Category: Blog

OYES Feature: Cam Davis
By admin

OYES Feature: Cam Davis

My name is Cam Davis, and I am 24-year-old black, queer non-binary person. I have been interested in horses for as long as I can remember, but when it came time for me to first try horseback riding at my friend’s sixth birthday party, I was too scared. I was so disappointed in myself as I watched the other children ride. The adults asked me if I would like another chance, and the moment I tried again, I was absolutely hooked. Never having my own horse growing up, I rode school horses, training horses, and leased when possible. When I was younger, not having a horse made me feel inferior, but so many different horses made me the well-rounded rider I am today.

Horses have helped me through so many challenges. When I was twelve, I was bullied to the point that I considered ending my life to free myself from the unceasing torment. I didn’t trust anyone to tell the severity of my situation, so I turned to horses. As my only escape, horses genuinely saved my life, and I knew that I wanted a career in assisting others through horses. From volunteering at Days End Farm Horse Rescue (DEFHR) and working with three untouched Mustangs, I’ve learned that horses and humans going through hard times have a lot in common. I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and OCD after five years of struggling through debilitating symptoms. I can empathize with how it feels to be mistreated due to being misunderstood, which helps me connect with difficult horses. Now, I am entering my second year of a Master’s degree in Mental Health Counseling at Johns Hopkins University. My education has been a long, arduous journey, but I’ve persisted in the hopes of becoming the kind of mentor I wish I had growing up.

I was so fortunate that my parents supported my involvement with horses through high school, but when I started college, they believed that I should focus on my academics and were no longer willing to contribute resources to horses. After meticulous research and budget planning, I asked if they would help me pay for what I believed would be the experience of a lifetime: competing in the Extreme Mustang Makeover. In this event, trainers have only around one hundred days to prepare a completely untouched Mustang for an in-hand and ridden show. Since the training would take place over the summer and not conflict with school, my parents agreed.

Unfortunately, my very first Mustang was one that a trainer recommended I put down for being too dangerous. Despite our rocky start and inability to compete, Kovu and I gained each other’s trust to form a remarkable bond. Three years later, I decided to give the Mustang Makeover a second chance without my parent’s support. With three years of Mustang experience, I thought that I would at least improve from the previous time, but it was even more of a nightmare. My new Mustang barely let me touch her. I got the help of two professionals, but nothing worked. I ended up rehoming her to a more experienced trainer and made the heartbreaking decision to send Kovu with her since the two horses had become very close over the course of the summer. I’ll never forget my father’s words when I told him what happened: “Have you learned your lesson?” It was one of the most painful things I had ever heard, and I was also left confused: What lesson? The dangers of not listening to them? The naïveté of trying to follow my dreams?

Regardless, they encouraged me to “find out who I was without horses.” As much as I tried to find myself, I only came to one conclusion: I was a shell of a person without horses. My bipolar depression hit me harder than ever before, and once again, I was thinking of ending my life to escape from the vast emptiness. Finally, I found hope in the form the counseling Master’s program at Johns Hopkins University. The faculty page was full of people of color, and the program emphasized diversity and social justice at every turn. My buried dreams of helping people and horses heal each other came trickling back, and what better environment to learn in than one taught by people who looked like me?

Since then, I became a full-time student and part-time teaching assistant, horse trainer, riding instructor, and freelance illustrator. My teaching assistantship ended in June, and in the fall, I will begin a graduate research assistantship at Hopkins. Feeling a sense of security for the first time in years, I got another dangerous thought at the beginning of this year when the Extreme Mustang Makeover announced they would be holding an event in Logan Township, New Jersey—under three hours from where I live: Was it time to try Mustangs again? I tried blocking the thought as much as I could until I saw an online post from my good friend, Mustang trainer, and international clinician Hannah Catalino. She was holding a summer student program on her Montana farm. I got a wild idea: What if I began training my Mustang under Hannah’s guidance then finished the training on my own? It would be a logistical nightmare. Whitehall, Montana is over 2,000 miles away from where I live and work with horses. Despite the uncertainty, I knew that my past failure with Mustangs would haunt me until I succeeded in my goal, so I took the week-long trip out west.

