For most athletes, whipping a teammate is considered inappropriate. For senior Jackie Oliva, this is a regular occurrence because her teammate is a horse.

Oliva said her horses, Saracen and Let’s Go, can be just as stubborn as any teammate.

“[My horses] know that they’re good at what they do, and they don’t like to practice,” Oliva said.

Oliva has been riding horses since she was 6 years old but did not start competing until two years later.

Though Oliva said she “had no idea what [she] was doing,” she managed to place third in her first competition.

Since her first competition, Oliva has traveled around the country to participate in horseback riding competitions. She competes in the “Children’s Jumper” event which is a timed event consisting of jumps and obstacles. Another event that Oliva competes in, the “Children’s Hunter Jumper” class, is more formal than “Children’s Jumper” and “[the judges] judge the horse, and they don’t judge you so much,” said Oliva. There is also a strict dress code for this event.

In the future, Oliva hopes to compete with the Young Riders, a program associated with internationally-ranked horseback riders such as Olympian McLain Ward, who Oliva considers a role model.

As part of her training, Oliva spent three months at the end of her junior year in Florida. This extra time she put in, said her trainer Jennifer Crow, was what set Oliva apart from other riders.

Oliva said her horses act differently in competitions, and that they can sense when they are competing in a show rather than at practice.

“Either I love them or I hate them…That’s  basically it because both [my horses and I] are really competitive,” Oliva said.

Crow believes Oliva’s work ethic and desire to win makes her a contender in competitions such as the Pennsylvania National Horse Show and Washington International Horse Show.

“The difficult thing about nationals is that it’s one class on one day…So it’s kind of a snapshot of that particular day,” said Crow. “She has the potential to win both [Hunter Jumper and Jumper] on both horses.”

The top 30 competitors in each class compete in the national horse shows, and Oliva hoped to place in the top 12 for her events at nationals. She achieved this goal in the “Children’s Jumper” class where she placed 10th at the Washington International Horse Show with her horse Let’s Go.

“It was my first time going [to nationals,] so I was really nervous at [the competition in] Harrisburg, [Pa.], and that was kind of like a warm up for [the] Washington [D.C. competition],” Oliva said.