By John Scheinman
Special to The Washington Post
Thursday, October 23, 2008

Asked who her idols are in the show jumping world, Victoria Birdsall didn't hesitate to name Olympic gold medalist McLain Ward.

"I love how he rides. The horses are so much more confident with him, and he can get them to do so much more," said Birdsall, 15, who is competing in the equitation, jumper and hunter divisions for juniors this week at the Washington International Horse Show at Verizon Center. "He's intimidating. He's so invisible with how he rides and makes it look so easy, but it's not easy at all."

Rare is the sport that young athletes compete virtually side by side with the stars, let alone Olympic champions, but show jumping brings together a wide range of performers together at once. For juniors such as Birdsall, of Topsfield, Mass., it's an opportunity to compete as well as learn. A winner of several junior classics events in the past year, including the Winter Equestrian Festival last winter in Wellington, Fla., she will show today, tomorrow and Saturday in the Washington International Horse Show and take in the $25,000 Puissance tomorrow night and $100,000 President's Cup Grand Prix for the top show jumpers the following night.

"You learn as you watch the different styles," she said. "When I was younger, I'd watch video of the big [equitation] kids and didn't think I could do it. Now, I'm watching the riders in Grand Prix, and I want to do that, too."

Caitie Hope, 17, a top junior show jumper from Barrington Hills, Ill., appreciates the opportunity to study Grand Prix jumpers and visualize how she might ride their course. Hope started out on small ponies at the WIHS in 2003 and has steadily advanced since.

"I learn a lot because I can relate it to myself," Hope said of watching the Grand Prix. "When you go walk their course -- you walk the strides -- and then you watch the person go and watch how they ride and compare it to how you would have ridden it.

"There was a show in Calgary and [Olympians] Beezie Madden and McLain Ward and Eric Lamaze were there -- the best of the best -- and it's kind of cool to be amongst them and to get to watch how they prepared for the class."

Ward, on site last night, laughed when told a junior had found him too intimidating to approach. "You have to pay them a lot to say that," he joked.

Robert Ridland, the manager of the WIHS and a former junior star and Olympian, said that while the juniors can learn much watching Grand Prix riders, it might not always be such a great thing to have them in such proximity.

"They take it for granted," Ridland said of the juniors, "and maybe some of the awe goes out of it."