For each quarter, we want to welcome and highlight one of our new members. This time, we offer a warm welcome to junior rider Ella Troyna, who joined the chapter with mom Kristi Troyna. Learn more about this equestrian!
Ella Troyna really loves her ponies because they have great personalities. She also enjoys the simple things around the horses like grooming them, taking them for walks and watching them graze. Ella is currently a sophomore in high school, and says that "while some aspects of school suck I actually really enjoy school." Her favorite subjects in school are history and biology because she feels like they "have the most to them." She enjoys art and anything creative and is passionate about pets and wild animals.
Ella's horse, Chance, is a 20-year-old Palomino quarter pony standing at 13.2 hands tall. Ella has always had horses in her life because of her mom, who's had horses since she was a teenager. Ella's horse journey started when she was a baby being propped up on a horse. Eventually her mom decided it was time for a pony of her own.
Her first pony was an Appaloosa Shetland named Dusty who she grew up with since she was almost four years old. Even though Dusty was almost completely untrained when she got him, he took really good care of her and taught her everything she knows today!
Realizing that Dusty was only nine hands tall and Ella kept growing taller, they realized they would have to start the search for a new horse.
Her mom was willing to get her a nicely trained horse but Ella ended up falling in love with Chance, a previous barrel horse who was 13 when they got him. Ella worked very hard turning him into a jumper. As he aged she realized their jumping career would slow down which helped her decide to turn to Dressage.
Dressage was a completely new challenge for Chance and Ella. He had a hard time collecting and had a very fast pace, not very desirable for dressage. But challenges are there to be overcome and with a lot of hard work they have continued to work their way up the Dressage levels. She still wants to do high jumps and get better at hunter jumping. While they've been working on their dressage Ella has noticed that it makes Chance appears much stronger and is improving in their other disciplines!
Ella is very proud of Chance and knows he has done so much for her. They recently competed in their very first First Level, Test 1 together this summer. Ella feels like they still have a long way to go and she'll be working on perfecting Chance's Dressage movements. She knows this will make both of them stronger.
We can't wait to see Ella and Chance in the future and wish them both the best in their journey!
Comments