EN’s Rising Stars is a new weekly series about up and coming riders in the sport of 3-Day Eventing who are exceptional in their performances and personalities. Spotlighting riders under the age of 15, the series is meant to call attention to the next generation of talent before they even become Young Riders. Have a child, sibling or student who you think deserves some notice and praise? Please email me at [email protected] with information and pictures!
Gillian and her new horse, Peerless
Name: Gillian Warner
Age: 13
Hometown: State College, Pennsylvania
Horses: “Erin is my old horse, she is a 13 year old 15.3 quarter horse mare, and I just bought Peerless (or Punky), a 15.3 hand 6 year old Irish Sport Horse mare. I got her from Phyllis Dawson and Windchase Farm.”
Level of Competition: “I’ve only competed through Beginner Novice [with Erin], but I also just started Eventing in November of 2011. I now compete Erin in pure Dressage at First Level. I’m hoping to be able to do higher levels with Punky in the spring.”
How did you start Eventing? “I’ve been horse crazy my whole life. I started riding when I was five, and I grew up riding Hunters, but I joined the Lion County Pony Club a few years ago, and that really got me interested in Eventing. I have a friend who has a young horse who is beginning to event, and I accompanied her to some starter trials. I got hooked on it because the cross country was so much fun! The first time I schooled cross country with Erin and my coach, Lindsay Hafer, I had a blast and Erin loved it too.”
Gillian and Erin competing this spring
“Rubicon was my first recognized event last November, and then I went all out and traveled to Aiken in the spring to compete at Sporting Days and Full Gallop, which was an amazing experience. There are so many events in Aiken! Everywhere you turn, somebody is doing cross country. It was a great experience, not only because of the competition, but because it was my first time living away from my parents. My coach went down with me, and she’s been inspired to start eventing again with a young horse of hers, so we get to go to the same shows and compete at the same level. [My trainer] Lindsay is the official coach for the Penn State Dressage team, but now she’s an eventer too! While I was competing Erin in the spring, I was number one on the USEA Junior Beginner Novice leaderboard, and it was really cool to see my name in print like that.”
“In July of 2009, my mom and I went out to, when we got there we saw a horse coming in with my trainer’s husband, and she was walking on three legs. The vet came out and Erin had a puncture wound on her left hind fetlock and a hairline fracture running up her cannon bone. We aren’t certain how it happened, and we think she played with another horse and somehow managed to do this. We were very worried about tetanus. She wasn’t able to go in a cast because of the puncture wound, but I got a lot of good practice of stable wraps. She was on stall rest for eight months. We slowly nursed her back to health, and now she is totally fine and can compete and do everything. She is a little accident-prone; she finds ways to do silly things. A lot of it has to do with jumping, so now she’s just a dressage pony.”
Gillian & Punky practicing at home
What are your plans for the future? “I’ve been looking for a horse 1.5 years, and I’ve sat on at least 40 horses. I’ve vetted a lot of horses that failed, and it’s been a really frustrating and long process. I finally found Peerless, or “Punky”, at Phyllis Dawson’s farm and I bought her two weeks ago. She has great legs, nice feet, great conformation. She has gorgeous gaits, the most comfortable canter that I’ve ever sat on. Punky is so scopey and super easy to find the spots on. She is really brave, and knows what she’s doing, but also has a little bit of green-ness that I can grow and work with, and I like that. My plan is to work hard with her over the winter, and get a feel for how to ride her. In the spring, I’d like to get out and start eventing as soon as possible. I’ll probably start at Beginner Novice and then move up later in the spring.”
“I would love to be an upper level rider, I got to ride so many through the shopping experience, and it really taught me a lot. I want to go to NAJYRC, I want to go to a 4*, but with horses it’s so unpredictable. You have to stay realistic, and take it slow.”
Gillian and Peerless after only a week together, jumping in a Daniel Stewart clinic.
