<\/p>\n\n\n\n
By Nabeeh Ndiaye<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo courtesy of Elpita Photography<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In December, Willow freshman Emerson Keely was selected to compete on an International Saddle Seat Team in South Africa on behalf of the United States Saddle Seat Association (USSSA), placing second.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keely competed on a team with other talented riders from around the country, including another young student from the New Orleans area. Each team was made up of five riders. Keely was on the five gaited Senior team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keely has been riding horses since she was four years old. She grew up riding at Cascade Stables, which some may know as Audubon Stables.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI consider them my family,\u201d Keely said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going on a decade riding at Cascade now, Keely\u2019s love for horses and riding hasn\u2019t been diminished in the slightest. To this day, she goes to the barn and trains after school Tuesday through Saturday<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt can get difficult to balance my riding and schoolwork, but it isn\u2019t so hard when I stay caught up,\u201d Keely said. She also volunteers as a junior counselor at Cascade\u2019s summer camp, which introduces children to horseback riding here in the heart of Uptown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Fortunately, on her trip, Keely was able to experience some of the geographic and cultural differences South Africa had to provide. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe competed in December, but that time of year is their summer,\u201d Keely said. \u201cIt was a pretty awesome experience! It was interesting to see animals in their natural habitats and the landscapes, which are very different from New Orleans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keely\u2019s riding experience also gives her some insight on different horses and how to work with them. She says that when training, they try to ride horses of varying temperaments so they can get used to a range of horses. \u201cAll horses are different. Some can be young and skittish, some can be \u2018broke\u2019, or older and know how to do their job without the rider even telling them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Keely\u2019s future in riding is bright. Her passion for the sport shows no sign of slowing down, and she\u2019s willing to work to improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love my horse and my riding, and I would never dream of giving it up,\u201d Keely said. \u201cI would like to become a trainer in the future, but even if horses are a \u2018side hustle,\u2019 I\u2019d still be happy. I\u2019d like to possibly make the World Cup Team before I graduate high school or win a blue ribbon in one of the national or world competitions in my division.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Nabeeh Ndiaye Photo courtesy of Elpita Photography In December, Willow freshman Emerson Keely was selected to compete on an International Saddle Seat Team in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":678,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archived","two-columns"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/image12-2.jpeg?fit=640%2C428&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":679,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/679"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/678"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willowpostdiluvian.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}