When 15-year-old Povi Gosnell started riding nine months ago, she knew almost immediately what her big goal would be, and it was a lofty one: the 2025 U.S. Equestrian Federation Pony Finals in Lexington, Kentucky.

While many children at this week’s Pony Finals have been in the saddle most of their lives, Gosnell didn’t have the chance to start riding until last November, after she began visiting her school friend Zahara Henderson’s barn. Henderson’s mother, Nicole Henderson, runs Crestone Farm in Longmont, Colorado, where she breeds Welsh Ponies and German Riding Ponies.

While Gosnell has loved horses as long as she can remember, she had a difficult home life growing up and has struggled with lifelong health issues. She was born with familial adenomatous polyposis, or FAP, a rare genetic disorder that causes polyps to develop on the colon and rectum, usually beginning in a person’s teenaged years, which if left untreated have an almost 100 percent chance of developing colon or rectal cancer later in life. 

She also is currently estranged from her parents, and Nicole has been appointed as her emergency temporary guardian, which includes ensuring she gets the proper medical care she needs. Nicole also has taken on the challenge of helping Gosnell reach her ambitious riding goals.

Riding the Hendersons’ KCS Harmony, a 12-year-old Welsh Pony cross (KCS Rock N Rebel—KCS Mystic Melody) bred by Kimberly Chapin, Gosnell’s been able to find joy—and a little distraction from her health issues—in the barn, and she’s thrilled to have reached her goal of competing in the USEF Pony Jumper Championships. 

“It really means a lot,” Gosnell said of achieving her dream. She and “Harmony” achieved their qualifications in June during two Summer In The Rockies (Colorado) shows. “I think it’s just really amazing, because I’d been showing for, at the time, eight months. I think just being able to qualify in two weeks was inspiring. If someone was to hear that I qualified in two weeks, I think it would make them believe in themselves more, because it really made me believe in myself.”

This year is Gosnell’s second trip to Pony Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park, after tagging along last year to watch Zahara compete Harmony in the medium pony hunters. 

“That place really is just the magical place—it’s basically Disney World with ponies instead,” she said.

Harmony came to the Hendersons’ farm several years ago, at age 10. Harmony spent her early life as a broodmare, then was started under saddle, sold and shown a handful of times in the pony hunter ring. She wasn’t working out at her previous owner’s farm with issues under saddle, and the Hendersons bought her for $2,000 as a project. She needed some remedial training when she arrived, and Zahara did most of the legwork, earning her trust and showing her in the pony hunter ring, including making two trips to Pony Finals in 2023 and 2024.

“She’s just a really good pony,” Nicole said. “She’s not perfect, but she jumps amazing. She’s a really useful pony. She can go do the hunter rounds, and she can go do equitation. And she really loves the jumpers. She likes to be a little bit more forward than slow; it’s kind of her happy place.”

“Zahara falls in love with the crazy, sassy ones that take more to get to where they need to be,” Gosnell said. “She likes to put more effort in the ones that need it. I think it’s been really fun. 

“I’m teaching her [to do the jumpers] while she’s teaching me stuff too,” she added of Harmony. “She doesn’t really know how to do bounces, so we’re teaching each other how to do bounces, and think it’s the best adventure I’ve had, because she’s an amazing pony, and she knows what to do, and she’s telling me how to do it, and it’s just like a connection—like, instantly we know each other’s thoughts.” 

While Gosnell still gets help from Nicole, she has recently started training with Steve Johnson at Ride 4 Life nearby. Progressing from leadline to jumping 0.75 meters, as she is today, has been an exciting challenge, she said.

“I watch videos from when I first started to now, and I improved so much on my trot and holding my legs and being not handsy with the reins,” she said. “It was, for sure, difficult.”

A Troubling Diagnosis

Gosnell is determined not to let her FAP diagnosis slow down her riding progress. This spring, she had her first colonoscopy and doctors discovered she had several concerning polyps. Like many FAP patients, she will need to undergo surgery to remove her colon to reduce her risk of developing cancer as an adult. 

Gosnell’s surgery next year will include insertion of a colostomy bag that she’ll need for several months during recovery. Even once her colon is removed, FAP is a lifelong disease, and she’ll need regular screenings to make sure cancerous cells haven’t developed in other parts of her body.

“I feel nervous about [the surgery], but at the same time, it’s a little stressful, because then it will take my time away from being able to ride,” she said. For now, she’s on medication for her symptoms. She says she still gets stomach pains and headaches but tries to push through it to be able to ride.

Gosnell has lived with the Hendersons since November, during which time Nicole has seen firsthand both the pain the teen endures but also her determination to reach her goal. She describes the teen as a sponge for information and is impressed with everything she’s had to overcome in her young life with the odds stacked against her.

“She really wanted to go to Pony Finals. That was her goal,” she said. “She started riding in November, and I was like, ‘I don’t think that’s going to happen,’ but, you know, she works really, really hard and has really shown that she can do it. She definitely doesn’t have a lot of the experience that other kids, that have been in major lesson programs [and] who have parents with lots of money backing them, have. It was a struggle for us with one kid, and it’s definitely really hard to make it all work. The girls take on odd jobs and do some groundwork and training of other horses as their projects to resell for a little bit of money. When everything’s going well, and even when it’s not going well, it’s amazing to watch her progress, and it’s amazing to watch the pony.”

As Gosnell prepares to tackle the small/medium pony jumper division at Pony Finals, she has received clothes from The Rider’s Closet, an Equus Foundation program that works to improve accessibility to equestrian sports by providing new and gently used apparel to riders in need. She got her own new helmet, but has also received hand-me-down saddle pads and tack, while a friend of the family donated time to clip Harmony.

“She really loves Harmony, and that’s really the only time, when she’s riding Harmony, that all the noise and all the stress and all the things that she’s going through just is quiet, and she’s truly happy. That’s her happy place,” said Nicole. “I’ve just told her; I’ll do whatever I can to help her dreams and help her get there. She’s going, not expecting ribbons or clear rounds, but just really for the experience.”

Gosnell echoed Nicole, adding, “My goal is really just to go have fun and jump around, get over a course and come out of the ring happy, even if I don’t get a ribbon. Really, it’s just to go and have fun and to have an amazing first time at Pony Finals.”

And as for the future? “My goal for riding is I want to move up to a meter soon, and just sometime in my life, go jump in grand prix and just have fun in the grand prix,” she said with a smile.