This Thursday, the Wilsonville High School Equestrian Team will compete in their first contest of the year. The competition will take  place at the Yamhill County Fairgrounds in McMinnville, Oregon.

The equestrian team competes in three meets per season and the state competition starts in May. With only a handful of competitive events during the season, the team spends the majority of practice time training their horses, improving skills in each event, and focusing on qualifying for state.

Lexee Padrick, Hailey Giddings, and Brooklyn James were state qualifiers last year and will be returning this season.

Sydnie Jersey, a junior at Wilsonville who has competed all three years, shared her thoughts on the upcoming weekend. “I am most excited for the gaming events on Saturday because these are the events I am most competitive in.”

There are seven other teams in our Tri River Valley conference that will be competing. Jersey says, “Oregon City is one of our toughest competitors because their team consists of 26 girls who are all competitive and talented in several events.”

Be sure to support your very own Wildcats this Thursday through Sunday to help them bring home the title.

Check back with the Paw Print online next week for complete results.