Many things in life take dedication and a large amount of commitment to be done right. Equestrian show jumping, the sport of leaping horses over obstacles, is one of those things. "It’s a fulltime job," Holly Crozier Shephard says. "It’s never anything but a fulltime job. If you do horses for a living it’s really non-stop. We leave for horse shows on Tuesday morning and then we are done on Sunday night. It’s six days a week." Shephard should know. She has been training and showing horses professionally for 25 years. Having grown up on a small farm, she started riding around the age of 5, started competing in shows at 9 and has been performing professionally since the age of 13. "My great grandfather was a horse trainer and my mom always liked horses…. So when I was born I grew up around horses," says Shephard. "I was also a gymnast and I broke too many bones in gymnastics so I decided to stick with the horses." Equestrian show jumping originated in England during the 1800s and in 1917 became an organized sport in America. An Olympic sport, it is very popular throughout Europe. During competition, riders and their horses must clear a set of hurdles in the appropriate amount of time in order to win. "When we go into the ring we have a minute to jump 14 jumps," Shephard says. "The jumps are at different levels. Anywhere from level 0 to level 11 or 12, which are like 5-foot-3, 5-foot-6, giant jumps. The trick with the jump ring is that you have to jump the first round clean." This means no mistakes, no refusals from the horse and no falls. Clearing the first round with no faults, the next course is more about speed with the fastest to complete winning the match. In some cases, this means completing times between 92 to 52 seconds. "You won’t believe how fast we can go," Shephard says. "You just can’t believe a horse can do it." During Shephard’s career, she has cleared obstacles as high as 7 foot 2 and championed some major shows and grand prix events across the country. Shephard has dealt with other challenges during her lifetime of horse jumping. She has a 7-year-old son, who she has been raising while on the road competing, leaving her little time for anything outside of horses and her child. She is not the only one raising a family on the road, though. Bradley Cox, who has been riding for 23 years, has been raising her 4-year-old while traveling with her boyfriend (also an equestrian show jumper). "Traveling as a family on the road has been fun," Cox says. Like Shephard, Cox has been riding since a very young age. "My mom ran a boarding stable with a full head of horses," Cox says, "and my dad was a blacksmith so the whole family was involved." Currently, Cox teaches the young horses the basics of riding and jumping and competes in amateur shows with the horse she owns. Outside of raising a family on the road, another regular challenge for the riders are the transportation of their beloved horses to the show sites. "We pack them up and trailer them ourselves," Cox says. "We do a lot of driving. Sometimes our biggest trips will be over 60 hours long and we travel them straight through." Managing anywhere from 12 to 35 horses on the road, the crew will usually stop at gas stations and truck stops to water and feed them. Although it may seem uncomfortable travel for both the humans and horses, Cox assures they have a comfortable ride with plenty of room to move in the travel trailer. Danielle Grice is another rider who tours with the group. Originally from Minnesota, Grice has been involved with horse jumping for 14 years. "My mom had horses when she was a kid and she always talked about them," Girce says. "I started taking lessons when I was 8 as a once-a-week activity. After that I got a pony and my pony knew how to jump, so I learned how to jump. I started really liking it and got really competitive and turned my life into this." Grice works as an assistant trainer, preparing horses and youth for shows, but she also competes professionally in equestrian show jumping. ’"I love the competitive nature of it," Grice says. "I love to win. I love to ride fast. It’s hard. It’s difficult. Even if you do their best you have to expect your horse to do their best too. When you pull it together it is a really great feeling." Personal commitments aside, there are great financial responsibilities that come along with professional horse jumping. According to Shephard, it cost around $3,000 per month to show a jumping horse professionally. The cost is off set though by winning shows and grand prix events, with the purse being anywhere between $5,000 to $1 million dollars, depending on the class and the competition. Raising and training horses is also worth money, with Shephard claming to have sold horses for around half a million. "I’m middle class and my parent double mortgaged their house for my first horse, Shephard says. "Its hard to do unless you have someone with money backing you up." When they are not out at competitions 30 weeks out of the year, Shephard spends her time at Accolade Farms in Mobile County were she, Grice and Cox train horses and riders for shows across the country. Training about 10 students a year, Shephard enjoys teaching children the fundamentals of riding and horse jumping. Most of the students have to spend up to five hours per day and more on the weekends if they wish to be fully involved in the sport. "The responsibility for the kids is great for them" Shephard says. The training of the horses is involved too, but according to Shephard it takes more then just training to get a horse to jump. "They need a lot of heart," Shephard explains. "They have to want to go. If they don’t want to then you are not going to get what you are looking for. As far as getting them to jump, a lot of it is back in their breeding. A majority of our horses want to do it. Very rarely do I have to change a horse’s mind. Most of the time they want to partake. There are times they might be afraid to jump that jump, like there might be water or a ditch in the ground, and they don’t want to have any part of it. That takes training to overcome." "The horses themselves are amazing animals," Shephard says. "They are so much smarter then most of the animals that people are use to being around. They all have very unique personalities… You can look in its eyes and see if it’s had a rough night or if it needs to get out or if something has spooked it lately." It’s no surprise that Shephard and her comrades have a great love for their sport, but now they are hoping to share it with more people. They are a part of a new group called City League International. The group, based out of Columbus, N.C. and covering the southeast, is a non-profit organization with the goal of raising money to support the prevention and treatment of cancer. The organization’s goals also include turning show jumping into a spectator sport by creating city teams and trying to get the local population behind the team. Shephard is already doing her part. She has founded a city team for the Mobile area named after the farm her and her teammates work on. "Hopefully in the next few years it will expand a little more throughout the country instead of just the southeast and can become a little bit more known in the United States like it is everywhere else," says team captain Shephard. Until then everyone will have to wait and see what the new organization holds for the future of equestrian show jumping. Their first show was held April 17 through 20, 2008 in Jacksonville, Fla.