PAMELA LEBLANC: FIT CITY

Bounds to impress

Young horse vaulters make sport look effortless

MANCHACA — The back of a 19-hand draft horse seems like the top of the Frost Bank Building when you're squatting up there, trying to bolster enough confidence to stand fully upright.

But that's what I'm doing, and Cody, a towering cream-colored Belgian with hooves bigger than cantaloupes, doesn't seem to mind. His hips sway and roll like a sidewalk in an earthquake, but I steady myself and finally — ever so briefly — lurch into a (mostly) standing position.

"Don't look down or you'll fall down!" Melanie Schaubhut, assistant coach of the Lone Star Vaulters, shouts helpfully as I drop back onto that broad, fuzzy blond rump.

Suddenly, the horse-top contortions I've been watching for the past hour seem all the more impressive. The most experienced members of the Lone Star Vaulters, who practice here at September Song Stables just south of Austin, can leap onto a cantering horse with ease; even the newbies look like ballerinas as they pose on the back of a horse that's trotting in circles at the end of a lead.

Equestrian vaulting combines elements of gymnastics and dance on a moving horse. During the Middle Ages, knights and noblemen reportedly practiced it to improve their agility. Modern vaulting developed in Germany and spread to the United States in the 1950s. Central Texas got its own team in 2006, when Rosie Brown, 29, a champion vaulter and coach from California, moved to Texas and teamed up with Schaubhut, 45, and her daughter Alex, a gymnast.

The elder Schaubhut and her husband own September Song Stables, where athletes in tights and light, rubbery shoes tango with their equine partners several nights a week. About a dozen team members, who range in age from 7 to 42, start with barn chores, collectively catching, grooming and tacking up two horses. Next they limber up with stretches. Then it's on to the vaulting barrels, where they spring and soar onto stationary obstacles, just like their gymnastics counterparts. Once their moves are fine-tuned, they climb onto a horse.

Calm, athletic animals with a smooth canter are best. A surcingle, or wide belt equipped with handles, is buckled around the horse's girth. The bigger the horse, the larger the stage on which to perform.

"Do you want to do a balance routine on a little bitty log or a big feather bed?" Melanie Schaubhut says.

Dust rises in the ring as Alex Schaubhut, 13, runs alongside Cody, matching his stride, then vaults gracefully aboard. She crouches momentarily on his back, then eases into a standing position, arms spread wide. She's as graceful as a circus performer, but — as I know from trying the same move at a walk — strong as an ox.

"I kind of like fun, dangerous sports," Alex says. She recently took third place in the mid-level, bronze division at a national equestrian vaulting competition in Kentucky and is aiming for the top. "Once you get a move that's really hard, it's like you really accomplished something."

One by one the other team members take a turn on Cody, who is making his debut as a team vaulting horse. They raise and lower their legs like scissors; a few execute shoulder stands, holding onto the surcingle's handle while they point their toes skyward. It's not always graceful riding Cody's rolling wave, but that's what practice is for. They don't wear helmets.

"It's really about being in harmony with the horse," says Brown, the head coach. "It's being able to close your eyes and sit and feel the moving animal without having to be in control of speed or steering."

The American Vaulting Association formed in 1966, and today more than 100 equestrian vaulting clubs are scattered around the country. Lone Star Vaulters is one of three in Texas.

Members pay between $100 and $150 a month to train, making it a relatively inexpensive way to get involved with horses, Brown says, because a team of eight or 10 can share one or two horses. A background in riding or gymnastics isn't necessary, but several on this team have it. The sport helps develop coordination, balance, strength, responsibility, trust and self-confidence, she says.

The Lone Star Vaulters perform at the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo each spring. Some team members compete out of state, where they are judged in compulsory movements and freestyle routines, which are choreographed to music. Judging is based two-thirds on the gymnast and one-third on the horse.

"Eyes up," Melanie Schaubhut coaches Krista Kannen, 14, who is trotting around the arena on Cody, facing backward. "Don't look down, it's a long way."

It's Kannen's first time on the big horse. "Wow. That is a big butt," she chuckles. "This is scary. It's just very high."

Rachele Misiti, 30, got into vaulting a year and a half ago, after breaking her back in a riding accident. She wanted to boost her confidence, which had faltered. She got hooked, and says it's made her a better rider. Still, it's intimidating to jump onto a moving horse the first time. "You're running at something that's moving awful fast."

Neely Kirkland, 9, says it's more than just a sport. "I like the fact that you can express yourself on a horse," she says.

Rebecca Fulton, 42, a former dancer who now teaches yoga, says vaulting forces her to face her fears, whether it's maintaining her balance on a rapidly moving, car-sized steed, or avoiding those flying hooves.

It's not like other sports. With that, she heeds a cry that you never hear at a traditional gymnastics studio: "We need a pooper scooper!"

pleblanc@statesman.com; 445-3994

If you go ...

September Song Stables, 4004 September Song Drive, in Manchaca offers vaulting classes starting at $100 a month for two evenings week. Private lessons are $35 an hour.

For more information about Lone Star Vaulters, go to www.lonestarvaulters.com. For more information about equestrian vaulting, go to www.americanvaulting.org.