SACRAMENTO, Calif. – St. Francis senior Sydnie Young has committed to ride for the Texas Christian University Equestrian program and attend the school located in Ft. Worth, Texas.
"I started riding eight years ago," said Young. "It has always been something I wanted to do in college. I was really only looking at schools with riding. After I went to TCU on a visit and met the coaches, I loved the campus and people there. It felt like home."
Young first got on a horse after Grandma Kathy signed her and her cousins up for a lesson while spending the summer at their lake house in Indiana. The rest is history.
"I love being able to spend time with the horses and knowing who they are," said Young. "The feeling of jumping and riding is so special."
Sydnie has three horses: Roger, Casey and Simba. They are housed at JH Sporthorses in Sacramento.
She rides six days a week including 3:30 to 6 p.m. after school and 8 to 2 p.m. on the weekends with Monday the only day off. Each horse has different specialties to assist in her training.
"Every day I go to the barn, they nicker at me," said Young. "It is a good feeling because they know who I am. It is going to be really hard not seeing them next year."
Young, who plans to study neuroscience to setup a Dermatology career path, will join a program that is part of the Big 12 Conference and NCEA. They are coached by Director of Equestrian Haley Schoolfield and Logan Fiorentino includes former Troubadours Niki and Makenzy Barnes.
Young specializes in Jumper (time and speed) and Equitation (position of the rider and course management) event and brings an impressive resume to TCU. She qualified for Maclay Regionals and the Dover Hunt Seat and Hunterdone Cup Equitation Finals. She was also selected as an alternate rider for USA Team for the CSIOJ Tianjin event in China.
She has finished as champion at the Split Rock 1.20 Classic in 2018, qualified for Young Rider Trials Junior (2019) and was the champion at the National Collegiate Equestrian Association West Coast Medal in 2017 in recent results.
