Kasey Perry-Glass Working on an Elite Level Comeback with Heartbeat W.P.

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2024 CDN West Palm Beach

U.S. Olympian and former team rider Kasey Perry-Glass is working on that come back at the elite level of dressae sport with her horse of one-year, Heartbeat W.P.

Heartbeat W.P. is a 12-year old KWPN gelding by Charmeur out of Showtime (by Ferro x Landwind II). He is bred at horse farm Veltmaat in The Netherlands.

A Champion Mindset

Perry-Glass' career making Grand Prix horse Gorklintgaards Dublet retired in July 2020 although he did his last show at the World Cup Finals in Gothenburg in April 2019. The pair won team bronze at the 2016 Olympics, was 7th at the 2017 World Cup Finals, won the 2017 U.S. Grand Prix championships, and won team silver at the 2018 World Equestrian Games.

Since then Perry-Glass has been trying to find the successor for Dublet. In 2020 she twice competed Mistico TM (by Donnerball x Weltmeyer) at international small tour level, but the liver chestnut soon retired from sport. In 2020 Perry bought the KWPN mare Hutopia (by Chagall x Lord Sinclair) which she has shown nationally at Second and Third level in December 2020 and March 2021.

In an interview with The Chronicle of the Horse she admitted that lost some confidence in the show ring. She and husband Dana Glass also became first time parents in November 2021, welcoming daughter, Tru Lynn Glass, requiring her to juggle motherhood with a professional dressage career.

"After retiring Dublet I had two quite tricky horses, and I didn’t show much," Kasey told The Chronicle of the Horse. "I think it’s also a skill to have a show mindset and a champion mindset, and just going in and being able to control my nerves and focus on the job takes repetition and takes some time, and I also don’t know him (Heartbeat) in the show ring."

Kasey and Heartbeat premiered in the Intermediaire II in July 2023 at the Wellington Classic Dressage in the Tropics I, scoring 69.559%. The next day they rode another Inter II and got 69.779%. Six months later they kicked off their 2024 seaon at the Global Dressage Festival with a 67.228% in their first Grand Prix. At the Gold Coast Opener in West Palm Beach last weekend they posted 68.424% and 69.185% in two Grand Prix tests.

Finding Heartbeat W.P.

The 36-year old Kasey commutes seasonly between farms in Orangevale, California, and Wellington, Florida, but last summer stayed in Florida year round.

At the end of October 2022 she found Heartbeat WP at Thamar Zweistra's Hexagon stable in Holland.

"He ended up coming in with pneumonia, and he got really sick. He had several months off to recover," she told The Chronicle. "I think with the shipping from Europe and spending a day getting out of quarantine—the whole thing was a three- to four-day trip, and for him to be by himself, and he’s never flown—all that I think the stress of it was a lot for him."

She further added, "he is a nervous horse. He’s very sensitive. The old owner sent us this well-written letter about what he liked and didn’t like and what he ate. I totally appreciated it. In it she said he really loves his people. I took that seriously because Meghan and I are very close to our horses. But he really does love his people. When new people come around him, he almost gets a bit cautious and stand-offish, and I have to tell them to come at him slowly and don’t overdo any touching."

Re-Connecting with Elite Sport

Kasey has been training Heartbeat with Allison Brock and is looking to pick up the thread with her old coach, Debbie McDonald, now that Heartbeat is getting more established at Grand Prix.

"I think that every elite rider craves being back in the top of the sport, and I wasn’t quite ready to retire, you could say," she told The Chronicle. "I wasn’t ready to leave the elite side of things. We’re ramping up again, hopefully. It will be a whole new experience because I have a family—just balancing the workload between keeping Heart and my horses at home happy and also spending time with my daughter."

She concluded, "I feel a bit torn every direction every day, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s a lot of fun. All these other riders are having kids, and we can all commiserate together on feeling crazy and overwhelmed and knowing that it’s completely normal not to feel like you have it all together because most days we don’t."

All of Kasey's team mates at the Rio Olympics (Allison Brock, Laura Graves and Adrienne Lyle) have welcomed their first baby in recent years. Brock never returned to CDI sport after Rio and is now a coach. Graves has also been working on a similar come back as Kasey since the retirement of Verdades. Lyle and Salvino stayed at the top of their game through 2022. She now has new acquisitions Lars van de Hoenderheide and Helix as her Grand Prix hopefuls).

The Chronicle of the Horse posted a much larger interview, which you can read here.