Under Hannah’s guidance, the Mustang I named Zen has become every bit of the miracle I could have hoped for. Zen and I took on the unique challenge of starting our gentling process at liberty, and I am so grateful that I dared to pursue my dreams one more time. I would not trade this experience for the world, but it does come at a hefty price. It cost $2,494.52 to get Zen and myself to Montana, and the journey east starting August 4th for the remainder of his training and the competition in October will cost me $1,700. While that is nearly triple the scholarship amount, $600 toward transport costs would go a long way in giving me more financial leeway to give Zen critical off-site exposure before the event and help cover the transport costs to the event itself. Training Zen has been so much more than a competition for me. It took a lot of perseverance to push past the fear of failure and disapproval from my parents to enter another Makeover. I am also proud to represent as one of the only—if not the only—black and queer people at the event given the largely white percentage of Mustang enthusiasts. Zen has made me a better person and motivated me to use Mustangs and rescue horses in equine-assisted therapy once I complete my Master’s degree. I am so grateful for the opportunity to apply to this scholarship and am humbled by the work that the Optimum Youth Equestrian Scholarship does to empower and inspire young, marginalized horse people to succeed.

Just a Ride in the Outdoor: White Breeches Edition
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Just a Ride in the Outdoor: White Breeches Edition


It happened the way many horse show entries do: on a whim. I was three states away immersed in my Masterson Method Advanced class and didn’t think much about our home show except for the fact that I would be missing it. Then came that midweek text inquiring about my missing entry… my subconscious took hold of my phone and said sure, I could be there if they needed entries and that was that.


Instead of a leisurely drive home from a friend’s house in Cincinnati on Saturday morning, I white knuckled my way home from Indianapolis that Friday night, fueled by a healthy dinner of iced coffee and pistachios and chatting on the phone to stay awake. When I finally collapsed into bed at midnight-thirty, I could barely sleep for the horse show excitement buzzing in my brain.


In true horse girl fashion, my anxiety woke up an hour before the alarm said to. It wasn’t about the ride though: it was about the white breeches. In the three years that they had been hanging in the closet untouched, a lot had happened. I’d spent over two years not riding and slowly losing fitness. I stress ate my way through a global pandemic. The gyms closed, the marathons were cancelled, I sustained an Achilles injury to my good leg, and my physical health (and mental health) took a hit. F*ck it, I told my brain. If the white breeches don’t fit, I’ll wear the pink ones. It’s only a schooling show, after all. When the moment of truth came, the breeches zipped and my heart did a little somersault. For something that seems so silly, it was a huge moment. The last time I zippered those white breeches, I rode Beau down centerline for what would be the last time, though I didn’t know it then. The last time I wore the white breeches, I had no idea of the changes and challenges that would have to be endured to get to a place where I would wear them again. Between these two shows were three years marked with tears, with triumphs, with outlandish dreams and huge risks all in pursuit of a chance to do this once again. 


While I grumbled at the heat and humidity as I pulled on my black coat, I secretly knew I wanted to wear it again–the Bronze Medal pin proudly pinned to its lapels as a nod to the horse who carried me so far. I swung myself into his saddle, took up his reins into my hands, and felt so much gratitude for my dear Charlie Brown though it was his tiny successor now sporting his hand me downs. 


Even though the last chapters of his career were not written the way I would’ve penned them, I felt ever grateful to be on this path once again–living the tumultuous journey of developing a dressage horse. Nothing with horses is a given, a sure thing, or the least bit linear. But for the Type A dressage riders, that’s a hard concept to come to grips with. So after a soft and steady warm up with Lucy on her best behavior, we headed to the outdoor just to “ride around except in show clothes.” And that’s exactly what we did. Not quite educated enough to execute an accurate test yet, Lucy and I contested a Materiale class alongside another super youngster at Uphill. Both four-year-olds were calm and composed and everybody even picked up the left lead! It was exactly as boring as you want it to be with young horses, but I left the ring completely elated. 


Sure, it was just another ride in the outdoor (though to be fair, we only have about 6 of those under our belts) but this one represented a lot more. Because this ride involved white breeches, and white breeches mean you have a sound horse to ride. It means you have a sane partner who won’t lose their marbles if you ride in front of a dozen people. For me, white breeches mean not only do I have a sound, sane horse, but that I’m back on the wild and curvy road that I’ve been trying to get back to for three long years. 


It’s been three years since I last rode into a show ring, two years since I met my latest adventure, and just one year since I first swung a leg over her back. This story is for everyone who thinks their dreams have been derailed forever, are unattainable, or just plain silly. If it sets your soul on fire, if it lights a spark and a passion inside your soul, it is not silly, it is not unattainable, and no matter how long it takes, those dreams are worth chasing.

 
Here’s to more white breeches and more dressage dreams coming true!

All photos courtesy Kate Rebecca Photography

 

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OYES Feature: Carismeldi Estevez
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OYES Feature: Carismeldi Estevez

My name is Carismeldi Maria Estevez Garcia. I was born and raised in Santiago, Dominican Republic. My passion for horses started when I was around 4 – 5 years old, I remember that day as it was yesterday. My dad grew up in the countryside, at a place called Manacla. He grew up with donkeys and mules because his family grew up by doing the coffee business. My dad had around 12 mules and donkeys all combined. It was during the beginning of the year of 2008 that my family and I went to visit my dad’s family. My dad put me on top of his favorite mule, his name was “Mulito Prieto”) I was so happy, I just loved it afterwards.

