Hi Guys, it’s Georgie, or @acircuitclass, whichever you know me by! Many of you know me on this blog from the “Up & Coming Riders” article that Jess interviewed me for in February of this year. In that article I mentioned that one of my goals was to qualify for USEF Hunter Seat Medal Finals. Well, I was lucky enough to actually attend it this month. When I was asked to write this article before attending the Pennsylvania National Horse Show I did not think it would turn into the type of article I will be writing today. But, here it is, my words, my thoughts and my feelings on my journey to one of America’s most prestigious national competitions.

My goal at the beginning of this show year was to simply qualify for the Medal. I started competing for points early. The 2013 finals had not even ended yet when I was at a horse show trying to get my first points of the year. I was competing on my hunter horse, Coach, that I had worked really hard to kind of transform into as much of an eq horse as possible. He did an AMAZING job and really tried his heart out for me, but anyone that has competed in the Big Eq knows that if you really want to succeed and advance in your riding you really need a horse made for the job. I started my hunt for an eq horse during the 3rd week of HITS, trying all the horses I could and only competing here and there when I had a horse I could show. As my points towards qualifying stood at a stand still, everyone else’s continued to grow. This is when Easy (Arezzo) came along. During HITS 2014 I finally found a horse that fit the job description. Within two weeks we were loading Easy onto our trailer in hopes of a great lease year together. He was rough around the edges but with some fine polishing and some really hard work he has become a truly remarkable equitation horse! He has learned to trust me and knows what I’m asking of him when I ask it. He frames up well, steps the jumps, counter canters around sharp turns, and is overall quite a handy horse for his size. All of that being said, I began to love him to death.

We continued to progress and slowly but surely accumulated the points we needed. I had some bumps in the road here and there, and let’s just say life got really tough in a lot of aspects, but we just kept going. With the support and hard work of my parents and my trainer Peggy Stevens, WE MADE IT!

On August 1st, 2014 I had reached my goal: I had qualified for the the USEF Hunter Seat Medal Final. Although things had been rough, I had enjoyed every moment of it. Long hours at the barn, riding every horse I could, no stirrup rides, the gym, hot yoga, physical therapy, cleaning tack, and really going that extra mile to make sure Easy and I were on board with each other. This is how we made it. As you can imagine, I loved Easy even more.

The prospect of actually attending Finals was brought up early in the year, but obviously I had to reach my goal for that to happen. We left our struggles of the year in Florida and headed to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on October 6th, 2014. My trainer and my best friend/barn hand in the world, Kasey Parker, trailered Easy while I flew up two days later, meeting them there. We got to hack in the main ring almost everyday leading up to the Finals. However, this meant riding anywhere from 4AM to 1AM with approximately 75 – 100 other horses in that one tiny ring (and YES it is tiny! It looks MUCH bigger on the live stream….). But ring time was ring time, and I had learned that was very important to Easy as the more ring time the better. We had some great days and even went to Hershey Park with my barn! Overall Easy was great and the laughs we were having were even better. And so, I loved Easy even more.

Saturday rolled around and that meant warm-up day. They set the ring, and we were able to make our own course within 90 seconds. Basically within those 90 seconds you could do whatever you wanted! I made up my course and went pretty late in the order that they didn’t really follow. Easy felt ready, as did I, and we had a great school in the warm-up ring before walking over to the main ring. At the in-gate I was cool, calm, and collected, ready to tackle whatever came up in that ring. As we took our first steps in the ring Easy kind of grew. He pricked his ears but didn’t really back off at all. He marched up the first line with a little hesitation but not much of an issue. The next jump was the white picket fence. As I turned the corner to the jump, I felt myself lose control of him. He started shaking head to toe, backed off completely, and grabbed the bit. He threw a little fit and reared a couple times – nothing I hadn’t dealt with before. I patted his neck and spoke to him to say it was ‘okay’ and moved on to the next jump as I knew I only had 90 seconds. We tried jumping the two stride, but he was just too scared. We moved on again and over jumped the next line, having much difficulty between strides. We landed and as I knew we could not do anymore, I went to make my way to the out gate. Easy clearly thought this meant jumping again. He popped up and down telling me repeatedly that he could not and would not do anymore. I patted his neck and spoke to him the whole way out of that ring, knowing he was honestly just scared. Easy has quite the nerves on him at times, and his instant defense mechanism is rearing. This was also his way of telling me he couldn’t do it. He did not mean to be a jerk, and he did not mean to put me in harm’s way, he was just simply scared and was telling me that. I didn’t say a word to my trainer when I saw her, I just hugged her and cried, as I knew I could not have helped what happened in the ring. We decided to brush it off, do some extra lunging, and move on to the next day in hopes of a better time. Despite what had happened though, I still loved Easy.

