Neither snow nor a 21⁄2-hour commute can keep this dedicated junior rider out of the saddle.
Many 12-year-old riders who heard their barn would be shutting down and their trainer moving from 5 to 120 miles away would hang up their helmets and pick a new sport, but not Devon Wright. When Wright learned four years ago that the stable where she rode—the last major horse facility in Vail, Colo.—would be torn down to make way for a high school, she never considered altering her plan to continue to compete on the A-rated circuit.
“It was never a discussion of if I should keep riding,” said Wright, now 16. “Quitting was never an option—the barn moving has changed things, but we make it work.”
Her high school lets out at lunchtime on Fridays to give snow-crazy teenagers a chance to ski, but Wright leaves her friends at the slopes and takes that opportunity to get to the barn. She and a few other dedicated students carpool 21⁄2 hours over a pair of winter passes to get to her trainer Laurie Jueneman’s Snowfield Farm in Parker, Colo., every weekend. It’s a big sacrifice for Wright and her family, who aren’t immune from the skiing bug that’s struck most of this resort area, but she’s known since her first lesson six years ago that riding would be worth any sacrifice.
That dedication helped boost her and Bimini to the 2008 small junior hunter circuit championship at HITS Arizona. The pair showed three of the five weeks, picking up two championships and a reserve on the way to the circuit title.
“She knows that she doesn’t have a lot of opportunities to get on, so she works really hard when she does come down,” said Jueneman. “She’s been like that from the day she started. She’ll take her stirrups off, jump without reins or do dressage work. She’ll get on anything, whether it’s a 17-hand jumper or a pony that needs a tune-up.”
Wright credited Jueneman as the driving force behind her passion, describing her coach who taught her first lesson as her second mother. She and the other dedicated commuters have turned Jueneman’s four-bedroom house into a de facto bed and breakfast, but Wright couldn’t be happier to spend the weekend surrounded by horses and horsemen.
She typically squeezes in a lesson or two on Friday afternoon, then spends all of Saturday and Sunday practicing on friends’ mounts or whatever Jueneman has available. Spending all weekend at the barn means that she gets exposure to the ins and outs of stable management, and she always tags along with Jueneman to learn to diagnose and treat injuries.
ADVERTISEMENT
Though she’s glad to have the chance to learn on other mounts, Wright counts her partnership with Bimini as unique. Wright started riding the Westphalian after fellow Snowfield student Elizabeth Boles aged out of the juniors.
“She’s my first 3’6″ horse, and she’s just the most fantastic mare ever,” said Wright of the 13-year-old. “I started bebopping around on her about two years ago when I was riding large ponies. She’s been a great teacher—she makes me ask for everything correctly.”
Wright’s other mount, Safari, has been hard at work teaching her another lesson: patience. After just one show together, her partner in the junior jumpers and equitation tore a suspensory and has spent the last year in a slow recovery. That’s meant that Wright has had to miss out not only in the show ring but also on a few opportunities to up her skills in equitation clinics held in her area. Bimini has stepped up and contested a few medal classes with Wright, but the mare would rather stay to the hunter ring. Wright hopes to return to the jumper ring later this season, but for now she’s content to help with his rehab.
Since Wright can only train three days a week—and occasional snowstorms render the roads too treacherous to allow for the commute—she gets extra time in the saddle any way she can. That means hacking at one of few small barns still in the area.
“After school I’ll go hack two of my old horses,” she said. “The barn is chock-full, and there’s a waiting list to get in. I feel so lucky living here that I can get some extra time to ride.”
Wright looks forward to the winter circuit when she can get on her mare without a long drive beforehand. She’ll fly to Tucson, Ariz., to compete at the Pima County Fairgrounds on the weekends, then head to Scottsdale after the circuit ends in March, making her way around Zone 8 throughout the rest of the season.
“There are lots of things I’d like to do. I’d love to aim to be top 10 in the country, and I definitely want to try to get to [USEF] Medal and [ASPCA] Maclay finals,” said Wright. “I want to achieve my goals, but I’m trying to take it one step at a time.”
