August 15, 2021 
When Zayna Rizvi’s boots broke at the beginning of the North American Youth Championships, she had to borrow a pair from her trainer, Missy Clark. Now, Rizvi may never give them back.
“I’m keeping them! They’re my good luck charm,” joked Rizvi, who had the boots on her feet as she and Excellent jumped to the Junior Individual gold medal on Sunday in Traverse City, MI.
Sunday’s $10,000 Junior Individual Final marked the culmination of five total rounds of competition, and heading into Sunday’s final two rounds, Rizvi sat tied for third place.
At the conclusion of the day’s opening round, Rizvi had moved up into the lead, but in order to hold on to her gold-medal position, she needed to jump clear in the second round. One rail down and the gold medal would belong to Ansgar Holtgers Jr. More than one rail down, and Rizvi would be off the podium entirely.
“I was definitely nervous,” said Rizvi, 15. “I wanted to go clear really badly, but I had to kind of put my nerves aside in order to ride like I know how to ride. Heading down to the ingate, there’s a lot of stuff running through my brain. I just tried to breathe, put it aside and focus on me and my horse.
“My horse is so amazing,” continued Rizvi, speaking of the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding Excellent. “He always tries his hardest for me.”
As Rizvi and Excellent crossed the final timers without a rail down all week, they guaranteed their gold medal victory with a final score of 2.46. Their clear round officially relegated Holtgers to the silver-medal spot with a score of 4.54 and Canada’s Lea Rucker to the bronze-medal position with a score of 6.46.
“I was sitting in the gold-medal position, but I made a mistake,” said Holtgers. “I couldn’t think of anyone more deserving than Zayna to win it. We’ve been neck and neck all year, competing in a lot of the same shows, and she deserves it 100 percent.”
For full results of the Junior Individual competition at the NAYC, click here. Relive all the #FEINAYC action on USEFNetwork.com. (Use promo code: nayc21).
