Spotlight on Demo Rider: Christine McCarter

Demo rider Christine McCarter is a pre-vet student at Texas A&M University and has been riding for 15 years. After 3 years of the trail and western riding, she saw girls jumping and decided that’s what she wanted to do. She began riding English, doing the hunter/jumper circuit. When Christine turned 10, her parents bought her first horse, Doin A Dash (aka: Reckless). Reckless was 5 at the time, but Christine's parents thought she was experienced enough to handle him. The pair started doing the hunter/jumper circuit together and moved up very quickly through it.

Because Reckless was a Quarter Horse, they started doing the English side of Quarter Horse shows. After a year and half competing in the youth Quarter Horse shows, Christine and Reckless qualified together to go to the American Quarter Horse Youth World Show. They went, but never got called back for the final rounds. Reckless and Christine then decided to try their hand at eventing and began training with Nancy Lindsey. They worked their way through Novice and qualified for the Area V Novice Championship and ended up in 4th place at that event. After that, the pair moved up to Training level.

In 2007, Christine got a big, white birthday present, in the form of a beautiful 2 turning 3-year-old Irish Draught Sport Horse, Fergus Mac Finn, or Fergus as he's called. Christine backed him herself and put all the steering, brakes, dressage, and jump in him with the help of her trainer. He had natural talent, so he was very easy to train. Christine began focusing on getting Reckless to the Training 3-day in 2008 and showing Fergus Beginner Novice. She took the two horses to Kentucky in July that year to show at Champagne Run at the Kentucky Horse before she went off to college. Christine took both horses to college with her, so she could keep training them. She then turned her sights to move Reckless up to Prelim and make it to the Young Rider Championship. Reckless ended up getting injured during training and had to be retired from upper-level eventing. Fergus stepped up to the plate at the first fall show in Area V and obtained a 24.5 dressage score and finished on that to win first place. Fergus continued doing well in Beginner Novice and made it to the Area V Beginner Novice Championships the next month. After the championship, Christine moved Fergus up to Novice.

In the summer of 2009, Christine helped train two young Irish Draught Sport horses along with continuing Fergus’s training. In the fall of 2009, Christine and Fergus went to the Area V Novice championship and got 4th place. Now, Fergus has moved up to Training level, with the focus for 2010 to qualify for the Training 3-day. Fergus and Christine have had the opportunity to work with Leslie Law, Karen O’Connor, and Nick Larkin.

Christine, aboard Demo horse Fergus MacFinn, has qualifed to perform Demonstrations in Dressage, Jumping, Eventing, and Foxhunting, so look for the pair in the Demo ring in conjunction with the Irish Village at the World Equestrian Games.