If a quarter horse senses its rider is nervous during a show, that rider is in trouble.
But 15-year-old Vacaville High school sophomore Kyla Jackson is always calm, so her sensitive show horse, Cadillac in Black, keeps cool as well.
That helped the pair win the horsemanship gold medal against 175 other competitors in the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Youth World Show in Oklahoma City earlier this month.
This was Jackson’s first trip to the show, where she competed in the 14- to 18-year-old bracket.
“I didn’t know what to expect, so I didn’t really know what to be excited for or scared for,” she said. “I personally don’t really get scared when I get in a ring… You have to do a pattern by yourself with no one else in the ring. So if you mess up once, it’s pretty much over with.”
The judges spit the large field into two groups. The top 15 from each split went to the semifinals. Then 15 were selected for the finals, in which all ride around the rail for the judges.
“You can’t move whatsoever, but you have to be able to control the horse pretty much perfectly while people are watching,” Jackson explained. “You just kind of sit still and control your horse.”
To the viewer, it looks as if the horse is doing it on its own. But the rider is subtly controlling every move.
The judges are also impressed by a good-looking horse like Jackson’s eight-year-old quarter horse.
“I’ve only had him (in competition) for a little bit over a year,” said Jackson, who purchased Cadillac in Black in November 2017. “I’m still getting adjusted and we’re still figuring each other out… He’s a very cuddly horse. We’ll be standing somewhere randomly, and he’ll just swing his head around and me and hug me.”
She still has her first show horse, 36-year-old Sacs Sun Bar, who she bought from her first horse trainer, Lise von Uhlit. In 2015, von Uhlit died from a heart attack. The trainer’s barn colors were black and red, so Jackson still shows in those colors to honor her.
Cadillac in Black, who Kyla calls Caddy, is stabled in Finley, Cal. a two-hour drive which Kyla and Maureen make every Saturday morning so Kyla can train. Kyla’s trainer, Nancy Renfro, helped her find Caddy.
“I ride for multiple hours at a time non-stop,” Kyla said. “It’s definitely really hard in the summertime. But we make it work… My mom gets up and helps me get ready and my trainer helps a lot with all the workouts on the horse.”
Kyla, who has been showing horses since she was six, has actually qualified for the Youth World Show three times.
Riders qualify by accumulating points in shows each year in Horsemanship, Trail and Showmanship. A couple of years ago Kyla qualified but was so young she had no plans to travel to Oklahoma City.
Last year she again qualified and was all set to go. Cadillac Black and several other horses were loaded onto Renfo’s trailer to make the trek to Oklahoma City. But as they drove on Interstate-40 through Needles (Calif.), a truck tire blew out, causing truck and trailer to flip, with everything, including horses, spilling out on the highway.
Fortunately, all bumps and bruises were only superficial. But Caddy and the other horses had to return home to get a full checkup by the vet.
The Jacksons, who were scheduled to fly to Oklahoma the next day, had to cancel their flight and Kyla’s World Show appearance.
But Kyla more than made up for that disappointment this year.
She competed in both Level 2 and Level 3 in Horsemanship, Trail and Showmanship at the 2019 Youth World Show.
In Trail the rider takes the horse over poles, logs, bridges and through gates.
“You have to lope over it, jog, spin in boxes and not touch anything. You have to hit the right spots and make it look pretty while you’re doing that,” Kyla explained.
She finished 11th in Level 3 trail, which had 100 entries.
In Showmanship, the rider runs alongside the horse, using body motions and voice to guide the animal.
“Your arms should be completely still,” said Kyla. “You have to back the horse, spin it, run with it… There are patterns that you need to go through and the judge walks around you and sees how the horse looks. There are certain ways you set up your horse.”
Kyla finished 7th out of 166 entrants in Level 2. She and Maureen then drove an hour and a half to Tulsa, Okl. for the National Snaffle Bit Association World Show, where Kyla took fifth place in Showmanship in the 14-18-year-old bracket.
Kyla has already qualified in Level 3 Trail and Showmanship for the 2020 AQHA World Show and needs just a few more points to qualify in Level 3 for Horsemanship.
Now it’s back to school, where Kyla captains the Bulldogs’ Junior Varsity Cheer Team.
She is also Vice-President of the Pacific Coast Quarter Horse Association. She is advocating for all high schools in California to accept equestrian as an official high school sport. That would make it much easier for her and other young riders to train and perfect their craft.
Equestrian is an emerging women’s sport in college, governed by the National Collegiate Equestrian Association. Scholarships are available, as they are for other Division I sports.
There is no future for Kyla in competitive equestrian after college, apart from competing at the adult level in horse shows or working as a trainer. Olympic equestrian is a jumping event, something Kayla does not do.
There are more than a dozen Division I schools with a program. Kyla’s goal is to earn a full-ride (pardon the pun) scholarship in Horsemanship to one of them. She says all the programs look good.
But she may want to consult with Caddy.
