Mia, Year 9, has always been passionate about horses and took her first riding lesson aged 5.  However, it was not until she was 9 that her interest really took off and lessons saw her quickly become an advanced young rider, winning show jumping classes on a riding school pony, Jack.

Mia was lucky enough to get her own pony, aged 10, and in 2017 her riding advanced when local trainer Mr Austin found Mia a naughty, but talented pony, Carrie.  Since then Mia has competed in British show jumping events and has won and qualified for many competitions including Trailblazers, Scope, Blue Chip and many more.  In the summer of 2020, Mia competed in the British Show Jumping National Championships at Bolesworth, on Carrie, pictured below, and came 18th out of the hundreds of children in the national finals.  At the age of 13, and competing against many experienced 15-16 years olds in the 148cm pony class, this was an excellent achievement.

Mia, who is naturally shy, has found show jumping has helped her confidence and supported her academic development.  She competes every weekend and recently realised she could outride Carrie and so needed to move on to a new horse; Fat Pat, a 16 hand Irish bay gelding.  It has taken a bit of getting used to Fat Pat as pony riding is very different to horse riding, but Mia’s trainer has taught her to ride like a professional horse rider rather than a pony rider so they are progressing quickly. Mia started competing Fat Pat in August 2020 after only two weeks of ownership and was placed 6th in her first class at Prestige Equestrian,  placed 3rd and 4th the week after at Wellington and 2nd and 8th at Cherwell.

Fat Pat and Mia make a great team and Mia's parents are very proud as she never gives up, is always kind and gentle with her own and other horses in the yard and when it goes wrong it just makes her more determined to try and try again until she succeeds.

Good luck, Mia, on your future endeavours and we hope all will go well; everyone is very proud of your success!