It’s a Family Affair for Diane Creech and Vanessa Creech-Terauds
/Wellington, FL - June 26, 2014 - Canadian Grand Prix rider Diane Creech never pushed her 14-year-old daughter, Vanessa Creech-Terauds, into dressage - it just happened. And mother and daughter couldn’t be happier.
“It’s so much fun,” Creech said. “It’s like a dream come true that I can share this with my daughter. At the same time, it’s also one of the most nerve-wracking things to see her ride her test. It makes me very proud to see her and to see how she deals with everything.”
Creech-Terauds competed in her first CDI on Memorial Day weekend at the Kentucky Dressage Association (KDA) Warm-Up and Spring Show with great results, in the junior division aboard Finja, a 10-year-old Hanoverian mare (Fabriano-Lara, Wendulan) owned by Ferdinand Haupt.
Last year the pair won the Junior Individual Gold Medal and the Team Ontario Gold Medal at the 2013 Canadian Interprovincial Equestrian Championships in Alberta, Canada, and the teenager said she’s lucky to have her mom serve as her trainer and as her show mom.
“It’s a really great experience because she is here helping me and I also get to watch her,” Creech-Teruds said. “It’s like I get a dual show experience. I get my experience and I get hers. It feels personal rather than a big, overwhelming show.”
Her mother also enjoyed excellent results at the KDA show with scores of 73.684 percent in the Intermediaire II and an 70.857 percent in the Intermediaire A on Chrevis Christo, an 11-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding (Lavallo-Chrevi’s LaVi, Matador), owned by Doug and Louise Leatherdale. Creech also earned a 72.00 percent in the CDI3* Grand Prix Freestyle and a 69.54 percent in the CDI3* Grand Prix aboard Devon L, a 14-year-old Hanoverian gelding (De Niro-Wibranda, Wolkenstein II) also owned by Leatherdale Farms.
“It’s always good to have the first one under your belt,” Creech said of her daughter’s first CDI. “That’s one of the reasons why we wanted to come here. You work your nerves out a little bit. You know what your parameters are. It’s just all about experiences.”
Creech competes in Wellington, FL, during the winter show season, which sometimes can be hard on the 14-year-old who remains in Canada. She said she escapes the Canadian winter for visits and would love to compete in Florida, but she is committed to school and her mother is committed to a more normal teenage lifestyle for her daughter.
“I still want her to have the roots at home,” Creech said. “It’s important to me that she has her normal school routine and her friends. She is very good at school. She’s determined to finish her graduation with honors.”
Creech said that, although she believes in the value of travel, she also feels Vanessa being away from home too often would take away from the feeling of Vanessa being connected to her own life and her own friends.
“Traveling is good for her maturity,” Creech said. “She learns other things. She meets lots of different people. It imprints her with different experiences and makes her grow up and mature a lot, which is good. But if you change things too much, that makes it harder instead of easier. There’s always a balance, like everything in life.”
Creech said she relies on her team, including her mother and sister, to keep things going in Caistor Centre, Ontario, while she’s in Florida.
“It’s a team I couldn’t do any of this without. My family makes sure that I have a home to come back to,” she said.
Her daughter agrees that teamwork is key.
“Also at the home barn, it’s really great,” Creech-Terauds said. “Everybody helps each other while my mom is away. When she comes back from the winter, it’s back into training camp to get ready for the shows.”
Creech said she also couldn’t do what she does without the help of Doug and Louise Leatherdale, the owners of the horses she rides.
“They are so supportive of Vanessa,” Creech said. “They always ask about her and thinking about her with every decision we make.”
Her daughter agreed.
“They are amazing,” she said. “When I got my gold medal in Alberta, Doug and Louise were saying how proud they were of me. It’s really sweet and it makes me feel really proud to be included. It really is incredible.”
“I tell her, ‘I want you to keep this as a hobby,’” Creech said. “’This is fun. I want you to love horses and I want you to have fun in doing this, but it’s a tough profession to get into.’ But right now, it is a very good thing and we’re on a good journey. I enjoy taking this step together with her. It makes me really proud and excited to do this.”
The EC Gold International Dressage Tournament CDI3* on June 19-21 at the Royal Canadian Riding Academy in Cedar Valley, Ontario proved successful for Creech. She and the Leatherdales’ Devon L won the Grand Prix Freestyle with a 72.050.
