Meet Cariya Breemen

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Cariya Breemen. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Cariya below.

Cariya, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

That is a beautiful question and not straightforward to answer and that is why I like it! Am I always confident and have great self-esteem? No, not always! But I have way more now than I used to have and that comes with life experience and learning how to stay true to myself and not being interested in competing with others for my own self worth.

It is a learning process that comes with being around for a bit and being able to go through learning stages where we can appreciate who we really are, and not being influenced by what we think we are supposed to be. Most people care what others think about them and they should for the people they care about! But you never will have everyone like you, no matter what. So the one most important person you have to be friends with is yourself!

And that took a while for me to get to the point where I can say, yes, that’s me, take it or leave it – at least most of the time 🙂

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Dressage Queen Dream, or DQD for short, is an equestrian clothing brand, which I founded in April 2021. It went from a side interest to an established brand while being completely self-financed and built up from an idea in my head.

DQD started with some saddle pads, which since the initial productions we have not pursued further – we did one Vintage run recently and it was quite the success, but for now, we are staying focused on the core business of equestrian clothing for the rider: breeches, shirts and outerwear especially. Our bestsellers are the long down riding coats.

We just came out with new colors for them and there will be another one coming soon. And we are creating a special Wellington Collection which features sleeveless shirts and other accessories that are completely new to the brand!

Speaking of the winter horse capital of the world: we are in the process of expanding east to Wellington, which we are extremely excited about! However, we will keep our representation on the West Coast as a California brand!

We also will be present at the National Championships in November in Kentucky this year for the first time.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

That’s a difficult question, but I would say for me, imagination, a sense of style & love for fashion and determination are the areas that were most important for this venture.

My advice to anyone in the beginning of their respective journeys is to ask themselves why they are choosing that particular path. Is it because it really makes them jump out of bed in the morning and just loving what they do, or is it because they think that it is what they should be doing, or that others think it is a great idea.

I remember having held positions that sounded very glamorous and when I told people that’s what I am doing they were impressed, but I didn’t really enjoy it myself. So the key is to really follow your heart, as cliché as that sounds. Follow your heart, not your head. Your gut instinct is a better guide to your happiness!!

What would you advise – going all in on your strengths or investing on areas where you aren’t as strong to be more well-rounded?

I feel there is a need to have a basic understanding of as many areas as possible, especially if they are relevant to the success in one’s chosen field. There is too much micro specialization these days that is not helpful to have a general understanding of things. David Epstein’s book “Range – Why Generalists triumph in a Specialized World” covers that topic very powerfully.

However, nobody is great at everything and once things grow past a certain stage, there also is no way to do everything by yourself. Certain things have to be outsourced and delegated. In that regard I feel strongly that concentrating on the things one is good at, or even more importantly: the things one enjoys doing is the better way to go! Why struggle with something that you neither enjoy nor are good at when there are people who can do it better in half the time?

I love the creative process, designing the products, the visuals for marketing and interacting with my people internally, I am not a tech person, so I need major help with everything that relates to that. And I am not a great sales person out in the field, that is why I have my senior sales person who excels at that and loves it!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.DressageQueenDReam.com
• Instagram: @dressagequeendream
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DressageQueenDream

Image Credits

personal picture: Shelli Wright Photography
pictures 1 & 7: SunSoar Photography
pictures 2,3 & 4: Julie Davidson Photography