Celeste & Chloe's Road to Kentucky

The girls are going to the Kentucky Horse Park this year! Celeste will be competing in show jumping. Chloe received an age exception and will be competing in Quiz, which is like a scholar bowl about anything horse related. Any monetary donation would be greatly appreciated.

 

Celeste has been working extremely hard at trying to qualify for this the past three years. In 2015, her horse had severe hives. In 2016, she broke her finger tip. This year nothing was going to stop her. In horseback riding, not only does your horse has to be fit, but the rider as well.  Despite her hectic schedule she incorporates swim team practice 3 times a week for 1.5 hours in order to crosstrain. Celeste is an extremely intelligent individual, but anything athletic does not come naturally to her. She puts in over 100% in her riding every single ride. She has a love hate relationship with swimming, but knows she has to do it to get the ride she wants.

She is taking weekly jumping and dressage lesson and when finances and weather allow, she takes an extra jumping lesson. Her dedication to riding her horse at least 3 times a week during winter’s freezing weather and 5-6 days a week once the weather got warmer has certainly paid off because she just qualified to compete against other pony clubbers from all across the US at the Kentucky Horse Park . Not only is she a dedicated equestrian, but she knows all the horse stuff is second to her education. This young lady graduated 8th grade with all straight A’s in her academic classes throughout all of middle school. This past year, she missed over 50% of her social studies class because she is one of two 8th graders in her middle school who were bussed to the 9th grade center for Algebra 2 and Geometry. She managed to received an A+ in Social Studies and A’s in both Algebra 2 and Geometry, ranking top of her class. In addition to all the swimming, horseback riding, and school, she just took the ACT and did exceptionally well with a composite score of 33.

 

Last year, Chloe also received an age exception to compete in Quiz against pony clubbers in the central division. She placed 9th overall. This year in our region she was 4th overall in the D Jr. division and also received another age exception to compete against pony clubbers all across the US at the Kentucky Horse Park. In actuality, she would have competed in tetrathalon, which she did amazing in, scoring 3100 out of 4400. However, she is still too young. Tetrathalon consists of shooting, swimming, running, and show jumping. Even with a bucking pony she managed to have two clean jumping rounds. Like her sister she has been a dedicated equestrian and swimmer. She continues to excel academically getting straight A’s. She is bussed once a week to a different campus for EER: Explore, Enrich, Research. Many teachers continue to tell me they wish they have 20 Chloes in their classes.  Chloe and her pony, Cricket, have faced many challenges this year. Cricket has been off and on lame. Chloe had to take a couple of weeks off of all physical activity several times this year due to health challenges. Chloe and Celeste both have what is called Alpha Thalassemia Minor, it is a genetic disorder in which they are missing one or two alpha hemoglobin genes. Joane, their mom, has Hemoglobin H disease which means she is missing 3 alpha hemoglobin genes. We believe that Chloe is missing two alpha hemoglobin genes rather than one like Celeste and her brother Ronnie because she is more symptomatic and her recovery from illnesses takes much longer. Despite this genetic disorder these two girls continue to excel in every aspect of their life. They have set goals and consistently achieve them. All their hard work and dedication has paid off.

To prepare to compete, Celeste would like to do additional show jumping lessons, clinics, and shows. For the competition there will be hauling fees, there are extra charges such as bedding and stall mats. There are hotel and food expenses for a week. Celeste and Chloe would love to attend Festival Education which will feature mounted clinics to assist them in becoming better riders. Just to get them this far, the family has made many sacrifices, financially, socially and time wise.  We would appreciate any donations towards making their dreams come true. Most girls dream of going to concerts and going to Disneyworld, but those dreams are second to horses for these two. Most of their peers spend money on shoes, make-up, new clothes, name brands, latest phones, not these two. Almost every ounce of money they receive from birthdays and Christmas goes to their horses or training. A majority of their free time is spent with their equine, reading anything about horses, or training themselves to become better riders mentally and physically.