Walking, trotting, cantering, and galloping: East senior, Audrey Truelove, is no stranger to these terms. Having spent nine years of her life riding horses and expanding that passion through a total of six different places, she considers it an incredibly notable part of her life.
“I started riding in Germany, then when I moved to Delaware, that’s where I kind of started becoming a little bit more competitive. Then we moved here, where I found a competitive barn that had everything that I wanted,” Truelove told Spark.
Truelove has remained in Ohio since then, where her competitive, English horse riding skills have grown.
“I ride for a barn called Impact Performance Horses. I’ve been riding with them for six years, and I do a thing called hunter jumpers,” Truelove said. “You are given a course on a piece of paper, and there are between eight or nine jumps. You have to memorize it, do those jumps, and make it look pretty and put together.”
Truelove’s adoration for riding horses first blossomed when her mom brought up the opportunity to ride horses when she was in third grade.
“[My mom] asked me if I would be interested in riding horses, and I was like, yeah, why not? Let’s go ride some horses!” Truelove said. “Then, after about two years of riding, I decided, let’s go do a show. That’s kind of where my love for it started.”
Her mother, Sarah Truelove, also has a history of riding horses, though she did not show horses competitively and instead rode Western. Sarah was elated that her daughter showed great interest in riding horses; her dream and passion would be continued through her daughter.
“I was really thrilled that she was getting the opportunity to pursue it further than what I did,” Sarah told Spark. “I love horses, probably just as much as she does, but circumstances were different — not really easy to get me lessons.”
Audrey has had three horses, with each horse teaching her something new that changed her riding life for the better. The first horse was named Hope, and Audrey describes her as the perfect beginner horse, as she was older and more knowledgeable. The second horse was named Freddie, whom she detailed as a “hyper mess.” Her third and last horse is named Waylon, whom Audrey attributes as her number one.
“He’s a sweetheart, I love him so much. I’ve had him for four years,” said Audrey.
Riding horses is no easy feat since each horse is vastly different.
“Reading the cues, and then telling them what to do without speaking — it’s an unspoken communication — and it’s really hard to connect, you have to understand the horse,” Audrey said.
At the peak of her riding career, Audrey’s horse, Waylon, suffered a rear suspensory sprain at a horse show at the World Equestrian Center, which hindered his ability to jump three feet and show in competitions.
“The vet said that it was going to take five to six months for him to recover, and that’s without me riding him at all. So no weight on him, no anything. For the entire winter, I went out every day and I walked him, and then we started rehabbing him,” Audrey said. “After six months, I started riding. But by this time, it had already been almost a year and a half since I had last shown.”
Even through this discouraging obstacle, Audrey was able to persevere and keep a positive attitude.
“She’s experienced [hardships], and even through those she had it all planned, and she was able to re-evaluate the situation and make the best out of the worst,” Sarah said. “It hasn’t always been easy, and it hasn’t always gone her way, but she’s never given up.”
Along with riding horses, Audrey has a newfound passion for flying planes. At first, she did not consider becoming a pilot a possibility, but her father, Greg Truelove, who was in the Air Force for 21 years, put the idea in her head.
“I honestly didn’t think that I was gonna ever become a pilot. My dad was always telling me, ‘Oh, you should be a pilot,’ ‘You should go fly the jets and do this,’ and I always told him ‘no,’ because I didn’t think I was gonna be able to do it,” Audrey said. “Even though there was a little spark in the back of my head; it was always there, saying ‘You could do it, you can try.’”
Greg shared that he could not be more proud of his daughter and is impressed with her understanding and vision for her future.
“She is extremely confident and courageous. I think those two qualities are going to carry her through any obstacle that she might face,” Greg told Spark.
Audrey shared that she is going to Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, majoring in aerospace physiology to pursue joining the Air Force and becoming a pilot.
“The first time that I went up for my discovery flight, they put me in the cockpit and had me taxi down the runway, take off, and fly the plane up,” Audrey explains. “I had never flown a plane before, but it was amazing.”
Though it is now in Audrey’s past, riding horses plays a pivotal role in her life that will help her as a pilot.
“She has the work ethic of putting in the time. I know she’ll be able to take those ski
lls with her to college and flying,” Sarah said.
Audrey is looking forward to eventually taking
more steps toward joining the Air Force, but giving up horse riding was an incredibly difficult decision for her.
“For almost my entire life, I had been riding horses, and the amount of time that I had
spent at the barn and with Waylon, the money that we had put into him, and just the love; I really didn’t want to give it up — I wanted to keep both things, which I knew I couldn’t, because it was too much. I had to pick one or the other,” Audrey said.
Even though the riding chapter of her life has closed, Audrey is still going to occasionally revisit it, regardless of it not being competitive anymore.
“I’ll come back and visit Waylon,” said Audrey as she reflects on time with her beloved horse and also looks forward to the next ride of life.