42 SIDELINES DECEMBER 2013
FOR HORSE PEOPLE • ABOUT HORSE PEOPLE
Sophie and Sjapoo in round
one of the team championship
at the USHJA Children’s and
Adult Amateur West Regional
Jumper Championships.
All photos by Bret St. Clair
Sophie and Sjapoo share kisses after the show.
e
One Jump At A Time
By Sophie St. Clair
Two years ago I submitted a photo to a magazine. The photo,
taken by my father and sent in by my mother, was from a trip I
had taken to Belgium that year. In the photo, I was posing with
Philippe LeJeune. My 11-year-old self was starry eyed and
tongue-tied because I’d just taken a clinic with the then World
Champion. The magazine accepted my submission and published
it in their “Junior Blues” column. The magazine, as you might have
guessed, was
Sidelines
.
My name is Sophie St. Clair. I am a high school freshman and
competitive show jumper in sunny Southern California. As is the
start of many a horsey tale, my riding career began with a trip
around the paddock on my grandmother’s old mare. Though
being born into a third generation of horse lovers, I guess it’s just
in the blood.
Flash-forward to August 2013 – I qualified for the inaugural
USHJA Children’s and Adult Amateur West Regional Jumper
Championships. Going into this championship I was placed as
the number one children’s jumper rider in California on my equine
partner, Sjapoo. At the conclusion of the championship, I had a
silver medal for the team event and placed fourth in the individual
final. I owe much of my success to Sjapoo and to the careful
guidance provided by my trainer, David Sterckx.
Sjapoo and I have been a team for a little over two years now.
He’s a 14-year-old Royal Dutch Warmblood. While not a giant,
standing at about 16 hands, he has heart, stride and spring. He
has not been the easiest partner, but what I have learned from him
over the last two years is immeasurable. My trainer David knew
that he would be a real challenge for me to get the hang of, but
when we figured each other out we would be very hard to beat.
On the show circuit in California, we have had great fun testing
his theory.
David, a former student of Nelson Pessoa’s, is the taskmaster
you might imagine him to be. Saying that he has high standards
and expectations is putting it mildly. I am very fortunate that he’s
my trainer. He is a former member of the Belgian Junior National
Show Jumping Team and the Belgian Junior Champion. He
finished fourth overall at the European Junior Championships
and was the winner of the European Six Bar Championship at
2.25M when he was only 18. He is no stranger to the pressure of
performance for a junior rider.
Looking for a distraction from the pressure of the championship,
I reached out to
Sidelines
once again, but this time with a
