By BRIAN HOLMAN
Student contributor
While he may not get the attention that athletes in football or basketball do, junior Ricky Neal works just as hard. He spends two to three hours Wednesday through Sunday training for an equestrian event called show jumping, in which he and his horse must race to hurdle a course of several obstacles at a height of 1.4 meters (about 4.6 feet.)
Each time the horse clips an obstacle, devastating penalty seconds are added to the rider’s time and can mean the difference between first and worst. Neal’s hard work paid off in the summer, where he placed first a highly prestigious event called Spruce Meadows in Alberta, Canada and collected a prize of $7000. He has entered numerous competitions since, usually participating in one or two horse shows a month all throughout California. Last weekend he competed in Burbank, and the week before he traveled to Sacramento. When asked about the sport, Neal replied, “The most interesting part [of show jumping] is its unpredictability. At any moment, you can screw up your whole round; you don’t get any second chances. It’s all kind of spur of the moment, and anything can happen.” Neal hopes to take his love of the sport to some degree of a career. Next year, Neal will begin competing in a few professional competitions.
Leave a Reply