There is no horsing around when sophomore Aya Biehls and her horse Brighton compete at their jumping competitions.

Aya explained her love of horse jumping, the ups and downs of the sport, and shared her strong bond between her and her 12 year old horse.

“The more I practiced and the more I jumped, the more I did shows, and the more I loved it,” Aya explained about her passion.

Brighton is a dark bay thoroughbred race horse who is being retrained as a jumping horse.

Aya got Brighton from a parent’s coworker in Rochester, and Brighton now boards in Western Beaver.

Aya has won many competitions, and has never competed in a competition where she hasn’t at least won a ribbon. She has 17 ribbons now.

Jumping horses, or show jumping, is a very popular sport in Western European countries (specifically Great Britain). Horse jumping is recognized as an Olympic event in the category of equestrian events, which also includes dressage, racing, and eventing.

Aya explained that she has been riding horses since she was four years old. She started going for trail rides on different horses and quickly fell in love with horses and the nature that comes with them. However, she didn’t start competing until much later because, at the time, she was on a competitive soccer team.

She started riding competitively four years ago when, “my parents put me in horseback riding just to give me a hobby to do when I wasn’t playing soccer. I liked it so much that I actually quit playing soccer to just focus on horseback riding,” Aya joyfully explained.

Aya said, “[when riding] You have to multitask; you have to do a lot of things to keep your body on top of a 2,000 pound animal,” about her beloved sport.

Though the sport seems fun and majestic, especially to animal lovers, horseback riding is very dangerous. Horses can be scared easily and can easily crush or even kill a person with their weight, which sometimes totals nearly 2,000 pounds.

Head injuries, fractures, and soft tissue injuries are some of the most common injuries for a rider. Aya stated that she has, “been kicked in the ribs and broken them, thrown off and hurt my back, kicked in the knee and dislocated it, and I also had a horse kick my wrist.”

Though most injuries happen during riding, almost 15 percent of injuries happen during feeding, leading, and generally caring for the horse.

Despite the injury rate, Aya said that she wouldn’t change anything about her riding career and loves every second of it.

People may not know that horses can only see through their peripheral vision and cannot see straight in front of them. This means that a rider and their horse needs a strong bond that requires extensie trust between each other.

“Whenever you are going for a jump the horse can’t see the jump, so they need to trust you, and you need to have faith in yourself and your horse,” Aya explained.

Aya said that horseback riding is a wonderful sport and that it “isn’t quite like anything else.”

She said that anyone who loves animals, especially horses, should truly give horseback riding a try.