Every time I used to go visit my dad’s family in the countryside, I always used to ask if I could ride, it was to the point that they were getting annoyed by me, but oh well. By that time, I did not take riding seriously because in the Dominican Republic, the equestrian sport is not very known, so there weren’t stables where I lived. On December 21st, 2014 my parents decided to move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in search of new opportunities for themselves, and for my older brother, my younger sister, and I. The first 3 years, I spent it by just staying home, doing homework, and taking care of my younger sister. In the summer of 2017, I realized how much I miss horseback riding; therefore, I started looking for summer camps near where I currently live. I found a facility that is based on polo, and that they also do lessons, and summer camp. I went for a week and I honestly did like being back on the saddle, and being around horses, it made me so happy. However, I did not know anything about riding horses, I never trotted or cantered, I was a complete beginner. I came back for 2018, but this time I volunteered. I was also paying for lessons at the same facility only for summer time. I wish I could do it more often, but I did not have enough time because of school.

I stayed there until 2019 and I left because of the drama, and how rude the owner is. I was there for 3 years, and I helped around at the barn. Cleaning stalls, feeding horses, turning in and out the horses, basically all barn chores, but the owner never let me ride a horse not even if it was for a free lesson, I had to pay for the lesson. I never bothered, I just loved so much being around horses, that as long as I could spend time with them, I did not care at all. I went to volunteer on Saturday morning at another facility. At that facility, I got free lessons as a reward for my work. I stayed there for around 3-4 months, but I couldn’t keep going because it got so complicated for my mom to drive me because of her job. I have realized that being around horses makes me so happy that I have decided I want to pursue a career in the horse industry. I am currently a junior at High School, and my main goal is to attend Delaware Valley University, located at Doylestown, for the class of 2026. I want to major in Equine Management, and minor in Equine Science with a focus on pre-vet. After I graduate college, I want to keep going with my education and become an equine veterinarian and own a stable of my own because that is my biggest dream.

My riding goals would be to keep taking lessons and get better with my riding skills when it comes to jumping. I prefer to be outside, so if I ever get the opportunity to show, it would be in eventing. Because my parents own a mini market, they do not have time to drive me to take lessons. I have been trying to find other facilities near me, but they are either too far, or confusing to get at and because I have to take an Uber, it gets complicated for me. I have a friend that she has been riding her whole life, she owns a horse and is also an instructor for lessons. After my past instructor moved out of state, I recently started going to Windswept Acres, located at Boyertown, Pennsylvania, which is where my friend is working at and giving me lessons. It is an hour away from where I live (which is Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), but is it worth it because I am with someone I know at a place that it is easy for an Uber to get to, and the price for the lesson is affordable to me. For an Uber, I pay as much as $100 – $130 just for me to get to the barn depending on how busy Uber drivers are, and for lessons I pay $45 for an hour private lesson. My friend/instructor drives me back home, which I’m very grateful for. I am trying to save up for college, so the price for the lessons are affordable to me, but the price of the Uber it’s just taking away what I mostly make at my job at my parent’s mini-market as a cashier. I had to reduce the amount of lessons I take from once a week, to twice a month. It has become a challenge, but all I want is to be around horses, love and care for them.

My goals are for the long run, this is what I want. I am planning to move to Ocala, Florida as soon as I am done with veterinary school. For the veterinarian school, I either want to attend the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary, or Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. I am mostly nervous about Veterinary school, but hopefully I will get scholarships that will help me pay it off. I really don’t want to come out of my education owing money, that is why I’m planning to look for jobs and internships that will help me out to pay for my education, and at the same time, learning more about the horse industry, and the world of an equine veterinarian. I will work as hard as I can to make a difference in the horse industry, and to make my goals and dreams come true.

OYES Feature: Micah Green
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OYES Feature: Micah Green

Micah is an equestrian from Florida who has been riding horses his entire life. As a child, his parents allowed him to take birthday pony rides and for one birthday they even rented two ponies for rides in their backyard. Eventually this evolved into regular riding lessons, first Western then English because Micah wanted to learn how to jump. His show career began in 2015 in a crossrails division where he was pinned grand champion.
 
“It gave me a tremendous boost. I knew I was capable of excelling in that field.”
 
Micah is considering a move to Texas to continue his education in the equine field after graduating from University of Florida in 2022. He is currently working on a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science with an Equine focus. He knows that whatever the future holds, he wants to make a career in the equine industry.
 
