Counting Her Pennies and Making It Work: Ambitious Youth Exhibitor Spotlight on Hannah Lynch
By: Kathy Avolt
All photos courtesy of Ali Grusha.
Sixteen-year-old Hannah Lynch of Jefferson Hill, PA isn’t your normal teenager who waits around for the next Justin Beiber concert. Typically, you will not find her at the mall shopping for the latest fashion trends either. Where you will find her is doing odd jobs to support her horse habit. She prides herself on being “good at saving her money.”
Lynch is nearly financially self-supporting her showing habit by making and selling scarves, babysitting, and banding horses to pay her bills. She bands on average 10-12 horses per weekend to pay her training and entry bills. She shows with Falk Performance Horses – Eddie and Alex Falk. Lynch says that she has managed to pay all of her training and showing bills, with the exception of hauling, on her own this year. Her parents, Jeff and Christa Lynch, help out with hauling expenses.
The Lynch family lives just south of the Pittsburgh area, and she has two other sisters and two brothers as well. Hannah is a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School in Pleasant Hills, PA. Hannah’s mother even sews all of Hannah’s outfits, including her chaps, as another way to save on expenses.
Hannah is currently showing Longn For Chocolate, a seven-year-old gelding, in the all-around events this year. She will be showing at the East Novice Championship show in Tennessee in Western Pleasure, Horsemanship, Showmanship, Trail, and Halter and will duplicate with Showmanship, Horsemanship, and Trail along with the 15-18 classes at the Congress plus adding the NYATT Horsemanship. She has shown at all of the TSQHA (Tri State Quarter Horse Association) shows this year, plus all of the PQHA shows and also hit a few shows in Virginia and West Virginia.
This team has been together for roughly three years, but Lynch says she has been riding for as long as she can remember. She is nationally qualified for the Youth World Show in Halter and Trail and is nearing national qualification in Horsemanship and Showmanship.
Alex Falk says of her ambitious youth client, “Hannah is one of the hardest working customers I have in the barn. She will help out by longing and saddling horses and fits in so well with the other customers. She takes criticism so well and wants to be a better rider.”
Lynch says her goals for both the Novice Championship and the Quarter Horse Congress are to “have the best pattern she can.” She hopes to band a lot of horses in both Tennessee and Ohio as well!
