More than a sport

PALMER — Rebecca Weiant wandered her way into the horses stables on the Alaska State Fairgrounds and found her sport of choice.

As an 11-year-old, Veronica Powell had to beg her parents to let her start riding.

And Joy Lundy has been around horses all her life.

Weiant, Powell and Lundy are just three of the more than 50 participants in the 31st annual Alaska Hunters/Jumpers Association Horse Show which began Thursday at the France Equestrian Center on the Alaska State Fairgrounds, but an example of the cross-section of competitors who fell in love with this discipline of equestrian sports.

While riders may be lured to the equestrian arena on different paths, most seem to share the same sentiments about a sport seen as a lifelong pastime, rather than a mere activity.

“I consider it a lifestyle, it really gets in your blood,” Lundy said. “You have the exercise. You have the challenge, working and training doing the sport. You have your friendships. It provides you vacations — you can go to competitions Outside. It’s a multi-faceted type sport.”

Lundy’s summery of the sport could explain the bustle of activity and enthusiasm on Thursday, the first day of the four-day horse show hosted by AHJA.

The 31st-annual event, which has called Palmer home for the last several years, includes the full range of participants, according to show manager Michael Enz, with both children and adults as well as amateurs and professionals.

“It’s quite a spectrum,” said Enz, who has managed the show for the past nine years.

The annual horse show at the Alaska State Fairgrounds is the association’s primary event for the year, Enz said, and draws participants from across Alaska and also includes a group hailing from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Canada, this year. The event also acts as a benefit for a local charity. This year the horse show is a benefit for the Stone Soup Group, a nonprofit organization based in Anchorage that provides support and assistance to families with children with special needs and disabilities.

While equestrian sports include a broad range of specialties, AHJA focuses on specific disciplines — the hunter and jumper classes. Enz said the emphasis of the jumper class is to try to get around a course in a certain amount of time without knocking over the rails, while the hunter course is an equitation course where the judges will be looking at either the horse of the rider, judging their form and what they’re doing throughout the course.

“There’s definitely an adrenaline rush,” Powell said, citing a variety of reasons why participants stay active in this sport.

There’s the adrenaline rush, the interaction between the rider and the horse and the challenge of the events, she said.

Some riders, such as Lundy, dabble in different areas of equestrian, but Powell said it’s common to find a specialty and go with it.

“I think everybody kind of finds their niche and what they like to do,” Powell said.

Powell said she tried other disciplines such as dressage — which focuses on precession of movement — but through trial and error she found she liked the hunter and jumper classes the best.

“There’s definitely a rush associated with it I didn’t get with any of the others,” Powell said.

Powell said she started riding as an 11-year-old. Not coming from a family of riders, Powell said work a little harder to get involved. And now Powell is proof that a person can be involved without even owning a horse.

Powell said it’s not unusual for a rider not to own a horse, and said riding different horses actually helps her become a better rider.

Weiant has also stuck almost exclusively with the hunters and the jumpers. She began participating in horse shows about nine years ago, after she basically stumbled upon the sport.

“I’d always loved riding horses, but never really got to,” Weiant said. “I’d been wandering around the fair every year and heard there were horses. I wandered over one day and saw the guy I ended up taking lessons from.

“I thought, this looks so cool to have matching team jackets,” Weiant said. “I never did a team sport at school or anything, so I really wanted to get involved with something, and I liked riding horses. So that’s what I did.”

Weiant’s involvement with the sport gradually increased and now she is the president of the State Horse Show Association.

Weiant said the camaraderie and the family atmosphere surrounding the sport are appealing.

“My boyfriend rides motorcycles and it’s a lot of the same family-type appeal with the Harley guys,” she said. “In our barn, we’re a tight nit family.”

Weiant said there is still the thrill of competition, but it’s not always the total focus.

“Nobody wants to go out there and lose, but it’s all about having a good ride, progressing with your horse,” Weiant said. “And a blue ribbon at the end of the day is a good addition.”

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.