22 vaulters. 4 Horses. 3 lungeurs, a head coach and a kiwi.

Plus one awesome village behind us every step of the way!

Now we had done AVA Nationals before, but never to this extent. We knew it would be big and we were looking forward to it, we wanted to make sure we took as many of the club as possible to celebrate this momentous occasion. 49 years in the making and Utah was getting it’s first National Championships. To think back to where we began, using lunging as a tool to train horses and thinking that no one else did the what we were doing on horses, to now finally having this marquee event in our own backyard, it was hard to truly describe how exciting it was.

As with any competition, the week was long and stressful. I know that many who attended were glad for the week off that had been built into the clubs schedule for after the competition was finished. There were plenty of tantrums and tears, but more importantly there was so much laughter and happiness. A competition of this size only increases the opportunity to strengthen the bonds you already have, while allowing you the chance to make new friendships with those sharing the same passions as you do. And there is no better magnet for that than a barrel and some mats at a vaulting competition….

Not to take away from the results our vaulters were able to achieve, but for us, it’s more about the experience and being a part of what is happening all around you. Doing barrel routines in a thunderstorm, through to being a part of your first parade of horses/vaulters and seeing your coaches compete against Mary McCormack in a 2-Phase team, it’s these memories that will stick with our vaulters more than the color of ribbon they received and the comments the judges made on their scoresheets.

A massive undertaking for all of us here at Oak Hills Vaulting, we couldn’t have done it without the support of our vaulting family and this village that we have. Hauling extra trailers of equipment and feed, supervising rambunctious kidless all over the facility and even making sure our staff and vaulters had meals throughout the entire week, the team effort was definitely noted and appreciated. A big, big thank you for all you did to help everyone at Oak Hills Vaulting celebrate Utah’s First Nationals.

While we were a little busy to capture the moment throughout the competition, luckily for us, Rachel did a pretty good job summing it. Check out her video of the week below.