“As an African American male, this sport isn’t something that’s necessarily in my field. My friends didn’t exactly bully me, but they would tease me for riding “My Little Ponies” and would call me ‘the horse boy.’ This sport is something that is seen as feminine and people would always say to me, ‘you should be playing basketball,’ or ‘you should be playing football.’”
 
Micah persevered in following his passion and is currently able to continue riding as part of his college equestrian team. He dreams of making a move up to jumping and competing at a higher level at the top horse shows and making an unforgettable appearance in the rings at HITS or WEC.
 
“I won’t win every horse show, I know that. But being an African American male in a predominantly female and predominantly white sport, I am leaving an impact in every arena I ride in.”

OYES Feature: Abbey Lynn
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OYES Feature: Abbey Lynn

My name is Abbey! I am 21 years old, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I am a part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and I am an activist for black lives, the lgbt+ community, human rights and equality. In the rodeo world, it is TOUGH for BIPOC/LGBT+ people to get into. I am hoping to make positive changes in the barrel racing/rodeo world and make people feel more welcome. I would love to use my platform to speak up for others and be someone others can look up to in the barrel racing world.

I own a 10-year-old 14.1hh paint mare named Cookie! I got my horse for free; halter broke in 2015 since that’s all I could afford. We competitively barrel race locally as of right now; hoping to race bigger and more in the future. I got involved in riding through 4H (Allegheny County). My best friend I met in a store at the mall and we started talking about horses. I was 9 at the time and she was 17 or 18. She introduced me to 4H and lessons. I grew up leasing her horse and showing him in 4H. My current riding goals are to make it into the rodeo circuit through WPRA and long-term goal would for sure be the NFR.

I would LOVE to make it to the NFR. I am so far getting a good bit of barrel race time; I am having friends haul me to them to get my horse finished as she’s still in the training process. We are currently hitting 3D/4D times, but I know we can make it to the top if given the right resources and if I continue working my butt off. I am currently working every day, 7 days a week, day and night to make this possible. I am actually applying to a second and maybe third job as I’m typing this to hopefully help fund my dreams.

I have definitely faced a good bit of challenges, and still am… financially, I grew up poor. I am still poor honestly. I use every penny I can on my horse and training. Barrel racing is the only thing that keeps me going. Another struggle I have been dealing with is homophobia from my family. My dad told me these past couple months he was ‘tired of gay people’ and that I’m ‘not allowed to be openly gay’ in our household. I struggle with my mental health because of this, and I have since been getting help with everything thanks to a wonderful therapist.

I will say it also causes a lot of anxiety showing up to races with my BLM/LGBT tack set, but I do it to make others comfortable and to show we are in the barrel racing world and proud of it. I would love to be an LGBT+ barrel racer at the top and become an inspiration to others. It also is an amazing feeling having others say you inspire them to be out and loud, fight for what they believe in, and them quietly coming up to you at races and just thanking you. It makes me so unbelievably happy.

OYES Feature: Ranée James
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OYES Feature: Ranée James

Take a seat, grab a cup of tea, and let me tell you the incredible story of my life. My name is Ranée Tamia James, I am 22 as of and I am based in London in the U.K.

My riding story begins in 2008. I was in Antigua for my grandparents’ wedding vow renewal. The hot Caribbean sun was shining, the air was magical. I was 9 and decided to join my cousins at a summer camp. About a week into the camp, a local man brought his horse for the campers to have a ride on. I had a 2 minute lead round in a circle, then after a lot of begging and pleading, I got another ride. I was addicted to horses already, announcing their presence every time I would drive past them, but for me, this moment, the first time I ever sat on a horse, was the moment that made me who I am today.

It wasn’t until I was 14 that I rode again. I had asked my dad for lessons numerous times in between, however, with lessons as expensive as they are in the U.K., and being the oldest of 4, this was not affordable for us at the time. When I was 14, my uncle booked myself and my sisters a riding lesson, my first ever lesson, on July 13th 2013. This one-hour lesson re-sparked my fire, and drove me to further pursue riding. After many months of nagging, and begging, my parents finally allowed me to volunteer at a stable about an hour away from my house.

For around 2 years, I spent all my free time volunteering at the stables, weekends, school holidays, and occasionally after school. My duties there would be to groom, muck out, tack up and lead riders on the horses and ponies through the woods. It was a busy yard, so I wouldn’t get to ride as often as I wanted to, and prior to volunteering here I had only had one lesson before. Despite this, opportunities that I got to ride were very valuable to me. Lessons were not offered at this stable, so I would ride a horse or pony in the woods accompanied by another volunteer. I learned the basics of riding through a combination of watching others ride, and copying what I had seen in YouTube videos. It may have not been the best start riding, as I did pick up a few bad habits, and well, old habits die hard, but learning this way really pushed me to want to learn more and want to be great. Over the years, I worked at many different stables, in exchange for my lessons, I found this to be the most affordable way for me to develop.

