Saturday, May 21, 2011

Our assistant coach

 Jessica Church
Jessica Church started with gymnastics and dance at a young age but soon fell in love with horses. After 16 years of competitive horseback riding, including many hunter/ jumper championships, she discovered the sport of equestrian vaulting on Vancouver Island while volunteering with a therapeutic equestrian program. Jessica began vaulting in 2008, progressed quickly through the vaulter levels, and became the 2010 Zone 5 BC Provincial Champion. She completed the Equestrian Vaulting Association of BC’s Provincial Vaulting Trainer and Gymnastics Level 1 certifications in early 2010 and continues to attend clinics to further her knowledge and skills. Besides competing as an individual at canter, she is part of a canter team that is aiming to compete at the next World Equestrian Games in 2014 in Cannes, France. When Jessica is not busy with the demands of dental school at UBC, she is assistant coach and vaults with Airborn Vaulters, trains with a gymnastics coach twice a week, and trains with two of Canada’s highest ranked vaulters at Cheam Vaulters in Chilliwack, BC. Jessica specializes in helping vaulters with freestyle, specifically choreography, performance, and music selection and interpretation, but enjoys all aspects of teaching vaulting and is a welcome addition to Airborn Vaulters.

Let us introduce our vaulting horses:

Fresco is a 6 year old shire/warmblood/paint mix and represents the foundation of All Inclusive Horsemanship. Fresco stands 18 hands high and we call him the gentle and handsome giant. With his endless patience and huge body size, Fresco is a highly suited vaulting horse for competition and therapy.




MacDougal is an 8 year old Scottish highland pony with a calm character, a big heart, and a newly discovered talent for dressage. MacDougal surprised us as champion of the 2011 Southlands Riding Club percentage day series in first level dressage. MacDougal stars as our young vaulters’ favourite mount.