When Paige Wagner was 5 years old, her parents took a family trail ride while vacationing in Wyoming. It was the girl's first time in the saddle, and as horse rides go it was pretty ordinary.
"I don't know what you'd had to do to get those old horses out of a walk," her mother remembers, "but Paige was impressed. On the drive home she counted the horses in the pastures ... out loud ... all the way back to Lawrence," Pam Wagner said, smiling and rolling her eyes.
In 1994, for her sixth birthday, Pam and Dave Wagner treated their daughter to a riding lesson at the Lazy J Training Center west of Baldwin. That led to a year's worth of weekly lessons by trainer Joy Underberg.
A year later Paige entered her first horse show. It was a western pleasure horse competition for ages 10 and under in Baldwin. Show rings in Ottawa, Lyndon, Wichita and the Kansas City area followed.
Last July in Albuquerque, N.M., at age 12, Paige and her Arabian gelding "Dancer" won the 2001 U.S. National Hunter Seat Equitation competition in the 13 and under division. It was a big deal.
Equitation involves timed riding maneuvers in a specified area followed by walking and trotting, at the judge's command, around a series of obstacles that show teamwork between horse and rider.
The road to Albuquerque ran through a wider ring of competitions in Columbia, Mo.; Wichita; Lincoln, Neb.; Oklahoma City and Denver, to name a few.
"Did you know that you only get about 27,000 miles on a set of trailer tires when you pull a horse?" Dave Wagner offered after recounting his family's travels.
Last April, during trail course competition in Sedalia , Mo., Dancer lost his footing and fell, landing on Paige's left foot and breaking it.
"I kept yelling about my foot," the Baldwin Middle School seventh-grader said, "and people kept asking me about my neck."
It added insult to injury when paramedics cut off her show coat before loading her in an ambulance. She left Sedalia with a soft cast on her foot and an expensive coat that had become a two-piece garment.
"When we got home we took two stirrups, western and English, to Dr. (Steve) Bruner so he could fit the cast to the irons," Pam Wagner recalled.
Paige was competing the next week.
"My foot was uncomfortable, but the worst part was I couldn't control Dancer that well with my foot in a cast."
Dancer is a nickname. The 9-year-old horse's real name is TJ Omniscient but Dancer follows "good boy" easier than TJ Omniscient.
The gelding is a small horse, only about 14 1/2 hands high, but a good fit for his 90-pound, 5-foot-1-inch owner.
"And," Joy Underberg adds, "because Paige is an excellent rider and Dancer is so handsome they're a good fit."
Underberg has continued as Paige's trainer since day one.
The points accumulated last year in Paige and Dancer's road show prove their trainer knows what she's talking about.
Last week it was announced in Charlotte, N.C., that the pair had won the USA Equestrian's 2001 U.S. National Championship in Western Pleasure Open competition, a class open to both professional and amateur riders of all ages. There were 32 pairs of horses and riders in the class.
So what's next for the young rural Baldwin rider?
"Things are slow now. I try to ride Dancer two or three times a week, and there are always stalls that need picking (cleaning) ... and homework," Paige added without enthusiasm.
In March and April competition starts again and it'll be back to the show rings.
No comments
Commenting is turned off for this story.