United States Eventing Association

USEA Member Story #12

This is the 12th entry in the USEA’s Member Story Series. Help us reach our goal of over 300 stories – email your story to Leslie.

My name is Gigi Herron and I'm a Freshmen at Templeton High School. When I was a fetus in my mom's womb I competed at the Novice Championships at Ram Tap. Four months later I popped out and said ''where's my pony?''.

When I was five I got my first real pony Thunder. He taught me how to do a real emergency dismount because I got tired of falling off. He was passed to me from my brother and then to my sister Sonia. He was a wonderful pony. I began my pony club career on Thunder at eight. Then came the pony Petunia. She was hyper, spunky, crazy, and lots of fun, just like me. She won every speed class we did in the jumpers. She also got passed down through the family and now has a little girl named Iris doing barrels on her. Next I had a palomino pony that belonged to a good friend, and I learned so much from him.

Then I fell in love with my real event pony Magic. When she was three-years-old she was found starving to death in a meat lot in Utah. A good friend, Lani Homan rescued her and after breaking her she realized what a gem she was. She took a little girl named Marley who was a student of Lani's to the Novice Championships which she won and then she sadly out grew her. It was a miracle we found her and made the trip to Utah. I did my first event on her going Novice at Woodside in 2009. Then Twin Rivers Ranch in September that we won, and so on. Last year was my big year on her, competing her Training level. We had are ups we had our downs. We had our weaknesses and our successes. We never had a cross-country jump fault. We would race around a 475mph at Training level and get 5.2 speed faults. She made me laugh and she made me cry. I will never forget that jumping beast. Sadly now she is for sale. I learned so much on her. I would never be the rider I am today If it wasn't for Magic.