Why vaulting rides on trust

by Mark Cutshall

Imagine standing on the back of a young teenage girl riding a 2,000-lb. horse cantering in a 60-ft radius circle while holding your stance, arms outstretched, for four, five, six, seven, eight seconds. Whoooa.

During this actual move, one she’s done countless times, 15-year-old Alexandria Jaynes confesses, “As a flyer, I have no control of what my riding partners (“bases”) are going to do or even of the horse.”

Talk about trust. It’s what Alexandria has learned in her three-plus years of vaulting, a combination of dance and gymnastics on a steadily moving horse. At Warm Beach Camp, vaulting is more than sport…it’s a fun, demanding challenge that builds faith.

“In vaulting, you have to trust others as well as the horse. The horse has to hold up everything. Without that foundation, we couldn’t make it at all,” says Alexandria who will travel, along with her fellow participants and their parents and staff from Warm Beach Camp to Lexington, Kentucky, this summer for the World Equestrian Games.

“Vaulting has shown me how to trust God instead of trusting my own individual instincts. In vaulting, you can form great friendships built on trust.” All this, while enjoying the ride of her life.

Learn more about the vaulting team, The Warm Beach Vaulters here.