When Sammie Johnson was 5 years old, she began taking riding lessons at Kathy Sparks’ Quarter Horses near Oral Lake on Bridgeport’s outskirts.

 

“I didn’t have a horse of my own when I first started. I rode a few different horses and tried not to be scared of any of them. I was super little and she taught me that all horses are different and that you kind of have to feel them out,” Johnson said. “As a rider, a lot of things come from the feel and natural ability. It’s something that’s pretty hard to learn. I did learn a lot from Kathy.”

 

Johnson is now a junior at the University of Georgia and a member of the Bulldog Equestrian Team which on March 27 captured the Southeastern Conference Championship.

 

“It’s super exciting and my biggest victory so far,” said Johnson. “We won when I was a freshman, but this year was a little sweeter because we’ve overcome some adversity and I’m an upperclassman now so it’s a different feeling.”

 

The University of Georgia competed against Auburn University, Texas A&M and the University of South Carolina. Competing in the horsemanship discipline, Johnson won a pair of matches in the semifinals. She won her championship match against Auburn, earning the highest score and named most outstanding player.

 

The horsemanship discipline, she explained, is a slower-paced western event.

 

“There’s patterns for each competition usually picked by the coaches and people involved with the SEC and judges,” she said. “Those patterns are only given to us two weeks before the competition. We learn them, practice and execute them at the competition.”

 

Each competitor starts with a set number of points, rewarded for maneuvers done well and penalized for those not executed well.

 

“It’s all about your connection and what you can do with the horse,” she said. “What’s cool about this competition is that it’s head to head and that’s where you separate riders.”

 

Not only are the maneuvers new at each competition, so are the horses.

 

“In the big competitions, like the SEC and nationals – which we will be competing in next weekend – you ride horses you’ve never ridden before, so that’s pretty interesting,” Johnson said. “What we do to prepare is get on as many horses as we can at our own facility and the thing is they’re all very different.”

 

For conference and national championships, competitors are matched with horses via random draw on the morning of competition.

 

Johnson said she was very pleased with her draws at SEC.

In the semis, she drew a horse named Bo from Auburn University and in the finals, she drew Manny from Texas A&M.

 

“Before I get on my horse for my four-minute warm-up, a rider from that school gets a half hour to show you what the horse can do, so I could  evaluate the horse,” she said. “I do a lot of evaluating from the ground, making a plan of how to ask the horse to do certain things.”

 

Through that observation and evaluating, Johnson is able to learn a lot about the horses on which she is competing.She explained those observances with regard to the SEC championships.

 

“Bo was more of a firecracker. He had a lot of energy, looking around and really getting drawn into the crowd and he was easily spooked. I had to be softer with my movements, asking him to speed up using my voice and my feet in the saddle to move him forward,” she said. “With Manny, I could use my legs to kick forwards. He was more relaxed.”

 

There are about 65 members of the university’s equestrian team with 15-16 competing in the conference championship.There are five show spots in each discipline and four disciplines, but some do more than one English or Western event.

 

Western horsemanship is about body position, strength and how the rider carries herself; showmanship, Johnson explained.

 

Faster-paced and based on patterns and maneuvers, reigning is a form of Western discipline.

 

English disciplines include jumping and distance events.

 

The nationals involve more teams so the five starting spots are cut to four. With the overlap between disciplines, 12 to 13 girls will compete.

 

Johnson is one of them and she looks forward to another opportunity to excel at the Varsity Equestrian National Championships, running  April 13-15 in Waco, Texas.

 

Rankings based on the Southeastern Conference Championships earned the University of Georgia a first-round bye.

 

“So instead of doing four patterns, we’ll only do three,” she said.

Georgia enters the NCEA national championships as one of the favorites to win its seventh national title.

 

The daughter of Kyle and T.C. Johnson of Bridgeport, Johnson will graduate from the University of Georgia in 2018 with a degree in insurance and risk management. Prior to her 2014 graduation from Bridgeport High School, she signed with the University of Georgia equestrian program with her eyes and heart set on competing at the highest level.

 

Kyle Johnson said it was actually his idea to introduce his daughters to riding and showmanship when they were little.

 

“I started looking around for trainers because my sister did it,” he said.

 

It all started one Christmas when

gift certificates to ride at Kathy Sparks’ Quarter Horses was tucked into the girls' stockings.

 

Eventually, the family started buying and breeding horses and the girls - Sammie and older sister Jessie - competed in world events. In 2015, Sammie earned third place in Oklahoma City. Her family has also traveled to Kansas City, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, South Carolina and Florida. And next week, they can scratch Texas off the list too.

 

“We’re pretty proud of her,” Kyle Johnson said.

 

Read a 2014 story about Sammie Johnson's equestrian accomplishments  HERE. Read a story about her signing with the University of Georgia HERE.