PrintBy now, 16-year-old Alicia Hall is used to causing a lot of raised eyebrows - both inside and outside of Alaska - for eschewing a trainer in order to ride on her own. The situation might not garner any attention if Hall wasn't a major player on the Alaska hunter/jumper circuit and an accomplished competitor at some premier shows in the Lower 48. But the junior rider is both of those things.
"I started out with a trainer," Hall explained, "but all the trainers are in Anchorage, and I live in Homer [a remote seaside community located 220 miles south of the city]. I couldn't go down there every day, so my dad and I just split off and did our own thing.
"I have a pretty good feel for my horses," Hall added, "so if there's something wrong, I can usually fix it."
That brand of confidence, combined with a dash of fearlessness and raw talent, has contributed to Hall's notable success on ponies and horses, particularly in the jumper realm.
Hall began riding at age 5, but didn't start showing until she was 11. That year, she qualified her large pony hunter for the 2005 USEF National Pony Finals. Hall and her Connemara mare, My Shiny Penny, flew down to Kentucky to compete (as did Alaska rider Kaitlin Henry on Grey Ghost, who ended up on the 5th-placed pony jumper team).
Every year since then, Hall has returned to Pony Finals to represent Zone 12 in the jumper championships. (For the team phase, Zone 12 is usually combined with at least one another zone in order to comprise a full squad.)
At the 2006 Pony Finals, in the individual jumper phase, Hall placed 9th on her pony, Luigi. In 2008, she competed with a broken ankle and finished 12th overall in the individual phase. This past summer, Hall and Luigi competed on the jumper team that finished 7th.
But 2009 has been an especially good year for Hall. On Araucano, her Holsteiner, Hall placed 3rd out of 95 riders in the $25,000 Marshall & Sterling Child/Adult Jumper Classic at the Ocala (Fla.) Winter Celebration. The pair also won the children's jumper championship at the Kentucky Summer Classic in Lexington.
At the 2009 Ocala Winter Finals, Hall and Luigi won the pony jumper championship, and were reserve champions in that division at the Ocala Winter Celebration.
From riding in Alaska hunter/jumper shows, Hall has collected an impressive number of tricolors and awards for year-end, circuit and zone categories on her ponies and horses.
In-state, Hall competes on a diverse assortment of mounts: Calamari, her Arabian, does the modified jumpers and level 0; Sugar 'n' Spice, a mustang acquired in Colorado, does level 1, level 2 and children's jumper; and My Shiny Penny does mostly large pony hunter and hunter performance classes. Hall also owns a miniature horse that she sometimes shows in driving classes.
Nature Nurtures Talent
Home for high school junior Hall and all of her equines is the 90-acre Portage Valley Ranch. The rural setting is familiar to Hall's father, Henry Tomingas, who grew up on a ranch in Wyoming; and her mother, Ruth Hall, who comes from a farm in Maine. Hall is the only child of the couple, who accompany her to shows.
When Hall practices at the ranch, Tomingas is a big help, she said.
