What’s an eventer to do when she’s hours away from most events, and there’s only one cross-country course in her state?

If that eventer is Summer Peterson, she spearheads a movement to bring another event to the area. And then, when that event turns out to be a great success, she rides in—and wins!—the first preliminary-level event they host. Peterson rode her own Mustang-Thoroughbred cross, Jake The Fish, to the top of the preliminary division at The Event At Skyline (Utah).

Summer Peterson on Jake The Fish on their way to their preliminary win at The Event At Skyline. Photo by Katie Frickel/Be Your Own Inspiration Photography

Peterson, who hails from Spring City, Utah, was one of the driving forces behind getting the Skyline Eventing Park up and running last year. A native of the Sanpete County, Utah area, she started a fundraising campaign in 2014 to bring a cross-country course to the city-owned 100-acre equestrian facility in Mt. Pleasant, Utah.

“I live about 5 miles from Skyline, so I’m the only local who events. [The city of Mt. Pleasant] approached me about developing a cross-country course there,” Peterson said. “So we got a committee together and raised $50,000 and built a course through training level. We ran an event last fall and this spring, and this year we fundraised and were able to put in the prelim course.”

So it’s only fitting that on Oct. 7-9 at The Event At Skyline, Peterson was the first rider out on that brand-new James Atkinson-designed preliminary cross-country course. And, at the end of the weekend, she’d moved up from fifth after the dressage to win the division with “Jake.”

“After I started, I was like, ‘Oh gosh, why am I competing and helping to run this?’ But it all worked, and it was so nice to have a good confident run. I’ve done a couple of one-stars with Jake and an intermediate this spring, so I wanted to use this event as a prep run for an intermediate run in Fresno [Calif.] in two weeks. I wasn’t really trying to win, but it just happened. It makes me feel like we are ready for intermediate because he’s done so well at prelim,” she said.

“There’s a great group of eventers here, especially with the Wasatch Range Eventing Association. We’re used to traveling six to 12 hours to get to an event, so it was really exciting to have something so close to home,” Peterson continued. “We increased our entries by 30 percent from last year. People seem to really like it.”

Peterson works full time with her own mobile equine veterinary practice, administering to both private clients and a herd of 2,000 Mustangs at a local BLM holding facility. “Time gets pretty tight,” she said. “With my own practice, I can set my own schedule most of the time, so I work as much as I can to make enough money to be able to keep my horses and compete.”

Peterson does all the care, vet work and shoeing of her own horses at the farm she and her husband share with two dogs, two BLM-adopted burros, two goats and five horses.

She has three horses in work: Jake; Lochlann Fiona, a 5-year-old Irish Draught-Thoroughbred mare who jumped around her first training level event at Skyline; and a retired one-star event horse, Tim, whom Peterson shows in dressage now. In fact, she and Tim ended up winning the bareback puissance class at Skyline, clearing 4’11”.

Peterson found Jake (Verdine’s—Misty III), then an unbroke 7-year-old living in a field in Nebraska, in 2010. She broke him and has brought him along with the help of fellow Utah eventer Ingrid George. “Tim has some Mustang in him, and I’ve always admired their hardiness, but I wanted something with a little more athleticism. He sure has atheleticism! Mustangs are hardy horses. They’re easy keepers. Jake’s got the spook of a Mustang with the athleticism of a Thoroughbred, so that makes him an interesting ride sometimes,” Peterson said.

Summer Peterson on Jake The Fish. Photo by Katie Frickel/Be Your Own Inspiration Photography

She brought Jake up through the levels, and they won their preliminary debut in 2014 at the Golden Spike Horse Trials (Utah). They’ve completed one-stars at The Event at Rebecca Farm (Mont.) and Galway Downs (Calif.) and moved up to intermediate in March.

“He’s a good boy; he tries hard. I’d like to do a two-star with him. We have to get some good miles at intermediate first,” Peterson said. “He’s been really spooky. Show jumping has been the biggest challenge. He’s pretty bold on cross-country but show jumping, with all the stuff right around him, has been the challenge. He’s coming around; we’ve developed some techniques to deal with it.

“He’s coming along in the dressage. He’s not a very flashy mover and he’s short-backed, so he doesn’t have a lot of back movement. He’s a leg-mover. I’ve taken him to some dressage shows, and he seems to score better with dressage judges than eventing dressage judges somehow,” she continued.

Peterson grew up in Utah and got introduced to an English saddle by local legend Ellen Walker, who was a dressage rider and trainer and started the Skyline Pony Club. Walker, who had competed in the inaugural Skyline event in 2015, passed away from a tragic pasture accident over the summer. “This fall, we dedicated the whole show to her, and there was a jump named for her,” Peterson said.

“She taught me to ride and got me involved in the English disciplines. I’m sure I would have ended up riding, but maybe not the English disciplines,” Peterson said. “I did rallies, but I never really evented much just because of location and finances. All through school, I had horses but didn’t compete. Then after school I started competing again and eventing on Tim in 2011. So I’ve been riding my whole life but only competing seriously in eventing for five years.”

Given that there’s not much Thoroughbred racing in Utah, the traditional eventer’s choice of inexpensive mount—the off-the-track Thoroughbred—aren’t plentiful in the state. And given her experiences with the BLM horses, eventing a horse with Mustang breeding was attractive to Peterson.

“I’ve always been attracted to underdogs. It’s always been gratifying to be able to compete in California on not a fancy warmblood,” she said. “I’m not going to win there with these horses, but there’s something I like about doing it on a horse that’s not necessarily supposed to be out there eventing.”