BAKER — Emily Stuckey knows how to manage her time well.
Then again, maybe that's putting it mildly.
The 16-year-old is a rising junior at Baker School, where she is on the honor roll, and is dual-enrolled at Northwest Florida State College; she is a member of Mu Alpha Theta, an honors math club; she plays the flute for Baker's marching band; and she somehow makes time for her true passion: riding horses.
"I do as much as I can when I can," she said.
How does she balance it all?
"It's just scheduling," she said. "I wait until marching season has slowed down and then focus on (horse) shows.
"I just hope I don't have a test the next day."
RIDER FOR LIFE
Stuckey, who owns five horses, currently rides Arnold Spotzenagger, an 11-year-old Arabian/quarter horse.
He's been with her in shows as close as Baker and as far as Poplar Place Farm, just north of Columbus, Ga., and Rocking Horse Stables in Altoona.
Stuckey's mother, Dolly, rides in some of the same shows, on her horse, Little Bit of a Girl.
It's a family affair, so riding horses is nothing new for Stuckey.
"I have been riding practically all my life," she said.
Since the first grade, Stuckey has participated in over 100 shows, many in Baker, she said.
The way she prepares for those competitions adds even more responsibility for an already busy teenager.
"I train my own horses," she said.
That makes her particularly accountable for the show's result.
"What I get reflects on me," she said.
So far, results have been impressive.
For instance, she won first place in senior-level dressage last year at the Area A 4-H Horse Show in the Jackson County Agricultural Center in Marianna.
Dressage "uses movements and figures — gymnastic exercises — that have been developed over centuries to demonstrate the complete unity possible between a horse and rider," according to the United States Dressage Federation.
DREAMS AFTER HIGH SCHOOL
The teen is featured on the July/August cover of the nationally distributed "Young Rider" magazine with Baskin Sheen, her 16-year-old Arabian.
That's fitting because Stuckey's love of all things equestrian is evident. Her Facebook likes include Horses; Eventing; Olympian horse rider Karen O'Connor; Horse People Quotes; My Virtual Eventing Coach; and Fergus the Horse.
And oh, yes: a fan page with a lighthearted headline that says it all: "If heaven doesn't have horses, I'm not going."
Of course, heaven can wait because first comes high school graduation, and then college, along with the real world and all that goes with it.
As for college, Stuckey plans to study chemical engineering.
She has not decided whether she will participate in the marching band after high school, but there's no question that she'll continue to ride.
There's still time to figure out the details, though; after all, it's more than a year away.
"I am not sure how that will completely work out, but that is my plan," she said.
Eventually, Stuckey wants to be a high-level amateur. That means she will continue to own her horses but she won't be paid to ride.
"I like that better than being a professional," she said.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Baker student featured in Young Rider magazine