By Ilaria Luna
Washington DC, July 3rd, 2018
Hi guys! My name is Ilaria, I am eleven years old, I live in Washington DC, and I have been vaulting for almost two years. I am part of the Great Falls Vaulters team, in Maryland. (https://www.facebook.com/GreatFallsVaulters/)
We have three horses, Moxie, Toby, and Cam. We use Moxie primarily for kids vaulting at the walk or trot. In the US trot is an intermediate level between walk and canter. A few months ago, Moxie even started learning how to canter, and she is doing very well.
Then there’s Toby, who belongs to a lady who allows us to use him for younger kids, who are just beginning to vault.
Lastly we have Cam, or Camelito, which our team bought from the Netherlands. He also is a canter horse for the older and/or more advanced vaulters. We were very lucky because Cam cost a fortune and he had never vaulted before, so there was a chance he might not even like it. Luckily he does, and once he is completely ready he can get very high scores (all this thanks to the enormous amount of time that our coach Stephanie Harris devotes to him!). Stephanie is a gold level vaulter (gold like her heart!) and has even been National Champion in 2016!
Recently, we at Great Falls Vaulters have become Regional Champions! We competed in the Region IX Championship with a team routine at the trot (on Moxie) with the theme “The Princess and The Frog.”
(We are the ones wearing the sparkly silver, purple, and green shirts. I am the one in green).
As a reward, everyone received a water bottle with “Region IX Cup” written on it and a drawing of a horse and a vaulter in an arabesque.
These championships, which include all the teams on the East coast of the USA, took place in Lexington, Virginia, which is more or less three hours from where I live. This year the competition was bigger than ever. About 160 vaulters and 40 horses participated. In the US, vaulting is not so popular as in Europe, so it was quite exciting to see that big turnout!
The categories of the competition were distributed in three different arenas: a blue one, a red one, and a white one. The first two hosted the competitions on the horse, whereas in the white arena were those on the “barrel”.
These three days of intense competitions also included the last qualifications for the world equestrian championships. Even a Canadian team called Meadow Creek (https://www.facebook.com/meadowcreekvaultingclub/) came and presented a team freestyle at the canter with the theme “Beauty and The Beast.” We were all speechless watching the acrobatic tricks they accomplished so gracefully.
Furthermore, I had the honor of meeting the American world champion Mary McCormick, who also qualified for WEG. And, guess what? I was even allowed to pet her dog (who is usually scared of strangers, but was very friendly with us!).
As you may know, the World Equestrian Games will also take place on the East coast of the US in about two months. I would love to go see them (and maybe participate in them as a vaulter in the future!) but unfortunately I will be busy with school…
See you in my next article, and… vault on!
