Eighth grader Chloe Korsmo has had an interest in horses since a young age. She has known how to ride a horse since she was five years old.

“I have had a passion for horses ever since I was little. My aunt has two horses I have known and loved since I was a baby. I started taking lessons when I was five, and I absolutely fell in love. Ever since then, I have had a need to always be on a horse,” said Korsmo.

Korsmo started training horses since she was 11 years old. She works with a barn that buys, retrains and sells horses. She mainly trains horses to jump, but she can help with any type of training. A normal day for Korsmo is going straight to work after coming home from school. She gets a list of which horses needs what kind of training. Then, she tacks up and heads down to the arena to get to work.

“I mostly do jumping if they need a horse to be trained to jump because I am the smallest rider, and I have the most experience in jumping. Sometimes, if the horse needs trail experience, we will go out on their trails,” said Korsmo.

Korsmo had to make a lot of adjustments after moving to Indiana. In California, where she used to live, there were more English horses to train than in Indiana.

“Since I moved here, things have been tremendously different in the horse world. There are not nearly as many English barns around here as there were in California. The barns are also a lot more laid back, and there are less rules. I’m riding far less English and jumper than I used to,” said Korsmo.

Korsmo is wanting to make a career out of working with horses. She wants to go to Ohio State University to get a degree in equine business and become a large animal veterinarian. Working with horses has had a huge impact on Korsmo’s life. She has learned many skills from working with horses.

“Working with horses has taught me patience, improved my work ethic and greatly improved my balance. They bring happiness and satisfaction when they finally click with something I’ve been trying to teach them for a while. I will definitely continue to work with horses. It pays well, and I enjoy doing it very much,” said Korsmo.

Story by Angie Ceja