Corona Times: Hit & Run with Robert Dover

Interviews

Hit & Run

In corona times we are all ordered to stay at home, self quarantine, and do social distancing. With more time on your hands to spend online, Eurodressage launches a "Hit & Run" interview series so that you get to know the world's most famous dressage riders and personalities more closely.

American Grand Prix rider Robert Dover is a six-time Olympian. He competed in his first Olympics in 1984 and in every following Games until his last in Athens in 2004, scoring four team bronze medals in total. At the 1994 World Equestrian Games in The Hague he added another team bronze to his tally. He has been inducted to the USDF Hall of Fame. Outside of competition. Dover has been the Canadian (2009 - 2011) and American team trainer (2013 - 2018). He founded the Equestrian Aid Foundation in 1996 to financially assist members of the equestrian community who have suffered a catastrophic accident, injury or illness.

Hit & Run - Robert Dover

What is your earliest memory?

Being with my mother at 3 or 4 and holding on to her skirt and crying because I did not want her to leave the house. She said I could come with her but I also didn’t want to go. I wanted her to stay with me at home. I was definitely a Momma’s boy!

Which person alive do you admire the most and why?

President Obama. He made me so proud to be an American and still has the power to bring me to tears of joy and pride as well as sadness for where we are with his words.

When were you the happiest?

Winning our 2004 Olympic medals with my parents, Robert, and great friends and family all there with me for some of my best rides of my life at the end of my competitive career.

What is your biggest fear?

Death and Trump being re-elected

What was your first thought today?

Simon (Robert's dog) wakes me up at 6:30am every day with his nose or paw to to say, “Get up, Daddy, and give me my breakfast!”

What is your most annoying character trait?

Lack of patience with people if I think they are not seeing things I think should be crystal clear

Which trait do you dislike the most in other people?

That they love Trump and all he stands for, meaning, they are like him

What is your dearest possession?

Not sure about the word “possession” as I think everything we have is really “on loan” to us. But the dearest thing to me in my life is (my life partner) Robert Ross, followed by family, whether blood relatives or chosen, including Simon.

If you look into the future, what do you see?

I am a true optimist and see people everywhere beginning to understand we have way more in common than what separates us, especially politicians. The world needs to take on the biggest challenges: climate change, poverty, hunger, racism, equality, freedom, animal abuse, etc., and we have to take in the same mantra as we have for the Corona Virus - WE ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER!!!

What makes you unhappy?

Donald Trump and a “Trumpian America”

What is the love of your life?

Robert Ross

What was the best choice you ever took in life?

Going after Robert Ross

What's your guilty pleasure?

Most recently, ice cream

What do you owe your parents?

I had amazing parents and owe them everything, even if they could not provide all the financial support for my horse addiction. They helped me every way they could and loved me unconditionally as I loved them!

Who can sit next to you at your dream dinner table?

President Obama and Michelle and of course, Robert

What was the worst job you ever did?

Ticket taker at a movie theater

What was your biggest disappointment in life?

Going to bed on election night in 2016 being certain that Hilary Clinton would win and waking up at 3am and looking at my phone and seeing that Trump had won the Presidency

What would you change if you can go back into the past?

I would have been kinder and gentler with students during my late teens and 20’s until I was 32 and took my first skiing lesson and realized teaching could be different from what I thought it had to be.

Name one thing that would improve your quality of life?

Trump out of office

What is your biggest achievement?

My 32-year relationship with Robert Ross

What is the most important life lesson you have learnt?

When I was young, I thought everything was black or white and I knew it all. As I matured, I came to realize that there is only a tiny sliver of black and same for white and all the rest is grey area. Other than love (it’s everything!) and what goes on in our “sand box” (dressage arena, where I do not second guess things), I am 100% sure that I am not 100% sure about anything! It is actually quite liberating when you realize it.

Where would you like to be right now?

Right where I am with Robert and Simon and my friends and loved ones, 2 and 4-legged

What's your favourite scent?

The smell of my house right after the amazing Paulina has been here to make it perfect as she does each week

Which character would you dress up in for Halloween?

Roman gladiator

To whom would you like to say sorry?

Anyone who I have hurt, regardless of the reason and whether intentional or not

What does love feel like for you?

Love is everything! It is what we were put here to do. It is that feeling when you could not be happier to be with someone or something, knowing the love between you is boundless and unconditional. When you are cuddling with your dog and it turns its face and licks you and you hold it even closer with a big smile on your face, that is Love!

When are you most relaxed?

I am probably most zen-like when I am training a horse. I go to another place where I do not feel the physical pain I normally live with and synch with the horse’s mind in order that we both begin to see our grandest versions of ourselves as we dance together around the arena

What super power would you like to have?

I would love to be able to fly

When did you last cry, and why?

I cry constantly when I see a beautiful dancer or listen to a magnificent singer on TV. With American Idol and The Voice on now, that means 2 or 3 times a week. Also, every “This Is Us.”

When were you closest to death?

In the mid-80’s, I thought for two years that I was HIV positive and was definitely going to die of AIDS There was no cure or vaccine then and I watched people I loved whither away and die terrible deaths. In the end, I found out I was negative and that is why I was determined to create the Equestrian AIDS (now Aid) Foundation, to help people in the equestrian community fighting HIV/AIDS and now any life-threatening illness or catastrophic injury.

How do you want to be remembered?

I hope to be remembered as someone who worked every day to leave the world a little better off than when I arrived and that, to my family and friends , 2 and 4-legged, I LOVED YOU All VERY MUCH!!!