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American show jumping has never lacked talent. What it has consistently lacked is access.
At the highest levels of the sport, the financial barrier to entry is no longer subtle. Developing a horse to Grand Prix, competing internationally, and sustaining a pipeline toward team selection requires resources that are simply out of reach for most athletes, no matter how gifted they are.
“That is not sustainable for 99.98% of the people that wanna ride horses,” Lenore Brown says.
Brown serves on the board of Road to the Top, a nonprofit founded to identify and support talented young athletes who have the skill, but not the financial backing, to progress toward international representation. Because if the United States wants to remain dominant in global equestrian sport, it must invest in its pipeline.
The Financial Reality
For previous generations, the pathway to the top looked different. Brown notes that Laura Kraut and Katie Prudent “came up at a time where you could still ride off the track and then make it on a team and be somebody.”
That path has narrowed.
The cost of high-performance horses, training, and travel has escalated beyond what most families can sustain. Yet the issue is not a total absence of resources. “There’s enough money in our sport to go around,” Brown says.
The challenge is distribution—ensuring that funding reaches athletes with genuine potential, not just those with existing financial support. “It doesn’t just have to be for the people that have money,” Brown says of how opportunity is often structured in the sport.
Road to the Top was created to intervene in that imbalance.
Proof of Concept
The organization is young, less than two years old, but already seeing tangible results. “We have proof of concept within 20 months,” Brown explains.
Two inaugural athletes, Carlee McCutcheon and Trent McGee, were selected to receive structured support—horses, guidance, and visibility. The results have been immediate.
“Carlee’s in a pink coat,” Brown says, referencing national team selection. “And Trent is showing in the Grand Prix on a horse he developed with Katie himself in over a year.”
Those milestones represent more than individual success. They demonstrate what happens when talent is paired with intentional infrastructure.
Investing in Sustainability
Road to the Top’s vision extends beyond a single competitive season. “We also just received our first gift for a million dollar endowment that’s gonna sustain the program moving forward,” Brown says.
That endowment allows the organization to support additional athletes, launch an apprentice program to help evaluate prospects, and create long-term stability beyond short-term sponsorship cycles
High-performance sport is cyclical. Dominant generations eventually retire. Without deliberate cultivation of the next wave, momentum erodes. Brown is clear about what’s at stake.
“Europe’s amazing, but America is amazing too, and there are amazing horse shows here and huge levels of competition that you can compete in,” she says.
The goal is sustainability. Maintaining international relevance requires preparing athletes before the spotlight finds them.
Beyond the Elite Few
One of the most compelling aspects of Road to the Top is its acknowledgment that talent does not correlate neatly with wealth.
The sport often appears exclusive from the outside. But Brown sees opportunity differently. She believes in building systems that allow skill to surface, regardless of financial starting point. “I wanna make sure people know that, see how powerful we are, and that we remain powerful,” she says.
Remaining powerful means investing in athletes before they become household names. It means recognizing that competitive depth—not just star power—sustains a nation’s standing.
Road to the Top is still evolving. Its structure will continue to adapt. But its early results suggest that when funding, mentorship, and horse power align intentionally, the sport benefits as a whole.
Talent was never the limiting factor.
Want more insight from Lenore Brown? Listen to this episode of The Plaidcast and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform for conversations with the most influential voices in the equestrian world.
