Unbridled Enthusiasm Keeps Melinda Going
Melinda Johnson got her first close look at a horse when she was in kindergarten. At age 10, she bought a saddle with money she earned, and a year later her parents bought her a horse.
Now 17, Melinda owns four Arabian horses and has won national and regional amateur riding events sponsored by the International Assn. of Arabian Horses.
In February in Scottsdale, Ariz., she scored in the top five in two divisions of a national riding event. She competed in both the English pleasure riding and driving categories.
“I think I’ve loved horses ever since my first-grade teacher took me to a horse show,” said the Foothill High School student. “I don’t think about horses 24 hours a day, but I’m around them most of the time.”
And “being around them” means training Arabian horses owned by others. She works five days a week after school to earn money, and on Saturday trains her own horses.
“My horses are closer to me than anyone,” she said. “When I have a problem or have some hard times at school, I visit my horses. They relax me. Sometimes I go for a ride, and that helps.”
And she added: “A lot of my friends understand how much I love my horses.”
Melinda said it costs $800 a month to feed and care for her horses. “It’s hard to work and compete in horse show and keep up my grades,” she said.
Despite her demanding schedule, “I think my future looks promising with my horses because I feel I’m good at this and confident of myself when I enter a competition,” said Melinda, who often studies late at night to keep up with her class work.
“It’s hard to do it all in one day,” she added, noting that she has to miss school when showing her horses in competition, especially in other states, including Kentucky, where she recently competed in a pleasure riding event.
Besides training and feeding her horses, Melinda also serves them as a midwife, having helped deliver a foal. “I stayed up all night and helped deliver it,” she said.
That goes along with her feeling for all animals, according to her father, John Johnson, who once owned a ranch with 700 head of horses. “Melinda has an insight to animals more than most people,” he said, and that feeling would fit into Melinda’s future. “I think she wants to become a veterinarian,” said her mother, Dana Johnson.
Later this month at Griffith Park in Los Angeles, and in July in Santa Barbara, she will attempt to requalify for the national competition.
When entering high school, some young people tend to lose interest in horses, but “mine is just getting stronger,” Melinda said.
Out of 9,987 slogans submitted in the Americanism Educational League’s Patriotic Slogan Contest in Orange County, “Freedom isn’t Free--it’s Priceless” won the $650 first prize for Esperanza High School senior Diane Van Sornsen of Anaheim.
“Enjoy Freedom . . . and Pass It On” won second place and $450 for Daniel Park of Buena High School.
And the $300 for third place was awarded to Michael A. Skrable of La Quinta High School in Westminster for “Thank God for Freedom of Religion.”
Thirty-one students received checks totaling $3,000.
Jennifer Kelder really wants a red Ferrari, and when she gets about $90,000 she plans to buy one.
But in the meantime, the junior at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach has to be content with the next best thing. She collects model Ferraris, pictures of Ferraris and Ferrari paraphernalia.
She has the collection entered in the hobby competition at the July 12-23 Orange County Fair.
Until she gets enough money to buy the Ferrari, she has to walk or be content hitching rides with her parents.
They drive a Datsun.
