Keri Lemon, who placed second in the world last year, executes a move. She recently won a grant from the Women's Sports Foundation to train for the world championships this summer.
By Janice Morgan
Over 200 vaulters--boys and girls, men and women, from 3 to 30--came to Garrod Farms on a recent weekend for the Garrod Family Vaulting Fest. They competed in individual men's and women's gold and silver medal events; team Kur events, involving four to eight vaulters; and tiny tots, boosted up to the back of a vaulting horse and spotted by a coach.
Although not as well-known as other equestrian disciplines, the American Vaulting Association has nearly 1,000 participants in 70 vaulting clubs in 16 states. The Mt. Eden Vaulting Club is based at Saratoga's Garrod Farms.
The first American Vaulting Association Championships were held in Watsonville in 1969; U.S. vaulters first joined international competition five years later in Germany.
Training takes place both on the back of a horse and on a vaulting barrel to practice movement and routines. Hours of practice on the horse are essential to develop timing, coordination and teamwork, says coach Emma Garrod Drinker of Saratoga, a former vaulter.
Four members of the Mt. Eden vaulting team will travel to the Summer Olympics in Atlanta in July as part of the Friendship Team to demonstrate the grace of equestrian vaulting. They are Jande Kyes of Saratoga, Sian Parry of Cupertino, Shanna Pomerantz of San Jose and Kim Dunham of Santa Clara. Vaulting demonstrations took place at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and, as early as 1920, vaulting was an Olympic sport.
Participants are judged on compulsory moves and a freestyle competition called a Kur. Vaulting is unique in that it requires teamwork of the vaulter, the horse and the longeur, who controls the horse's movement in a circle on a longe line. Vaulters may compete as individuals or as a team.
While the ability of the vaulters grabs the audience's attention, they are performing on the backs of special horses. A vaulting horse must be at least six years old and could be any breed. But the team aspects of the sport encourage the use of large horses, such as draft horses. Vaulting horses must have an even gait and temperament and the willingness to put up with vaulters mounting and dismounting.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, June 12, 1996.
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