Junior Faith Horner earns bronze at the American Quarter Horse Youth Association World Championship on Aug. 4, 2022. Horner scored a 217 in the preliminaries and a 218 ½ in the final. “This was her first big year to show in the derbies,” Faith’s trainer John Tishman said. “She’s been learning a lot and been improving tremendously.” Photo by Shane Rux Photography
By Elle Polychronis
When junior Faith Horner was growing up, her mother Kimberly Horner always had horses at their ranch because she herself started to compete in horseback riding at the age of six.
“I had horses from the time [Faith] was born and I would take her out when she was really little and she would go out to the ranch and would love it,” Kimberly said. “She would absolutely love being around the horses [and she] wanted to pet them. She would get on with me all the time [and] she would ride in front of me in the saddle and she was always wanting to ride more.”
Once Faith turned 9-years-old, she wanted to start riding on her own and eventually wanted to start competing. Kimberly then started to realize that Faith had a passion for horseback riding like herself.
“Started out with a pony, our friends' pony that they let us use. If it was time to go to the ranch, she was ready to go. If it was a horse show, she wanted to go,” Kimberly said. “So you could just tell straight from the beginning it was one of those things that she absolutely had a passion for and wanted to do all the time.”
Faith rides an American Quarter Horse whose name is Felix and whose show name is “My Special Sidekick.”
“My horse is my absolute world,” Faith said. “He is just the hardest worker and I’m so lucky to be able to be on our own little team and have him as a teammate and be able to work through everything with him.”
Faith has been practicing her horseback riding at a barn in Weatherford, Texas.
“It is a beautiful ranch with lots of pastures, a big show barn for all of our horses to just be really comfortable and have the best experience,” Faith said. “Everyone there is just so welcoming and [it’s] filled with amazing people.”
At this barn, she has been working with her trainer, John Tishman, for around two and a half years.
“Her and her mom came to our barn,” Tishman said. “They were riding at another barn in North Texas and they wanted to make a switch down to us, so they moved their horses down here and they ended up buying some horses from us.”
Throughout Jul. 28-Aug. 4, Faith competed in the American Quarter Horse Youth Association World Championship show at the OKC Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City.
“It started with pre-lims which is a preliminary run and if you do good in that run, you make finals and I happened to score a 217 in that go, so I was able to make the finals,” Faith said. “[In the final], I marked at 218 ½, which is really really good. It's one of the highest scores I’ve marked and we ended up winning bronze which was just an absolutely amazing accomplishment for us. It’s surreal to think about.”
As Faith competes, there are a lot of things that Kimberly does to support and help her.
“Just encouraging her to follow her passion, obviously helping her work with different horses and [deciding] which horses are best for her,” Kimberly said. “[I travel] to the ranch, [travel] to all of the competitions with her, and [I] really [try to be] her biggest cheerleader. I also compete, so I understand what she’s doing and can help from a training perspective and from a horse perspective, so as much as I can offer advice on that front, I do.”
Kimberly is very proud of her daughter’s success in horseback riding.
“She really has a complete passion for it and puts in the effort to continuously make herself better and learn more and just to watch her go through the ranks and what she’s been able to accomplish has just been incredible,” Kimberly said.
Like Kimberly, Tishman is proud of the progress Faith has made during her first big year to show in the derbies.
“She is a very dedicated rider and she’s very good at it,” Tishman said. “When she comes [to the barn], she focuses very hard on [riding]. She wants to do great and wants to beat everyone. When we’re getting ready for shows, she puts the time in and effort into making sure she can be prepared for the competition.”