United States Eventing Association

Nazila Hejazi and her 20-year-old Missouri Fox Trotter mare, Tessa, may have made for an unconventional pair at the USEA Area VI Championships, held in October at Galway Downs (Temecula, California) but they didn’t let that hold them back. It’s uncommon to see a horse in their twenties still competing in eventing, and even more rare for a gaited horse to compete in a jumping sport.

Success in eventing isn’t just about standing atop the podium or achieving personal bests. It’s about enduring long enough to reach those moments. The road is rarely smooth—it’s filled with setbacks, challenges, and lessons that demand grit and resilience from both horse and rider.

Kate Homan’s eventing schedule keeps her pretty busy. Between campaigning horses and teaching a small string of clients across northern New Hampshire, she spends her spring and summer seasons focused on her horses while her fiance works their 100-head dairy cattle operation. And as if that wasn’t enough to have to juggle, once the weather starts to cool down just north of the White Mountains, Homan turns her attention to her other passion—sled dog racing.

New Years Eve 2015. I was laying in bed, waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square, thinking about the previous year, and listening to my husband snore. A few months before, I had lost my heart horse to ring bone. He’d had to permanently retire before he was even 10 and went back to his breeders to be a pasture puff for the rest of his life.

Nicole Nair remembers the first time she rode Jack Run, her 14.2 hands high Morgan-Appaloosa cross gelding. It was October 27, 2019, and Nair says it was a day that changed her life.

Before his fifth birthday, Devon MHF has already passed through a number of different programs. As a 3-year-old, he was started in part of a lesson program where he learned a special trick of bucking people off before they ever got on. This was a trait he held onto.

Kelly O’Brien has her eye on a prize. “Pretty much the rest of this season will be targeted towards getting fired up for the AEC,” says O’Brien, 54. She and B E Never Say Never, a 19-year-old Dutch Warmblood, have qualified for the 2024 USEA American Eventing Championships (AEC) presented by Nutrena Feeds already, thanks to decisively winning all three of their 2024 outings thus far.

Some kids are just born loving horses. Eleven-year-old Priscilla Pignatelli is the perfect example. “Her dad and I used to joke around that she has loved horses since she learned they said neigh,” recalled mother Grace Pignatelli. “We were non-horsey parents, so it took us a while to realize it wasn’t just a phase!”

Growing up in the pony hunters, my parents never wanted to buy a horse. They reasoned: "You'll grow out of them," or "They're too expensive." They made good points, not that I understood that at the time...

John Lennon famously said that life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. Rebecca Barber Tyler probably would agree.