Young equestrian wins marquee Vermont competition

When the world needs to disappear, Courtney Plutte hangs with her horses.

"Whenever I'm having a bad day, seeing them is what makes me happy," she said. "They're my source and my escape from anything."

Plutte is a different kind of athlete in that she's an equestrian. It's a sport many don't understand and/or follow, and that's in part because of its affluent connections and lack of a true live, vocal audience. The rewards in equine-related events are often accepted with quiet dignity and without much pomp.

Additionally, the sport is primarily judged; a lack of black-and-white results often puts most judged sports on the fringe of general interest. But Plutte's sport is rarely intentionally exclusive; often times participants merely need the money to sustain involvement in order to be part of the community.

"For all the circuits, if you want to participate, all you have to do is show up and pay the entry fee," Courtney's dad, Jim, said. "You pay for each competition you enter. At the end of the year there are various finals around the country for those who have accumulated points for all levels competition throughout the year. That's by invitation only."

Courtney Plutte, a 13-year-old freshman at Darien High, like so many young girls, became enamored with ponies when she was young. The initial fascination was to be expected. She wanted that pony when she was 6 like the 15 other girls she knew wanted a pony. But by the time fourth grade came around, her parents saw this was more than casual desire from a young girl. She wanted to really make riding part of her everyday life.

"When we really realized it was something more than a phase, then I said this was basically what I wanted to do," Courtney said. "I tried everything -- soccer, ballet -- but this is what I picked up on. Even now I go to the barn every day because I love the horses so much."

This love was not in her blood, though.

"We have no idea ... it certainly did not come from her parents' gene pool," Jim Plutte said of her riding desire and ability. "None of us had any experience with horses other than rides on horses on trails when we were younger."

But Courtney has certainly found her niche. And she recently just won the biggest event of her young life after taking home first place in the overall circuit championship in the Children's Hunter (13-and-under) division at the Vermont Summer Festival Equestrian Competitions, in East Dorset, Vt.

There were six competitions in six weeks; Courtney performed in four, but it was still enough. How it works: There are champions for each week, and then the total points a rider gets is aggregated for the entire circuit.

"The first week was early success with the jumpers, which means we were competing against the clock," Courtney said.

In the third week Courtney and her horse, Bantry Bay, won all their "classes," which were judged on things such as the form of the horse, the demeanor of the horse, how graceful Courtney was in riding the animal. That surprisingly strong performance is what locked up her first-place ribbon.

Fortunately for Courtney, her family has a weekend home in sleepy southern Vermont town of Wilmington, so participating in the long-term event wasn't costly or inconvenient.

"Most competitors stay in hotels or rent a house together," Jim Plutte said.

The entire show, all the divisions, had more than 1,500 riders participate over the course of six weeks. The show is broken down by each week, the totality of the six weeks is referred to as the circuit.

There are several of these circuit competitions throughout the country, but the Vermont Summer Festival Equestrian Competitions is the premier summer gathering in the Northeast.

In Courtney's particular division, which changed form week to week -- some competitors only stay a week or two -- she was competing against as few as 12 riders or as many as 50.

"The competition is the largest AA-rated hunter/jumper horse show in New England," Jim Plutte said.

Courtney collected more than 35 ribbons. In addition to winning the circuit title in, she won the North American League championship and the Marshall and Sterling children's medal.

"Last year Courtney competed in Marshall and Sterling, one of the events, due to her pony being one of the top 50 in the nation in that category," Jim Plutte said. "This year, Courtney shifted from a pony to her horse, so it's been a getting-to-know-you kind of year. She's not focusing on amassing points in order to get into finals, it was getting accustomed to the horse."

Yet she still took home first place. Perhaps most impressive about Courtney's top-ranked finish was her general unfamiliarity with the new events.

While many competitors had been riding horses for well more than a year, Courtney made the shift from pony to horse this past January. It was then, when riding a few feet higher above the ground, she and Bantry Bay had to endure the rite of passage that every rider and equine go through: the buck. When she first started riding, she was naturally timid. The horse is a more unpredictable animal than a pony.

"I completely trusted him but I wasn't sure I could handle him," she said. "I never try to ask him to do more than what I think he can do."

The fall happened after she and Bantry Bay landed after a jump. Suddenly, another horse in the ring kicked out, causing Bantry Bay to buck, throwing Courtney over the shoulder of the horse. She hit the ground with a thud, dusted herself off and wasted no time in hopping back on.

Like that, she said, the bond was formed.

"I overcame that fear quickly," she said. "And it's no longer something I think about."

Last weekend in Westport, at the Fairfield County Hunt Club competitions, Courtney followed up her strong Vermont showing by winning the Marshall and Sterling Children's Hunter Classic. Now, with a successful summer behind her, Courtney gets to learn how to navigate an entirely new kind of course: high school.