Catching Up with Summer ESS Recipient Nora Huynh-Watkins

Total immersion is the goal for this summer’s Ever So Sweet Scholarship recipient, Nora Huynh-Watkins.

Nora is the third recipient of the scholarship, which provides funding for coaching, training, and accommodation for a period of three months. She underwent quite the trek from her home in Oregon all the way to Virginia — luckily, her off-track Thoroughbred mare Druzy was a good sport and Nora had some company in the form of her dad.

“I’ve never traveled that far by myself with a horse!” she told me. “But it’s something I’m really excited about. I think it’s going to be a good learning experience.”

But without further incident, Nora and Druzy have made it to Virginia and are settling in at Overlook Farm. Nora, who began eventing officially in college at Oregon State, can’t wait to see where these next few months take her.

“I’m really excited to go out there and experience eventing on the East coast,” she said. “I feel like it has a really different feel, and I’m looking forward to being immersed in that.”

Nora has experienced horses in multiple parts of the country, growing up in Missouri and originally catching the horse bug from her grandmother’s horse. She spent time as a working student as a teenager and eventually went on to join the Oregon State eventing team, a move she says opened a lot of doors for her riding. “It offered me so much opportunity,” she said. “A lot of learning that I would not have been able to get otherwise. The ability to continue on with this sport that I love has really come from that.”

Nora boards Druzy at a self-care facility and hauls out for lessons, but this schedule and her work make it difficult to get to competitions regularly. This opportunity, then, comes at a perfect time for her to spend some time focusing on her development as a rider and a horsewoman.

Through her education as an electrical engineer, Nora hopes to find ways to connect her skills to the horse industry, which has historically struggled to embrace new technology and innovation. Encouraging innovation and evolution has become a driving force for Nora, who plans to use this immersive experience to seek out these potential connections.

“I studied engineering because I wanted to have a way to support my riding financially, but I have all these thoughts of ways I could maybe translate my engineering background back to the equestrian world,” she explained. “I’m really interested in the evolution of technology. There are a lot of traditions in the sport, and not to say it hasn’t progressed but I feel like there is still a lot of room for technology and the use of it. So maybe there is a hole I can fill with my skills.”

We’re happy to report that Nora and Druzy are settling in well at Overlook Farm and have already gotten to jump feet-first into the scene. Check out a few of Nora’s recent posts: