Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club Interviews One Of Their Own Members

“Hi, this is Cash from the Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club, and today we are interviewing one of our own members. Bethany Eye.”

“Hi, my name is Ava. Tell us a little bit about yourself.”

“I’m Bethany Eye, I am 14, and I live in Sugar Grove, West Virginia.

“Hi, my name is Anna – we understand that you were involved with competitive horse riding. Can you tell me about it?”

“I’ve been riding competitively for five years now. So, when you ride horses competitively, basically you have shows lined up throughout the season and, you basically have this big calendar of shows all over the place, and you’ll go and you’ll show against multiple other really good riders, and they place you on how well they think you did. So there are usually like four or five judges. And then at the end, there’ll be six ribbons, or five, it depends on the show.”

“I perform in jumping classes and flat classes. So in the jumping classes, you’ll go one by one into the ring, and you’ll have this course and you’ll go through and you’ll go and do your course, and then you’ll come out and multiple other riders will go in and do the same course as you, and then they judge you accordingly. And in flat classes, you’ll go in and you’ll walk around the ring, and the judge will, like, say walk or trot, or, like, cantor and you’ll basically just follow the judge’s orders around the ring and if they say turn around, you’ll like turn around and stuff, and just follow the judge’s orders.

“Hello, my name is Lauren. How long have you been riding?”

“I’ve been riding now for 12 years.”

“How many horses do you have?”

“I have eight horses.”

“Have you ever broken any bones?”

“Yes, I have, I’ve broken two – I’ve broken my ankle and under my growth plate in my wrist.”

“So about the first month I got my new horse, then I was out doing this little course I had set up – it was cross country, which is just jumps spread out across a field. And I was doing that, and there was a tree – so he went over the jump, and I thought he was gonna go straight but he turned, and I got slammed into a tree and I, my wrist stopped me from going into the tree. So, it like kind of bent it back and fractured under my growth plate.”

“And then my one where I broke my ankle, I got thrown over a jump and the horse came over the jump after me and landed on my ankle and shattered it.”

“Where do you ride horses?”

“I ride horses in three different places. I ride horses at Sunny Stables, which is in Monterey. I ride for Ann and Amanda who is in Brandywine, and also ride out in Verona.”

“Why did you begin riding horses in competition?”

“Honestly, it was by accident. I wanted to, like. just start riding, like, not competitively, but I started going up to Sunny Stables and I started jumping and stuff like that, that she had me do, and I just really liked it and I wanted to do it.”

“So I started it when I was eight – I started going to shows with her and I just basically fell in love with it. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

“This is Bethany Eye for the Highland Mid-Kids Radio Club for Allegheny Mountain Radio.”