THE GAZETTE
Page B-4
Wednesday, July 31, 2013 g
Germantown rider earns silver after fall Hilary Moore Hebert earns U.S. Dressage Federation silver medal after paralysis scare n
Summer heat melts ice hockey activity Individual high school players train on their own when school’s out n
BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER
COLIN STEVENS STAFF WRITER
PHOTO BY PICS OF YOU
Germantown’s Hilary Moore Hebert won the silver medal at the July 6 Potomac Valley Dressage Association
Summer Showdown and Adult Team Championships at the Prince George’s Equestrian Center. This photo is from an earlier competition. Her remarkably quick rise is a testament to her commitment, work ethic and willingness to immediately incorporate any instructions given to her, Dyer said. Overall, Moore Hebert has been competing for 13 years. Overcoming the final obstacle for the silver medal was even more impressive given Moore Hebert’s injury, Dyer said. “[When something like that happens] you have to decide if you’re ever going to [ride or compete] again and if you are, you have to not think about it and control your nerves. You cannot convey your nervousness to the horse because if [Moore Hebert] is nervous, the horse is going to think, ‘Oh,
eventing, which is commonly referred to as the equestrian triathlon — dressage, cross country and show jumping. Moore Hebert said she was drawn to specialize in dressage because the focus is more on skill set and less about bravery. It also requires a tremendous amount of fitness and core strength — think maintaining your own balance despite what the horse is doing. “As you get older, you realize you’re not immortal. I don’t think a lot of people really think [about getting paralyzed]. But [my accident] was very eye opening,” Moore Hebert said. jbeekman@gazette.net
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Reid Bibb, who attends Gaithersburg High School and plays for the Damascus Co-op team, warms up in January before a Frederick Freeze game.
coach Ray McKenzie said the majority of his players take the summer off. He said his players will get on the ice, but without any consistency. The biggest hurdle is that Maryland Student Hockey League rules do not allow for organized team activities during the summer, McKenzie said. In order for ice hockey players to hold a workout, it must be open to players from all teams. McKenzie said he has hosted some camps at Rockville Ice Arena, some that included his players, but he said the majority of summer hockey players are from younger age groups. “Tenth-, 11th- and 12thgraders, they do much less over the summer,” McKenzie said. “I’m not sure why, but a lot of seventh-graders who are coming to Churchill in a couple years, they do hockey camps and stay busy, but not as much from 10th- and 11th-graders.” McKenzie said that the serious players, such as Churchill rising sophomore Ian Kwant, will find leagues to play in and ways to stay involved during the summer. “The big time travel guys do stuff, they probably play a lot over the summer,” McKenzie said. “But most guys don’t do a lot over the summer. The average hockey player takes the summer off, for the most part.” cstevens@gazette.net
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what’s wrong?’ Body language is all a horse can actually read so you have to get on and separate your mind from your body,” Dyer said. Moore Hebert said she was in fact more nervous before that first ride back in competition than anything she’s done before. But her relationship with Limelight, any rider’s connection with her horse, is integral to her success. They must trust in each other, Moore Hebert said. Moore Hebert’s accident in May was her first fall in six years, she said. Frequent falls, broken ribs, broken collar bones, dislocated hips and a plethora of other injuries were the reason she switched to dressage from
While it seems like there’s a summer program for most sports, area ice hockey players are largely left to their own devices during the school break. Football teams have weight lifting programs and passing leagues. Summer basketball seems never ending. And legion baseball continues to thrive. There are no such leagues for high school ice hockey players. That hasn’t kept Reid Bibb off the ice. The forward, who goes to Gaithersburg High School and plays for the Damascus co-op, said he spent his summer working with a personal trainer and traveling to Ashburn Ice House once a week for skating lessons. “I’ve been working on my explosiveness,” Bibb said. “Just in general, trying to get stronger and faster.” While Bibb plays for the Damascus team, his priority is playing for the Frederick Freeze, an Empire Junior Hockey League team that plays a much more competitive schedule than the co-op can offer. His connection to the Freeze sent him to Johnstown (Pa.) last week for a tryout with the Johnstown Tomahawks, part of the North American Hockey League. Bibb, 17, said he was one of the youngest players on the ice, with most players in their early 20s. Bibb plans to play ice hockey in college, so he can’t afford to take the summer off. While he said many hockey players still work on their swing during the offseason, he said it’s usually their golf swing. “It’s not all hockey. It’s taking some time off to enjoy the summer, but you have to keep up with it,” he said. “You can’t just take off two or three months and do nothing. You can lose a lot if you’re not working out and focusing on hockey.” Reigning state champion Winston Churchill High School
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It was a freak accident. Germantown resident Hilary Moore Hebert, 32, was dismounting during an equestrian competition in mid-May — she was going for the final score needed to achieve her U.S. Dressage Federation Silver Medal — when her horse, Limelight, took a step at the worst possible time. Already out of the saddle, Moore Hebert fell backwards about seven feet to the ground and landed directly on her lower back. She said her mind went to the worst possible scenario. “[Being paralyzed] was the first thing that went through my mind. The pain was so bad when I fell and it was all in the hip area, I could not feel part of my right leg. I wasn’t sure I would be able to walk again,” Moore Hebert said. Moore Hebert suffered a bruised L2 vertebra — located near the lower curvature of the spine, according to Healthline. com. Injuries to that area can cause nerve damage, loss of feeling in the lower extremities and difficulty moving or walking. The nerve damage was only temporary. On July 6, after a six-week hiatus, Moore Hebert earned that silver medal with her performance at the Potomac Valley Dressage Association Summer Showdown and Adult Team Championships at the Prince George’s Equestrian Center. Riders earn this prestigious award by achieving required scores in two tests at the Fourth level and two tests at the Prix St. Georges level. The latter is the first level of international competition and is one of the tests ridden at the Pan-American Games. It took Moore Hebert one year to do what some people spend their lives working toward but never achieve, said Janna Dyer, a USDF Gold Medalist (Olympic level) and Moore Hebert’s trainer at her Dark Horse Dressage facility in Rocky Ridge.
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