Lisa Hiebert (right) 

 

For Lisa Hiebert, it's the equivalent of an olympic gold medal.  

Last weekend, Hiebert and teammates Jessica Green, Kylie Wasiuta and Nancy Pratch topped the podium in the Reining event at the North American Junior & Young Riders Championships in Lexington, Ky.  Hiebert, Green and Wasiuta are all Manitobans while Pratch is from Alberta.  The championships feature competition in five equestrian disciplines: Dressage, Endurance, Eventing, Reining and show jumping.  Hiebert explains what exactly reining is.

"You run your horse down the side of the arena almost full tilt.  You say 'whoa' and you lean back, and the horse basically sits down on his hind legs and poedals with his front.  You can slide for upto 60 feet, and that adrenaline rush is like....if you hit that stop right, with that horse, it is just the best feeling ever."

Hiebert says it may sound simple enough but if rider and horse are not on the same page, the results can be disastrous, especially if a rider is thrown.  

"Not anyone can just get on a horse and do it.  I wouldn't put just anybody on my horse, it can be dangerous.  People say (show) jumping is dangerous but our sport is equally dangerous.  It's just you and your horse in the arena but if your horse doesn't listen or you aren't with your horse, anything can happen."

The championships in Kentucky are seen as a stepping stone for horse and human athletes with sights on competing at the Olympics, World Championships, and Nations Cups in the future.  Hiebert says she'd love to take part in an Olympic games, but it's just not possible right now.

"Reining has not been recognized as an olympic sport yet.  It has only been recognized by the World Equestrian Games so, I would shoot for that before the Olympics because that's where my sport is at."

 

From L-R - Jessica Green, Lisa Hiebert, Nancy Pratch, Kylie Wasiuta

 

 

Canada has a solid reputation when it comes to equestrian events but Hiebert says her team wasn't the favorite here.

"We were competing against a lot of riders and a lot of horses that were better than us.  It was just our consistency as a team that did it for us.  Jessica scored a 201, I got a 206.5 and Nancy brought us in with a 215, and that's what put us over the top."

There are four riders on the team but only the top three scores are counted for each.  Hiebert says their main competition was the team from Mexico but, that team was somewhat handicapped by the fact one of their horses couldn't compete, meaning that fourth throw-away score wasn't there, so each of their riders had to count their scores.  She says if Mexico had have been full strength, they would have taken the gold.

It's interesting to not, this is an event that almost didn't happen for Hiebert.  She was aksed at the last second to take part, and with someone else's horse because hers is too young.  It was a bit of peer pressure that helped her make up her mind.

"I wasn't even sure I wanted to do it, but since it was her (Kylie Wasiuta) last year and Jess, one of my really good friends, was trying out, I decided to give it a go.  What's the worst thing that could happen right?  We made the team so, Kylie definitely gave me the push that I needed to go ahead and do it because I wasn't even sure a month before the qualifier.  We needed to get the horse in shape and we were trying to decide if I even wanted to do this or not."

She obviously did it very well and is the first to say it's been great winning gold but, it's also been a stressful couple of months.

"We didn't have much time to get all the paperwork done before the first qualifying show, which was in Alberta.  The week before was kind of a frantic deal, getting the horse in shape, getting me ready and getting the paperwork all set out.  Since May, early May, we've been working on this."

Here's hoping she now has time to enjoy the gold medal - and what's left of the Manitoba summer.