Aimee and Worth the Wait at Rebecca Farm
Our Area VII spotlight is Dr. Aimee Witherspoon. Aimee is a veterinarian certified in veterinary acupuncture and manual therapy. Hailing from Ridgefield, WA, Aimee currently competes her Holsteiner “Worth the Wait” that she has taken from novice to intermediate. While that’s impressive in itself, wait until you hear the coolest part: she did her first intermediate in 2009 at age 56, and is hoping to do an advanced later this year.
How did you get into riding?
I started riding as a 2 year old as I was raised on a cattle ranch in the 1950’s with working horses. Most of my family spent their days on horseback. I did some jumpers as a teenager and when I did a career change in 1999 from being a Veterinarian to becoming a Veterinary acupuncturist I finally had the time to pursue my horse addiction and took up eventing.
Who are you currently competing?
I am currently competing Intermediate for my third year.I have the horse of a lifetime I have had for 6 years and more than 30 events. He is a 17.3h Holsteiner that was given away for being pushy (bucking) and flunking his flexions. It turned out to be a poor saddle fit and back pain. He is my fourth event horse and I’ve been through all these different horses that wouldn’t do all three phases. He won the Horse of the Year in Area VII in training and then we did a year and a half of prelim and I decided I’d try this intermediate thing. He loves eventing and I love my horse. It isn’t alway an expensive horse that does well in Eventing. Once you take them out and find it’s their sport they really do well. We’re going to do a fall season this year and I might do a CIC** at Woodside and maybe Galway. I wanted to do an advanced this year so I might do that there.
What defines Area VII for you?
Area VII is defined by me as a wonderful group of people bonded together by the love of the horses and the sport. The adult riders in my area have a great time together at the events. We camp together, play and laugh and commiserate our good or bad fortunes together. Overall we have a great , fun loving support group that is open to all. I realized many years ago when I started that the sport is run by volunteers so I started volunteering at many events and I was surprised how much fun it was to make more friends and be a part of the whole picture.I also help to organize some local lesson groups to bring in an outside instructor. I also do a lot of the Adult Rider Team Challenges around Area VII.
What is your favorite Area VII event?
This is my most difficult question as we have some great events and they all have their attributes. For the upper levels Rebecca Farm has great organization,footing and courses. Inavale is my personal favorite as it always has great parties and the surrounding countryside is beautiful. All of our events have some great points so it like comparing children. Our organizers do a wonderful job of helping run things smoothly,listening to rider requests and going all out with a lot of personal sacrifice to put on a great show for our benefit.
What’s your favorite non-area event?
I loved riding at 3-Day Ranch in California. It is a David O’Conner course built in some hilly terrain. The setting is gorgeous and the course is fair but challenging on sandy loam. The terrain makes it more challenging than it looks on the Internet.
What is your favorite Eventing memory?
It is kind of a tie. My best riding memory is completing my first Intermediate at 3-Day Ranch after walking the course and getting a biggg lump in my throat. My funnest memory is sitting at Caber Farm after our great Cross Country rides drinking Gin and Tonics in lawn chairs with all my adult rider friends (this memory repeats itself at other venues). For us it’s more about the comradeship than the ribbon. In the end you remember more about how much fun you had than about what ribbon you did or didn’t win.
What’s your laughable low point?
I had a naughty warm blood that used to buck me off in the show jump warm-ups. Once he bucked me off twice in the jumper warm up and I just got back on. It was very embarrassing.
Who was your first pony?
His name was Scout and he was the most stubborn pony ever created. I got him when I was five and he would try to roll me off, rub me off on a post, buck and never leave the other horses. It did 2 things for my riding; it made me really grateful when I got back on a full size horse and it made me a determined and fearless rider.
Aimee, Scout, and entourage
Go Area VII
