Jill MedingerBY TORI BILAS, PHELPS MEDIA GROUP
Every equestrian business benefits from multiple perspectives, but in the case of Catherine and Lauren Tyree of Wellington, Florida, these two perspectives grew up side by side, then forged their own paths, just to come back together again. While their outlook should be similar considering the two grew up attached at the hip, their post-junior riding careers have been quite different, allowing their viewpoint to change due to the outside influences that have surrounded them.
Catherine, the older of the two sisters, was a top pony, junior hunter, and equitation rider before she began her career as an accomplished show jumper at an early age. Lauren’s junior career was equally impressive; however, she took a seven-year break from riding to attend college and see what life would offer her outside of the equestrian world before inevitably returning to the sport. With two mindsets—one completely invested in all things equestrian business, training, and riding, and one influenced by the outside world and all it has to teach—the Tyree sisters are back together again, pouring their efforts into developing young horses and advancing their riding careers, both individually and as a team.
The two sisters learned to master the sport under the tutelage of Missy Clark and John Brennan at North Run, who still help advise them in their own businesses. Now that Catherine has advanced her career and begun to take on students in addition to training horses, she looks back at what Missy and John taught her over the years, in combination with her own experiences, to inform how she instructs the next generation. Her first student, in a way, was her sister.
While Lauren’s strong foundation and emphasis on basics also come from her time at North Run, Vasco Flores, trainer and owner of Highport Stables in Wellington, has played an integral role in her return to the sport after seven years without consistent riding. With Flores, her mentor Catherine, and other significant influences, Lauren now stresses the importance of absorbing all the knowledge she can and building upon the foundation she created as a junior.
The two sisters share an admiration for bringing up young horses and helping them develop to their full potential. Lauren and Catherine both feel a sense of pride when they can succeed with a young horse and watch it flourish rather than acquire mounts that have been polished by other riders. They enjoy growing with the horses they ride, adapting their skills and learning new things while also teaching and producing the next top horses for their string.
Perspective can be everything when it comes to differentiating one equestrian venture from another. Everyone in the industry has the same common goal: to master the sport and achieve strong results while demonstrating ultimate horsemanship above all, but the way the Tyree sisters have evolved through their lives—both together and separately— and approach this goal using their two different perspectives truly sets them apart.