https://www.kkco11news.com/2025/10/22/montrose-teen-prepares-national-dressage-competition/

My name is Sienna Robinson, and my horses’ name is Golden Vipers Pistol a.k.a Pistol. Pistol is a nine-year-old Quarter Horse gelding. In my family we always joke that Pistol was meant to be an untrained cow chasing ranch horse steed, you see that is what he was bred to be, but he ended up being a dressage, jumping, english horse. That's just what he prefers, especially dressage. We picked up dressage in January of 2024 and ever since then, Pistol has excelled onward and upward. In August of 2024 Pistol and I showed at our first show, bringing back a fairly good score of 67%. In September of 2024 we went to our second show and brought back 71%. Pretty impressive score for our second show! This year we picked up our biggest goal, qualifying for the 2025 USDF (United States Dressage Federation) Finals in Willmington, Ohio. In order to get to Finals you need to qualify for Regionals with two scores above 62%. This was about the easiest part of the process, for our Regional qualifying scores we got a 71% and around a 75%. Now the hard part: qualifying for Finals. In order to qualify for Finals you need to get champion, first place, or reserve champion, second place. Going into Regionals, I had no expectations, only hope. You see, typical horse breeds at Regionals are Warmbloods, the really tall horses that jump and appear to dance in the Olympics, thus making me and Pistol an underdog because normally the judges in dressage have personal preferences to Warmbloods, making it especially hard to get good scores in dressage. Pistol and I had good rides at Regionals, getting champion in both of our classes, one being our finals qualifying class and scoring a 69% and in our other class representing the dressage communities within Colorado we got a 68%. Good scores considering how tough these judges were. To conclude this rampage, we have qualified for Finals in Ohio! This brings me to the point of writing this, I need your help! Looking at everything going into this journey I need help financially. Ohio is at least a three-day drive with a horse, requiring us to stay at horse hotels throughout the three-day journey. Not to mention the fact that the entry fees for Finals are insanely expensive. But, going to Finals means I am representing my region, Region 5. This is the true and final show, where the best of the best have qualified to compete, and Pistol and I are privileged for this opportunity. I just wanted to add the fact that I am so thankful for my parents for letting me pursue this passion this year. I don't know many parents that would do that, and they are a huge part of why I am here, going to the 2025 FInals. I hope you will consider helping me get to the Finals, thank you for your consideration and helping us get to our goal.