Riding is all about doing the impossible for Shalom Leger.
The 15-year-old from Rockwood began riding when she was 7 years old. However, it wasn’t exactly out of a love for horses.
“When I was younger I was really anxious and so I first started riding as a way to overcome that and … it really worked because I was really scared of riding at first but once I started becoming confident in my riding it just, it helped everywhere,” Leger said.
Even riding other people’s horses made her nervous so she got her first horse, a 10.2 hand Shetland pony, when she was 8 years old.
“I wasn’t scared of her because she was so small,” Leger said.
Eventually what was once an anxiety coping mechanism became her passion.
“Shalom’s a student who’s very self-disciplined and very hard on herself so when you give her some homework to do she’s very good about going home and practicing,” said Leger’s coach Holly Jacks-Smithers.
Leger competes in eventing an equestrian competition consisting of three different disciplines: dressage, cross-country and stadium jumping. Dressage is a judged flat work competition, cross-country is an endurance race over mixed terrain and stadium jumping is a timed event where horse and rider try to complete the course quickly without knocking any rails down.
“I love that you don’t only get one three-minute chunk to show what you have,” Leger explained. “It’s all day and everything you do that day, like how well you cool out after stadium … for cross country, it all kind of affects everything … and you learn so many skills that are important.”
Jacks-Smithers said that Leger has the qualities necessary to be successful in eventing.
“I think that’s where she rises above and beyond is her work ethic,” Jacks-Smithers said. “It’s not about having a groom that takes care of your horse for you, you’re doing a lot of the hands on stuff on your own.”
Leger and her horse Ultra Luminous (Lulu) became a team last August.
“The first time I tried her she was really skinny and she actually, she bucked me off, so we didn’t go see her for like another five months or something,” Leger said. “Then finally we just weren’t getting anywhere and I was like ‘I want to go see Lulu’ and we went back, I fell off again, I sprained my ankle but I wanted to get her.”
Now the team is progressing through the ranks. Last year they competed in entry level eventing competitions and this year they’ve decided to move up to pre-training.
“She’s a really good jumper so she could do pre-training last year but we didn’t want to because she hadn’t really done that much,” Leger said. “She’s only 7 so when we got her she was 6 … we took her entry just so she could get experience and we did great.”
However the higher levels, beyond pre-training, require qualification for advancement.
To move up to the training level, one higher than pre-training, Leger and Lulu must meet three eligibility requirements. She must earn a minimum score in dressage, have a clear cross country round and have no more than 12 faults in stadium jumping.
Leger won’t be doing it all on her own, she was awarded one of five $1,000 bursaries from the OEF (Ontario Equestrian Federation) Youth Bursary program. The money will be going towards entry fees for three qualifying events this summer. The hope is that next year she and Lulu will qualify for training.
Her goal is to qualify for the Internaional Young Riders championship at the preliminary level.
“Right now prelim is something that’s really terrifying to me but I know when I get there it will just be so amazing because I am still so intimidated by it so you just keep building up and … you have a partner the whole way.”
