Press Release: People with jobs ride dressage!

OMG real working people do dressage! It’s true! This Connecticut couple made headlines.

There are real live working people doing dressage in America! One even has a job where he must wear a uniform. And not in an ironic way.

A UPS man and his paralegal wife made headlines in the Hartford Courant last week because of their devotion to the sport of dressage and their Danish warmbloods. And the fact that they also go to work every day.

This is seriously the headline:

And the lead:

Like most people along Kelly Castleberry’s route, Brittany Root wouldn’t have guessed that her UPS man has dressage horses at home.”

There was no buried mention of “family money,” “inherited land,” or even “Powerball.”

In order to appreciate the existence of this article, let’s remember the top stories about dressage in the non-horsey world these past years:

From Jezebel:

And BuzzFeed:

And, of course, Stephen Colbert’s brilliant coverage: “There is no better way to combat the myth that Romney is detached, contrition elite than competitive horse prancing… It’s basically NASCAR in a velvet top hat.”

[Colbert Nation]

In the aftermath of this kind of media spotlight on dressage, the  story about Kelly and Carey Castleberry is a refreshing look at real folks who works their butts off because they love horses and a discipline that isn’t necessarily reserved for the 1 percent. Kind of like a palate-cleansing PBR after too much sweet Prosecco.

“There are people who have horses because they can afford them,” Carey Castleberry told the paper “and people like myself who put their last penny into their horse’s grain before they eat.”

It’s chuckle-worthy that the newspaper thought a story about “real” people riding dressage warranted attention. Plus, the Castleberrys seem like truly wonderful people. When they got married 16 years ago, Cary had given up horses. Kelly bought her a horse for their first anniversary. “It’s her passion,” he said, “and if you don’t have your passion, you’re, well, passionless.” At the time, he didn’t realize that bringing horses into their lives would be a gift to himself as well. “I just love being around them,” he told the paper, as he nuzzled and kisses Lantina, or as he calls her, Dinky, an 18-month-old Danish Warmblood filly he helped deliver and has cared for since birth.

Go Joe (and Jane) Sixpack down center line!

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