen, I guess it’s like the equivalent of having a showjumper by Big Star in the English world..”

Two years later, and now a six year old, the duo have entered into the performance side of western and reining specifically and have ended their first competitive season together as British Reining Level 1 Green as Grass Champions 2024.

You can read Emma’s full interview with Holly in the magazine by ordering your copy here.