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C H R O N O F H O R S E . C O M JA N UA R Y/ F E B R UA R Y 2 018 51 still use it for piaffe and passage, and I'm really comfortable with it because I did so much of it then." At 16 she quit school and was offered a job at another trotter facility with a string of 25 horses. Although her parents were not crazy about the idea they accepted it. "I was always extremely independent, and I think I was mature for my age in some ways," she says. "My parents knew how much I disliked being in school, and they knew how completely obsessed I was with the horses. ere was never a doubt in my mind that horses were going to be my life. At the time, I didn't know what it was going to be, I just knew it was going to be horses, no matter what. ere was no other way." e owner of the racing barn lived in the city during the week, so Charlotte's only oversight occurred on the weekends. "I had to do everything there—feeding, cleaning, exercising, everything," she says. "So I worked incredibly hard, but I still loved it much more than school." Charlotte eventually learned to drive and got her racing license at 18, competing in a few amateur races. Later she even bought her own trotting foal, not for her to race but for other, more seasoned drivers, with the horse going on to win six races as he got older. During that time her parents gave her a 2-year-old for her religious confirmation in lieu of a more traditional gift. He was a warmblood bred on the island and dirt cheap. "at was the blind leading the blind, getting that started. He nearly killed me; he actually broke my jaw in three places. He kicked me in the face, so that was bad, yeah," she says and laughs. e horse had talent though. Charlotte showed him as a jumper, but as the fence size increased, her nerve decreased. She sold him to one of the top jumpers in Denmark and decided to focus on dressage. Coming To America After a brief stint starting young horses at a western barn in Michigan—brief as in weeks since it was winter and much too cold for her despite her Danish upbringing—Charlotte returned Charlotte Bredahl (right) dropped out of school at 16, choosing to train and eventually race trotters for a time in Denmark. PHOTO COURTESY CHARLOTTE BREDAHL

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