I Am US Equestrian

I have a passion for leaping barriers, gaining ground in record time, and doing so with poise and with grace. Not just because I’m a competitive equestrian, but because that’s how I aspire to live my life. Life is about pushing beyond your comfort zone into new worlds. Worlds you’ve never entered. Worlds some try to push you out of. Conquering new worlds, in order to conquer the world within. You have to have the courage to be the very first or be one of the very few. It’s about pioneering new ground. As an African-American young woman, that is not only my right, it is a cultural directive. A directive to innovate and to demonstrate excellence at every turn.

My mother says, “Meet your obstacles with grit, but also with grace and poise and a persevering faith whenever faced with defeat.” Life is not about never falling down; it’s about the determination to get “back in the saddle.” So that’s what I do. I fall down. I fail forward. I get back in the saddle—and I win. Because I no longer compete just for the ribbons, but rather to gain ground in the world, and to gain ground within. This is why I ride. This is why I am an equestrian.

Zoie Brogdon began riding at age nine and then joined Compton Jr. Posse in Compton, Calif., where she emerged as a rising young jumping star.

My love of horses started when I was nine years old. Out of convenience, my mother enrolled me in a summer riding camp near her job. No one in my family knew anything about riding horses, let alone that horse riding was a sport. What was envisioned as a onetime camp experience turned into a passion that was recognized by others early on. When my mother picked me up from camp on the first day, the riding instructor told her, “This is Zoie’s thing.” Not knowing the curiosity and immense joy I had that first day, my mother replied, “What thing?” And so my equestrian journey began.

When summer camp ended, the camp director recommended to my mother that she send me to a more structured program where I could learn how to compete. After researching what must have been so foreign to my mother at the time, she enrolled me in the Compton Jr. Posse Youth Equestrian Program. CJP was a non-profit organization founded in 1988 to “keep kids on horses and off the streets.” At CJP, we all learned how to groom, muck stalls, clean tack, and work as a team. We often rode bareback (paying homage to our own Compton Cowboys) and we were required to ride different horses each week.

My whole perspective changed when I was on a horse. I was up so high, and I could see so much farther. There was so much power and beauty of it all. I was instantly in love. And in seven years, my “passionate hobby” somehow catapulted me into a top-ranking equestrian in the jumper arena. Although CJP (now Compton Jr. Equestrians, the English riding arm of Compton Cowboys) was a program conceived primarily for disadvantaged youth of color, I see advantage in disadvantage. I think it builds character.

While those I compete against in this very expensive sport often have multiple horses, grooms, and top-notch equipment and travel to different states to compete—it’s just me, my trainer, and my one beloved horse competing at local shows and the surrounding areas. When I compete, I arrive at the stables several hours before the competition starts to get my horse ready. I give my horse hay and water before the sun rises. I bathe him, clean his stall, and walk him around after he has been cooped up all night. Then I groom and tack him before I walk the course with my trainer. I also stay at