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| | | (SPECIAL/www.northfulton.com)
Chelsea Renier and her horse Dare to Dream go through their paces at the USAEE Talent Search. | |
September 24, 2008
www.northfulton.com
ROSWELL - When the hunter jumpers perform they fly gracefully over obstacles both tall and wide. It takes someone with a love of taking flight on the back of a 600-pound horse and the skill and courage not to fall off.
Eighteen-year-old Roswell High School rider Chelsea Renier is such a rider. She has advanced to regional and national junior level equitation competition following a series of wins this season. Renier rode to seven first or second positions in the Washington International Hunter and Jumper classes.
Over the last six months, she also captured three first-place ribbons, a second, a third and a fourth in USEF Talent Search events. USEF, The United States Equestrian Federation, is the governing body for the U.S. Equestrian Olympic teams. Renier has been competing in the A and AA rated show circuits, throughout the Southeast, since 2006.
What this means is she has qualified for three of the four fall finals. That means she has those three finals in which to shine before the judges who will pick the 2012 Olympic riding team.
Renier is a senior AP student and co-founder and past president of the RHS Equestrian Team. She will remain active with the team while she channels her energy competing against the top ranked junior riders in the country.
"It has always been a dream of mine to compete in these finals and I feel very privileged to be able to do so. When I see Bruce Springsteen and actor Tom Selleck's daughters in the lineup, it makes me realize how lucky I am," Renier said.
Her love of horses started early, riding since she was in the second grade. But it was not until a friend in the sixth grade introduced her to competitive riding that she began to have Olympic aspirations.
Now she is working to make that Olympic dream happen.
Renier credits her success first to the support of her parents, Mark and Mary Jo Renier, who have made it all possible.
"They played a huge part. And then there was finding the right trainer I could work with and who could help me advance," she said.
For the past two years, Renier and her Westphalian horse Dare to Dream have been training with Susie Fried of Macon. Fried was a successful junior rider, ranking 10th at the National USEF Talent Search Finals and winning The Senator's Cup.
Renier and her sister named the horse Dare to Dream to echo their first jumper, Dream Come True. But around the barn, he's just Imilio.
"My sister and I came up with the idea of that name because it symbolizes the goals of what we want to achieve."
The fall competition kicks off Sept. 18 in Brownland, Tenn. Competition travels next to Lexington for the Kentucky International Horse Show, Sept. 23 for the ASPCA Maclay Regional.
Then Oct. 2 through 5 Renier and Dare to Dream compete in Gladstone, N.J., at the USEF Talent Search Finals and ends the at Harrisburg, Pa. Oct. 9 for the USEF National Medal Finals.
After these three finals, she will advance to the next age bracket in which she will advance to compete in 4-foot, 6-inch jumps and the Grand Prix circuits, this spring.
The competition there will be all the more intense. Her challengers there will be professional adult riders vying for cash winnings. Chelsea will be graduating in May, 2009. She will be attending college, aspiring for a position on a varsity equestrian team and chasing the Olympic dream.
"Oh yes, I have an Olympic dream, definitely," Chelsea said.
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