As Raelyn Snyder and American Thunder galloped toward the last cross-country fence in the CCI1*-S at the Maryland International on Saturday, the 19-year-old had a moment of shock.

“I could hear the announcer say I had moved into first and could win with a clear round,” said Snyder, who couldn’t believe what she heard. “I jumped the last jump and then immediately broke out into tears. It was totally unexpected, but it was such an incredible feeling.”

It was a first FEI-level event for both her and “Chief,” her 10-year-old off-track Thoroughbred of unknown breeding, but far from Synder’s first FEI-level competition. The teen is first and foremost a vaulter. With numerous vaulting championships under her belt, Snyder last summer represented the United States at the FEI Vaulting World Championships in Bern, Switzerland, where she and Allegra Hart placed ninth in the Pas De Deux division.

Snyder trains with Hanna and Nicholas Hansen and manages their Roaring Creek Farm in Reddick, Florida, and Catawissa, Pennsylvania.

“I’m just so proud of her,” Hanna said. “She got into eventing later in her riding career, and it’s kind of been second fiddle to her vaulting, but in the last year, she’s really taken it seriously. They went from novice to modified this season, and it’s been very cool to watch.” 

Snyder first spied Chief in 2022, when the horse was in training with the Hansens. She had been riding with the Hansens after meeting Nicholas, an international dressage and eventing rider, as a youngster. They became friends after he began helping train her vaulting horses on groundwork and longeing.

Snyder said Nicholas learned the ins and outs of vaulting so he could longe Lightning, Synder’s main vaulting horse, when she competes. While she continues to focus on vaulting, the Hansens encouraged her to try eventing. She was looking for a second vaulting horse and thought Chief, who is 17.2 hands, might be a good fit for both equestrian pursuits. However, they had a rocky first meeting in 2022.

“I fell off him when I tried him,” Synder said with a laugh. “We were cantering over a pole, and he tripped, got mad, and ducked his shoulder. I wasn’t coordinated for riding at the time.”

Not that Snyder was graceless on the back of a horse. She started vaulting at age 4, when as a horse-crazy little girl she begged her mom for riding lessons and ended up at a barn with a vaulting program, which Snyder loved immediately. 

 “I’d train at home on an upside-down laundry basket until I got a vaulting barrel,” she recalls of her early years as a vaulter.

As she’s entered the world of eventing with Chief, she’s says she now trusts him implicitly, despite their initial disconnects. She knew he’d be a good partner after their first cross-country schooling session in October 2022. 

“It was definitely scary at first, and we were jumping the tiniest of jumps in the field,” she recalled. “But I quickly realized that Chief loved it, and he helped me out of some sticky situations.” 

Not that it was all smooth sailing. She fell off at the water jump in their first horse trials, noting that Chief, who is partially blind in his left eye after impaling it on a screw as a colt, was not initially a fan of water jumps. 

“I’m a person who doesn’t like to give up on things,” she said. “I learned to sit back and get him into water. Now it’s one of his favorite parts of cross-country. He’s always looking around for the water and leaps right into it.”

Watching Snyder and Chief’s relationship develop has been “amazing” to watch, Hanna said.

“That was their biggest obstacle moving up the levels,” she said. “He was very cautious going into water, and her position wasn’t very established yet, being a greener rider. The beginning of their career was a green rider with a green horse, making green mistakes. Now, their partnership is just amazing, and they can just rock into any water.”

Chief is now taking a well-deserved break, after a busy first half of 2025, while Synder shifts focus to her other sport. She’s planning to compete at the USEF East Vaulting Championships with Lightning, held Sept. 12-14 at the Tryon International Equestrian Center (North Carolina). She’s also developing her newest vaulting horse, Danika, a 7-year-old Oldenburg mare, while introducing young vaulters to the sport through her Citrus State Vaulters training operation.

Chief will do “lots of flatwork” over the summer and possibly some jumper shows leading up to a few events in the fall. Long-term, she says she’s shooting to compete in the two-star division at the 2026 USEF Eventing Young Rider Championships.

 “I really love this sport now. It’s so much fun,” Snyder said of eventing. “It’s entirely the opposite [of vaulting]. Vaulting is very graceful, and you want to be super flowy with your horse. You’re not vaulting in a defensive position. I had to learn how to have my heels in front of me and how to ride with my seat. It was really hard to learn the defensive position and how to see a distance to jumps. I had to learn how to be really confident on the horse, even if I didn’t know what I was doing. There’s still a lot to learn, but I’ve grown so much as a rider.” 

She said Chief is the perfect partner as she continues to learn and evolve in the sport of eventing.

 “He’s taught me so much, but I’ve got a lot of work to do and a long way to go,” she said. “I need to continue building off this win and this partnership. I just have to make sure I’m riding my horse properly so he can perform to the best of his ability.”