McLain Ward's Next Show Jumper?

Sophie was in great form today.  It was her birthday, so why shouldn't she be?  She wanted to go on a trail ride before her both sets of Grandparents came over to celebrate, so we took James and Sug on a nice long wander and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly.

She was still feeling "horsey" when we got home, and despite the fact that she consumed almost an entire tray of bean dip with half a bag of Tostitos, she pulled out her jumps and showed us what kind of show jumper she'd make.

I'm heading off to cover the Zoetis $1 Million Grand Prix and the Diamond Mills Hunter Prix at HITS Saugerties tomorrow, and she was inspired by that, raising the sticks and telling me she was going to be McLain Ward's next show jumper.

She cleared  3' 7.5", which impressed the heck out of all of us.(We were not quite so active. We sat on the porch drinking adult beverages and stuffing our faces).  I asked her if she thought she could jump that high with McLain on her back.  She didn't even need to think about it.  "No problem."  No confidence issues there.

Check out Sophie's Mini-Prix below:

Here she is clearing the 3-stride combination, which I think was set around 3'3":

Makes you tired just watching her, doesn't it?   Her goal, she tells me, is to be jumping 5'3 by age 14, two years from now. I know what kind of determination lives inside this kid,  and I'm not about to doubt her.