Peyton McAloon spends nearly every day of the week working and riding horses at Lorill Equestrian, otherwise known as the Arizona Cowboy College. It’s her job and her passion, and she went to Montana earlier this year to compete in the 2022 United States Eventing Association American Eventing Championships.

The Fountain Hills High School senior competed from Aug. 30 to Sept. 4 in three-day eventing in Kalispell, Mont. She finished 11th overall out of 24 competitors in her division, and she placed 18th in dressage, 14th in cross country, and 11th in show jumping.

“It was crazy,” McAloon said. “We were at one of the bigger facilities that they have. It’s called Rebecca Farms, and it’s well known. It's got a huge cross country course. I mean, it was miles long. You went on top of this mountain, and you could see everything.”

McAloon’s championship appearance was the result of years of work, and she’s not slowing down. McAloon started riding horses at the young age of six, and she started competing in 2017. She also just took seventh place at the Southern Arizona Eventing Association (SAzEA) Fall Horse Trials in Tucson this past November.

McAloon rode a different horse in Tucson than she did in every race leading up to and including the championships. She rode a 24-year-old horse named Cue to Blue, or “Q”, and she retired Q from high level competition after the Championships.

“He’s an old guy,” McAloon said. “A lot of ours, because of how well they’re taken care of, they live until their 30s. He was just going, so might as well continue all the way until the Championships if he’s capable. I retired him from it, though. He’s taking other kids along now.”

McAloon had to go down two levels of competition from novice to introductory with her new horse, Jolly Rancher. She spent so much time preparing Q for Montana, the young Jolly Rancher remained untrained and inexperienced.

“I’m a lot more confident on the older one,” McAloon said. “He’s a ‘been there, done that’ kind of guy, and I can trust him through it all. I did go down two levels with the baby because he didn’t know anything, and I had only been jumping him for three months before that.”

McAloon made the trip to Montana with her mom, trainer and a friend from Cactus Shadows High School that also competed. Rebecca Farms had several arenas ready for competition, and it is less than an hour away from Glacier National Park. McAloon had never been to Montana and capitalized on the opportunity to check out the park and zipline through it before she came back home.

“There were, I’d say, 10 to 12 arenas. A couple of them had jumps in them, some were just dressage,” McAloon said. “It was so cool, and it was beautiful. Mountains everywhere, and just open.”

The first event in three-day eventing is dressage. Riders display how well they trained their horses by how well the horse can perform a series of movements, like circles and turns. Riders are judged on the precision and elegance of the horse’s movements.

The next event is the cross country test. Riders attempt to navigate a course filled with obstacles in a preset period of time, and distances and time requirements vary based on level of competition. On the final day, riders compete in show jumping.

“My main is three-day eventing, but I also do ranch riding and I ride Western,” McAloon said. “I have one Western horse that I broke, she’s around five years old. And then I have a four-year-old that I just took two weeks ago to Tucson. It was his first event, so I’ve also broken babies, and I just kind of go out and ride all the time.”

Three-day eventing is an English style equestrian competition. Different styles and different competitions require different types of training, but McAloon usually rides the horses she trained. She said that collegiate equestrian riders typically compete on random horses provided by the competition host.

McAloon rides for fun and doesn’t anticipate competing in college. She does want to continue her career with animals past cleaning stalls and teaching riding lessons, and she intends to study veterinary medicine in college. McAloon is currently taking a dual enrollment veterinary assistant class at the East Valley Institute of Technology (EVIT).

McAloon wakes up at 6 a.m. on Saturdays and spends several hours at the ranch every weekend. She’s continuing a family legacy, as her mom was the first person to teach her to ride, and McAloon hopes to qualify for the 2023 championships on her new horse.