Caroline Riettini

By Federico Montemayor

It began at the age of six when a little girl saw the “Indian Princesses” perform majestically on their stallions and began her life long ambition of being around horses. This was developed into a desire to compete in dressage, the art of competitive horse training.
Caroline Riettini, Houston sophomore, has never been able to narrow her passions to one activity. Though her passion for horses was ignited when she was little, Riettini joined the choir while in middle school in the Memorial area of Houston, and Junior Teachers, newspaper and drama while in high school. While participating in all of these activities, Riettini was always able to find time for her favorite past time.
Thus far, Riettini’s dressage career has been a short but eventful one. She began training at the age of eight and has owned her current show horse, Snoopy, an Arabian Pinto, since it was 2 years old. During Riettini’s senior year in high school, she and Snoopy entered a championship competition with 22 other competitors in their class.
“We did really well and got third out of 23,” Riettini said.
After graduating from Stratford High School, Riettini went to Stephen F. Austin with aspirations of being a teacher until the course material proved to not be enough of a challenge for her.
“Everyone says SFA has the best education department, but the course I took was so simple and the professor spoke to the class as if we were the four year olds that I was just disillusioned and decided to not do education anymore,” Riettini said.
Inspired by Snoopy, Riettini decided to pursue zoology. This was before she encountered on little problem.
“I failed big time,” Riettini said.
It was at this time when she chose to switch her major to photojournalism with a possible minor in creative writing.
While an incoming freshman to the university, Riettini decided to abandon all of her extra curricular activities so she could focus on just school and her horse.
“I had Snoopy up in the university barn but I would always spend my free time there, even if I had a major exam the next day,” Riettini said.
This led to Riettini’s decision to leave Snoopy home this year and currently visits her horse on the weekends.
“Since I cannot train Snoopy one weekend and expect him to compete the next, I have pretty much taken a break from competing until school is over,” said Riettini.
Now with the rest of her college career ahead of her, the 20-year-old redhead has been able to find a stable balance between school and Snoopy and waits for the day she can once again trot onto the area to scores of fans.