Desiree Fisher started taking a career in the equestrian world seriously when she was 11 years old.
A rental of a pony from a Vancouver-area stable would have Fisher travelling the world just seven years later.
“I did pony club and the local horse show circuit. Then, I started getting into rated shows when I was about 16,” Fisher said. “When I graduated high school, I had the opportunity to work over in Germany.”
After graduating from Mountain View High School in June of 2019, Fisher travelled across the pond to Europe and worked as a groom for world-renowned riders in Germany for about three-and-a-half months. During her tenure in Germany, Fisher followed riders to horse shows all over the continent including work in Portugal where she was a groom and took care of six German horses in what Fisher called a “glimpse into her dream job.”
“I cleaned the stalls, I made the horses ready for the show, I did it all,” Fisher said. “It was really cool to see the riders get on and ride.”
During her time in Portugal, Fisher worked with world-class show jumper Alexis Stais. Stais, a 24-year-old, has won multiple world championships including the Vilamoura Champions Tour in Portugal last year when Fisher was a groom for the team. Stais qualified for the 2020 Olympic Team and invited Fisher to come along as a groom prior to the worldwide sporting event getting canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Fisher worked in Europe until her work visa was denied and she had to return home.
“My work visa got denied while I was working with them,” she explained, mentioning that she didn’t want to return home so soon.
Fisher returned to the United States and spent time working in the New York area. However, her time in the states didn’t last long as she quickly found an opportunity to go to Belgium where she spent three months riding and connecting with her “equestrian hero” Gregory Wathelet, the number one show jumper in Belgium, until she had to return home due to COVID-19.
“I learned a lot about horses and about the sport as well as having the opportunity to learn a lot about people,” Fisher said about her travels. “I learned that that world is not as scary as people make it out to be.”
In her travels, Fisher said one of the biggest things she learned was how “incredible” the equestrian community is and how much each rider could have in common, despite language barriers.
“I think we all share the love of horses and the love of this sport. Because of that, we are more connected,” Fisher said. “In the real world, we meet other people but not a lot of people that work as hard as we do for our horses and we find similarities in that.”
Once Fisher returned home, she went back to teaching riding lessons at Cantera Equestrian in Ridgefield. However, the coronavirus pandemic changed the way things looked for a little while. “We took a big hit closing our business down (in March),” Fisher said, explaining that for the first bit of the pandemic, Cantera Equestrian was closed because health officials and community members didn’t know what the future would look like.
During the initial lockdown, Fisher said Cantera was able to hold on to a couple of horses and spent time exercising the horses on the farm.
“The hardest part about COVID, I think, was the isolation. I am a horse person through and through and I love spending time with my horses. However, I didn’t realize how important my barn family was until they weren’t there,” Fisher said. “It was like, we’re here to take care of horses and then leave. There was no hanging out.”
Despite being closed for a few weeks, Fisher and other employees at Cantera were able to reopen and “get back into the swing of things.” Fisher said seeing her students come back out after missing them was “one of the coolest things ever.” After some time away, the kids came back and were ready to learn, and while Fisher primarily works with children, she said she loved reconnecting with her adult riders.
“They were the ones missing their horses the most. Adults that are committed to this community are committed,” Fisher said.
Fisher explained that the equestrian community is a way for both kids and adults to escape from the stress of their daily lives. Adults use riding and caring for horses as a hobby to destress and focus on something fun. For kids, Fisher said the community and hobby opens them up and tells stories, which is her favorite part about what she does.
“I love to hear the kids stories,” Fisher said, explaining that at first kids in the program are a little shy but by the third or fourth week, they’re telling stories and laughing all the time. “Horses give our riders the biggest boost of confidence. They leave (the program) being much more open and confident kids, even if they don’t come back.”
After re-opening, Fisher said Cantera Equestrian “bounced back” better than anticipated. The crew started by completing make up lessons and had riders coming to the farm two to three times a week and many of the “make-up” riders are continuing to keep riding more often than they used too. Fisher also said the farm has a large wait list for kids activities because it’s one of the few active hobbies that kids can participate in due to health code. “We can social distance and keep everyone safe,” she said.
In a world after COVID-19, Fisher said she and her friends at Cantera hope to get back into horse shows on the West Coast with travels down to California and central Oregon. Along with this, Cantera hopes to spread out in 2021 and onward through their new Horsemanship Program. The new program allows riders to come and learn the hands-on aspects of riding and not just “under the saddle work.”
“We’re going to continue building our barn family,” Fisher concluded.
Learn more about the farm and sign up for riding classes online at canteraequestrian.com.
