Horse Illustrated Magazine

I made my first public appearance in vaulting this weekend at the Festival of the Horse in Georgetown, Ky. I was nervous about being nervous, but the event was fairly small, and since it wasn’t a competition, I felt almost completely comfortable; let’s not forget that I was exhibiting myself in a skin-tight unitard. Luckily the black and gold color scheme wasn’t too awful.

Believe it or not, the hardest part for me was the jog in to and out of the center of the arena. It was difficult to be sure I was in sync with the Vaulters in front of me. Other than that, my routine went smoothly. My instructor and the two Vaulters who have been doing this for years said I did very well. Each movement needs to be executed in a count of four, so while concentrating on completing them correctly and gracefully, I had to keep my timing accurate.

All in all, it was a great day. It was a little windy, but not too hot and not too cold. Leo did well for his first public demo, and he has only been a vaulting horse for about four months. Besides the demonstration, we had a booth set up where visitors could watch an informative video and kids could try their skills at vaulting on the stationary barrel. I look forward to improving my skills before our next demo. I hope you enjoy the video, taken by my co-worker Holly Werner. Feel free to tell me what you think (let’s not be too harsh)!

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