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LIFE LESSONS
Equestrian Jumper
Video
When Neal McCall embarks on his first days of college later this month, he’ll take with him some lessons learned from an unlikely source. His horse, of course.
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UP THEY GO: Neal McCall, 18, has been riding horses for about 10 years, seven of them competitively. The Cardinal Mooney High School graduate, who will study pre-medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, says the sport has taught him lessons that transcend working with horses.
Cardinal Mooney graduate has been riding horses for a decade
BY RICK ROUAN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
NORTH JACKSON — When Neal McCall embarks on his first days of college later this month, he’ll take with him some lessons learned from an unlikely source.
His horse, of course.
The 18-year-old Cardinal Mooney High School graduate has been riding horses for about 10 years, seven of them competitively, finishing in the top 10 several times at the Super Bowl of equestrianism this winter in Palm Beach, Fla.
The sport has taught him lessons that transcend working with horses, said McCall, who will study pre-medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.
“I think it’s taught me how to work at things,” said McCall, a Poland resident who trains at Wolf Creek Equestrian Centre on South Bailey Road in North Jackson.
“It’s taught me that there are good days and bad days, and it takes hard work to get at the good days,” he said.
When McCall’s family moved to Poland in a house behind the horse barn Zedaker’s Anjon Acres, he was 5 years old. By the time he turned 8, McCall got the itch to ride horses. He’s been scratching it for a decade now.
McCall said he rides every day for about three hours and trains two or three times a week for more than five hours. But to say that is all the work that goes into winning ribbons would sell short the team effort required to win at McCall’s level.
He rides a horse, known as Inky in the barn but Accountable To None at competition, owned by Cheryl Fossesca, a local woman who boards her horses at Wolf Creek Equestrian Centre. The 40-acre farm, owned by Sandy Pintaric, houses 46 horses. McCall also has a trainer, Cindy Foster, who works with him in Chagrin Falls.
All told, as much work goes on behind the scenes as on the biggest stages, McCall said.
“The overall challenge is what I really appreciate about the sport. It’s a challenge on the back and on the ground,” he said. “There’s so much more involved than being able to ride well.”
English equestrianism is divided into two disciplines: hunters and jumpers. Jumpers run a timed course, but in the hunters discipline, riders are judged on precision, rhythm and cadence, McCall said.
In February, McCall and Foster traveled to Palm Beach, Fla., to show in the Winter Equestrian Festival, which is regarded as one of the biggest shows each year. McCall earned three top 10 finishes, including a second place finish in the Ariat Adult Equitation Medal.
McCall rides in the Adult Amateur Hunter three-foot division, which is the second-highest division behind the three-foot-six-inch division. McCall said he has aspirations of moving up, and that chance could come when he goes on to college in Pittsburgh.
Although his primary focus is on becoming a doctor, McCall did not dismiss the notion of turning professional. He will compete at the collegiate level through the university’s Intercollegiate Horse Show Association, a club sport where the team travels to shows and draws from a bank of horses the host provides.
“It’s a very difficult business,” he said. “It’s not just a hobby. It’s more of a passion.”
rrouan@vindy.com