Petersens blend Kirkwood education, daring and family experiences into trick riding career
On a farmstead near Burlington, Iowa you’ll find a family named Petersen. On that farm there are barns and stables and horses. In the farmhouse are photos and more photos, of a family close to the land and the horses they love. One favorite picture from 1990 shows a father and two daughters, all sharing a fun moment on one horse. The daughters are four years old—and less than two.
Such was the early life for kids in the Petersen family of Sperry, Iowa. Now, flash-forward two decades. An early comfort being on horseback quickly grew into increasingly daring rides and maneuvers for sisters Abigail Petersen, 24 and her little sister Meishja, 22.
The siblings have taken their acrobatic moves and showy performances on the road across the U.S. For Abigail, her training and education even led to Australia. Along the way they have found ways to make their decidedly bold careers a family affair with their parents, too.
Aside from a brief time living in Idaho, the Petersen family has called Des Moines County, Iowa their home for many years. Parents Emma and Curt Petersen have kept a country style in their children’s lives on an acreage, while they took to the road as independent truckers.
Abigail and Meishja are the youngest of six Petersen kids. Both attended Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids following graduation from Mediapolis High School.
Abigail found an outlet for her equestrian joys not only at Kirkwood’s flagship equestrian center, but in two far-flung stints as a show and trick rider.
“I was lucky to get an internship riding for a group near the eastern coast of Australia in 2007. It was in the Blue Mountains area. I went down there when it was spring in Iowa, but turning to fall in Australia,” she recalls.
Before that trip Down Under, Abigail honed her skills with a summer of trick riding at Frontier Town, part of a family-oriented theme park group near Ocean City, Maryland. The daily shows on horseback sharpened her performance moves and gave her the idea of building a business with her little sister. Meishja studied a year at Kirkwood herself, then decided to pursue the trick riding circuit full-time as the sisters’ notoriety grew.
“We got a chance to do three-person shows for a while with a friend, Tucker Manning. He recently took an opportunity for a new job in Texas, so now it’s Meishja and me on our shows,” she said.
Meishja got a jump-start on the trick riding circuit as a teenage member of The Coyotes troupe before teaming up with her big sister for the past year. During 2010 their trick riding has taken them across the Northwest, Midwest, Southwest and Eastern United States for rodeos, fairs and professional equine events.
Emma Petersen says the family’s trucking business has proven handy to stay in touch with the littlest daughters as they wow the crowds. “We’ve been able to catch up with them at some shows and rodeos in the past couple years. We stopped by the Frontier Town park in Maryland when Abi was riding there that summer. We check the maps and the calendar and make it work to see them at some shows sometimes,” she said.
Abigail compares her trick riding career with several other sports that have proven popular in the “extreme years” of the past decades. “I suppose you could look at motocross bike races, snowboarding or surfing for some of the same skills and risks. It’s really gymnastics on horseback, to be honest.”
The Wild Trick Riding Petersens have built a repertoire of horseback tricks whose names generate vivid mental images—and often gasps from spectators. The crowd sees the Apache Hideaway, Shoulder Stand, Cheyenne One Foot, Cossack Death Drag and nearly a dozen other moves. Abigail credits a close relationship with her horses as key to keeping the risk level lower than you might expect.
“It’s really a partnership with that horse. We have to know each other really well and keep tuned into each other. You have to know that the horse knows what you want to do, what you expect from them. We have five or six horses we can use for the tricks, but we want to work with one horse, really stay in tune with that one,” she said.
Abigail leans strongly to “Poco” as her trick riding partner these days, calling him “a big bay paint with a heart of gold.” She says that like many equine families, the Petersens have “more horses than we need” for the sport.
“We love the bunch of them. It’s funny to watch what happens when we load up the trailers for a show. When we go out to get Poco and Meishja’s horse, they will all come up to the fence and watch us get ready. You can see it in their eyes that they really want to go with us! They’ll stand at the gate and won’t take their eyes off us until we’re gone. It’s a fun way to spend time with people, and our horses, too,” Abigail observed.
These daring young women on their flying steeds have made the horseback life their own since they were toddlers. In late 2010, Abigail Petersen looks back on it as a normal as well as exciting way to grow up.
“It’s what we’ve known all our lives. Our friends would go to ball games and track meets. We’d work out on the horses, go to shows and rodeos,” she recalled. “It’s a fun time for us, and we hope for the crowds, too.”
In late October the sisters’ equine acrobatics will include a stop at their alma mater. They will be star performers at Iowa’s first Sport Riding Festival at the Iowa Equestrian Center, Oct. 29-31. Complete schedules and links are available at:
http://www.iowaequestrian.com/schedule .