2 minute read
UNDER 21: PEYTON PARKS
Under 21
Hard Work Pays off for Peyton Parks
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For Peyton Parks, it all started with a party pony ride on her eighth birthday at Bang Tail Stables in Hampstead, N.C., and she was hooked. Peyton parlayed that experience into riding lessons and this year, at 15, she was selected as one of the recipients of the coveted USHJA (United States Hunter Jumper Association) Gochman Grant for 2022 Pony Finals in Kentucky. The annual Gochman Grant is awarded to young riders who exemplify horsemanship and sportsmanship but who are not able to attend the Pony Finals on their own. Each recipient gets the chance to participate on a pony that has been qualified, along with access to coaching and educational experiences throughout the weeklong extravaganza at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington.
Peyton trains at Honalee Stables in Bolivia, N.C. with Carter Hewett and Taylor Yeaton. She leases a horse named “Heir Apparent,” aka “Harry” from the esteemed pony breeder Robin Greenwood of Southern Pines, N.C., and she rides him in the Children’s division. A purebred Welsh Pony who grew too tall for the pony classes, at 15.1 hands Harry is one of the smaller horses in the division, but Peyton says that he has no trouble stepping down the lines in the horse shows and competing against much bigger horses.
Peyton works a side job as a pet sitter, and also has her own equine grooming business where she uses her skills at clipping and mane pulling to help buy the extras that horse showing requires. Her business acumen will serve her well, since she is already planning to attend North Carolina State University, where she plans to get an agriculture business degree and go on to a career of breeding and training British Riding Ponies.
When Peyton isn’t riding, she loves saltwater fishing, and she catches redfish, flounder, or trout inshore and mahi or grouper offshore. She says that the sound of the reel spinning when the rod goes off gives her the kind of joy and adrenaline that she only otherwise finds riding and jumping.
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