Encinitas girl shows off unique skill on Little Big Shots

An Encinitas girl will showcase an unusually athletic talent April 9 on NBC’s “Little Big Shots.”

Olive Chine, 13, will display her hobby of jumping over three-foot hurdles on all fours, like a horse, which is a talent she picked up a few years ago after growing up riding horses in Rancho Santa Fe.

As 6 year old girls, Olive and her friends would pretend to be horses by jumping over hurdles, like chairs and broomsticks, with just their legs. Over the next few years, Olive took the hobby further by incorporating her arms into the jumps.

“I kind of just picked up this thing where instead of being on two legs and jumping over hurdles, I kind of just bear-crawled on the ground and tried to fling myself over jumps,” said the eighth grader at The Grauer School. “At first, it wasn’t very graceful but then I just kept at it and eventually I got really good.”

She limits the hurdles to just over three feet because they can strain her body otherwise if they are too tall.

The jumps take a lot of core, leg, shoulder and arm strength, she said.

“My arm muscles can get pretty sore sometimes after doing it,” she said. “I feel like I’ve always been in shape to do this, but it definitely keeps me exercising.”

Olive, who formerly practiced gymnastics, eventually started an Instagram page, @Living.to.Jump, which currently boasts more than 6,100 followers.

Eventually, after the page gained popularity, it prompted Olive to email shows like The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

While she wasn’t picked for Ellen, the executives of Little Big Shots — co-produced by DeGeneres and comedian Steve Harvey — saw Olive’s application and gave her a call to film for the show in May 2016.

Each episode of Little Big Shots, hosted by Harvey, features talented children who show off their skills. The show is not a competition.

Many of the kids sing, dance and tell jokes. Olive is the only one so far to jump and run like a horse.

“At first, Steve Harvey was really confused when I told him I run like a horse,” Olive said. “Then I showed him.”

An arena was set up for the girl with several jumps where she got to show off her talent.

“When I got over the first jump, the look on Steve’s face was just completely shocked,” Olive said.

She said she wasn’t really nervous to be on the show and enjoyed the star treatment she received.

“It was so weird having your own trailer and people pampering you,” she said. “I could get used to that.”

Olive — who her mother said weighs about 100 pounds — fears she might not be able to continue the hobby as she grows bigger and gravity becomes more of an enemy.

Her mother, Kara Chine, said she is proud of her daughter.

“She’s always been a character,” the mother said, adding that going on the show and submitting the applications was all Olive’s idea. “I’m proud that she takes initiative like that. She’s very independent, creative and she’s just a great kid.”

Kara Chine said that on Instagram, sometimes people will call her daughter names, but Olive just brushes it off. Most of the comments are positive, she said.

“She honestly doesn’t care,” the mother said. “She just has the toughest skin and she has all these other people who are so supportive and big fans. I think that was the thing that shook me the most. There are more people out there in the world that think this is cool like we do.”

Olive’s episode of Little Big Shots airs April 9 at 8 p.m. on NBC.