WORKING -- Tiffany Knight

-- Story by Alex Coolman; photo by Greg Fry

SHE IS

Keeping the horses on track

THE MAGIC OF HORSES

Tiffany Knight remembers what it was like when she was a 13-year-old

girl, falling in love with horses.

“They were just so big, but they seemed so gentle,” she said.

Today, the 33-year-old Knight works as a instructor of hunter and

jumper horses at South West Show Jumping, which maintains stables at the

Orange County Fairgrounds. She trains horses to behave properly and she

teaches their owners to ride them with grace.

The same things still amaze her about horses, she said. They’re

immense creatures, but when they’re being ridden by somebody who knows

what they’re doing, they can do extraordinary things.

AN ODD PROFESSION

Becoming an instructor isn’t always the easiest choice in the world to

make.

Knight said she’s seen a lot of stables that maintain relatively poor

horses, and the instructors who end up working with the beasts get stuck

dealing with the most unpleasant aspects of the horse trade: dirty

stables, sick animals, impatient clients.

But that hasn’t stopped Knight. She’s stuck with the profession, and

considers herself lucky to work at South West, where the owner cares

about keeping the quality high.

THAT FEELING OF FLIGHT

When a horse jumps, Knight said, it’s an extraordinary experience for

the rider.

“You have to be very still,” she said. “If you do anything erratic, it

goes against the flow of the horse.”

The whole point is to channel the energy, to put the animal in the

position where it can do easily what it is physically capable of doing.

“It’s kind of a phenomenal feeling,” Knight said. “It’s what makes you

keep coming for more.”