Sherrill Davis, 13, of Farmington, basically has been riding horses since she was born.
She rode with her mother, Sandra Davis, when she was an infant and by the time she was 2 years old, Sherrill was up in the saddle by herself.
Sherrill moved to Farmington when she was in fourth grade, closer to a farm owned by her grandparents. From that point, she's spent almost everyday at the farm, riding and caring for the animals.
Her time in the saddle recently paid off when Sherrill finished in fifth place in the middle school division at a national jumping equestrian competition, held at Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, Va.
Sherrill rides for Davis Equestrian Team, coached by her mother. Davis coaches middle school and high school teams to compete in shows thorough the Interscholastic Equestrian Association (IEA).
The Association's competitions are unique in that riders compete using unfamiliar tack on unfamiliar mounts. Numbers are assigned to the horses and then riders have the opportunity to watch the horse go through a course.
In Virginia, Sherrill, her mother and others took notes as all the horses went through the course to help her during the competition.
Sherrill said they look to see if a horse gets spooked for any reasons, how high it jumps, the number of strides in takes before jumping or whether a horse needs extra motivation in jumping.
Davis said sometimes there are as many as 30 horses to watch and compare. Then the riders pull numbers randomly to find out which horse will be theirs for the contest.
All the horses are quality mounts but obviously, there are some you want more than others, Davis said.
Sherrill was happy with the horse she drew. She was not as happy that she also had to go first in the middle school division.
During the three-day national competition, riders compete in Hunt Seat Equitation Over Fences and Equitation. They go over seven or eight cross rail jumps that are about 15 inches high. However, the jumps have flowers and other decorations in front of them to make the jumps longer.
It's nerve-wracking, Sherrill said, in that riders have to know what they need to do to get the horses to jump.
Sherrill came in fifth place out of 22 riders from throughout the United States. Competitors came from the west coast, east coast and in between, Davis said.
The journey to Nationals started with shows earlier in the year. Sherrill competed in five shows to earn points to qualify for the regional IEA competition. She finished in first place in regionals in Kansas City, Kan., in March to qualify for the zone shows.
She finished in the top 2 in the zone competition for middle school in Denton, Texas. The top 2 from this show advanced to Nationals.
Sherrill was the only one from her team to qualify for Nationals and the only one from Northwest Arkansas. Besides Davis Equestrian Team, there are two other IEA teams in the Northwest Arkansas area.
When she's not competing with her equestrian team, Sherrill competes on her own horse in barrel racing, fox trotting and jumping.
But she also likes just hanging out.
"I like coming down to the farm and being able to ride and do whatever," she said.
General News on 07/12/2017