Welcome, Nice to Meet You!

My name is Sarah, I’m a 31-year-old adult amateur competing in the adult amateur hunters, equitation, and some derbies with my 19-year-old Dutch warmblood, Ocelot. I rode casually as a child, competing at local shows in Woodstock, NY in the walk-trot, walk-jog and eventually walk-trot-canter, walk-jog-lope and trail classes with my Welsh/Arabian pony, Mystic Diamond Girl or “Diamond.” Diamond unfortunately developed Cushings in her older age and foundered numerous times resulting in her being humanely euthanized at age 22. After that experience as a 16-year-old I took a 3-4 year hiatus from riding horses. I got back into it again at age 19/20 and competed on UCF’s IHSA team for 1 year before meeting my now late mare, Bellatrix Lestrange (formerly Ovation), “Bella.” Bella required a much more confident rider than I was at that point in my life so our journey together was a bit bumpy. Due to soundness from a prior injury we decided to retire her from competition in 2017. I then leased a number of unicorns including Jewel’s Emerald II, “Jumbo,” competing in the long stirrup getting my a$$ beat by braids. In 2018 I not-so-lowkey stalked Ocelot on Horse Show Leases, now Horse Show Imports, sale page. When I tried him something just clicked. He became officially mine the summer of 2018. We competed at 3 shows at 2’6 – one of which being Southeast Medal finals – before moving up to the adult amateurs at HITS Winter 2019. This was my first time ever jumping over 2’6″ at a show. We continued to develop our partnership and made it to the National Horse Show for the first time in 2020 in the Adult Equitation and NHS THIS Adult Medal Finals, then again in 2021 and 2022 with the addition of the NHS Adult Amateur Classic. This past season, 2022, we earned our FIRST EVER indoor together at the National Horse Show, placing 11th in the Adult Amateur Classic. Earlier in 2022, I decided to push myself outside of my seasoned-horse-comfort-zone and purchased my first young horse, CheckMeOut, “Enzo” as a 3.5-year-old. He has been one of the most rewarding, yet frustrating and humbling experiences. To think back on how much he and I have both grown since taking the “plunge” in 2022 is unreal! Each of them are so special so they will each get their own intro post as well!