The big day was here. We were up early to walk the course and hack Easy for a while. But, when I got on him, he was fragile. He was shaking here and there, and overall just nervous, even in the schooling ring. I stroked his neck and hummed to him most of the way around as that was always the best distraction for him. We put him away to rest for a bit since I was number 201 on the order of go. We watched some great rides and after some time I felt as if I was ready to actually do this. We lunged Easy one last time and made our way to the schooling ring, all ready to go. When I went to jump my first jump of the day, Easy popped up. He was scared of everything in there. It was like someone had turned his world upside down, shaken it up, and given it back to him. He didn’t recognize any of it. He jumped the jump the second time but was still so unhappy.

That’s when my dad called me over.

He held onto Easy and looked up at me. We were all thinking the same thing. Easy didn’t mean to put me or him in harm’s way, but he was and didn’t know it. Because of this, I decided to scratch. I owed it to myself and Easy to stay safe. Did I really want to walk in that ring, give him a bad experience, and potentially get hurt? Or even worse, him get hurt? Not at all. With the support of Peggy, my parents, Kasey, and Ryan Blalock, I dealt with the biggest heartbreak of my life. I was disappointed and confused. I almost felt like I had given up. There were moments I was angry, moments I was sad, and even moments I was completely numb to it all. But I was never angry, sad, or numb with Easy – only the situation.  It didn’t matter what had happened that day or any other day, I still loved Easy.

(Editor’s Note: Georgie was completely composed and gracious on Twitter when she announced her decision. Even when some Twitter users were critical of her decision not to accept a loaner horse.)

Many people will have many different things to say about this article and my decision that day or the type of rider I am or the type of horse Easy is, but the fact of the matter is, I made the right choice. I kept myself and my horse safe. Easy is still an incredible horse and that one day does not define who I am as a rider or human being. It makes me an equestrian (Editor’s Note: And a great horsewoman, who shows a lot more knowledge and maturity than many other individuals who even are older than she is). It was putting my horse before my dreams and goals. It was having the dignity, self-worth, and confidence to say I wasn’t going to do it, and for a very good reason at that. It was putting myself in Easy’s shoes and really understanding what had happened in his mind. It was knowing that Easy is just an animal and if he doesn’t understand what we are doing, that is totally okay too. It was knowing that I may have only gotten over four jumps in that ring, but that was probably four more jumps than he would have jumped for anyone else. It was knowing that I love Easy, and no matter what happened, I was still going to and still do love him to the moon and back.

Wrapping this article up, all I can say is thank you to everyone that showed me their love and support when I really needed it. You have no idea what an impact it had on me and Easy.

Want to see more of Georgie and Easy? Check them out on Twitter and Instagram!

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We would like to give a huge thank you to Georgie for taking the time to write this article. Being able to put your horse’s well-being before your own dreams and goals is a very important trait, and we are so glad that Georgie was willing to write such a beautiful article on her and Easy’s journey to USEF Medal Finals. We cannot stress enough how excited we were for Georgie & Easy, as well as how proud we were of her for how she handled this heartbreaking situation. Despite this, we know Georgie & Easy will continue to have success and grow. We encourage you to follow her as she & Easy progress the rest of this year. They are a wonderful pair and are only getting better!