The Ultimate Athlete
Bonnie Mosser Makes the Move from Ski Racing to Eventing Look Easy
By Janet Steinberg
Only a handful of athletes have ever made it to the top in two different
sports. Bonnie Mosser is one of them. This last summer Mosser came
oh-so-close to representing her country as a member of the U.S.
eventing squad at the Pan Am Games in Brazil, but horse injuries at
the last minute kept her from riding that dream.
Twenty-five years ago, Mosser represented her country as a member
of the development team for the U.S. Ski Team as both a slalom and
giant slalom specialist in ski racing.
Obviously, Mosser is uniquely gifted to achieve such superior
accomplishments and recognition among elite performers in two
entirely distinct pursuits. (Bo Jackson is the most recent athlete to
achieve comparable excellence in two sports, baseball and football,
during the late 80’s and 90’s. The legendary Michael Jordan tried to
attain such elite levels in basketball and baseball but didn't quite cut it
in baseball.)
If we knew what renders an athlete the "cream of the crop," we'd
bottle it. Since we don't, let's look at Mosser for some clues.
Assuming the givens of good luck, being in the right place at the right
time, incredible balance, exceptional fine twitch muscles, technical
prowess, a highly developed sense of feel and multiple sets of eyes
throughout the body in order to see and seize every angle, nuance and
opportunity, Mosser adds intense focus, ambition, dedication, attention
to detail, passion, and emotional equilibrium to the equation.
Additionally, she loves pressure. She, like Jackson and Jordan who
wanted to be the go-to player to carry the ball in the last ten seconds
of the game, wanted to be the final skier running the gates to slice a
hundredth of a second off the time to beat. She wanted to be the
eventing team's first on course rider at the Games.
Unfortunately, the Games were not to be for Mosser and Merloch, a
stunning 11-year-old New Zealand thoroughbred, as Merloch came up
lame the day before the competition began. Fortunately, however, the
two of them returned home to smiling, supportive, loving people and
vets plus an excellent prognosis and rehab schedule for Merloch. The
horse is not “broken,” he’s back in work with a slow summer in mind
and his team (Mosser, vets, barn staff, friends) realistically hopes that
he will be ready for Lexington (the World Equestrian Games) in ’10.
Mosser does not dwell on what happened; she looks at the path she’s
on. Of course not being able to compete in the Pan Am Games was
disappointing but the process of preparing to compete in the Games
was “terrific.” She considered it a great opportunity to be selected for
the team and “truly enjoyed” everyone involved.
When asked to compare the “team experience” of eventing and ski
racing, Mosser said that the horse glued the members of the eventing
team much closer together than what she experienced as the
camaraderie among members of the ski racing team. “…That
closeness, that tightness among the event squad is due to the
horse…the magic of the horse. No other non-equestrian sport can
compare to that magic. Any other sport is about the stopwatch in
one’s self. In equestrian sports, in eventing, it is always about the
welfare, the heart felt passion of and for the horse.”
Mosser came to riding and skiing naturally. She grew up on a horse
farm in upstate New York, just outside of Buffalo, as the youngest of
five children. Her first visual memories are of horses and snow as her
riding and skiing realities started at two years old. She began reading
course lines down mountains at five By 12, she was one of New York's
fastest ski racers in her age group and at 15, she was in the top ten of
her age group nationally. Her natural talent for racing took her first to
the U.S. Ski Team's development squad in her early teens and then to
full Team membership and professional status on the sport's
international stage into her 20s. "But," said Mosser, "the format of
racing side by side down a slalom or giant slalom course just didn't
suit me. I grew tired of being cold all the time and having frost bitten
feet so then I returned to horses, my true passion. I'd always loved
them."
Riding competitively made sense to Mosser because of her years of
skiing competitively. “There are lots of things that carry over from one
sport to the other. Things like improving you odds by taking care of
you gear. In skiing, your gear is your skis ... making sure your skis
are waxed and edges are sharp before you train or compete. In riding
your gear is your horse and everything that has to do with you horse
... making sure your horse is well conditioned and shod and that your
tack is well fitted and functional before you train or compete. Things
like seeing the fastest, most fluid lines. It doesn't matter if those lines
are down giant slalom courses or on cross-country and stadium
courses. Quickness and smoothness matter for any line. Things like
being equally balanced on both feet on top of a horse is just like being
equally balanced on both feet on top of a pair of skis. Things like
throwing out your ski tails unbalances you just like pulling on your
reins unbalances you and your horse. And something that riders don't
talk about very much--weather. It doesn't matter how miserable or
cold or windy or rainy or anything when you're ski racing and it doesn't
matter how miserable it is when you're competing with your horse.
There's nothing you can do about the weather, so just deal with it."
Mosser's no nonsense, no excuses attitude came from her family. “My
parents and siblings said something like ‘...don't change your chosen
path because it's difficult ... just keep charging ahead.'" Her belief in
herself as a rider came from Phillip Dutton. In the seven years she
worked for him, Dutton gave Mosser "a ton of horses to ride," a
consistent training and competitive program, and a positive mindset
toward winning.
"Phillip lets you know in a very clear, understated way that what
you're doing here is about winning. It's not about just showing up or
just completing the course. It's about winning," Mosser explained.
"Phillip lets you know that it's more than okay to win. He lets you
know that winning is the expectation so you might as well train and
compete with that expectation in mind."
Obviously, Mosser had to win and come close to winning a lot to be
selected as a member of the U.S. squad for the Pan Am Games. (She
was also selected as the first alternate for the ’06 World Equestrian
Games.) Last spring she finished first in the Jersey Fresh CCI3* with
Merloch and first in the advanced division of the Jersey Fresh horse
trialsl on Close the Deal. She also ran with great aplomb at the Fair
Hill CCI3*, Rolex CCI4*, The Fork CIC3*, Red Hills CCI3* and Pine Top
with Merloch and Close the Deal. To further underline Mosser’s
character, steely determination and grit, she was the highest rated
American at Burghley and the second highest American at Blenheim in
back to back weekends in ‘06. I'd call those results hot … sizzling hot.
The present and future seem just as hot for Mosser, her horses and
her students. Merloch is back in work, Close the Deal (Mosser’s
alternate mount for the Pan Am Games) is back with her owner
Rebecca Polan preparing him for her first whole season of advanced
events with Mosser as their support team, Happy Valley may do
another three star to work out some greenness issues, Majestic Bear is
looking to the Jersey Fresh three star and Mosser has just bought
several 4, 5 and 8 year old prospects who “…I’m hoping may be my
future but you never know.” And Mosser will have at least two young
riders, “…maybe more…” capable of winning at the year-end Young
Rider Championships.
For her part in the team of horse and rider, “…I'm a steady competitor.
I don't lose it. I don't have a temper. I'm always a cheerleader for
everyone. I want everyone to be successful…maybe by the time 2010
rolls around," this incredibly talented athlete speculates, "we’ll all be
healthy and I'll have finally calmed down and figured out how to
succeed in Lexington … it's the only track that's ever sparked my
nerves." Mosser laughs.
I, for one, look forward to seeing Mosser in any capacity within the
sport of eventing. She’s got what it takes to develop horses to their
potential. She’s got what it takes to develop riders to their potential.
And she’s obviously got what it takes to develop herself to her
potential whatever and wherever the venue.