MIKAYLA REBHOLTZ, 17, is shown here competing her Thoroughbred mare, Runaway Charm, in the cross country phase of an eventing competition.
A YOUNG Mikayla Rebholtz enjoys trail riding her first pony, Strawberry, back when she was just a small child.
MIKAYLA REBHOLTZ, of Yacolt, is shown here riding her first eventing pony, Bailey, in the cross country phase of competition.
Many little girls dream about horses. For Yacolt rider Mikayla Rebholtz, 17, those dreams have grown and taken her across the country to Charlottesville, Virginia, for a training opportunity with international eventing competitor Kim Severson.
Rebholtz has loved horses for as long as she can remember. She began riding lessons when she was just 4 years old and she got her first pony at the age of 8, a chestnut Quarter horse and pony cross named Strawberry.
She soon joined a Pony Club where she discovered the discipline of three-day eventing, a competition that includes show jumping, dressage and cross country jumping, and she was hooked.
Her favorite event? Definitely eventing, she said, and particularly the cross country phase.
“When I was a kid I loved the adrenaline rush you get from cross country,” Rebholtz said. Plus, she thrives on the complexity of it. “You have to excel in three events. One day it’s quiet and precise dressage, then you are bold for cross country, then accurate for jumping.”
When Rebholtz first joined Pony Club so many years ago, she got a poster of eventing trainer Kim Severson in the organization’s magazine.
“I have followed her career ever since,” Rebholtz said. “She’s the person I always wanted to ride with.”
She rode in a clinic with Severson for the first time when she was 14 years old. It wasn’t until three years later that she had the opportunity again, and this time Severson talked with her about coming to Virginia to be a “working student,” a traditional equestrian system of education where horse and farm work is exchanged for intensive training.
Rebholtz got a call a few weeks later. Severson said “Hey, I have a spot, are you coming?” said Rebholtz, laughing. Three weeks later, she had packed herself and her horses into her horse trailer and made her way across the country to Virginia.
Rebholtz has two 6-year-old thoroughbred mares she is competing with now, both of them retired racehorses. Runaway Charm, who was purchased as a 3 year old, is competing at the preliminary level, where horses jump up to 3 feet, 7 inches. Her other mare, City Kid, is competing at training level and jumping 3 feet, 3 inches.
Rebholtz also has a 3-year-old mare she left at home in Yacolt to “grow up,” she said. “I saw something really special about her.”
“The horses I’ve gotten along with best are ones I walk up to and I feel a connection,” she said. “When Charm walked into the barn aisle I knew she was my horse.”
The good ones have the “look of eagles,” she said.
“They have just a little naughty look in their eye. I like them hot and a little bit naughty,” she said, laughing.
Rebholtz especially loves to ride mares, which many people consider temperamental and unpredictable. But she finds they are worth a little more effort.
“When you can build a trust and partnership with them, they will do anything for you,” she said.
Now settled into her new home in the living quarters of her horse trailer, she quite literally lives at the barn and spends six days per week riding, grooming and caring for horses.
The horse scene is different in Virginia than at home in the Northwest, Rebholtz said. For one thing, it’s bigger. There are large horse farms all around her. From Yacolt it is a two or more hour drive to a facility with a cross country jumping course. Now, they are just down the road.
And the standard is so much higher, she said. There are many riders who compete at the highest levels, even the Olympics.
On a typical day, Rebholtz is in the barn at 7:30 a.m. ready to work. She will put on the horses’ tack — saddles and bridles — to prepare them for the trainer’s ride. She grooms them or takes them out for a conditioning gallop. There is plenty of just plain farm work, too like pulling weeds and picking up rocks.
But Rebholtz wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I love being at the barn every day,” she said. “I love horses, I love the work I do and I get to do it 24/7.”
She receives regular lessons from Severson, and is able to compete her horses at some big East Coast shows. The experience she is gaining, she feels, is invaluable.
The hardest part of her venture was moving so far from home.
“It’s the toughest thing I’ve ever done,” she said.
The challenges might seem simple unless you’ve never done them before. Like figuring out how to buy groceries. And especially, being away from family and friends.
Though only 17, Rebholtz has completed her high school courses online using the Washington state K12 program. She is takes online courses at Clark College through Running Start, and aims to complete her Associate Degree alongside her equestrian training.
Her other goal is to complete the highest ranking in the Pony Club program she started so many years ago, testing for the top level A.
Rebholtz is used to working hard. When she was at home, she commonly rode five horses a day, and did a lot of heavy lifting to care for them. Rebholtz had her first working student job when she was only 9 years old and has never stopped, riding with many top Clark County horse trainers. She has steadily built the skills in jumping and dressage that she will need to be a successful eventing rider.
And she knows it took a whole horse-loving village to help her pursue her goals.
“I am grateful for my parents, my grandmother, my trainers,” she said. “All the support I’ve had from everyone to help me reach my dream. It’s really amazing.”
