Personalities

Impressive Equestrian

Ali Wolff is horseback riding royalty

Wolff and her horse Casall have an impressive record of wins together.

Ali Wolff, internationally ranked show jumping champion, isn’t exactly sure how she got into riding.

“It’s still a mystery to us,” she says. “I think I got started at the fairs, just doing pony rides at the fair. Then we actually found a local barn in our area that just did Western (riding) called Autumn Rose.”

Her love for riding grew, and she ended up getting a saddle for Christmas.

“It was an English saddle, so I took my English saddle to the Western barn and rode English with the Western horses,” she says, laughing.

From there, she met local trainer Pam Graham, and the rest is history.

“She was my gateway into the bigger world of show jumping,” Wolff says. “The one who pushed me along and encouraged me to go out into the international scene, into Wellington, Florida, which is a huge equestrian circuit. From there, I’ve just been gradually climbing.”

Now 31, Wolff runs her own company out of the barn her family owns in New Albany. The family spends the summer at Blacklick Bend Farm, training and teaching and taking care of the horses six days a week.

“We go down to Florida for the winter months,” she says.

The family has another barn in the Sunshine State, which is where they were when COVID-19 hit in March 2020, ending the competition circuit two weeks before it was over. After the initial shock of the pandemic, the world of equestrian sports was able to come back sooner than others, of course with added safety measures.

“Luckily, it’s an outdoor sport,” Wolff says, “and it does require people to naturally maintain a six-foot distance. You never really want to ride right next to another horse!”

The competitions started back up in June 2020, but Wolff had to wait to get back at it due to injury.

“Unfortunately, I dislocated my shoulder around then, so I had to wait another month,” she says, “but we were attending shows around that time and have continued to do so.”

Shows tend to last a week long, so in any given month, Wolff competes at least twice.

“We try to do two horse show weeks on and then one or two weeks off just to give the horses a break,” she says, “and then two or three weeks back on again.”

Before the pandemic, Wolff competed with the U.S. teams and traveled internationally for competitions.

“One of my favorite places would be when we went to Falsterbo, Sweden, around three years ago,” she says, “which was fantastic. The crowds and the spectators in Europe are actually way more knowledgeable about our sport than any of our crowds in the U.S. It’s just more of a wellknown sport there.”

Unforgettable Moment

Wolff says there are tons of memorable moments in her years competing, but one stands out as particularly noteworthy.

“(Casall and I) went to Virginia, where there’s a horse show called Upperville, one of the oldest horse shows in the U.S.,” she says. “We won that grand prix, and that was a prestigious win for us.”

When she’s training at the barn, however, she does just about everything, which means her schedule is tight.

“It’s definitely made me have to balance a bit more, my career and helping out other people,” she says. “We also have sale horses and horses we’ve bred on top of that which are always coming through our program, so it’s always exciting.”

Being a trainer has helped improve her practice, as well.

“I’ve found that training has helped my riding,” Wolff says. “It’s kind of made me hone in more on my own skills and work on what I teach, so in that sense, it’s been beneficial.”

Uncommon Practice

Show jumping is a unique sport.

“It’s always a very interesting sport in the fact that men and women compete equally,” Wolff says. “I think that might be well known, but not really well thought about. It is almost the only sport to do so, and we actually compete on an equal platform.”

In addition to genders competing together, the sport can be practiced and mastered at any age. Canadian show

jumping champ Ian Millar retired two years ago at 72, competing in the Olympics for the last time in 2012 at age 65.

“You have your lifetime to do this,” Wolff says. “I think that everybody is just chasing that high that they get that one day when you and your partner mesh well, and it all comes together. And whether you win or you just have a really great day, it’s an amazing feeling.”

When most of us talk about our partner, we’re referring to our significant other. But when Wolff talks about her partner, she’s talking about her horse.

“My favorite part about our sport is that you’re doing this with a partner,” she says. “In soccer, you can go kick a ball down the field and if you mess up, that’s

kind of on you or your team, but this is a partnership with the actual animal and a person. It’s an amazing partnership that you can develop.”

Wolff owns a number of horses and works with and trains even more. All of her horses have different personalities and attributes, she says, that make each her favorite at one point or another. But if she had to choose, it would likely be one of her top horses, Casall, who she’s ridden for eight years.

“We always need to remind ourselves that these are animals,” she says. “They’re not machines, they’re different one day to the next. And so, to get it right on the day that your horse is in tune with you and you are in tune with your horse, it’s such a high.”

Over the years, Wolff has been featured time and time again by different media outlets, and through it all, she says, the most rewarding part is getting to highlight the sport she loves.

“Every little kid, I’m sure, wants to ride a horse or a pony,” she says. “Somehow, there’s kind of that disconnect for when it becomes a sport. So we just love to shed some light on that aspect and make sure it feels all inclusive. Anybody can do this sport.”

Sarah Robinson is an assistant editor. Feedback welcome at srobinson@ cityscenemediagroup.com.

Blacklick Bend Farm includes a number of riding areas, barns and, of course, the family home.

Saddle-Crossed Lovers

Wolff met her fiancé, Ed Copeland, at horse show circuits close to 10 years ago. They’ve been together for six years, and still ride together.

“We do occasionally compete against each other,” Wolff says. “We love to do it actually, it’s very fun. It creates competition amongst us, which doesn’t need to happen because we’re already competitive enough, but we have a great time.”

Now, as a trainer, she and Copeland work together and spend their days off together.

“We try to always go on an adventure on Monday,” she says. “(Ed) plays golf, so I’ve tried to take up golf. We try and do that every now and then.”

The couple has been engaged for two years, because, Wolff says, “we’re good at planning horse shows, we’re just not good at planning our wedding.”