Young rider earns IEA awards

DECATUR - It takes a lot of drive and determination to reach for the stars, to fulfill a dream. For one area teenager, her superior equestrian skills and natural ability to bond with any horse earned her recognition on a national level.

Haley Hogue, 16, of Bentonville, was honored during the Interscholastic Equestrian Association 2013 Western National Finals in Oklahoma City, Okla., in June. Hogue, one of 500 riders nationwide nominated for this prestigious honor, took first place and earned the 2013 IEA National Sportsmanship Award, National Sportsmanship Champion Award and a $500 scholarship.

Haley began horseback riding while in the third grade. When her family moved to Arkansas, Haley asked her mother to fi nd a place she could learn to ride. Tricia Hogue found her daughter the perfect place, Legends Equestrian Center, just outside Decatur.

In March 2006, Haley became a student of Heather Swope, owner and instructor at Legends Equestrian.

“Haley has been a student of mine since March of 2006. During that time, she has shown herself to be a very competent rideras well as helpful around the barn,” Swope wrote of her student. “Her knowledge of horses and basic foundations as a rider is due in part to her own perseverance as well as her determination to excel at what she does.”

When preparing for a show, “I usually ride every single day that week; and then, the day before, you actually have a day to show prep,” Haley said.

She cleans all of the hardware required to ride during the show. Once that is complete, then she puts herself in “a mind set.”

“On the average she rides three times a week,” Tricia said of her daughter.

Haley tries to practice her riding skills at least an hour during each of her practice days.

At Legends’ student class demonstration on June 20, Haley was riding her horse, Iris, bareback. The pair navigated over five jumps. On two of those jumps, she dropped the reins and held her arms out to her side. Both horse and rider, as one, cleared the fences as well as she would have done with reins in hand.

How does she maintain such control, even without the reins?

“It’s how you stay balanced and centered; and once you’re centered, then it’s pretty easy to maintain where you are and go with the horse,” Haley said. “That’s the main thing, going with the horse instead of trying to be two separate things.”

Taking care of a living, breathing, animal is not like taking care of a Ford Mustang. The car only requires a little gas, oil and water to go. Taking care of a 500-plus pound horse requires work, devotion and lots of love.

“You definitely have to treat it like a person,” Haley said of the horses she rides. “They have to have everything that we need, and you especially want to make sure they’re in good heath,” she added. “We are doing very tough tasks, they need to be in top shape. With muscles - before we start exercising, we stretch out and we work to get ready - we do that with them (horses) as well,”

“It is amazing to watch at the beginning of camp and then to see at the end of camp how confident they are, having been on a horse every single day; and Heather lets them try new things and extend themselves. So it is really neat at the end of camp to watch them, so confident,” Tricia said.

One of the requirements for the IEA awards process was writing a 250-word essay on how horses influence her life. In that essay Haley wrote: “Riding has given me a great strength, not only physical but emotional. I have learned how to fall, dust myself off and go again. I have learned that tenacity pays off. One must endure obstacles in order to succeed. Believe me, a horse with an attitude can be an obstacle.”

When watching Haley work her horse, there is a sense that the writings in her essay are not mere words but true beliefs.

Haley is not sure what she wants to do when she graduates from high school, but she would like to attend a college that has an equestrian program so she can continue to ride.

Looking at this Bentonville High School junior’s impressive list of awards and activities and 4.09 grade-point average, there is no doubt that a bright and promising future lies ahead.

And knowing Haley Hogue, she will likely get there by horse.

Sports, Pages 9 on 07/24/2013