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For the sixth year in a row, St. Mary's Academy senior Emily Rosini will travel to Oklahoma City to compete in The Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show – an event the 17 year-old first attended when she was 12 years old. To even compete in this division, a rider has to win one of the top two places in an American Morgan Horse Association (AMHA) event at a regional competition.
 Rosini’s riding has won accolades almost since the moment she began riding at six. She competes in both pleasure and equitation in hunt seat, which is similar to the Hunter Jumper division. Equitation is a difficult sport because there is a pattern involved and the rider has to be precise with her hands, feet and posture, showing how the horse responds to almost invisible commands. The horse and rider complete a pattern and are judged by how precisely they ride between cones and walk, trot, canter, etc. at the exact marks.
Rosini has accumulated hundreds of awards over the years and was featured in the International Morgan Connection Magazine last year for her skill. This past summer, she and her horse "Luke" won Champion equitation and the High Point Award among the biggest class yet at the Morgan Medallion Classic Regional Championship Morgan Horse Show in Santa Barbara, CA, and won five classes at the Oregon Morgan Classic Show.
But not only is Rosini an excellent rider, she’s a wonderful human being, as well. In her equitation championship at the Oregon Morgan Classic Show, she encountered a fellow rider who was very nervous because she has Muscular Dystrophy. Rosini instructed her to ride behind her in the pattern and "do what she did". In the large class of 14 riders, Rosini won Champion and the girl she helped won Reserve. "Emily is a wonderful person and will help anyone she can," says her mother Karen Rosini. "I’m very proud that she was able to help the other rider win."
This year, Rosini is headed to The Grand National and World Championship Morgan Horse Show http://www.morgangrandnational.com/ to compete from October 6 through 15th and also has been asked by her trainer to "catch ride" another horse in the Youth Pleasure class. She will be competing every day except one.
"We have a lot of wonderful girls here at St. Mary's Academy, but Emily really shines and we’re so proud she’s part of our community," says Principal Pat Barr. "We wish her the best of luck in Oklahoma!"
Founded in 1859 by the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, St. Mary’s Academy of Portland, is Oregon’s oldest continuously operating secondary school and one of 716 all-female schools in the country. The student body represents a diverse background of young women from over 30 urban, suburban, and rural communities in Oregon and Southwest Washington. St. Mary’s Academy is distinguished by its development of the whole person, and is the only school in the state to receive three U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools awards.
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