Morgan Hill – There’s absolutely no horseplay when it comes to
one Live Oak High School graduate’s dream of showing and working
with the equine.
Morgan Hill – There’s absolutely no horseplay when it comes to one Live Oak High School graduate’s dream of showing and working with the equine.
Weaver, 23, graduated from Live Oak in 2001, and is entering her senior year at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo.
Weaver will graduate with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Sciences and a minor in Agricultural Business at the end of the winter quarter, and will continue working in the sport rehabilitation unit at The Equine Center vet hospital in San Luis Obispo.
She has been riding horses since she was in grade school, and is now competing in the Training division at horse shows with her 7-year-old mare, Starless Night.
Weaver and her mother bought Starless Night, an Irish Draught Sport Horse (IDSH), as a three-year-old, and have shown her in more than two shows a month for the last four years.
She has competed regularly since the age of 16, most recently taking first place in the Summer Horse Trials at The Horsepark in Woodside, Calif.
From Aug. 10 to 12, Weaver and Starless competed against more than 330 riders and horses, winning their class (Senior Training Level Rider A) and the entire division for all training-level classes, which included 95 competitors.
Horse shows start at the beginning-novice level, then go into the novice level, and then the training level.
For more advanced horse trainers they also have the preliminary level, the intermediate level and the advanced level, where contestants vie for a cash prize.
At the the Summer Horse Trials there are three stages that horses and trainers are judged upon: dressage, cross country and jumping.
The dressage stage displays how supple and fit the horse is, tests its obedience, and gauges the skill of the rider on flat ground.
The cross country stage is an endurance stage where riders maneuver their horses around obstacles including natural solid fences, logs, and brush, and have to go through water, over ditches and up and down riverbanks.
In show jumping horses must clear stacks of rails, losing points if they knock any down.
Weaver said she and Starless Night were “outstanding” in all stages, but she felt their cross country stage performance was most noteworthy.
“It was a good competition because they already ran an event at Woodside this year, and they have a set speed in the cross country stage at 470 meters per minute,” Weaver said. “My horse was one of a few in training that made the course in time.”
Only three competitors in Weaver’s division made the cross country course in under 470 meters per minute.
“She (Starless Night) was clean in jumping and time in both of the jumping phases,” she said.
When Weaver graduates from Cal Poly, she plans on taking a full time job at The Equine Center, and hopes to continue showing her award-winning horse. She plans to move Starless Night into the preliminary-level competition in late 2008.
“To enter and compete in these kinds of things it’s about $300 to $400 per event, not including food for your horse and hotel costs,” Weaver said. “I’ll be working full-time after I graduate, so as long as I can afford it I’ll definitely be competing.”
