By MARLEY LIEN-GONZALEZ
Adelle Alletto is not the average junior rider. At just 15 years old, she’s developing her own string of horses with professional aspirations. With 10 horses in the program at her family’s Lifestyle Show Stables, Alletto spends several hours in the saddle each day, focused on improving not just her skills, but furthering the training of each of her horses.
Like most equestrian peers of her age, Alletto wants to have fun in the ring, but her first priority is always her horses and giving them the opportunity to shine and have good experiences at shows. “You need to be having fun because you need to have a good mindset so that your horse is in a good mindset. But for me, it’s horse showing. So you need to be showing your horse. It’s not always about me,” Alletto tells The Plaid Horse.
Not everyone her age is working with young or inexperienced horses and bringing them up through the levels, but Alletto finds the challenge extremely rewarding. One special horse, MTM Grateful, whom Alletto credited for helping her grow and learn the most in the sport so far, started in the 2′6′′ hunters with her and they worked their way up to a win at the 2024 Devon Horse Show in the 3′3ʺ Junior Hunters.
Another horse, Central Park West, brought Alletto from the Short Stirrup to the Children’s Hunters and helped her realize that she wanted to take the sport a step further. “He was the main building block for me as a little lesson kid who was just starting to show, and that made him really, really special,” she says.
It Started With Pony Rides (As It Often Does!)
Horses have always been a part of Alletto’s life. When she was little, she used to do pony rides at a local barn in Miami. When Covid brought the world to a standstill in 2020, Alletto’s love of animals drew her back into the sport, this time at a more active level.
When her parents recognized horses were no longer just a hobby for their daughter, they relocated from Miami to the horse capital of Ocala, FL.
“My whole family doesn’t really do anything halfway. I just went along at first, and then eventually, riding became more and more serious for me. Of course, I can’t say no to horses, so it naturally became something bigger than we thought,” says Alletto.
The goal of moving was to allow Alletto to develop as a rider and deepen her education of the industry. But at Lifestyle Show Stables, the Alletto family’s farm located inside Saddle Lake Equestrian Center in Ocala, “the horses are ultimately the customers,” says trainer Crystal Young. “I can’t stress how important our horses’ health and happiness is to our success–we do everything to put them first,” Young tells The Plaid Horse.
Alletto’s private program allows for her horses to be the absolute focus, with individualized care, and a fully customized training process. “And it shows,” says Young. “In my 25 years as a professional, I’ve seen the amount of unnecessary preparation that goes into horse showing–but only one of our horses, a hunter, lunges before a show. That’s the extent to which we have to prepare them.”
Going Back to Basics
In between classes, they take the time to bring their horses home to relax. Alletto hand grazes her animals after riding, and learns the ins and outs of horse care and barn management. This fall, Alletto and her horses stayed at home during Indoors season to reset and go back to the basics. Young says, “It’s not just about showing. We’re not here to ride machines. We’re doing it the right way.”
“When my horses are happy, I feel a huge difference. It translates to my riding,” says Alletto, who adds that she feels pressure to be a student and learn while also teaching the horses at the same time. To combat the pressure, she reminds herself: “I want to give them good rounds, good records, but I know it’s not always going to be perfect. And that’s more than okay.”
It’s all a balance for Alletto, and when she enters the show ring, “I need to have reasonable expectations for myself, but at the same time, I want to be able to show my horse to the best ability and give them the chance to win. I never expect them to win on day one, but I want to always be improving so that when they have the capability to win, I can do well for them.”
Alletto is focused on getting used to handling pressure but her team thinks the sky’s the limit for the young rider. “Adelle has all the pieces,” says Young. “She can go as far as she wants. She’s naturally talented, she has a strong work ethic, and she’s so disciplined.”
Rain, sickness, and other obstacles don’t stop Alletto from showing up to the barn. She attends online school so that she can make her studies work around her riding schedule. There are typically ten or more horses with Lifestyle Show Stables at a given time, and she puts her all into riding as many of the horses as possible, as often as she can.
A Bright Future
The benefit of riding different horses, and in all three rings, has contributed to Alletto’s rapid growth and success. In just four years, she’s gone from starting to get back into horses to many blue ribbons in the Junior Hunters and the equitation, and moving up to the 1.20 m Junior Jumpers. She has her eyes set on more, and would like to continue moving up the jumper levels as well as qualify for the major equitation finals next year.
Mike McCormick of MTM Farm, who helps Alletto and has matched her to a lot of her horses, shares Young’s sentiments that Alletto’s future is bright.
“Physically, she’s a great athlete. Mentally, there’s nothing in her way. She’s sharp as can be. She has understood every bit of this,” says McCormick. “So the mechanics are all in place and they’re putting miles on her rapidly.”
But Alletto gives the credit to the people working with her toward her goals. “The whole team has definitely given me and my horses every advantage, and I am very grateful to everyone involved,” she says.
Concludes Young, “I’m training her to do anything and everything.”
