By Sarah Welk Baynum
Portraits by Lindsay McCall
If you watch Sarah Bachor riding in the competitive hunter or equitation classes she does today, you’d never guess this caliber of showing is relatively new to her.
Though Sarah started riding around the age of 4, thanks to her mother, who also rode, the riding, training, and showing she did in her earlier years is a stark contrast to what it is today. “I come from a single parent family, so the horses that we had were the horses that we could afford,” Sarah said. “A lot of them were quirky or given to us for one reason or another. Mom mostly taught me to ride, and I rode in local shows only.”
Two unexpected turns of events changed everything for Sarah, her life and her riding. At 12 years old, she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. “I had to have my thyroid completely removed and needed radioactive iodine. They were hoping that it wasn’t cancer initially, but the pathology showed cancer, so I had to go back for a second surgery six weeks later,” Sarah said. “I have been good ever since then, but that’s why I went into human medicine and briefly worked in the surgery oncology specialty as well.”
Then, about a year after Sarah completed treatment, her riding trajectory changed, too. “My pony that I was showing at the time had Cushing’s and foundered, so I had to retire her,” she said. “When I had to put her down, I took it hard and decided to take a break from horses altogether starting at age 16.”
Return to Horses
Within a few years, Sarah found she couldn’t stay away from horses forever and knew they were a part of who she was. “When I was 19, I attended the University of Central Florida. I competed in the IHSA equestrian team that first year, and it was a great experience!” Sarah said. “I had never done rated shows, so I was able to do the beginner walk, trot and canter division.”
She continued to move up in the IHSA divisions, going to regionals that first year on the team with the training and experience she was getting. “I didn’t grow up boarding my horses, so I didn’t really have a lot of opportunities to do the lesson or show barn thing because we just couldn’t afford it,” Sarah said. “When I was a kid, I would take lessons intermittently with a great trainer in New York where I’m from, but it wasn’t consistent because we couldn’t really afford it very often. So the riding team was a fantastic experience for me.”
Still, Sarah found herself missing the special one-on-one relationship of competing on a horse of her own. That meant she needed to make a tough choice.
Sarah was waitressing while she was in college to afford IHSA, and it was there that she met a fellow waitress at work who also rode horses. “My waitress co-worker’s mom had a breeding program. My co-worker was super tall and told me she had this really spicy pony that needed to be ridden,” Sarah said. “She said I would be a much better height to get on this pony than she was. So, I got on her pony, and the pony was as spicy as she promised!”
With their shared interest in riding, Sarah and her co-worker quickly became best friends. While at the farm, Sarah found herself falling in love with another of their horses, named Bella. “Everybody kept trying to talk me out of it, suggesting other horses that were easier or more straightforward. But Bella and I just clicked, and she became the first horse I owned as an adult,” Sarah said.
Sarah kept Bella through the end of her undergraduate education and during physician assistant (PA) school. In 2016, she moved to Tennessee and retired Bella around the same time. “We moved to Knoxville when I was done with my PA degree and that’s when I got my first job as a PA. Bella had had an old injury, and she was just telling me that she didn’t want to be a show horse anymore,” Sarah said.
It was in Tennessee that Sarah started riding with trainer Amanda Melton-Finger, who helped her realize the steps she needed to take to accomplish her riding goals. “I wanted to get right back to horse showing, but Amanda helped me realize I didn’t have the foundational training I needed to start at the level I thought I was ready for in the hunter and equitation rings,” Sarah said. “I just wanted to accomplish what I had aspired to do my whole childhood and early adult life, but I didn’t have the foundational training for it.”
At that point, Sarah and Amanda agreed she needed to be riding schoolmasters. “I needed confidence builders, and I needed two-foot packers. I had lofty goals—I wanted to do the equitation, the Adults, go to finals and all of that. But I needed to lease schoolmaster horses before I bought a horse that could take me there, and I wasn’t ready for it yet,” Sarah said.
The Horse That Changed Everything
A couple of years later, Sarah was finally ready for her dream horse—the one that would help her accomplish her riding goals. Amanda sent her the sale listings of horses they planned to look at and try.
“I actually ‘stalked’ this one horse, Ocelot, on this trainer’s website, along with the rest of her sale horses. But from the first time I saw Ocelot, I was absolutely in love with him,” Sarah said. “I told Amanda before we went that I wanted this horse, but based on his ad, he might be outside of my budget. It just so happened that he was within my budget! I got to ride him twice, but I knew immediately that he was absolutely the horse that I wanted—he was perfect.”
Ocelot was the horse that would make Sarah’s competition dreams come true. In fact, the second show of their partnership was at the Southeast Medal Finals in Tampa, Florida, where they placed second in the Low Adult Hunter finals and fourth in the Low Adult Equitation finals.
However, Sarah needed to work through her show nerves before they could accomplish her loftier goals. “The Southwest Medal Final was the very first final I had ever done, and I was extremely nervous,” Sarah said. “I still get nervous to this day, but I used to become almost debilitatingly nervous when I would horse show—I had physical symptoms from how nervous I was. I don’t even remember most of the course, but I do remember we were at the spooky part of the covered ring, and I didn’t steer. Ocelot used the rail to turn, and he tripped, but I swore he was trying to buck me off. I trotted to the gate and told Amanda, ‘I can’t do this.’”
