Volunteer Spotlight: Eric White
Since his first day of cross-country volunteering earlier this year, Eric White embodies the Galway Downs spirit as someone happy to be at the venue doing his part to support the sport.
He happens to be quite a lot more. Eric is a 27-time ultramarathon finisher, a novelist and a latecomer to eventing who’s now obsessed with it.
Eric came to horses the way many adults do — with a childhood dream deferred by career and circumstance. He’s a former insurance executive who logged 40–50 miles a week running and has completed 18 marathons and 27 ultra marathons, including two Leadville 100 finishes.
Eric rode horses a little as a kid and they’ve always galloped on his bucket list. When he and his wife Amy returned to Temecula in 2022, he decided the time had finally come.
“It was now or never,” he says.
Green On Green
Eric started with once-a-week lessons and quickly realized that was nowhere near enough. He discovered that it’s hard to get into the horse world without a horse. So, shortly after finding Temecula-based trainer Chloe Smyth, he bought one – a 3-year-old Arabian.
He understood those who suggested a 56-year-old green rider with a green horse was not ideal and proceeded anyway. “I said, I’ll do whatever it takes to help him be the best he can be. And I’m going to depend on Chloe to help me make that happen.”
Eric’s horse, Nascha, was bred for Arabian horse racing. His sire won 18 races and his dam won several, too. But Eric got Nascha intending to do endurance rides. As a distance runner, Eric had some familiarity with that equestrian sport and thought that would be his path. And it was until the opportunities of three-day eventing emerged. Lessons with Chloe, an Advanced eventer, focused on basic riding and horsemanship. Along the way, Eric began asking questions about his trainer’s discipline.
“Chloe explained the three phases to me and when she got to cross-country, I’m thinking, wait — you gallop for five to ten minutes and jump a series of static obstacles? That’s everything I want on a horse!”
Eric is still working on endurance – traveling to Northern California to compete in a 50-mile ride on a trainer’s horse. But eventing has become his top daily priority.
He’s now three years into his eventing journey with Nascha — officially Nee’shjaa’Yazhi, which means “little owl” in Navajo. They have progressed from Starter to Novice level, which was “a bigger step up than I had anticipated.” Nascha’s athleticism on the show jumping course draws consistent admiration. “He’s a 15-hand Arabian that can do just about anything.” Dressage, Eric acknowledges with a laugh, remains a work in progress.
The whole package of eventing is an obsession, Eric acknowledges cheerfully. “I eat, sleep and dream it.”
A Busy Body
Somewhere in between riding sessions, Eric is also finishing edits on his debut fantasy novel, Red Canyon Wars — the first in a planned series about indigenous tribes of the fictional Red Canyon uniting against imperial powers and empire. The main character is named Nee’shjaa’Yazhi, just like his horse.
He still runs regularly, too – typically 25 to 35 miles a week.
In every aspect of life – especially riding – fitness is critical, he stresses. “I do weights, balance board, stretching and core work are all part of my full fitness regimen,” he says. “In any sport, it takes a long time to develop muscle memory. Fitness is not a substitute for that, but it can really supplement and enhance it.
“None of us can stave off aging,” he continues. “But we can slow it down by being fit.”
Eric also makes time to keep his wife Amy’s horse, Toby, in shape. “I’m happy to focus on Amy and her career,” he explains. Amy has always worked in the mental health field as a licensed clinical social worker. She’s currently a supervisor for the Mobile Crisis Response Team in San Diego County. As time allows, she joins in Eric’s passions for both running and riding, typically riding twice a week while Eric keeps Toby tuned up and progressing in between.
All-In on Volunteering
When his coach Chloe was out of town for Galway’s March competition, Eric recognized a good time to jump into volunteering. Like most newbies, he was apprehensive. “I was super nervous; I didn’t want to make a mistake.” Jump-judging for the 3* and 4* cross-country, Eric got into the groove quickly. By the end of day-two, jump judging Starter through Training levels, he was assigned two fences and back-up finish line timer duties.
He loves the perspective volunteering gives him as a competitor. “As a rider, our results are so big to us, but when you watch 100 riders come through, it puts it all into perspective. We agonize over what we did, and volunteering helps you realize everyone is going through the same thing. It helps you chill out and enjoy it!”
Next, he tackled dressage scribing, a role feared and avoided by many volunteers. “I figured I better bite the bullet on this,” Eric says. In part because he knew it would help him get better at his own dressage.
“I was afraid of messing up someone’s test,” he admits. “But there’s no other way to learn. Just like standing on the starting line of your first marathon — you’re nervous, but there’s nothing else that prepares you more than just jumping in and doing it.”
Judge Brent Hicks put him at ease immediately. (The two discovered a shared hearing loss in one ear and quietly swapped seats before the first horse entered the ring.) By midday, Eric had found his rhythm.
He quickly signed up to volunteer at Pacific Coast Cheers to Summer Dressage. Along with learning more about what judges seek, he wants to understand various volunteer roles and to meet and observe officials who help make a show a success for all invovled.
Jumping into new things with both feet has been Eric’s modus operandi throughout life. Volunteering is now part of his eventing immersion. In the process, he’s become a great ambassador for the sport – whether he’s competing himself or making it possible for others to have safe, fair, fun experiences with their horse.
