Chelsea Ayers

Hi everyone!

My name is Chelsea Ayers and I just joined BC Young Riders last November. I am turning 16 in May. I live in South Surrey and currently have several horses (as of Feb.08), although two are for sale. I began riding when I was six or seven years old at a barn in Surrey called Semihamoo Stables.  There I took lessons for a couple years and had some fun. Originally, I began riding because my sister rode, and I wanted to copy her. However, over time a passion that was entirely my own developed. My parents bought my first pony for me when I was nine or ten and I never looked back.

 I got into Three Day Eventing when I was 12 and I really loved it.  When I was 13 or so, my mom got herself a quarter horse gelding to do a bit of pleasure riding with, but their relationship was on the rocks from the beginning and she was unable to deal with his special personality and needs. So I was given Victor as my next event horse.  I evented for a season with him, going to a couple dressage “B” shows as well. During the winter following that season he took some time off for a minor muscle strain. My world felt like it was shattered because I was told that I would need a new horse in order to move up the levels in Eventing. We searched diligently for several months until we found a horse that would be capable of doing Young Rider level (which is intermediate). Cappuchino was a cute bay thoroughbred that had been there and done that!  However, after just a month after owning him he also sustained a minor injury while out in the paddock. Now he needed to take time off!

Victor had begun his rehabilitation by the time that Chino went off, so I was riding him a bit. I also leased a holsteiner/thoroughbred mare to event with (just last season, ’07. She’s the mare in the cross country picture). I decided that since Vic couldn’t jump right away, we would do a lot of dressage.  I was determined that I wanted to go to Rising Stars (national) and show second level, even though he had only shown training level, and been off for months.  Luckily, Victor was a quick study and he learned all the second level moves in less than six weeks.  We did really well at Rising Stars and shortly after the show, I decided that we had a “knack” for dressage and I would switch disciplines. Cappuchino (the new event horse) had started rehabilitating, but in the mean time I trained Victor, joined BC Young Riders Dressage and starting going to the Albrecht clinics immediately.  Albrecht loved Victor (“He is no quarter horse! Let me see his papers!”), but said that he wouldn’t be a competitive enough mount to do juniors with and advised that I should casually begin looking for another horse. Well, we casually started looking, and sure enough the first horse we saw was exactly what we were looking for. We looked at one more (that was NOT appropriate) and then decided to purchase Sydney from Karen Pavicic before someone else snapped her up.

We sent Cappuchino to California to event with Chelan Kozak and hopefully he sells. For the record, he’s doing super well, and would still make a lovely intermediate three day event horse. Victor is now for sale, he is adorable and I love him incredibly but I just won’t have time to compete two horses, plus I don’t have the money to be able to take regular lessons on both. Vic would be a super FEI Children’s horse.  Sydney is doing really well, but it’s a huge adjustment for me...going from a 14.3hh quarter horse to a 17.1hh Oldenburg! I would love to show Juniors this year but I’m not holding my breath. We have plenty of time and I don’t want to rush things.  I would like to show Young Rider (St. George) and make the team within the next couple years. In the mean time I am just working hard and learning lots.

Sydney