Prior to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Makayla Barta had planned on taking her third year off from university to train with Tiffany Foster and compete on the international circuit. Fortunately, the pandemic did little to derail her training plans, and the break from competition instead offered an unforeseen silver lining.
“When I moved to Little Creek [Equestrian, Foster’s training facility], it gave me an excellent opportunity to establish good relationships with everyone at the barn,” says Barta, 21, of the business with bases in Wellington, Florida, and Vrasene, Belgium. “We basically spent every minute of the day together and I got to create a solid foundation with all of my lessons. I really got to know Tiffany’s teaching style and she got to know my riding strengths and challenges way more than if we had been travelling from one competition to the next. As well, I had started with a whole new string of horses when moving to Tiffany’s program, so I was afforded the opportunity to take it slow and get to know them.”
Once pandemic (and EHV-1) restrictions lifted, the team spent the summer of 2021 in Europe competing, where Barta racked up some heady experience in the ring at venues such as Chantilly, France, where she claimed victory in a CSI1* 1.40m class.