I fell in love with horses at around eight years old. I tried every sport from lacrosse to swimming, but nothing seemed to stick. One day, I woke up and asked to take horseback riding lessons, and I was added to a waitlist at Tampa Yacht and Country Club’s farm, tucked in beautiful and busy South Tampa. After about a year, we received the call that a spot was open, and I began what would lead to many years of riding lessons. A change in ownership occurred a couple of years later, and my trainer took over the farm, making it her own, Perennial Farm.

I started leasing my first pony a few years after that and quickly realized my passion for the sport would only grow. My large pony (more like a hony) and I had a blast learning together, and through many falls and bad days we became quite the team. I had Gaspy for 8 years. I rode every day of the week, as many horses as I could. I took Gaspar to a couple small schooling shows, which is when I began to fall in love with doing the jumpers. Gaspar and I really were quite the pair. He was young when I got him so I feel like he ended up sort of “customized” because there were lots of things he learned to do my way and not really from formal training or how someone with real experience would train a horse. But I understood him and he understood me (most of the time). As I got older, many of my barn friends moved onto other ventures or new sports, or just lost interest. I kept riding. It became clear that I was the most serious about it and eventually I didn’t even have a suitable group lesson to ride in and started only having private lessons. I got to go to a few haul in horse shows and I realized that showing was going to be my long-term goal. I stayed at Perennial until 2018 when I started taking lessons at Sleepy Oaks.

It was always a dream of mine to show. I used to wear my tan breeches to the local schooling show so that I fit in, and watched and watched and watched. I visited friends and girls in the area that I followed on social media and often baked horse treats and brought them to people and cute stuff like that. One of my first best friends Amelia that I met in 6th grade also rode horses, but she was a year older than me. She ended up moving from another barn to Sleepy Oaks and was showing with them at this point so I would go watch her show a lot. I always followed all the older girls that rode at SOF on instagram and thought they were the coolest people in the world, so I loved being able to meet everyone. Amelia told me very early on that I should consider moving to Sleepy Oaks, but I never thought I would. It always felt unrealistic because of the drive and I didn’t have the nice show horse that i’d see them all riding. But years and years later, I decided it was the right decision for me and Gaspar and I packed our neon lead ropes and sparkly saddle pads, and moved to Plant City. The welcome I felt from my new trainer Ms. Julie and her daughter Olivia was unmatched. They had always followed me on instagram and seen all my constant videos, whether it was me jumping without stirrups or eating shit in a fail video. I was worried they would just want me to sell Gaspar immediately but instead they accepted us both, and we grew like I never could’ve imagined. I quickly fell into the friend group of all the barn girls, whom are all still my bestest friends. Gaspar and I had an absolute ball conquering our first real horse shows and learning the ropes from a team of kind, helpful, and empowering role models.

We started in the puddle jumpers and eventually got pretty competitive up to the .85 meter. I schooled 3ft at home but Gaspar was pretty clear he didn’t want to jump that big at the shows, which was fine. I listened to him and we had so much fun. A while later I had a pretty bad fall at a horse show and we decided it might be time to move on to a horse if we could keep Gaspy in the barn. This was a huge relief because if it was between keeping him or getting a new horse, I would’ve chosen him. But this was the best of both worlds! I got my first warmblood soon after named Pogo, and he taught me the ropes of riding a powerful jumper. I have had a few fantastic horses since then, and I can truly say i’ve been living the dream. My backyard days were over and I was finally not just at the horse show, but in the horse show. And it’s never gotten old.

I was once ambitious but unknowledgeable, spending hours watching videos and reading articles and living vicariously through everyone else, until one day I just woke up and realized that could be me if I really wanted it. And that’s when it all changed. Looking back I never thought those big dreams of mine would come true, and I never could’ve imagined the dreams I have now.