04/20/2025
We are so proud of Maggie Downing! Thank you to Petroll Reining Horses for all they do!
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There are plenty of first-time NRBC contestants here this week, and while Maggie Downing fits into that category, she also uniquely fits into the category of being a first-time reining competitor altogether. While Downing has been riding horses since about age six alongside her sister, sheβs bounced between several disciplines.
βWe started at this little English barn, and we took some English lessons. We switched to Western Pleasure, did that for three years and did some county shows. And then we switched back to English and did eventing. Then I did show jumping until I was about 14,β Downing said.
While a show jumping course is the one she has most recently traveled, before this summer, it had been nearly five years since Downing had consistently ridden.
βMy confidence kind of just got killed, but my sister kept show jumping. At the (jumping) barn we rode at, we met Cameron and Kristin Brees. My older sister would go to shows with their daughters after I stopped riding.β
When the Breesβ daughters decided to dip their toes into the waters of reining through Sebastian Petroll, Downing felt encouraged to do the same. βI wanted to get back into riding because I was going through a rough patch when I stopped, and I kind of regretted it. I decided I could just start taking lessons and see where it goes. So I started taking lessons last summer, and I was like, βIf I do get back into horses, this might be something I can get back into.ββ
Through the Brees and riding with Petroll, Downing was able to lease her first reining horse in February β Gunna Shine Now, a 5-year-old mare by Gunnatrashya and out of Designed With Shine, owned by Brees Quarter Horses and bred by Rosanne Sternberg. While entering her first-ever Green Reiner class at the NRBC is intimidating, Downing said the Petroll barn has made it a special experience.
βThe trainers make or break how you feel, and they've been such a relief for me. They're so encouraging, and they've made it so much fun for me.β First NRBC or not, Downing doesnβt feel behind compared to her fellow competitors β she just feels ecstatic to be here.
βI wouldnβt say I feel behind. This is the position I got put in, and this is what I'm working from. I look at it as God's timing. If God decides that it's gonna take me however far, then it's gonna take me however far.β