TRES PINOS—Alyssa Elliott and Rachel Tripoli are students at San Benito and Christopher, respectively, and neither one plays a sport in high school.
They’re busy enough with gymkhana, a sport that can best be described as obstacle racing on horseback. Tripoli, however, is going to give swimming a try in her upcoming sophomore year.
“We’ll see how it goes. It should be real interesting,” Tripoli said. “It’s the only break out of the year I’ll take from horseback riding.”
Elliott and Tripoli are two of the approximately 328 competitors—most of whom are female—at this week’s California Gymkhana Association State Championship Finals at Bolado Park.
Roger Odom, the co-chairman of the CGA State Championship Finals, said that 85 percent of the riders at the State Finals are female.
“Most of the riders are girls, and what happens is when they get older they find boys and a lot of them quit,” Odom said. “Once they get married and have kids, they’ll introduce their kids to the sport, and on and on. Gymkhana is a sport that is passed down from generation to generation.”
The grand entry parade and opening-day festivities started on July 27, but the huge grass parking lot started filling up with horse trailers and motor homes on July 21.
Andrea Bianchi, the owner of Bianchi Equine in Morgan Hill, brought her horse trailer and several of her riders for a 10-day stay at the event.
In the CGA State Championship Finals, riders compete in up to 13 events, accumulating points for each ride. Riders are classified into levels by time; the slowest are categorized into the future champion division and the fastest riders are in the AAA-plus division.
Elliott, a 17-year-old incoming senior at San Benito, was put in the AA category but posted some times that fell into the AAA range. Through Tuesday, her results included a seventh-place finish in the hurry scurry event, an eighth in poles one and a 10th in speed barrels.
Elliott started riding horses when she was 4, but only started competing in gymkhana two years ago. Gymkhana has been passed down two generations in the Elliott family, as Elliott’s grandmother, Cindy, introduced the sport to her daughter, Jenna, who in turn handed off the baton to Cindy.
Elliott, who is riding on her fourth horse in 13 years, started taking up the sport once she sensed her horse had a knack for changing directions on a moment’s notice, which plays a pivotal role in gymkhana.
“I could tell my horse really liked it,” Elliott said. “The change of directions and speed of going around the barrels provided another challenge for my horse and myself.”
Elliott’s parents own a six acre home in Hollister, so she’s got plenty of wide open spaces to ride her horse. She finds inspiration in watching her grandma compete, a testament that age plays no factor in a rider’s success.
The elder Elliott recorded a second-place finish in poles two and a seventh in speed barrels at the AA level. The younger Elliott takes lessons at Bianchi Equine, as does Tripoli, who is competing at Bolado Park for the first time in her career.
Tripoli has been doing district shows for the last two years, and despite the crowded track at the state finals—“During warmups people cut you off sometimes,” she said—the experience has been downright enjoyable.
“With 328 competitors, it was a bit overwhelming at first,” the 15-year-old Tripoli said. “But it’s been a great experience.”
Tripoli first started doing competitions in September 2012, having trained at Bianchi Equine since August 2009. Tripoli was introduced to the sport after watching her childhood friend, Kate Watts, ride during a lesson.
Tripoli has two favorite events: barrels and speed barrels. In both events, the riders who end up posting the fastest times are the ones who can maneuver their horse around a barrel without making too wide of a turn, and keeping up speed in the process.
Barrel racing happens to be the only gymkhana event in which there is a professional organization.
“Barrels are my favorite because I do so well on them,” Tripoli said. “I look forward to doing them, and I’m planning on doing gymkhana for at least a couple of more years. It’s something I love.”
Tripoli achieved her goal of reaching a match race on Tuesday, which takes the top overall competitors from that day’s event and puts them in a tournament style bracket to determine the winner.
Although she got eliminated in the first round of Tuesday’s night competition, Tripoli had a solid fifth-place showing in speed barrels to go with a pair of 10th-place finishes in poles two and quadrangle.
Tripoli had a eye-opening experience in her freshman year at Christopher. She was one of a 36-student class as an eighth grader at St. Mary’s School in Gilroy, then went to Christopher, where she was one of approximately 1,000 students in the 2013-14 freshman class.
“It was definitely a big adjustment going from 36 to 1,000,” she said. “But it was also a lot of fun because I got to meet a lot of new people.”
One of the subplots to this year’s finals centered around the new soil that had been placed at Bolado Park prior to the Saddle Horse Show & Rodeo. Knowing the soil might not hold up well, the CGA came prepared, bringing four tractors to turn the soil approximately every 15 minutes of competition.
Other Bianchi Equine members involved in the competition include Ashley Davis, 13; Heather Johnson, 20; Jordyn Grey, 14; Kate Watts, 14; Sarah Friemith (17); and Alyssa Newsome, 16.
Johnson’s results through Tuesday are as follows: first in figure 8 flags, 10th in barrels, seventh in poles 2, all at the A level. Friemith was fifth in poles, fifth in poles 2 and 10th in flags, all at the A level.
Grey was first in keyhole, second in hurry scurry and sixth in barrels, all at the A level. Davis was fourth in flags, sixth in barrels and second in speed barrels, all at the future champion level.
Watts was third in quadrangle at the AA level.
