“I've been riding since seventh grade. My mom rode competitively for over a decade as a kid. That made me curious.

Honestly, if I come home from school stressed, riding horses helps me relax. When I go riding, [the horse’s] body language is very easy to tell. It's a good way to take your brain off other things. If you're chill, the horse is going to be chill. If you're uptight, they're gonna be confused.

I ride my horse Krispin at Hennessy Equine in Dayton, Texas. He's a great horse. Right now, I'm still getting used to him, because I just came off another lease with a horse who was the polar opposite.

I've ridden quite a range of horses. My first pony, “Wall-E,” was very slow and lazy. My next pony was a mare named Pride. We created a bond and meshed really nicely. With her, I was able to grow as a rider. Pride really helped my confidence grow and my skills improve.

My first pony started cantering when I wasn’t ready and I fell off. At that point, I wasn't very confident in my riding, so I kind of bailed and fell to the fence. I sprained my wrist.

Another challenge is convincing [yourself] that you can do it. You kind of have to fake it until you make it. My last pony, he was a big refuser, meaning he liked to refuse jumps [so] I had to gaslight myself into thinking he was going to make jumps. [One time,] I was coming up to a jump when we were riding and he had jumped a bunch of times before. I was expecting a little bit of hesitancy, but not much. He went on out of the other side and didn't jump [and] that was a big challenge.

One of the biggest confidence builders is falling off in different ways: falling off after your horse [got] scared of something or falling [while doing] a jump. I feel like the more things you do, the less worried you get, and the more confidence you gain. My confidence [is] building back up again after my last horse. I feel like with every new horse, I start fresh, and then it either goes up or down again.

My dream in college is to be in the Hunter Club for Louisiana State University (LSU). The hunter-jumper team is a group of riders that practice and go to shows together. It would be really nice to continue riding in college because I want to do something with horses for my future job. I want to be a veterinarian. Just being around [horses] for a long time, I've grown to love them even more.

I was initially going to be a small pet vet. But now, I want to work with big animals, because my life goal and dream is to own a farm and have cows and horses and just be able to go ride off and be out there. That's my number one goal.”