Highland senior Julia Robinson was recently offered a rare opportunity: the chance to spend the spring training to represent the USA on the vaulting team at the World Equestrian Games.

Julia was selected to compete on a team based in Woodside, California with the end goal of representing the USA at the World Equestrian Games this summer in Normandy, France.

According to Julia, "In addition to the World Equestrian Games, we will also try to qualify for a competition in Aachen, Germany where two teams are selected to represent the USA. I plan to train and compete in California as much as possible this spring. The team is planning to compete in four different qualifying competitions between April and June along with regular practices and clinic weekends."

"The USA has only won the team competition (as opposed to individual and pas deux) at WEG once, in 2010. This year will be a competitive year between the various vaulting clubs that are training to qualify for WEG 2014. I vaulted with this club last summer as an individual and am confident in our ability to be very competitive. I concluded my 2013 season at Nationals in Denver, Colorado, where I placed fifth in my division, placing me third on the US national ranking list for my division. I would not have been able to accomplish this without the amazing group of coaches and horses that this team offers. I'm looking forward to this spring and hope we can achieve our goals!"

The United States Equestrian Federation notes that vaulting enjoys an ancient heritage and can probably be described as one of the oldest-known forms of equestrian sport. Often described as gymnastics performed on horseback, vaulting's origins can be traced back to Roman games which included acrobatic displays performed on cantering horses.