Young Rider Essay #2- From a Sassy 13-Year-Old to a Horse-Loving Adult
By: Brittany Bevis
We received such an incredible response from the first Young Rider Essay we shared, Letters From My Younger Self with Allie Board. So, we asked our readers to share old photos and essays from your horse-obsessed youth, and you answered. Jocelind Knapp of Vermont has been looking through her boxes of childhood memories and discovered a few gems.
“This handwritten page is from 1998, when I was eleven years old,” Jocelind says. “The mare that I’m talking about within the essay is in the top of the photo [Arizona sweatshirt]. The other horse in the photos is Axel, aka Styled N Deefined, who I showed at the Congress just five years after that first photo was taken. He’s almost 29 years old now, and I still have him.”
Jocelind- Sept. 23, 1998
“I like riding my horse. She is so strong. When you ride her, she just flows. It is such a great feeling. The way she moves is mind boggling. You have to be a strong rider to hold her together because she will run off because she loves to run and she is fast. She is a really sweet horse. She will do anything for a kind person. She will relax if you sing in French to her. I think she likes me. I hope. She is so very pretty. She is red with a black mane and tail. She has a little white on her head. She is so nice to ride. She is very nice. She will toss her head now and then. But that is because of flies. She is truly a kind horse. She is small, but sweet.”
Jocelind ran across another essay, this one in response to a scholarship application she filled out when she was 13 years old, in 2000. “I was 13 and a little sassy!” she says. “But I still do barn chores as a side job, and I did start riding Western that year. I have to say that I was against riding a ‘made’ horse when I was 13; but, 20 years later, I’m enjoying it!”
Jocelind- 2000
“As is evident, I am a VHSA Junior member. I participated in all but one VHSA open show in the year 2000. I cleaned stalls three days a week this past year where I kept my horse. I do not have a barn of my own, but for a few separate weeks this summer, I managed my mother’s friend’s barn. This meant I cleaned the two stalls of her daughter’s pony and her Quarter Horse stud colt. There were three horses, but the colt’s mother had just been put down. My mother’s friend had owned the mare since she was six months old, for 18 years. I felt very bad for my mother’s friend, so I decided to do some extra cleaning up around the barn. I swept up cobwebs and made sure the tack room and hay stall were neat and the aisle was racked before I left. Besides cleaning stalls, I fed in the morning and at night. I also turned the feisty stud colt in and out. My mother helped leading the pony. I also scrubbed the water buckets in the stalls and in the pasture. Every night, when we brought the horses in, I worked on handling, brushing, and leading the colt. He was beginning to learn some manners, but was still hard to handle. The job was fun even though the colt made it a big challenge. I wanted to know what it was like to have my own barn. It was a little experiment to see if I liked having a barn, and I do.
Working around horses and riding them is my major focus after school. I am very dedicated to my riding, and I love my horses dearly. Riding teaches me a sense of responsibility. I like being able to have my horse and do my thing with it. I like being responsible for my horses’ results, both good and bad. I learn a great deal of things from horses every time I go to the barn.
I do odd jobs to help pay for board and showing. My weekly allowance goes toward my lesson each week. I don’t like doing the work, but if it will help out my parents pay for things, then I can deal with it. When I am with my horse, the work is done and I enjoy my time spent. Every time my horse gets a new concept and can perform it, I am so happy because we worked out our problem as a team. I enjoy showing because when I go to a show, my horse and I are ready to show a judge exactly what we have been working on all year long. The show pen is where everyone sees all of your hard work and you get to share your pride with everyone. I now know that I am going to have to work for everything in my riding. In the end though the results will feel like I’ve really accomplished something. There is no satisfaction is riding a made horse. Never have I ever been able to ride a made horse, and I want to keep it that way.
“This picture was probably from 1998. My mom took me to watch a Team Penning, and the owner of this horse saw me coming back to visit his horse so he offered for me to sit on the horse for a picture. I was so nervous, but I did it anyway. I don’t remember the horse’s name or the cowboy’s, but I do remember how much of an impact that man’s kindness had on me. We both shared a love for that beautiful horse. That kind of thing stays with you.”
This scholarship would benefit me in many ways. If in the event that I was awarded this scholarship, I would start taking Western lessons and pay for them with the scholarship money. I would also put some of the money into my horse account at the bank. I would like to expand my riding skills and start riding Western. My horse and I are both a bit rusty in the Western department, so the lessons would be well appreciated. It would also help out my parents a lot if I was paying for some of my lessons. This would be the second lesson during the week and would give me more time with my trainer. If I was awarded this scholarship I would not spend the money on a materialistic object such as a hunt coat, but the money would fund a rider who is learning a whole new way of riding.
Share your Young Rider Essays and photos with us by emailing B.Bevis@EquineChronicle.com.
