Olympic hopeful, senior Marisa Hutton has been riding horses since she was five years old.
She began competing at age 11 and last year placed seventh in a nationally ranked competition in Los Angeles.
She started out the 2012 season by competing in the year’s first and biggest horse show of the season: Horse Shows in the Sun (HITS) Thermal Desert Circuit, in Palm Springs, California.
Starting on Jan. 25 and continuing through March 13, was home to over 3,000 horses, 10,500 riders, and $1.5 million awarded in prizes were given out .
Since this show is the first of the season, it dictates the rest of the year for Marisa.
This is Marisa’s third year attending but her first time going for four out of the six weeks.
She brought her two horses, Pebbles and Larissa.
“I own Pebbles who is younger, and I am leasing Larissa. Larissa is more experienced, and I am working Pebbles up to be a big jumper,” Marisa said.
Both horses travel with her to all the shows, and she interchangeably rides them, depending on the event.
Through the years, Marisa has worked up to stadium jumping, while in previous years she competed in Equitation and Hunters.
Stadium jumping is an obstacle course with many sharp turns and high jumps that is judged on one’s speed and coordination.
For higher stadium jumping classes, Marisa rode Larissa because she is more experienced, saving Pebbles for the easier courses.
Marisa has traveled to Palm Springs every weekend since Feb. 3 to compete at Thermal.
She was successful and even took home a collected amount of $1,050 her first weekend at the show, placing 2nd in Junior
Jumper Classic with Larissa and fourth in Children’s Jumpers Classic with Pebbles.
In the second week, Marisa was Reserve Children’s Champion with Pebbles and won the Junior Jumper Classic with Larisa. 
Marisa moved up a level on both Pebbles and Larisa, so the competition was more intense and the jumps were higher.
Despite moving up into harder competition in her final week at Thermal, Marisa won the Low Junior Jumper Classic with Pebbles.
Throughout her four weeks at the competition, she won close to $3,500. “I was very pleasantly surprised with the outcome and hope to continue to do well throughout the year,” said Marisa.
