Published: Monday, October 29, 2012 1:04 AM CDT

Jade Gaukel is riding high in the art of horse riding.

The Yankton High School (YHS) senior had a strong finishing at the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) regional competition, which was held at the end of September in Rapid City. She was the reserve grand champion in the hunter under saddle event at regionals, which is a competition that involves exhibitors from five other states that all come together for this one show.

“They give different awards at the show, but it’s more of a prestige type event,” Jade’s mother, Heidi, said. “Awards are given on a point system and they give some pretty cool awards. Jade ended up winning a professionals choice hunt seat pad and a horse blanket.”

Jade also performed well in the halter horse showing at regionals, which is essentially a “beauty competition” for horses. She also showed in the showmanship class where judges see how well the exhibitor presents the horse with a set pattern, which exhibitors have a limited time to learn and execute before performing it individually in front of five judges.

“She also performed well in hunt seat equitation, which is an English style of riding with an English saddle on the horse,” Heidi said. “They have a set course and they put the horse through a number of different paces throughout the pattern, which is difficult, so it was a big deal for her to do well in that category.”

Jade said she and her horse, Rosie, typically excel in the hunter under saddle and hunt seat equitation patterns during competition.

“Rosie really likes those types of classes and she was always bred to be an English horse, so I also learned to really like those categories and we always work well in them,” she said.

Jade said she has always found horse riding to be gratifying and rewarding.

“(It’s) an event that you can see all of your hard work paying off,” she said. “You practice so hard all summer and can really see your improvements by the end of the summer. Horse riding is not such a team sport, so all the pressure is on you. You get to decide how you want it to go.”

During the summer, Jade typically trains 5-6 days a week in Norfolk for several hours each day.

“With it being an hour and a half drive down there, it gets hard driving all that way,” she said, “and in the summer, sometimes the commitment gets a little difficult as well. Some of those days this summer were so hot, so the days got really long.”

While balancing her senior year course work at YHS, Jade attended several horse shows around the region in September. Not only did she do the AQHA regionals, she also performed in the Aksarben show in Lincoln, Neb., which featured more than 2,000 exhibitors from 11 different states, making it the largest 4H horse show in the nation. Jade performed well at that competition, taking grand champion in hunt seat equitation and senior English showmanship after coming in second in those categories a year ago.

“That was so huge to win it all after coming in second last year,” she said.

In addition to those shows, she also was in the Silver Classic and Preclassic shows in Lincoln.

In the process, she had to sacrifice her senior-year homecoming activities.

“At first I didn’t think I would miss homecoming, then a competition ended up landing that weekend. Since it is my senior year, it was hard but it came down to what was more important,” Jade said. “I knew there would be plenty more football games I could go to. These were the big horse shows that were so important to me all summer and I wasn’t going to give them up for a football game.”

One of the biggest goals Jade had for herself this summer was to start doing reining patterns on a horse.

“Through the course of the year we were able to find her a reining horse,” Heidi said. “Reining is an Olympic sport and an AQHA sport. The horse goes through maneuvers including sliding stops, spins and large circles — it’s like figure skating on a horse.”

Jade added that reining is more fast-paced, with longer patterns that typically are about four minutes long.

“I’m really excited to start reining,” she said. “It’s a huge change from the previous events I’ve competed in and it will really make me a more well-rounded rider, but is also a big transition.”

She added that her training for the reining events has been going well so far and she plans on competing in her first reining competition in Rapid City in January. Despite a big change from her other events, she said she’s not nervous for the new horse riding style she is taking on.

“I’ve kind of gotten over being scared because horses are animals that can go off your actions. If you are nervous, they get nervous,” Jade said. “Both of my horses are young, so they see that if I’m confident out there, they’ll be more confident. I try not to get nervous but they only thing I do get nervous about is when I look at the patterns and try to memorize them. I don’t really get nervous when I’m out there riding.”

One of the things she focused on this summer was getting down the various concepts involved with reining events, which is a completely different type of riding then she is used to.

“I’m blessed to be able to have good coaches teach me the different concepts and riding styles,” she said.

Jade said horse riding has been a big part of her life ever since she began competing when she was 3 years old.

“Horse riding has taught me to be a lot more social because you meet people from all over the world that you wouldn’t normally meet,” she said. “It’s also taught me a lot of patience and responsibility.”

After her senior year at YHS Jade hopes she can participate in an equestrian program in college. The only school to offer one in the state is South Dakota State University. Other schools in the region that she has looked at include Kansas State, Iowa State and University of Nebraska Lincoln.

“My heart is in South Dakota,” she said.

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