But Amanda told Sarah he had only tripped and to pick up her canter and take the first jump. “I told her I was too terrified, but Amanda eventually convinced me to try, and I finished the course,” Sarah said. “I want people to know you can get over your nerves if you work hard enough, because I did! When you’re uncomfortable, push through it because you don’t get better from being comfortable—you get better from being uncomfortable!”
After that, Sarah and Ocelot were seemingly unstoppable. They competed in Ocala, Florida, and moved up to the Adult divisions for the first time. They began collecting ribbons in impressive classes like the Platinum Performance Derby, which was also her first derby and the first 3’ class she had ever done.
“We also qualified for the Taylor Harris National Horse Show Adult Equitation Finals in 2020, 2021, 2022 and in 2023,” Sarah said. “He took me to indoors, we did the Adult Equitation Finals four times and the $10,000 Adult Hunter Classic three times—our second time in the class we were 11th! Ocelot is the reason I got do all the things that I never thought I would be able to do.”
A New Partnership
In recent years, Sarah realized that Ocelot was getting older and decided to start doing lower-level jumping instead while considering his retirement. Ocelot staying sound, happy and healthy was her top priority, which posed a new problem for Sarah.
“I didn’t have another horse, and I didn’t want to stop riding again. I called Amanda in an absolute state of panic and started window shopping for a second horse on my own. But this time, I told her I wanted something that we could really do the big stuff on my bucket list with like the 3’6” Amateur Owners or International Derbies,” Sarah said.
But Sarah knew that a horse of that caliber would have a high price point that she couldn’t afford yet. “I knew my options were to get a horse with a little bit more maintenance, or to go with a young horse,” Sarah said.
As if by fate, Amanda had been keeping an eye on a young horse with potential for some time. The horse’s name was Enzo, and he was a then-3-year-old American-bred Hanoverian. “He had only been ridden twice in the last month when I rode him for the first time, and he didn’t do a single thing wrong! Seven hours later, Enzo was on the trailer headed home with us,” Sarah said.
Sarah and Enzo have been building their own partnership ever since, despite her guilt originally about connecting with a new horse. “It’s been a slow process, but he is 6 now and it’s all really starting to come together!” Sarah said. “I struggled a lot when I first got him because I felt guilty. I was excited about getting better as a rider with a new horse, but Ocelot had done so much for me—he had given me the world. Now, I feel good about having a new connection and relationship with Enzo.”
Sarah says bringing a young horse along made her a better person and rider. “I was at the point of my riding career that it was time to do this, and really show myself I’m a good rider now,” Sarah said. “I’m the first one to say my success in the show ring was only because Ocelot was so great. But we did it together—it wasn’t just him or just me.”
For their first year sporadically showing together, Sarah and Enzo showed at the 2’ level to build his confidence. But in the fall of 2023, Sarah moved him up to the 2’6” hunters and Low Adult classes. “Sometimes I feel like we’re behind the curve, but I know slow and steady is best,” she said. “We were keeping the jumps low because it’s the pieces between the jumps that we’re working on right now, and not really the jumps themselves.”
A Good Life
Sarah started dating Sam Bachor in high school—Sam’s cousin, Holly Bachor, is a competitive Grand Prix rider, though Sam himself isn’t “horsey.” Now married, Sam and Sarah live in Knoxville, Tennessee, with their four indoor pets: two dogs, Piper and Luna; and two cats, Cali and Anni—all rescues. Sam is a pharmacist and also owns his own power sports shop called Speed Lab. “So a different type of horsepower. And he’s never ridden one of my horses before!” Sarah said.
Since 2019, Sarah has worked in “PA academia,” beginning as a faculty member and now serving as the director of didactic education. Alongside teaching PA students, she continues to practice medicine in the urgent care setting on Tuesdays and every other weekend, and uses lessons learned from horses in both settings. “Since my personal medical journey with thyroid cancer I always knew I wanted to be a healthcare provider. I enjoy solving the mystery of a diagnosis and helping patients feel better,” Sarah said. “Horses are my why. They always have and probably always will be. They drive me to be a better person, spouse, educator and healthcare provider. Horses teach us to be good listeners and are almost always unbelievably forgiving. Note I said almost always!”
Sarah has always hoped Enzo would help her achieve her loftier competition goals, and recently she decided to set some more definitive goals for the next few years. “My first goal is going to be the USHJA Hunter Finals with Enzo, and hopefully we can qualify for the 2025 Low Adult Hunter Final,” she said. “The following year, when he moves up, I plan to do the whole Green series with him. My next goal is to do the Green Hunters and to hopefully bring him to the Green Incentive Finals doing at the 3’ height at least. In the next 8 to 10 years, I would love to do International Derbies with him!”
Though her life doesn’t look how she might have imagined it as a child, Sarah wouldn’t change it. “I wouldn’t be who I am without the challenges I’ve been through and have overcome. Sure, I would have loved to have had a successful equestrian career from the start with USEF High Point awards and boatloads of champion ribbons. But I think there’s a beauty and sweetness to the rewards of quite literally clawing your way to the top—I’m still working on it,” she said. “It has taught me to never give up, that it’s OK to have all the feelings and to have even more grit. I truly believe everything is working out the way it’s supposed to, even if spending time in the Long Stirrup as a mid-20-year-old was not on my originally planned itinerary for myself.”
Follow Sarah on Instagram @oxers2oncology
Photos by Lindsay McCall
