But you know, it kind of drags you back in-you just keep coming back to it. “I showed on the East Coast and did the hunters, and lots of ponies, and then I stepped away for a little while. “I’ve been riding pretty much all of my life I started pretty young,” Wendy said. Most of all of the ponies and horses that I’ve shown are young and green, and I feel a great sense of accomplishment when they’re successful.” My overall goal is to develop young horses with a solid foundation. Some want to win the Maclay Finals-I’d like to develop horses that win the Maclay Finals. “I would say one of my goals is to compete successfully at the Grand Prix internationally,” she said, “but my overall goal might be a bit different than most. Bailey has a long list of accomplishments such as placing top 10 at Pony Finals her first year there, taking home the $8,000 Cunningham Pony Speed Derby at Fort Worth, and winning the $5,000 1.10m Child Jumper Classic at International Omaha and the USHJA Zone Jumper Team Championship the same year.īut whether she’s competing a pony or going hunting with Mikal between show seasons, Bailey still has a mind of her own-in all the best ways.

Mikal starts horses and ponies that Bailey and Wendy take over to develop them jumping and showing, traveling to shows all over the country while Mikal takes care of nearly 50 horses in training at home in Bowie, Texas. Now 16, Bailey is not only still riding but involved in the family business. “I just thought, Dad’s doing it, so I guess I can figure it out somehow.” “I remember the very chaotic attempts of getting on a pony via horse trailer well,” Bailey laughed. “Thank goodness she picked the right pony out of the barn!” “She was 4, maybe she was little, and we could not figure out how she got up there, really,” Wendy added. I went up there and saw she’d climbed onto the pony off of the trailer, and that was how she started riding-she didn’t wait for us to do anything about it. “I’ll never forget-I was riding a really nice horse in our arena, and Bailey showed up on a pony riding bareback with just a halter around its neck.

“When Bailey started getting old enough to ride, we didn’t let her-we wouldn’t push it on her and actually made the decision to wait until she could do something about it,” Mikal shared. In other ways, however, riding has been all Bailey’s own idea. Bailey’s father, Mikal Robinson, also came from a horsey family and has trained horses all over North America.

Her mother, Wendy Hartman Robinson, grew up showing ponies and hunters on the East Coast. In some ways, Bailey Robinson owes her riding to her parents.

Olympian Love by Andrya Bailey