My Story
My grandparents all rode. My grandpa on my dad's side was a cow-boy, and my Mom's mom was quite the horsewoman. Both of my parents dabbled with riding earlier in life, but it didn't stick to either of them. When I was 11 my parents started sending me to summer camp, and I liked the horses, but not riding. It was, for lack of a better descriptor, boring. I didn't fall in love with the sport until I was 13 - the first time I really fell off.
After I decided I liked the sport, I started riding more. My first real coach was awful. He will remain unnamed for privacy's sake, but we can safely say he was bad news. He manipulated me and my family into many situations that we just should not have been in. He wrecked my self-confidence and gave me a complex that is altogether too common in this sport - I hated myself as a rider, and I thought I would never be good enough to achieve anything.
Fast forward a few years I moved to the barn I would remain at for the rest of my west coast career - Kelly Maddox Training. Kelly, the head of the program and my coach saw in me what I couldn't see because of the trauma I had amassed. She saw a girl who loved horses, who loved riding, and who had the possibility to excel in the sport. After about a year of training under Kelly, her positive attitude and kind disposition coaxed me out of my shell, and I started competing.
The rest is history - I went from the .90 m jumpers to the 1.10 in a little over a year, I've been all over California to compete, plus going to Oregon on a few occasions. I am planning on taking a horse to college and continuing to compete both personally, and on a D1 intercollegiate team. Horseback riding has become my love, my passion, and my solace. The horses and people have taught me resilience, persistence, responsibility, and so much more. I am forever grateful.
Pictured: Kelly and I collecting my 4th place at the 2019 NorCal Banquet
Awards
2018-2020
Riding Photos
