Maggie Cox
People Feature - Jessica Pye
Headline: Riding to the Gold
Subhead: Psychology student succeeds in plight as horse competitor in Junior Olympics
Pull Quote: “Long term goals, I want to compete in four stars which is the highest level we compete at, and I want to go to the Olympics.” Jessica Pye

A young woman urges her horse Zephyr forward, jumping fences and cornering turns ever so carefully to keep composure. Zephyr glides to the requests of his rider and successfully completes the course with a gold metal in sight.

Jessica Pye won the gold medal at the Junior Olympics. Her development as a young rider has enabled her to surpass injury, horses and location challenges to succeed within the riding realm.   “[Riding] like any other competitive sport, everybody goes to win and you go out there and hope you don’t screw up,” Pye said.

Pye currently lives her trainer’s property where she can continue to sharpen her skills as a rider. Balancing school and riding however, only allows her to take college classes in the fall semesters. She is a sophomore by class hours and is moving towards Sports Psychology in conjunction with her riding endeavors.

“[Riding is] very doable for half of the year,” Pye said. “For the fall semester we stay here at Aerie 5, so it’s not [that] big of a deal, I would take morning classes and then ride in the afternoon. During the spring the upper level horses go the Florida for at least two months, and that’s where it gets tricky, because you can’t physically take classes here.”  Pye has sustained several injuries while riding, including shattering the left side of her face and suffering from damage to her neck.

Zephyr, Pye’s horse, has also encountered many ailments which hindered him from competing in a maximum performance capacity over the last year. Her horse is blind in one eye and suffers from arthritic symptoms. She had to ask permission to take Zephyr to the Junior Olympics due to a missed selection trial.

“It’s trust, and if you betray their trust then they aren’t going to try hard for you and they are not going to be willing to put themselves out there for you,” Pye said. “Especially if you are asking them to jump something that isn’t instinctual, something like a ditch where there are predators. Why would they want to do that if they didn’t trust you?”

As far as the rewards go, Pye gains no profit from her events; it is one of the only events that does not receive monetary praise. However, Pye finds reward elsewhere.

“[Riding] is rewarding because I am a highly competitive person to a fault, and a perfectionist too, so when it all does go great then you work harder. It’s just like any other sport,” she said.

While Zephyr continues to compete, he is competing without Pye and at a lower level than before. Pye maintains a newer and younger horse named Alaska, who she hopes will aid her in a long partnership to fulfill her goals.

“Short term goals, I have a young horse so he needs to step up and get accomplished,” Pye said. “Long term goals, I want to compete in four stars which is the highest level we compete at, and I want to go to the Olympics.”