Looking back, there were plenty of clues that Elsie Naruszewicz would pursue a life showing horses.

When her parents signed her up for weekly riding lessons just down the road from her home in Monroe, Washington, Elsie would not just limit her visits to that one day. She’d show up at the barn nearly every day, just to help out.

She got started showing about six years ago when her trainer, Paige Stroud, talked to her mother, Lara Naruszewicz, about getting the then horse-crazy kid started and leasing a horse. She started showing at 4-H events and about a year later her trainer’s daughter, Graysen Stroud, let Elsie borrow her horse, Phat Asset, to show in a couple of Walk-Trot classes at the May Trophy Circuit.

“From there, I started taking more a lessons and then I leased a horse and then another,” she explained. “Finally I got to the horse I own now.”

That horse is Made Me Intangible, a 1991 bay gelding, sired by Thee Intangible and out of Maid Me Sweet, that she calls Benny.

Together Elsie and Benny compete at American Quarter Horse Association sanctioned shows in Halter, Showmanship, Hunter Under Saddle, Hunt Seat Equitation, Horsemanship, Western Pleasure and Trail.

“For being 24, he still loves to play on the longe line and anywhere really,” Elsie said. “He just has a very playful personality.”

Ask Elsie to name her favorite show and she will tell you it’s a toss up between the All American Quarter Horse Congress and the AQHA Level 1-West Championship Show.

“The Congress is so fun because it’s so big and you get to see all the riders and horses that you thought you would only see in the magazines,” she admitted. “The Level 1 Championships is one of my favorite shows because I like that it’s all temperature controlled and that it’s a pretty inexpensive show but it gives competitors a good experience.”

In 2015 Elsie won the 12-14 Youth Trail at the Quarter Horse Congress. That same year she claimed top titles in both 13 & Under Hunt Seat Equitation and 13 & Under Trail at the AQHA Level 1 West Championship Show.

Her favorite classes to watch are Trail and Western Riding.

“I like to watch these classes because I know how they are judged and I can try to place the classes,” she said. “I also just like watching the really nice horses.”

She especially enjoys watching Ginnin show.

“His Trail pattern at the AQHA World Show was amazing and I’ve loved him ever since,” she admitted.

Trail, however, is her favorite class in which she competes.

“I love the different elements and I like memorizing the patterns,” she said. “I also like how it shows how much connection there is between the horse and the rider.”

When she is not riding or at a show, Elsie spends a lot of her free time in the barn.

“Even when I’m not riding I still work for my trainer so I am there a lot of the time,” she said.

Elsie also spends a lot of time on her schoolwork. She attended the Monroe Montessori School through third grade. She then attended Chain Lake Elementary in Monroe, Washington through 2011. She is now home-schooled. She is very serious about her studies and lists her greatest accomplishment outside the show arena, as being three years ahead in her math studies.

Elsie has plans to attend college to work toward her goal of becoming a physician’s assistant.

“I want to do this so I can afford my expensive habit of horses,” she explained. “Plus, medical sciences are interesting to me.”

She has her eye on several schools with equestrian teams.

“I have quite a long list of colleges that I would be open to going to,” she said. “My top five schools are Baylor University, University of Georgia in Athens, Auburn University, Texas A&M University and University of South Carolina.”

But she’s also a typical horse-crazy girl who loves country music and lists Elf as her favorite movie.

“I love how clueless Buddy is and how happy he is all the time,” she said.

But Elsie’s in her happy place when she’s at a horse show.

“I really loved horses and all the other girls at my barn were showing and it seemed really fun so I wanted to try it and once I did I loved it,” she said.

That’s, in part, why Elsie’s mom is her hero.

“She makes so many sacrifices for me to be able to show, including not going to most of my shows so she can work to afford them,” Elsie explained. “She works so hard for me to be able to pursue my dream and never complains about it.”