World Champion Heads Home… and to the Hospital
By: Brittany Bevis
You’ve just won a World Championship title! What are you going to do next?
We’re certain that APHA youth, Rebecca Figueroa, might have had many answers to that question; but, she likely never imagined that just days after winning 18 and Under Horsemanship at the APHA Youth World Show that she would be headed to the hospital.
Rebecca and her five-year-old gelding, Check Required, aka “Bob,” have only been a team for one year now. They show their skills as a true performance pair in classes like Showmanship, Hunter Under Saddle, Equitation, Trail, Western Pleasure, and Horsemanship, under the guidance of Carly Veldman Parks and Wade Parks.
Rebecca and Bob started off the 2018 APHA Youth World in spectacular fashion winning a tough 29-entry Youth Performance Halter Geldings class followed by a Reserve Championship in 18 and Under Hunter Under Saddle, 6th place in 18 and Under Equitation, 7th in 18 and Under Western Pleasure, 6th in 18 and Under Trail, and 9th in 18 and Under Youth Showmanship. She was also named the 14-18 All Around Youth for the show.
The crowning jewel was winning 18 and Under Horsemanship, a class Rebecca had dreamed about winning since she was a small child. “The most exciting moment that happened at the APHA Youth World had to be hearing my name called as the 14-18 Horsemanship World Champion. It has always been a dream and goal of mine to win Horsemanship at the World Show, but I never expected it to be this year. This show had only marked a year in mine and Bob’s relationship, and it was only our fourth pattern together.”
“Our original goal was to just make the finals and have a good lead change, which he was still fairly green at. Well, we made the finals, and the goal changed to having an aggressive, but clean, pattern and rail work. I could not have asked Bob to perform any better than he did, and I definitely rode my heart out. After all our hard work, hearing my name over the speaker and receiving that World Champion buckle was definitely rewarding!”
Click here to read her interview following her win in Performance Halter Geldings.
Click here to read her 14-18 Horsemanship article.
Once the win photo had been taken and the interviews had concluded, Rebecca and her mother packed up their truck and headed home to Ocala, Florida. At the onset of the trip, Rebecca felt perfectly normal, albeit a bit tired from competing all week in Fort Worth. But, by 2 am the next morning, everything had changed.
“Around 11:30 pm, we stopped to get dinner. By 1 am, I was overcome with a sharp pain in my upper abdomen. Thinking it was simply indigestion from dinner, I took some Tums and went back to sleep. At about 2 am, I woke up, and the pain was completely unbearable. I couldn’t stop shaking and shivering, even though I was burning up. We stopped at a truck stop, and I could barely walk around without a constant sharp pain or throwing up. My mom decided to stop for the night at a hotel and see if we could make it home in the morning.”
On the night of July 6th, Rebecca was admitted to Munroe Regional Hospital in Ocala. “They drew blood and found that my lipase levels were 500 over the normal level. This indicated that I had severe pancreatitis. We were then advised to have me transferred to Shand’s Hospital in Gainesville where I was admitted for five days.”
Rebecca is no stranger to hospital stays, having broken her ankle in February of this year. In fact, she was laid up until May and just started riding again prior to the Youth World. However, the solution for pancreatitis isn’t quite as straightforward as it is for a broken bone.
“The treatment for pancreatitis is a very slow and long process, because you simply have to wait until your enzyme levels normalize and you can eat and function without any pain. My treatment included IV fluids, bed rest, and lots of pain medication. I was not allowed to eat or drink anything by mouth until my last day in order to avoid irritating my pancreas.”
The exact cause of Rebecca’s condition is still unknown, but doctors believe it was due to severe dehydration, which is understandable, considered how hot it was in Texas this summer.
“This definitely was not how I had planned to celebrate my success at the World Show. Our original plan was to go home for a few days and then head on a trip to London and Paris. Because of my condition, I was unable to travel that close to being released from the hospital, and we had to cancel our trip. Instead, to celebrate, I just spent time with family and friends, swimming, going to the movies, and just enjoying the rest of summer before the Paint Congress and NSBA World Show.”
Thankfully, Rebecca has since recovered and is gearing up for APHA shows this fall. She attended the NSBA World Show where she was the World Champion in Color Youth Trail.
“I want to say a big thank you to Wade and Carly Parks, the entire barn family, and my parents for everything they do for me, and of course, my partner Bob for always giving me 100%. I love him and can’t wait to continue our journey as partners.”
