When the weather is sunny with cool breezes, it is the best  weather for 16 year-old Alexis Beaty to ride her horse. Alexis practices equestrianism, which is also known as horseback riding. She first got to know about horse riding through her mother and began riding in the summer after first grade, when she was turning almost seven. Since then, Alexis has been riding for about nine years. When she first rode her horse, she felt very good about it.

“I thought it was really fun and I loved horses,” Alexis said.

But soon, she faced difficulties. She went through a period of time where she fell off a lot. That eventually made her took a year off.

“I stopped for a year because I was really nervous about riding but that made me realize how much I missed riding, so I came back,” Alexis said.

When she came back,  she still was afraid to do jumps and go fast, but when she turned 13, she rode the horse that was really difficult to ride. When she first rode the difficult horse, she was scared but she took control of him and that experience made her a tough rider. After that, she did not feel afraid anymore. Alexis overcame her difficulty through facing the difficulty after she realized that avoiding it doesn’t help. She has learned a lot of things from riding too.

“I’ve learned that when you fell off, you have to get back on and when you have bad rides, you have to use that to become a better person and a better rider,” Alexis said.

Because of her many experiences from riding, she knows what people should people be like for them to be able to ride. She says that the most important characteristics for people who does riding to have are to be brave, and to be able to recover fast from being afraid of falling off or having a bad ride.

Alexis described herself as determined, self-motivated, dedicated, and hard working. Because of these optimistic characteristics, she was be able to win many first-places or champions. The first time she competed in a competition, she got champion and she was 9 years-old.

“I was nervous at first but after I won I felt better,” Alexis said.

So far, she has won fifty-eight first places and sixteen Champions, which is the award that is given to a person who has the highest points and won the most first places, by the end of the year.

“Winning, it makes me feel like all my hard work pays off,” Alexis said.

Alexis owns four horses and she has rode about ten horses but among all of them, her favorite one is twelve year-old horse named Boomer. Boomer is the horse she is riding right now. She first met him when she was thirteen. Her horse came with the name ‘Boomer’ so she only had to make his show name which is ‘sudden impact’.

“When I first rode Boomer, I was really excited because I’ve never rode a horse that was really good, but when I rode him, he’s ride was different from other horses so it took me a while to get used to him,” Alexis said.

She described her horse as a horse that acts more like a pet .

“Boomer is like a giant big dog. He just licks me all the time, tries to eat my hair and my jackets,” Alexis said.

To communicate well with her horse, Alexis gives her horses lots of treats, brushes her horses a lot, runs around with them, gives them bath, and spends time with them. She picked trust as the most important thing to well collaborate with her horse.

“Trust is the most important thing because you have to have a strong bond with them,”  Alexis  said.

Alexis has gotten a lot of help from other people in order for her to become the excellent rider she is today. As a person that she appreciate the most, she chose her trainer

“She helped me become the rider that I am today. I would not be where I am without her,” Alexis said.

In her free time, Alexis likes to spend time with her horse creating and listening to music

Her motto is the Bible verse John 14:27. ‘Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.’ She says it helps her not to worry and not be afraid.

To her, horse riding and her horse is part of who she is. It changed her to be more brave and more tough.