14-Year-Old Samantha Taylor Jumps Off Against Herself to Win World and Reserve in AQHA Youth World Jumping

By: Brittany Bevis

Traditionally speaking, the jump off is a high stakes, competitive conclusion to a Jumping class, during which one or more riders has completed a clean round. Today’s jump off at the AQHA Youth World Show was a bit different than most. That’s because the only two clean rounds belonged to 14-year-old Samantha Taylor.

“I actually didn’t know I was riding against myself until I had to get on my other horse. It was really fun though, because I had an opportunity to beat myself. One is an older horse. The first horse I rode is 22, and the second horse is 11 years old.”

This talented young rider was first to go with Chances R Wild. “He’s amazing. He feels like he has a young heart and loves to do his job. He’s willing to do anything.” Her second mount was an 11-year-old mare named A Red Bird. “She has a little more power than he does, but she’s smaller. When I get off him and onto her, she feels way small, but she also likes to frame herself up and jumps a little bigger than he does.”

Contrary to popular belief, Samantha knows that you don’t need to have the biggest horse in the pen. Both of her horses are around the 15.3 to 15 hand range. “When I started out jumping, I had a pony and he was doing about the same stride as my horses. You don’t always need to have the biggest horse. I was watching a Grand Prix, which was about a meter 30, and there was a horse maybe three inches taller than the ones I have now, and he got second.”

However, Samantha isn’t opposed to riding the more statuesque jumpers. For the past two weeks, she’s been competing in Santa Fe with her Thoroughbred. “I started out doing USEF, and I had a pony. Then, I went to a Warmblood. Now, I’m back to Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds. Between my whole family, we have eight jumping horses and two ranch horses.”

 

Samantha’s entire family rides, but she was the first to introduce Jumping. “My mom did polo when she was younger, and my dad did ranch work. I was playing in my backyard one day when I saw my neighbor jumping his horse. I told my parents that I wanted to do that. They asked me if I really wanted to go from a western saddle with a horn to nothing. I said I would try it, and I fell in love with it!”

In the future, Samantha has a dream to go to the Olympics and ride for Team USA.