Last year, junior Emily Martin traveled to North Carolina on June 21 to compete in the New Balance Spring Track Nationals where she competed in the 4x800M. Earlier that season, Emily and her teammates broke the school record further qualifying them for nationals with a time of 9:38.52.
While Emily is known at Walpole High as a Rebel track star, some may not know that she is equally talented in another sport as well: Horseback Riding.
On Sunday, September 27, at the University of New Hampshire, Emily officially qualified for next year’s American Eventing Championship.
“It is a really exciting accomplishment, and I’m really happy to have made it,” she said.
This achievement has been a lifelong goal for the versatile teenager. Emily has been riding since she was five years old.
“When I was younger, my mom was reluctant to let me start riding because she thought I would not be able to do it,” said Emily. “After she saw what focus I had, she knew I could continue.”
Emily trains with her ten-year-old horse, Polson, at the Norfolk Hunt Pony Club. The pair have been together for two and a half years; however, when Emily first acquired Polson, he was not at the same skill level he is at now.
“I worked really hard to train him,” she said. “It was a really interesting experience because I was learning what he was learning, all at the same time.”
As an Arena 1 eventer, Emily competes in dressage, cross country, and show jumping. During dressage, the judges look for balance, rhythm, and obedience of the horse. Cross country focuses on the horse’s endurance and quality of performance over a long period of time. Lastly, show jumping centers on the accuracy of the horses jumps.
Emily’s ability to improve quickly has brought her dramatic success. When she competed on September 13 in the Novice Division at King Oak Farm in Southampton MA, she successfully placed fifth overall and second in the division. A few weeks later at the University of New Hampshire Horse Trials, Emily went from placing fifth in her category in Southampton to placing second and only 3.3 points away from first.
The Novice division consists of maintaining a certain height and speed throughout the event, and her category includes dressage, cross country and show jumping. Competing at UNH was the first time that her horse Polson double cleared during both show jumping and cross country. In other words, he acquired no time faults, he did not knock down any rails, and he had no jump refusals.
¨I felt confident in his conditioning and Polson made a big improvement on his score for cross country,” said Emily.
In the years to come, Emily has high hopes for her and Polson. She is working to improve her ranking as an eventer.
Despite being a national competitor for track, Emily is now making her name known as a successful contender in horseback riding. In two weeks, she hopes that she and Polson will keep improving at their next event in Sherborn. They will continue to train and work to their goals as a pair. Emily said, “I could not have asked for a better horse as my teammate.”