Chuck Grant - The Father of American Dressage

Chuck Grant
The Father of American Dressage

Chuck Grant (1914-1990) began training horses in 1934, when he was stationed with the 122nd Field Artillery of the Army of the United States, Chicago, Illinois. At that time there was no civilian dressage in America. Dressage was only for exhibition purposes. Grant judged the first civilian dressage show held in the United States in 1948, in Morton Grove, Illinois.

In 1950, he left Chicago and moved to the Detroit area. His vocation at that time, was training hunters and jumpers - avocation dressage. In the course of his career Chuck trained 17 horses to the Grand Prix level of Dressage, a feat never accomplished by any other American; all of these horses have shown in recognized shows and ten of those have shown in national dressage trials.

Chuck Grant was a member of the American Horse Show Association, and a founding member of the United States Dressage Federation and the Midwest Dressage Federation, as well as authoring four books and numerous magazine articles.

Throughout his life Chuck Grant stressed the importance of teaching Americans to train American horses in hopes of one day fielding an American Dressage team with American horses, however, this has to date not happened since prior to World War Two. Therefore, we stress the philosophy the late Chuck Grant had relayed in his teachings and pass this information on to those who are willing to learn to train horses.

Chuck Grant continued his work up until the time of his death in 1990. He left a rich legacy in the many fine horses he trained and those who were privileged enough to know him and work with him received an irreplaceable gift from him with the knowledge he shared.

"Ask often, expect little or nothing and reward generously." - Chuck Grant (1914-1990)