It’s not many 13 year olds who can claim to be world champions.
But for Taylor Bland, it’s a reality. At the end of October, she won the world championship show jumping event for ages 12 to 14 years in the Federation of Equestrian International.
The Grade 8 honour roll student from Calgary first climbed on a horse at age three. Taylor said she started chasing cows on horseback at her grandfather and father’s ranch near Strathmore, Alta.
Father Paul Bland said he did rodeo but he doesn’t know where his daughter got involved in the English style.
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Taylor said that when she was eight, she went to watch show jumping at the Spruce Meadows facility and decided she could do it. She took lessons and with her win in October at Spruce Meadows, is now aiming to ride in the 2012 Olympics for Canada.
One of her heroes is the Ian Millar-Big Ben duo that often won at the show jumping world level for Canada in the 1980s. Taylor’s latest coach, Jill Henselwood, was Big Ben’s groomer.
Taylor won against 16 others in her age group in a regional competition earlier this fall in order to enter the world field in October. She was competing against 31 other riders who represented Brazil, New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Saudi Arabia and the United States, as well as Canada.
Taylor credits her horse, Tango, a Palomino-Spanish jumper, for her win.
“He’s a really sweet horse and tries his heart out. He likes my style of riding. I’m pretty soft on the hands and hard on the leg.”
While Taylor rides other horses for her training, Tango and she will reunite for three weeks in January and February in California for the world–level show jumping events held there each winter.
To prepare, Taylor is continuing her schedule of two hours at the barn four to five days a week. She said she has no trouble keeping up her schoolwork and her friends all understand because they are horse crazy too.