At 16, I had my first lease horse. The name I gave her at the time was Majesty, but this was later changed. Things were complicated with her from the offset. She was meant to have arrived in June, however, there were so many complications, which meant she didn’t arrive until September. The day I got the phone call she was arriving, was unfortunately, the day my grandad passed away. She was a 13-year-old thoroughbred horse that was bred to race but never raced, she had a rough life prior to coming, and wasn’t trained at all. Even with everything I was facing at the time, I still made my best efforts to care for her. I had asked for her to be stabled at the bottom of the road from my sixth form so I could see to her. I was in sixth form five days a week, from early in the morning, and had to be dressed in business attire as part of the sixth form dress code. This meant that every day I was going to the stables in the mornings and afternoon in a skirt or dress or some kind of business attire. I tried my best to care for her, but I was looked down upon by other people at the stable. There was an incident, where a woman who disliked me and was very clearly racist, told the owner that I was constantly coming to the stables “inappropriately dressed” and that I had attempted to ride Majesty, which we had agreed not to, as she was not ready. This was a lie. I had taken her tack out to get her used to it, in order to train her to ride. But it was this woman’s word against mine, and the owner decided to not loan her to me anymore. This was heartbreaking for me, as I loved this horse very much. I would still visit her at times, however, when I returned from Antigua from my granddad’s funeral, I went to visit her, only to find out that she had moved her while I was away. I haven’t seen her since. I had other loan horses since, but she was my first, and special to me.

Between the ages of 16 and 18, I spent my time hustling for riding time, with my ambitions of one day riding in the Olympics always in my mind. At 18 I took a scholarship opportunity and moved to my country of origin, Antigua. Here I began to have weekly lessons. It seemed I overestimated my riding abilities at first, thinking I was much better than I was, and all my bad habits came to light. However, with a lot of patience, and hard work, from myself and my coach, my riding developed leaps and bounds, and I am now a more confident and developed rider. Being in Antigua opened up the opportunity for me to compete well as getting to ride a variety of horses. Not only did I get the opportunity to ride, but also the opportunity to work with rescue horses and nurture and help to train them. Since I was little, it has always been my dream to compete Internationally representing Antigua, and my time in Antigua has allowed me to build the foundations to do so.

During my time I have faced a lot of racism. On many occasions I was called derogatory terms, had tack stolen or tampered with and put on dangerous horses for other people’s amusement. One of the worst things I have ever had said to was to be called “Crook,” a reference to the book ‘Of Mice and Men’. Over the years I have suffered with depression and anxiety and have managed to overcome these, using horses as a therapy. Many times I nearly thought I couldn’t make it, and the love and energy I got from horses saved me.

Since leaving Antigua I have been working with The Urban Equestrian Academy, with them I have been working with them to teach theory sessions to the kids and hopefully open up an Urban Equestrian Academy in London.

The next step for me is to now pursue my Olympic goal in full force. I have set my sights set on the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and without a doubt, I will be there, by force or fire!

Checking In from Babyhorseland
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Checking In from Babyhorseland

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: babyhorseland is a wild place. It’s like being on a roller coaster where you definitely might die, if not from bodily injury then definitely from a heart attack. Or an aneurysm….

Roller coaster going up… first pony ride


It’s like being on a roller coaster that in one moment is the best, most thrilling thing imaginable but in another moment you’re like wtf am I doing on this thing? And why did I walk through a valley of hot coals to get in line for this? And, why am I truly doing this voluntarily?!


The highs have been very, very high. Since our last Lucy Lu update I have backed and started this special little filly under saddle and let me tell you: she is F-U-N. And she is smart. From our last update in July where she conquered her fear of baths, she has come a long, long way. I went from being carried around like a sack of potatoes to bravely swinging a leg over and going for a pony ride in the indoor to cantering around on the lunge line and even going walk-trot off the lunge by Halloween. 

First canter under saddle. Striving for progress, not perfection.


I was on Cloud 9! This roller coaster was the best adventure that I’d ever been been brave enough to ride! Then suddenly a bolt flies off and you think, ‘well, I might die now.’  She definitely knocked a screw loose somewhere along the way and some of things I have seen are hard to unsee… there were days on the lunge line when I would watch her antics and think, ‘am I really going to get on that thing again?’ And these days eventually culminated into a harrowing and expensive journey trying to find a physical cause for going off the rails. Surely we can tighten that bolt and get back on track. 


