By Sara Page, Midlothian Exchange
spage@midlothianexchange.com

Riding a horse is no easy task.

First there’s the scramble to climb onto the back of a skittish animal that is often six feet or more off the ground. Then there’s the task of coaxing the horse to move.

If you’re showing, there’s grooming the animal and rider, and hours of training to get the horse to canter, gallop and jump on command. Plus the rider must be confident because horses, which are by nature prey for other animals, spook easily.

When it all comes together, a rider can make riding a horse look like the most natural thing in the world, which is exactly what Madison Ruddy and Lesley Summerville have been doing for many seasons in the Capital Horse Show Association.

Both ride at the James River Equestrian Center on the Keswick Plantation under the direction of trainers Vicki Phillips and Sarah West, and both had a banner year in competition across the state last season.

Ruddy and her pony Sadie (a.k.a. Show-N-Tell) have been together for four years. In 2008, they were champions in the CHSA Pleasure Pony, Pony Equitation and Children’s Pony Hunter divisions. In 2009, they were champions of the CHSA Pleasure Pony and Green Pony Hunter divisions and went on to become the Virginia Horse Show Association Associates Program Pleasure Pony Reserve champions, Large Pony Hunter champions and reserve champions in Pleasure Pony.

Summerville and her horse Rudy (a.k.a. Wallstreet Special Edition) have been together for two years and have also seen their share of the winners’ circle. They were CHSA Junior Pleasure Horse champions and Children/Adult Amateur Hunter champions in 2009 and went on to win the VHSA Associates Program Junior Pleasure Horse division.

Both riders got their horses when the horses were green, which means they had no formal training as show horses.

The riders and horses train together year round starting with simple tasks and working up to more complex tasks, and then perfecting everything. By the time the pair is in front of judges everything must look “comfortable and pleasurable to ride,” Ruddy said.

Each pair of horses and riders is judged on everything, from the way both are groomed to the way the horse tucks his or her legs going over a jump.

Leslie Summerville and her horse Rudy make a great team competing in the Pleasure Horse division. - Photo by Sara Page

“They look at the way you approach. It has to look even with a very consistent rhythm,” Summerville said.

It all takes a lot of practice.

Ruddy and Summerville are both typically at the stables before and after school, caring for the horses and perfecting their show moves. Adding just one inch to a jump can take months of practice according to Summerville.

“The horse has to relearn their stride,” she said. “For a higher jump, they have to start the jump sooner and land differently.”

And with a season that starts in early April and ends in November, there’s not a lot of time to both relearn and perfect what horse and rider need to do.

All the care and practice leave both girls, who are students at the nearby James River High School, with little time for other activities, though one gets the feeling watching Sadie, a brown Paint Pony with a white star on her forehead, nuzzle Ruddy that neither rider nor animal would have it any other way.

“She has taken me from Short Stirrup to Large Pony Hunters, and we have become a successful team. I love her with all my heart,” Ruddy said.

Rudy, an Oldenburg chestnut gelding standing 17-2 hands high is easily the tallest horse in the barn. He ducks his head to walk out of his stable and still comes close to scraping his back on the door frame and acts as if he’d like to gallop away as fast as he can with the noise of an approaching tractor. Yet for Summerville he stands quietly, albeit nervously, by the hay bale as she prepares for a photo and bends his head to receive a peck on the nose.

“He’s a little [restless] around here but you get him in a show and he shows off,” Summerville said proudly.

Both Ruddy and Summerville have been riding since they were very little. Ruddy, whose mom Sheri Ruddy always rode, remembers taking lessons at the stables in the front part of the plantation.

“I was always around horses,” Ruddy said. “I started taking lessons when I was seven and started competing around fifth grade.”

Madison Ruddy and her pony Sadie make a great team competing in the Pleasure Pony division. - Photo courtesy of the Ruddy family

Summerville got her first taste at a summer riding camp then started taking lessons two years later at the age of 8.

“That was when I started taking lessons seriously,” Summerville recalled. “I got my first pony at 10 and have been competing for about six years.”

All are preparing for their first competitions of the season. Though their season officially starts the first week of April, they plan on showing at two other events in the weeks leading up to that.

And a repeat performance of last year’s photo finishes is not out of the cards.