Iowa youth competitor Kaylynn Heitman, 14, bought her first equine partner, a pony named Marbles, for $25 when she was just 4 years old.

Marbles was blind in one eye and had a fatty cyst on one side. But she would “pull around a sled like a boss” and Kaylynn adored her.

After that, there was no stopping Kaylynn. By the time she turned 8, the daughter of Arec and Jenna Heitman was competing in Lead-Line classes on Toby, a horse owned by a friend of her mom’s, at Kirkwood, Iowa open shows. Once she was too big for Lead-Line, Kaylynn brought a retired show horse named Paradise out of retirement to help her get her feet wet in Walk-Trot classes.

 “My parents ended up buying me my own Walk-Trot horse, Slow Motion Zippo (a 2003 red roan mare by Zippos Mr Good Body and out of Biddin On A Zippo) that we called Cinnamon,” she said.

Cinnamon gave Kaylynn the confidence she would need to move on to American Quarter Horse Association and American Paint Horse Association sanctioned shows.

Kaylynn’s next show partner was Talk N Bout Me (Oscar), a 2012 chestnut gelding sired by Zippos Golden Finale out of Simply Dottie Mac that she showed in all-around events.

Oscar helped Kaylynn capture her first big win, the AQHA Level 1 Rookie Hunter Under Saddle Championship.

“I knew that we were selling Oscar so I was just hoping to go out with a bang and in our first class at the Level 1 Championships, we were winners,” Kaylynn recalled.

This year, Kaylynn is showing a double registered AQHA/APHA Hunting Blue Skies (Sky), a 2014 gray mare, sired by MDR Impulsified/Impulsified and out of Blue Skies Ahead, in 13 & Under and Novice Youth all-around classes, including Halter, Showmanship, Equitation and Trail, under the guidance of professional trainers Shannon Vroegh and Hannah Lind. Kaylynn says she and Sky make a great team. Just two months after teaming together they won the Novice Youth Equitation at the APHA Youth World Show.

She credits Lind with helping her continue to improve her skills.

“If I didn’t have her to show me how to ride and teach me how to read my horse I wouldn’t be nearly as successful,” Kaylynn said.  “She really makes sure that I understand the ‘why and how’ of doing things.”

Kaylynn’s favorite class in which to compete is Equitation because she says it’s one of her best performance classes.

“I love that the clothes are more comfortable, and that you don’t have to go as slow,” she said.

But she loves watching Reining the most.

“I don’t show that class, so it intrigues me to watch them,” she admitted. “I love to watch them full out run and then the dirt fly when they slide.”

Kaylynn’s favorite shows are the Florida Gold and Gulf Coast circuits because … well because she’s from Iowa and it’s nice to get away to the warm weather in the winter when it’s so cold at home, she said.

Kaylynn is a student at Williamsburg Community Schools, in Williamsburg, Iowa, where she lives and she has been on the Honor Roll of Excellence every semester of Junior High and she will graduate in 2023. In addition to studying, Kaylynn loves swimming, playing volleyball and basketball and hanging out with friends. She also spends lots of time “messing around with horses we have on the farm” and with her three brothers, Rayce, Ryland and Ryker. Some people would be surprised to learn that Kaylyn also shows cattle and has raised two bucket bottle calves to show.

But Kaylynn’s true passion is competing at horse shows.“I show because of the people around me, my horse and my trainers,” she said. “I also show because I think it is a ton of fun and it teaches me so many things. I also just love to do it.”