After many, many weeks and many vet visits and many sleepless nights we had treated her for everything she might have and ruled out everything else. (Here is where the aneurysm comes in… I had definitely convinced myself she was suffering some pretty terrible and incurable ailments). The emotional roller coaster was at its lowest low and I was not sure if I wanted to go around again. But gosh were those fun times fun and I hadn’t actually died yet and the vet’s orders were to ride the damn horse so… why not.


In the dregs of winter, mid-pandemic, and approaching the holidays, a good groundsperson was hard to find. So I found myself doing what every desperate horse girl does when she is in dire need of a groundsperson: make your husband do it. This sparked an entirely new and exciting route for the baby horse roller coaster: gently riding around the indoor while Beau finds his second career as a husband horse. 

New adventures for both of the pony kids


And as only the allure of babyhorseland can do, I was sucked right back in again. Each week, I got a bit bolder and a bit braver and she got a bit steadier and a bit braver herself. And Beau.. well it goes without saying that he was THRILLED to have conned a new person into his I-will-not-be-caught-for-less-than-three-treats routine and his new job description included sporting a western saddle and not even needing to walk into corners. 


All this to say, babyhorseland is a wild, wild place where you never know where you might end up once you cross its threshold. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows and it’s not for the faint of heart, but if you need me, that’s where I live now…
#greetingsfrombabyhorseland 

OYES Feature: Anna Streit
By admin

OYES Feature: Anna Streit

I had my first riding lesson at the age of 5 as a birthday present. I don’t remember much of it, but I’m told that I was so scared that I cried, and it took half the lesson just to get me on the horse. At the end I cried when they made me get off the horse. That was all it took to get me hooked, that one 30-minute ride. My parents had no idea what they had signed themselves up for, though they were always supportive. When I started showing and we couldn’t afford show clothes, my mom would find boys suit jackets and dress shirts at the thrift store and tailor them to fit me. I took weekly lessons, did summer camps, and showed nearly every weekend during show season up until I was about 13. The only way that my family could afford this is through an education grant that we received because of my parents’ political activism.

While I have struggled with anxiety and depression for as long as I can remember, the year I turned 13 was the worst it had been in my short life. I nearly quit riding because I had so much anxiety about jumping and showing. My mom convinced me not to, and I ended up just switching barns to a therapeutic riding facility that allowed me to work off lessons. I was homeschooled so I spent five to six full days a week there for about two years. That was when they closed, and I had to find yet another place to ride. Luckily for me, I had volunteered to help with horses at a summer camp in the area and the equine director had grown up riding at a local barn. She referred me to them, and I have been riding and working there ever since.

My riding goals feel so far away right now. I haven’t even sat on a horse since May, as I was stuck in Montana over the summer due to COVID and have no vehicle here and no money to pay for lessons anyway. The last time I had a real lesson was January when I was back home for winter break. At some point in the future I would love to get into dressage, as jumping really isn’t my thing. I am also interested in training miniature horses for therapy or service work. I actually have a mini in my backyard at school who I am training for service as my senior project. There are extremely limited resources on methods for this though, so I’m basically making it up as I go along.

My long-term plan is to hopefully get a PhD in archaeology and spend some time working in the field. Eventually I am interested in teaching, which is why I want the PhD instead of a Masters. I am in my senior year of undergrad getting a degree in anthrozoology with an anthropology minor. I had intended to apply to grad schools this fall but my top choice is not accepting grad students this year, so I am taking a gap year and applying to all of the schools next year instead. In May I will be headed back to Virginia for the gap year, and hopefully continuing to work off lessons at the barn I normally ride at when I’m home. I have no idea where I’ll get in (or if I’ll get in) so after the gap year I’m not sure where I’ll be. I do know I will want to ride wherever I go.

I’ve already talked a bit about some of my challenges, but I’d like to mention one more thing. This has not been a challenge for me at my current barn, but I am worried that it could be in the future as I try out new places. I identify as bisexual. My barn at home is very accepting of me and I even brought a girlfriend there to see the horses a few years ago. I know that not every barn is as wonderful a place as mine, and that I will probably have to deal with homophobia and bigotry at some point in my riding career.  I have been lucky enough to have had an accepting community in my teenage years, but I know that many do not. Stepping outside of that community is pretty scary, and I hope that being able to have a mentor as a resource will help to ease that transition.

