Thursday, February 09, 2012

Foiled by Paperwork, Steven Hay Selected for, Misses Young Rider Endurance Worlds

Pennsylvaniaequestrian.com - Full Article

February 2012 - by Suzanne Bush

When Steven Hay was just six years old, he knew that he was in love with horses. He rode horses at his grandmother’s farm, and spent several years taking advantage of all the opportunities available to a young rider, such as showing and 4H. But he was hungry for more. “When I was younger I had showed, and I did 4H and it wasn’t my cup of tea. I didn’t feel like going in the show ring and riding around in a circle. It didn’t test us. It wasn’t enough.”

Hay, a 21 year-old junior at Penn State University, sought the kinds of equestrian competitions that would challenge him and his horses both mentally and physically. He got involved in competitive trail riding, “then I got into endurance and distance riding and that was it.”

The Port Matilda resident loves the challenge of conditioning a horse for competition, and preparing himself and the horse mentally for the races. He was named to the first ever United States team competing at the FEI Junior and Young Rider World Endurance Championship, which was held in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in December. Although he has been competing in endurance races since 2005, Hay has achieved enviable success. In 2010 he placed eighth out of 79 competitors in the Biltmore FEI 50, and fifth in the Canter Over the Mountain Endurance Competition. That same year he was on the gold medal team at the North American Champions, where he was also the Individual Bronze Medalist...

Read more here:
http://www.pennsylvaniaequestrian.com/news2012/february/Steven-Hay-Selected-for-Misses-Young-Rider-Endurance-Worlds.php

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