Nation Ford High senior jumps to equestrian championship

Nation Ford High senior Anna Reising was part of a four-member team that won the National Pony Jumping Team Championship last month.

Reising, 17, who also swims and plays lacrosse for the school, competed in the Lexington, Ky., championship in August riding a pony named Blue Me Away. She teamed with individuals from Mount Pleasant, Atlanta, and Eads, Tenn., to take the championship. The team she was on competed in two rounds that are judged on a point system.

In the first round , the four-member team tallied 20 faults in the competition, but came back strong in the next round and had just two faults. Reising rode the last leg of the competition finishing with a fault-free round – which lead to the team’s gold medal.

Reising, who rides at Carolina Country Acres in Waxhaw, N.C., has been riding competitively for 11 years. She said it’s more pressure to ride in a team competition because one bad ride can derail any chance for a good finish.

“We really had a great team, so it worked out to our advantage,” she said.

Reising said she would rather ride in the team competitions than individual ones.

“Adding the pressure of a team makes you ride better,” she said. “I like riding team competition better because I do other team sports and it makes you feel more responsible.”

The difference in riding in a pony competition versus a horse competition is that the ponies have to be 14 hands or under and the riders have to be younger than 18. Reising said that riding a pony is a lot different than a full grown horse.

“With a pony, you feel everything,” she said. “Their personality is different. Blue is quite sassy. He is a blast to ride.”

Reising started riding when she was 6 years old and living in Ohio. She and her family move to the area before the fourth grade.

She hopes to attend and ride at the University of Colorado and is applying early to the Pac-12 school, hoping to hear something by November.

This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Nation Ford High senior jumps to equestrian championship."