On the morning of the Dressage Zone D6 regionals held in Ojai Valley, 9-year-old Charlotte Perez woke up sick, and her mother, Anne Izadi-Perez, made the decision not to let her daughter compete so Charlotte could stay home and rest.
But to Anne’s surprise, Charlotte told her mother that she had to go to the competition, not wanting to let her teammates down.
“She was actually very sick [that morning] and she told me, ‘Mom, you have to let me compete. I cannot let my team down,’” Anne said. “So, she competed with a fever, and she was sick the whole drive up to Ojai.”
Despite a fever, Charlotte competed and then qualified for the Interscholastic Equestrian Association’s Zone D6 Finals, set to be held in Ridgefield, Washington, from Feb. 28 to March 1.
The Dressage Zone D6 Finals, which features the best equestrian athletes from the West Coast region, is the final qualification for teams and their bids to the national competition, set to be held in April.
Charlotte, who’s a fourth grader at Castaic Elementary School, is set to become the youngest competitor at the event.
Anne added that what makes the qualification impressive is that Charlotte only began competing competitively in dressage the past year.
“She’ll be the youngest kid at the competition,” Anne said. “So young, that they don’t really have an age level for her. So, she’ll be competing with middle schoolers and in the high school section.”
So how does a 9-year-old find her calling to compete in dressage?
Anne credits that to her daughter’s love for horses along with Charlotte already competing as a member of the Blue Shadows Mounted Drill Team, an organization that participates in weekly drilling practice, horse shows, parades, trail rides and community events.
“They’re kind of like a rodeo performance team and they also came out in the Rose Parade,” Anne said. “The colonel who runs that troop invited her to try out one morning all the way in Burbank. We got up at 5 o’clock in the morning, and she tried out not having much experience on horse, but she took to a horse like a fish to a water. I thought I was going to die, but [Charlotte] did really well.”
Charlotte is set to represent California and Neveda at the finals, having won regional competitions in both states.
As Charlotte gets ready for the Zone Finals in Washington, Anne said that her daughter is preparing by taking extra practice lessons and watching film on how she can perfect her craft.
“She currently is doubling up on her lessons and she’s riding horses three days a week. She used to do it once a week,” she said. “She’s watching videos of dressage at home. She’s on a group chat with the kids that are going to the Zone Finals.”
With a high placement at the Zone Finals, Charlotte would then qualify for the IEA’s Hunt Seat and Dressage National Finals, set to be held in Lake St. Louis, Missouri, in late April.
“She has a lot of team spirit. It’s really important to her that she doesn’t let her team down. The one thing about Charlotte is that she’s got an incredible work ethic,” Anne said. “This is a kid that gets up sometimes at 5 o’clock in the morning on a Saturday just to ride.”