OYES Feature: Erin Oquindo
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OYES Feature: Erin Oquindo

When I was a little kid, my mom and I would drive the 3-hours to Dickson, TN to pick up my half-brothers from their father’s farm, where they worked and lived on the weekends. Even though my mom was a barrel racer for years, she couldn’t stop my eyes from wandering to the various jumping rings we would pass on that long road to Dickson. So that’s how I initially became obsessed with it and started consuming all sorts of equestrian media from the books in my school’s library to taking hand-me-down Breyer horses from a family friend. After I started taking lessons at 7 years old, I was hooked. I was fortunate enough to get a pony when I was about 10, which my parents and I paid for by all three working in various capacities for my riding instructor—I worked as a camp counselor and groom while my parents managed all the media and photography work in exchange for my pony’s board. Later on, I ended up taking a 5-year hiatus from riding, for most of my high school career and the first half of my undergraduate career—the space got too competitive, too expensive, and too white for me to comfortably continue. My junior year of college, I joined my university’s club IHSA team but dropped out a year later for financial reasons. Now, I am trying to rebuild my life in the equestrian world with a monthly half lease on a horse named Mozart (also known as Mo, Bobo, Bubba, Boombah, etc.) and a great, understanding trainer who is helping me work through a lot of my emotional and physical pain points when it comes to riding. I ride a bit less than once a week now and it is my current goal to get to a financial, physical, and social place to go to the barn more and for longer, so I can really immerse myself and learn.

I’ll be honest—I am not looking to be the next Grand Prix rider or Boyd Martin or whoever (the vast majority of these folks are white cis people anyway and I could never see myself among them). I am not interested in showing extensively at the upper levels in that way. As my long-term equestrian dream, I simply want to one day get to a place in my life where I own and regularly ride a horse, grow in my skill and strength, and can dedicate myself to horseback riding as my primary activity outside my career. I would entertain it being a part of my career, but I just feel like I haven’t had the proper exposure to the horse world to really tell me whether or not that’s the path for me. In the short term, I currently have the opportunity to ride the same trained horse consistently, and that’s the first time I’ve ever been able to do something other than ride various lesson ponies. I would love to spend more time getting to know him, building up my muscle and confidence, and advancing to the level I know I have the potential to reach if I were able to ride more and be at the barn more. 

If you had asked me about obstacles to riding a year ago, I maybe would have answered simply with the financial struggles I’ve gone through and the few bouts with racist folks I’ve encountered endless times at shows, in my own barn, etc. But I really had a reckoning with why I took that five year break I spoke about from the equestrian sport, just a few months ago after George Floyd’s murder. I follow the popular equestrian podcaster, YouTuber, and +R training advocate Jill Treece (JetEquiTheory). A few months back, she was using her platform around that time to amplify black and brown riders and bring awareness to the fact that while there’s a lack of diversity generally throughout the equestrian world, media does a fantastic job of convincing us that there is no diversity to begin with. Those of us who are riders of color and queer riders—we’re constantly convinced that we’re completely alone in what we do. It wasn’t until Jill started connecting me with these other riders of color, and—I’m a little embarrassed to say but also, I’m so thankful for it!—TikTok—led me to find an incredible community of queer equestrian folks, where I got to meet another nonbinary rider for the first time ever—it wasn’t until I started meeting all these people and following equestrian diversity alliance on Instagram and joining the Facebook groups and so on and so forth that I truly realized what a weight and a stressor it was to not see myself in those who did the sport. I have never once in my life met another Filipino equestrian. I’ve never come out as nonbinary to any trainer I’ve ever had, and as a result have sort of volunteered myself via my own silence to be misgendered by my trainers throughout my riding career. Even with as kind a trainer as I have now, I fear coming out in the equestrian space because I don’t know the ripple effects of hatred and bigotry it may cause. I’d rather go under the radar and still be able to ride than feel like I’m getting quietly pushed out by those tides of racism and bigotry again. I felt so alone in the horse world for so long, and it’s incredibly difficult to put that feeling to words. This scholarship is the first time someone has said to me “I see you, and I know this is hard for you, and I’m offering you help.” That’s so huge.

As for a non-equestrian-related goal, it’s my dream to become a professor, with a focus on visual culture and abolitionist study and theory. That’s what most of my time was dedicated toward in undergrad and I would love to teach eager students about race, justice, history, and visual culture. It is a dream of mine to teach college-level courses in prisons so that people in prison have the opportunity to get college degrees while we actively work to dismantle the prison industrial complex in the meantime. Ideal situation for me—there will be no “prison” as we know them for me to teach in when I get to that stage in my life!

OYES Feature: Bryanna Tanase
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OYES Feature: Bryanna Tanase

My name is Bryanna Tanase and I am a 22-year-old para-equestrian and graduate student from Tarpon Springs, FL. I was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 11 months of age and as a result rely on a wheelchair for all my daily mobility and require assistance with most daily tasks. However, I like to focus on my capabilities rather than my disability, and horses help me do just that.

