BY KATIE MORROW, JUNIOR JOURNALIST
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| Chandry Kraft and her horse, Investalot, will be competing in the equitation finals tomorrow, August 11. |
Chandry Kraft of Emporia, Kansas, knows all about the hard work and dedication it takes to get to the Ford AQHYA World Championship Show.
“My trainer Jackie Krshka lives in Oklahoma so I went down there to practice for most of the month of July before the (Ford) Youth World,” she said. “I did a lot of two-point and posting without stirrups to get ready.”
Kraft, who has qualified for the Ford Youth World for the last five years, will return for the finals in hunt seat equitation. Before her go, she said she was excited about the preliminary equitation pattern.
“It is really going to make people stand out because most of it is two-point,” she said. “If I am not dying by the end, I think I’ll be OK!”
The 17-year-old has been showing her 1994 bay gelding Investalot, aka “Chance,” for seven years. This year, she qualified for the Ford Youth World in the showmanship, horsemanship and equitation.
“My horse is really gentle and really nice; he never does anything bad, and he always tries his hardest for you,” she said. “Chance is like a big dog; if you let him out in the pen, he will just follow you around.”
Along with showing her horse, Chandry enjoys cheerleading.
“I used to do gymnastics,” she said, “but I quit so I could show my horse.”
Chandry will graduate from high school next year and thinks that she would like to pursue a career in dentistry.
“I think that I want to either go to Oklahoma State University or Kansas State University for my undergraduate studies, and then I think that I want to go to Kansas City and get my degree in dentistry,” she said.
