By GRAHAM POWELL
Leader sportswriter
Jordan Payton of Cabot is currently the nation’s seventh-ranked rider in Preliminary Junior Division of U.S. Eventing.
Equestrianism is the art of skillful horseback riding. Eventing is the triathlon of equestrian riding, which consists of three different challenging events or phases. The events are categorized as dressage, show jumping, and cross country.
Payton and her thoroughbred horse, Slew’s Aftershock, a descendant of Seattle Slew, known for being the tenth of eleven horses to win the U.S. Triple Crown of thoroughbred horse racing, and the only horse to accomplish the feat while remaining undefeated, have completed three of five qualifying rides to participate at the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships.
The NAJYRC, otherwise known as the Junior Olympics, will be held in Lexington, Ky., in July. Payton’s next qualifying event will be her first international event, which will be held in Hamilton, Ga., at Poplar Place Farm this weekend.
“It’s a little bit bigger than some of the other required shows I have to have to get qualified for the Junior Olympics,” Payton said about this weekend’s event, “and so, just the events for the horse and rider are going to be a bit more difficult, and the jumps will be bigger. I feel we’re going to do really well. Dressage is definitely our weakest phase of the three, and it has been coming along well, a lot better than usual. Mike (Huber) has been helping me a lot by helping me keep my horse from getting too tense, and keeping him nice and relaxed, because the more relaxed he and I are, the better score you can get in dressage.”
This weekend’s event will be a different challenge for Payton, but preparation won’t be an issue for the young rider. Payton rides six days a week as part of her and her horse’s training. The cross country category comes easiest for her and her horse, so when training, Payton and her trainer, Mike Huber, put more focus on dressage and show jumping, while also emphasizing conditioning.
“When conditioning, we do several different sets, such as trot sets, to help build up not only his stamina and muscle strength, but mine as well,” Payton said.
Dressage, which is considered the most difficult of the three phases of eventing, consists of an exact sequence of movements ridden in an enclosed area (20 meters x 60 meters for international eventing, but usually 20 x 40 for a one-day event). In the dressage phase, judges look for balance, rhythm, suppleness, and most importantly, obedience of the horse and its harmony with the rider.
The challenge of dressage is to demonstrate that a supremely fit horse has the training to perform in a graceful, relaxed and precise manner.
The next phase, cross country, requires both horse and rider to be in excellent physical shape and to be brave and trusting of each other. This phase consists of several lower and higher level fences that are set up on a long outdoor circuit.
Cross country fences are usually natural and solidly-built objects, such as telephone poles and stone walls, with other various obstacles such as ponds, streams, ditches, drops and banks, and several other objects and sites one would see in the countryside. Speed is the factor as the rider is required to cross the finish line within a certain time frame.
Show jumping tests the technical jumping skills of the horse and rider, including suppleness, obedience, fitness and athleticism. In this phase, 12 to 20 fences are set up in a ring with elements that can be knocked down.
This phase is also timed, with penalties being given for every second over the required time. In addition to normal jumping skills, show jumping tests the fitness and stamina of the horse and rider.
Scoring is based on the number of penalties the horse and rider tally during a phase. Knocking down an obstacle, jumping an obstacle out of order, disobedience, fall of horse or rider, errors on course not rectified, and exceeding the time allowed are some of the mishaps that result in penalties. The winner is the horse and rider with the fewest penalties.
Payton’s most recent qualifying event was almost four weeks ago, where she competed at Rocking Horse Farm in Altoona, Fla. That event consisted of three different winter trials, where she and Slew’s Aftershock finished seventh overall in the first trial, second in the second trial, and eighth in the third trial.
She has been living and training in Bartonville, Texas, where she has been finishing her schooling since January to prepare for the Junior Olympics. Payton trains at Gold Chip Stables, a training facility that focuses on eventing, and is owned and operated by her trainer, Huber.
Huber is a former U.S. Equestrian team member, and has served several positions within the sport ranging from Olympic selector to Chairman of the USEF Eventing High Performance committee. Although Payton is currently being trained by one of the best in the world, it took years of dedication, interest and hard work that started a decade ago. She first got into riding at the age of 7 and started eventing around age 10.
“My grandmother owns horses and she always has, so I’ve grown up around horses my entire life,” Payton said. “I had friends that were into riding, English riding and jumping, and so I finally begged my parents enough to let me start taking lessons at a nearby barn. Then a few years later after lots of begging and pleading, I got them to buy me my own horse.”
Payton has owned two other horses prior to Slew’s Aftershock, a 9-year-old, 17.1 hand, grey gelding, registered thoroughbred. Payton has only been riding Slew’s Aftershock for two years. Previous to Payton owning him, he trained as a racehorse in Shreveport, La.
Considering the little time Payton has had to train with her current horse, just getting to the preliminary level has been a huge accomplishment.
“My greatest accomplishment is just getting to the point of competing at the preliminary levels, because I’ve worked so hard to even get here,” Payton said. “I was quite close to moving up to prelim, and starting to qualify for Young Riders, which is the Junior Olympics of our sport, when the horse I was riding before got injured.
“So, I had to buy my horse I currently have now, and start from ground zero. He had no training, so the fact that two years later we’re competing at prelims is a big accomplishment for both of us.”
Eventing isn’t a sport for the weak, and it’s not only the horse that’s subject to injury. The horse and rider have to be in the best shape possible to be able to handle the physical strain that comes nonstop during events, and at times the sport can be as dangerous for the rider as it is for the horse.
“I’ve fallen off countless times,” Payton said. “I can’t even tell you how many times, but it can be very, very dangerous. It’s very hard physically on the horses, and it’s also dangerous for the riders as well. There are all kinds of certain requirements. We have to wear a helmet and a vest to help protect our internal organs.
“For both of our jumping phases we have to wear an armband with all of our medical information in case something happens. They’ve come out with several innovations that have helped make the sport safer for both the horses and riders. Thankfully, I haven’t been a part of a rotational fall or anything like that, but I do have friends that have experienced it.”
Payton would like to continue eventing for as long as she can, but after a decade of riding under her belt, she has recently been experiencing back problems and has developed multiple bulging discs in her lower back. In other words, her physical limitations will decide how much longer she will continue the sport, but Payton doesn’t believe she will be finished any time soon.
Even though Payton is proud of how far she has come after a decade of riding, there is still a goal out there she would like to reach above all others. Eventually she wants to earn a trip to the Rolex Kentucky three-day event in Lexington
Rolex is the only four star, Olympic level event available in the U.S.
In the summer, Payton plans to stay in Texas to continue her education, where she is deciding between North Texas University and Texas Christian University. She has put a lot of work into the sport of eventing over the years, and although it has been tough and physically demanding at times, her passion and love for the sport is still strong.
“I enjoy it so much,” Payton says of eventing. “Honestly, with the amount of work and the amount of money that’s put into it, if you didn’t enjoy it and you didn’t really love it, there’s no way you could do it. But I wouldn’t have it any other way honestly, even with all the work and the dirty chores that go into it.”
