Although High River’s Lindsay Wendt is relatively new to the sport she has ridden her way into competing with the most prestigious showjumpers at Spruce Meadows.
Wendt, 29, has just eight years of competitive jumping under her belt, but it has not stopped her from competing alongside some of the best riders in the world.
“I’m a baby compared to these guys,” said Wendt. “These people have been riding and jumping their whole lives and I practically just started.”
Wendt has been busy with four elite tournaments at Spruce Meadows in the past two months. Most recently she competed in the North American tournament against some of the world’s best jumpers.
Also earlier in June, Wendt showed off her jumping skills at Spruce Meadows at the National, Continental and Canada One tournaments.
She has been competing with some of the best showjumpers from Canada such as Eric Lamaze, who won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and is first on Spruce Meadows’ all-time prize money list.
As one of the only riders representing the Foothills area in these world-class tournaments, Wendt said she is happy to be competing with high-level showjumpers.
“It’s nice to have broken through, so that I’m one of them on enough of a consistent basis. Now that I’m on this part of the ladder, the next part is such a big leap,” said Wendt. “Cracking that next step on the ladder is not easy because they have so much experience.”
She added riders above her like Ian Miller and Ellen Whitaker have better opportunities to compete at such high-level competitions all year round.
“I’m half amazed that I made it this far. Sometimes when I look around at ribbon ceremonies I’m stunned and happy to be in the same tournaments as these guys.”
Wendt grew up on a grain farm just south of High River where she rode ponies on trails, but never jumped competitively.
In her later teen years, Wendt started to take lessons and showjumped but always kept it casual. She never really took it seriously until she started to win competitions at the age of 21.
“I started competing with a mare that my grandmother bought me and we just decided to figure it out from there. All of a sudden eight years later I’m here,” said Wendt with a chuckle.
Riding, jumping and training her horses has become Wendt’s day job, but she said it doesn’t feel like work to her.
“I do it for the adrenaline rush of it all. I’m ridiculously competitive and I think you have to be or you would get faint-hearted in this sport. For the most part, I’m good at it so that always helps,” said Wendt.
She said she is thankful for having the luxury of good training and good horses to help her to make it so far.
Wendt owns 25 horses, but has a stable of three or four she prefers to ride in competitions such as Spruce Meadows.
“This sport is so humbling. You can go from the top of the world to flat on your back in 30 seconds. You can’t predict anything that’s going to happen or how the horse is feeling that day,” she added. “You have to appreciate every day while you have it.”
Wendt will have a small break coming up before her next big tournament which will be the Masters held at Spruce Meadows in September.
