Local athletes headed to Orlando for Special Olympics USA Games

Tori Eschenbaum has always been a fan of horses.

Through Camp Dreammakers, once a year, Eschenbaum was able to saddle up and ride horses through SPURS Therapeutic Riding Center.

She started taking lessons her freshman year of high school.

Now, Eschenbaum is headed to Orlando for the Special Olympics USA Games. Eschenbaum will be one of roughly 5,500 athletes from 67 delegations from the United States and the Caribbean competing in 19 different sports.

Athletes will be competing at Disney World destinations and will be staying in resorts owned by the company. For Eschenbaum, who said her favorite Disney character is Cinderella, those are exciting times.

It’ll be the first time that an equestrian event will be held at the USA Games, according to the Special Olympics. The event has been offered at the World Games.

Other South Dakota Special Olympics athletes also competing in the equestrian competition are Garet Alickson of Belle Fourche, Sarah Nohr of Sioux Falls and Nick Lund of Larchwood, Iowa.

Eschenbaum is focusing on having fun

Going into the events, Eschenbaum said she is looking forward to it and focusing on having fun.

While growing up, Eschenbaum saw her sister doing a number of different activities, and she wanted to join, but it just never quite worked out. That’s when she turned to SPURS Therapeutic Riding Center.

“Finally, I had somebody tell me out there that was a family friend that I had talent. They wanted me to come out there and do it and it took a lot of convincing with my mom, and she finally said yes and so I started riding out there just doing the normal lessons,”  Eschenbaum said.

Horse riding through SPURS has given her back some of her confidence, she said.

“I love just being out there and being out with all the horses because these are old circus trail horses. They love the people. Some of them might not like each other, but they love people, they love getting touched by us and stuff and so I just liked being out there and interacting with them,” Eschenbaum said.

Eschenbaum picked up riding quickly

Normally, Eschenbaum said that it takes about a month until there’s no longer a need for an instructor to lead the horse for the rider, but it took her about two weeks. After one lesson, Eschenbaum was already comfortable riding the horse.

“They like to say it was just a natural talent I had,” Eschenbaum said. “I was just able to pick it up. Honestly, some things took a little bit longer, getting used to (it). Because every horse has a different trot, some of them are smooth and some of them are bumpy so like getting the trot down (can be hard).”

Now that she’s been riding for six years, Eschenbaum has started to accumulate medals, including nine gold medals from state meets in South Dakota.

Eschenbaum, who now attends Dakota Wesleyan in Mitchell for a double major in elementary education and special education, practices once a week.

And she's even finding ways to give back to SPURS. One of her projects in college, was a service project,  so she set up a BINGO fundraiser, where she raised roughly $700 for SPURS in two hours.

More Aberdeen athletes heading to Orlando

Eschenbaum isn’t the only Aberdeen athlete headed to Orlando for the games.

Gabriella Hoffman, of Aberdeen, will be playing in the Unified Champion School Basketball event. She will join Peggy Heermann, who is also from Aberdeen and a coach for the team.

Hoffman has been in the Special Olympics for five years, according to the organization’s website and participates in bowling, swimming and track and field along with basketball.

Aberdeen’s Mallory Bingham and Tevan Fischbach (bowling) will also serve as coaches during the events.

This article originally appeared on Aberdeen News: Local Aberdeen athletes headed to Special Olympics USA Games