Meet this young show jumper with Olympic aspirations

To display stunning show jumping requires a strong connection between horse and rider.

And for 17-year-old Ava Mikkelsen and her horse Marshmallow, the bond they have developed has led to a vast score of victories.

Having just returned from multiple event wins at the Harvest Celebration at Thunderbird Show Park in Langley, B.C, she had blown away even the expectations of her own trainer with the scores she was setting.

“I am the first kid to win all three medals at one show,” Mikkelsen told Kelowna10. “It really felt like all my hard work and dedication paid off.”

Mikkelsen's success is a testament to the amount of work and dedication she had put into her sport, having been a rider since she was eight years old.

In order to pay for the costs associated with a typically pricey sport, she borrows equipment and works off her fees with labour at Hunter Hill Farm in Kelowna where she trains with her riding coach, Kate Paynton.

Among all this she takes her schooling online to accommodate this extra workload.

“Ava works harder than anybody else, she's here sunup to sundown most days,” Paynton said. “She really puts the time into learning the lessons and learning the how and pushing herself, going to the gym, training separately outside of horses. She's really pushed herself to do this on her own.”

There will be no rest for the accomplished young athlete as she is off to the upcoming Royal West competition, an international show jumping event in Calgary.

2024 will be her last year to compete in Junior level competitions, which she hopes to finish strong.

But after that, her aspirations are quite lofty.

“I would like to hit it out with a bang and at least get top three in all of the finals, and then go professional and possibly go to the Olympics.” she said.