Dressage is the French word for "training". The equestrian discipline has ancient roots. But dressage was first recognized as an important equestrian pursuit during The Renaissance.

When Meredith Kenyon was just 12 years old she spent some time at a summer ranch camp. She came home from the ranch thinking that she had hated it. But a few weeks passed and she found herself missing the horses. She talked her parents into finding a trainer and the rest as she says...is history.

Meredith usually rides Rowdy 6 days a week, "I always look forward to riding him, he's really fun to ride so it's never really work for me when I ride him, it's all fun."

But it's not always a joy ride, the key to dressage is making it look easy, "It basically is just how much you can train your horse and how much your horse will allow you to let you train them."

Dressage is occasionally referred to as horse ballet, "It kind of developed into a classical sport that looks like the horse and the rider are dancing and are very harmoneous together and when it's done correctly it doesn't look like the rider is doing anything to make the horse do all these crazy, pretty things."

Meredith has only been riding for 6 years, but last month, she was invited to the Young Riders" competition which is the dressage equivalent to the Olympics for riders under 21 years of age. Her parents are life coaches and they are very proud. Her dad Allan says,"Meredith is a student of this sport, she'll watch riders for hours and hours to see how they'll do the little intriquette moves they make and she'll learn from this." Her mother Barbara adds, "It's every parents dream to see your children do what they love."

Meredith and Rowdy will head north this weekend to Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Meredith plans to study and psycology and business...As for Rowdy, well, he's undeclared at this point.