My love of riding and horses started with a trip to a farm in preschool, where I became infatuated with a palomino pony, and has continued since then. Throughout my childhood, I only had small interactions with horses like pony rides at the zoo and piggybacking on vacation trail rides with my family because riding was inaccessible for me. So, I spent the majority of my younger years learning as much as I could about horses through books and movies and asking my parents for a pony every chance I had.  It was during this time that my 10 or 11-year-old self discovered dressage and paradressage through YouTube videos of Charlotte Dujardin, Laura Graves, Roxanne Trunnel, Rebecca Hart, and other well-known paraequestrian and able-bodied riders. I fell in love with the sport and knew it was something I had to pursue, and achieve the highest level of distinction in. It wasn’t until my parents enrolled me in the therapeutic riding program at Quantum Leap Farm in April of 2016 that I was finally able to learn to ride and be around horses on a regular basis. I was 17 years old, so I waited 14 years for this day. I progressed and gained so much skill and confidence in the program that I took my first independent ride in December 2016 and have been riding independently since then. In addition to riding, I have also had the opportunity to be actively involved in the care of horses and building a bond with the horse I ride. I am engaged in the equestrian community through my social media like Instagram and Facebook and am advocating for greater inclusion of paraequestrians in the media and equestrian sport at large through writing articles for outlets like US Equestrian and Kerrits Equestrian Apparel for their diversity and inclusivity projects respectively.

My future goals are to enter my first dressage show and begin proper dressage training with a dressage trainer, and my ultimate goal is to qualify for the US Paraequestrian Team and ride for the US in the Paralympics. I have made some progress toward these goals by working on 20 meter circles and other dressage movements with my trainers at Quantum.  I have connected with dressage and paradressage riders and trainers across the country to gain a better understanding of the sport and build a connection with them so we can lean on each other, such as USDF Bronze and Silver Medalist and Silver Paradressage Coach Lisa Hellmer and paradressage riders Laurietta Oakleaf and Alyssa Cleland. Furthermore, in January 2020, I received my national Grade 1 paradressage classification at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival and had the opportunity to watch international riders compete.  I have also been working to find a dressage trainer locally because I feel like I am missing a lot in terms of technical skill that I do not get in a typical therapeutic riding session. I think having a combination of both therapeutic riding and dressage training lessons will be beneficial for me because they will both serve different purposes. The dressage training rides will be for building on the basics I am familiar with and for learning new skills in a stepwise fashion, and the therapeutic rides will be for continued strengthening and revision. I have also recently found another therapeutic riding center called Emerald M with a dressage trainer onsite, am filling out the paperwork to become a rider there, and I am super excited to see how everything goes.

I have overcome many challenges to become the equestrian I am today. The first is because of my physical health which also turns into a logistical problem. Many people in the equestrian industry are very wary of taking on students with a disability because of the liability involved. I cannot tell you how many times I have been turned away from facilities and told to go somewhere else despite my enthusiasm and want to learn because it is clear that the trainer and owner believe I would be too much of a headache to handle.  If the attitude of the facility staff is not an issue, another roadblock comes in the form of the accessibility of the facility itself. The main issue is that many stables in my area do not have a safe way for me to mount and dismount, but sometimes the accessibility can be so poor that I cannot get to the barn aisles to see the horses. Even if I suggest a solution to these issues that would not be too much of a hassle to implement, I am met with unwillingness to accommodate. Additionally, if we overcome the first two obstacles, there may not be a safe horse in the barn for me to ride. Sometimes, no matter how much the barn staff wants to help, there is no prudent way for me to ride and be engaged in the culture at a barn, so I have to give up on the opportunity and try to find something else.  I would like to branch out from therapeutic riding centers to experience an able-bodied dressage barn, but I cannot do that without support from the staff there. I firmly believe that the barn should be a safe place where everyone is welcome, and that there should not be separation between able bodied and paraequestrian riders. We should be able to share our love of horses together in harmony.  Thankfully, because of the wonderful people at Quantum Leap Farm and Emerald M, I can ride despite this adversity. I have also overcome the social challenge of convincing my parents to let me pursue my athletic ambitions, after many disagreements, I won a battle well fought and they now see that pursuing my equestrian dreams is something I am passionate about. My parents are a huge part of my support team and I am so glad we can work together towards my goals. I am so grateful for all they have done for me and I know I would not be able to achieve all that I have without their help. The encouragement and advice I receive from them is really motivating.  I am the only equestrian in my family, and I am so proud to be one.