“There’s something about bringing your own horse along that’s so rewarding. Who knew a quirky 3-year-old I found on Facebook would turn into such a competitive and strong athlete?” posted Lizzie Walters on Facebook a few weeks ago after she and her mare, Proven Reputation, jumped a clear round in a 1.05-meter jumper class.

Walters finished that post with the sentiment: “So proud to have a horse that can hold her own in other disciplines and here’s to hoping that all this summer’s cross training will pay off.”

Walters buckled down over the warmest months, practicing in the jumper and dressage rings to up her game with her gray mare, and the results came on the weekend of Oct. 29-30 as she and “Izzy” topped the senior training rider division at the Chattahoochee Hills Horse Trials (Ga.).

“She has not been easy! It was a huge accomplishment to win,” Walters said. “She had a difficult time moving up to training level, and it seems like it’s been one thing after another. We’ve fallen in the water complex when she tripped; we’ve had some stops. But she really came into herself over the summer. In September, I came off at Poplar Place and was so frustrated, but then here we are six weeks later, and she won.

“I think she was just green, and this is my first time bringing along a green horse. I do work with some trainers, but I don’t have anyone locally, so I don’t get as many lessons as I might like,” Walters added. “But I will say that I have learned a lot. It’s been frustrating in the past to have her not complete, because I feel like it’s sometimes been me being green as well. So we’ve gotten some things put together, and she feels confident, and I do too.”

Lizzie Walters has brought Proven Reputation from a green 3-year-old to the training level. They’re pictured at an event in March. Photo by Shannon Brinkman Photography

It’s a nice reward for Walters’ faith in the mare. She found the Canadian Sport Horse as a green-broke 3-year-old while she was attending the University of Alabama. Walters, 22, had grown up in southern Alabama, riding with eventer Jim Graham and doing Pony Club. Once she graduated from college in May 2015, she moved to Franklin, Tenn., to work as the marketing director for FarmVet.

“Pony Club has been very influential in my life. I’m still very active with Pony Club here, I teach and help out, and it’s how I’ve kind of found my own little eventing family here. I’ve had a great time with that,” Walters said. In fact, one of her Middle Tennessee Pony Club students, Grace Butler, won the junior training rider division at Chattahoochee Hills.

Walters tried to go horseless while in college, but she couldn’t stay out of the saddle. Not only did she convince her parents to let her use the proceeds of selling a pony she’d trained to buy Izzy, but she also helped organize the collegiate eventing team at the University of Alabama.

“I noticed that the University of Georgia eventing team had really taken off. They had a really strong team, so I reached out to their [then-] president Jorja Miller. I asked her to tell me a little about it. She was very helpful and put me in touch with their supervisor, Kay Amann. I worked with Kay all the time trying to figure out how I could make a team work at my school,” Walters said.

“I just started by putting the word out on social media, and I got a pretty good response,” Walters continued. “Kay and Jorja were extremely helpful with the logistics and getting approved by the university and getting funding. So we were able to do a few collegiate events, and we made a lot of great friends that way. It was an awesome experience.”

Walters noted that her Chattahoochee Hills win was all the more special because the event also hosted a collegiate challenge. “They had 13 teams competing at Chat Hills that weekend, which was so much fun to see. When I was doing it, there were maybe three or four teams, so it’s great to see it grow,” Walters said.

Lizzie Walters and Proven Reputation

Walters rides Izzy around her work schedule and seeks help from local jumper and dressage trainers. She makes an effort to travel to ride with four-star eventer Meghan O’Donoghue when she can. She also uses local jumper and dressage shows to help build their skills.

“We don’t have a dressage ring to practice in at the farm where my mare lives, so I thought a recognized dressage show would be a great way to get some miles. We ended up doing six tests over two days. It was great, because it would take me six horse trials to get the same mileage in front of a judge. And we came home with some blues and reds, so that was exciting. She always excels in dressage, so it was great to know our training is going in the right direction,” Walters said.

“Since I moved to Franklin, I have a lot more opportunities to get some mileage on my horse and for myself. I wanted to take the time and work hard on my dressage and show jumping. I’ve been able to take some jumper lessons with Matt Piccolo, who is a local jumper trainer. He encouraged me to take her in the jumpers, so in preparation for Chatt Hills I took her to one of the A-rated shows at Brownland Farm, and I did the 1.0- and 1.05-classes. She put in a clean round and got seventh,” she continued.

If Walters’ name is ringing a bell, you might have heard about her seven years ago when the then-16-year-old was headed to her first event after beating cancer. In 2009, she was featured on the Today Show with a story of how her horse at the time, Montini, helped her get through the chemotherapy and recovery in her battle against a rare type of non-Hodgkins Lymphoma that had resulted in a football-sized tumor in her chest at age 15.

“He really got me through all that, that I’d have him to go home to and that I had him to get back on once I was better,” Walters said. “He was my drive to get better. I had several rounds of chemo at St. Jude’s in Memphis and had to live there for a while. But the treatment was incredible, and it’s an amazing place. It’s incredible that they can do the things they do. Here I am seven years later and still in remission.”

Her cancer battle also has helped Walters keep the ups and downs with Izzy in perspective. She’s planning on shipping the gray mare to Ocala, Fla., a few times this winter to ride with O’Donoghue. “I’d like to try and get really solid at training level and then shoot for the [Nutrena USEA American Eventing Championships] next year,” she said.

“It’s been easy to keep going with this horse; she has the drive and the talent to do it. I’ve had to be patient with her to try and let her find herself, but she’s done that and she just loves it now,” she said.

Lizzie Walters celebrated “Izzy’s” seventh birthday earlier this year. 

“This horse just has an incredible heart. Even though our record is painful to look at, she has always been so generous,” Walters said. “I feel like our mistakes were her trying to tell me some things. We have an incredible relationship. We’ve had each others’ backs through so much, and in the incredible transition in my life from school to working, she has been there for me.”