Years before Haley Turner was competing at the highest level of equestrian sport, she was a little girl on her family’s small farm in Grove City, cleaning the stalls and feeding the horses.
She grew up watching her mother and older siblings show horses and eventually started riding as well, following in their hoof prints.
While the sport was something she always enjoyed, she didn’t start competing herself until she was in middle school.
“I didn’t really take it seriously until I got a little bit older and I realized that that’s my community,” Turner says. “I know everybody found their hobbies and where they belonged in their clique in school, and so for me, riding horses is finding my community and I really enjoy getting to know the people in the sport, and then on top of that, riding the horses too.”
Western Woman
Turner began competing in reining, which is a discipline derived from American Southwest ranch culture where the rider guides the horse through precise maneuvers including galloping in circles and making quick stops. To improve her skills, Turner worked hard and practiced often.
“Taking lessons from a bunch of different trainers, I think it’s much easier to get better when you find your style of learning and you’re able to get on some different horses and feel different things out,” she says.
Another important aspect of the sport is learning how to work with the animals. Turner says building trust with an animal that can weigh over 2,000 pounds takes a lot of patience, but is vital to succeeding in the sport.
To make things even more challenging, but fair between competitors, many competitions assign athletes a horse at random rather than allowing them to use their own horses. Turner says she sometimes only has four minutes to get acquainted with the horse before they compete.
“Because horses are animals, they are living and breathing and they’ll never come out of their stall the same and you always have to be prepared for what’s to come, so I think that’s probably the most difficult aspect, but it makes it possible for you to always keep learning,” she says.
The Reining Champ
When she started competing, Turner became a member of the National Reining Horse Youth Association (NRHYA) where she took on leadership positions, first serving as a regional delegate, then a historian, vice president and eventually as president of the association.
Although she was once very shy, these positions helped her gain confidence and become a leader in her sport, in the saddle and out of it.
“I did a lot of cool things out of Washington, D.C. to talk about legislators affecting the equine industry on Capitol Hill. I’ve been to a lot of different seminars for youth excellence. It’s taught me a lot about myself as a leader and a worker,” Turner says.
After graduating high school, Turner spent her first year of college at The Ohio State University. However, a year later she decided that she wanted to compete on a Division I equestrian team.
She met with the coaches at the University of South Carolina and earned a spot on the team. There, she took another leadership role with the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee. Turner is now a junior studying mass communications at the university.
Bobbie Piddock, assistant coach for the University of South Carolina’s equestrian team who oversees western events including reining, says Turner has been a standout athlete and teammate since she joined the team.
“She has one of those personalities that everybody loves and everybody gets along with,” Piddock says. “She always knows how to cheer somebody up and bring the team up and together if we’re down, one of the funniest, goofiest people I think I’ve ever had on a team. And then as a rider she’s quite an excellent showman.”
Her position as president of NRHYA also gave her the opportunity to compete in the 2023 World Youth Reining Cup in Italy, just before she aged out of the youth division and became an adult member of the National Reining Horse Association. While in Italy, she competed against equestrians from 27 countries.
“You randomly drew your horse, so it was good that I had some experience at South Carolina leading up to it with riding different horses,” Turner says. “The horse that I drew was named Jenny and he was a really nice little horse, so it was really fun.”
Onward Bound
Going forward, Turner hopes to keep improving during her time at South Carolina and intends to stay in the equestrian world after college, whether through showing, judging or coaching.
“I have a lot of things to work on still so I hope to become more confident, better and, in the future, I hope to graduate college and continue riding horses afterward,” Turner says. “Maybe not at such a competitive level, but I will be involved somehow.”
Outside of her athletic pursuits, Turner is interested in photography. She was inspired by watching the photographers, sportscasters and videographers at Columbus Blue Jackets games when she worked in the season ticket holder lounge.
Whatever Turner decides to pursue in the future, her coaches know she will succeed through her unique focus and dedication.
“She’s a perseverer, I mean, where the odds weren’t always in her favor, because she was stepping into a new world of things, she’s really worked and grown past that. To see her growth over the last year has been really inspiring to me, but also inspiring her teammates as well,” Piddock says. “Y’all are going to get a lot of great things from her, she’s pretty awesome.”
High Horse: One of Turner’s family horses, Clyde, holds the title of all-time best leading youth point earner.
“I’m most proud of my favorite horse, Clyde. I showed him for seven years and between me, my brother, my sister and one other girl showing him, he earned the most points in the youth class ever,” Turner says.
