Western rider Teghan Tanner is set to compete this summer in close to 20 horse shows across North America.
The 15-year-old, who lives just outside of Alma, competes with the Ontario Quarter Horse Association (OQHA) and the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA), training her horse at Rick Fleetwood Show Horses in Cambridge.
As the season begins Teghan’s attention is focused on the AQHA Level 1 Championships for novice riders in May.
“It’s fun but it’s still a competition,” Teghan said. “I love it.”
OQHA and AQHA riders earn points based on their placing in shows. The larger the show class the more points the winners earn.
It’s those points that determine whether a rider can compete in the novice division. According to the AQHA handbook, Level 1 eligibility is calculated yearly based on the “cumulative average of all Level 1 competitors, per class, during the three immediate previous calendar years.”
It says the point cap will be greater than 25 or the 90th percentile.
Teghan is not new to the category. She has competed in the Level 1 Championships for two years, placing in the top 10 in 2015 and top 15 in 2016 for horsemanship.
“It was pretty cool,” she said. “There’s a lot of other people in that ring.”
Teghan competes in four different western disciplines: horsemanship, western pleasure, showmanship and western riding.
In horsemanship riders are judged as they appear individually in the ring and complete a set pattern. In western pleasure it’s the opposite; the horse is judged when the duo completes a set pattern.
Western riding is “pretty much just showing off how well your horse can change leads,” Teghan said.
“So we’re on the left lead and then you go across the ring and you have to change to your right lead within a designated area.”
Again the team has to complete a set pattern.
Lastly, she competes in showmanship, where she leads her horse through a specific pattern. In this discipline both horse and human are judged.
This year Teghan will be competing in the AQHA Level 1 Championships in Raleigh North Carolina in May, where she’s hoping to earn a top five finish.
Her mom, Meghan Tanner, is hoping Teghan places in western riding.
In an average year Teghan attends 20 shows with her quarter horse, Little Pokemon.
“He’s an older horse, he knows that much more, and he can teach me more about it because he’s been doing this for longer than I have,” Teghan said.
The duo travels to shows throughout Ontario and the United States, which offer quite different experiences.
In the U.S there are hundreds of riders competing in one class, whereas in Ontario there are far less.
“It’s bigger, there’s more kids, I get to see more things,” Teghan said of the Level 1 Championships.
“There’s more competition and there’s different horses.
“I show against the same horses in Ontario every time I show.
“I know who the horses are. This one there’s different horses that I don’t exactly know that I’m showing against.”
Meghan said Teghan and Little Pokemon usually cross the border for shows because of the increased number of competitors.
At the end of each season the OQHA and AQHA hold banquets to distribute top points awards.
However, Teghan’s end goal is to get to the All American Quarter Horse Congress in Ohio and compete in the National Youth Association Team Tournament (NYATT) on the Ontario team.
Last year she competed in NYATT for the first time.
“They have to apply … to the Ontario Quarter Horse Association … and then they have to be accepted to get onto the team for the kids who are going to go,” Meghan explained.
Each team member brings a different talent to the ring.
“I did showmanship because I have the most showmanship points out of everyone on my team,” Teghan said.
Though her riding is usually an individual sport, Teghan said it didn’t take much to adapt to the team atmosphere.
“It’s not that different because you have your own class that you’re competing in,” she said.
“So, you’re not fighting with someone on your team to get the points. So, it’s just you fighting the other teams to get your points.”
Teghan also competed individually at congress, earning two personal bests.
“I didn’t place but my showmanship class went a lot better than it had been going and my trainer was really happy. I didn’t place but it was a lot better for what I was doing at that point,” she said.
Currently Teghan is planning to attend the AQHA Level 1 Championships once again and compete with the NYATT team at the All American Quarter Horse Congress.
However, she’ll be facing stiffer competition.
This year she will be moving up an age level and could potentially be facing other riders who are 19 years old.
“Probably by the end of this year she’ll be pointed out of novice,” Meghan said.
In the future Teghan said she would like to receive a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) scholarship for horseback riding or, at the very least, attend a university that has a riding program.
