Photo by Chhay Siev.
When Eventing Nation teamed up with Five Star Eventing Tours to launch the Horse Heroes Contest, the idea was simple: ask readers to tell us about the horse who changed something fundamental in their lives. Not necessarily the flashiest horse, or the most decorated one, but the one who made them braver, steadier, softer, stronger — the one who became a hero in all the ways that matter most. The prize, of course, didn’t hurt either: a full 2026 Defender Burghley travel package from Five Star Eventing Tours, valued at over $8,000 including airfare reimbursement.
The response was exactly what we hoped it would be.
Readers sent in stories about the horses who carried them through hard seasons, taught them patience, rebuilt their confidence, and quietly changed the trajectory of their lives. From that pool of entries, our judges (myself, FSET’s Greg Paull as well as Burghley riders Monica Spencer, Jessica Phoenix and Simon Grieve) selected a shortlist of finalists via blind judging before choosing one overall winner — the story that best captured the spirit of the contest through emotional resonance, memorable detail, and a horse whose impact reached well beyond the results sheet.
That winner is Asia Siev, whose essay about her Thoroughbred gelding Polaris, better known as “Mango”, stood out for exactly those reasons.
Asia said she entered after spotting the contest on Facebook and feeling like she had “kind of a unique story to tell.” She also admitted she didn’t really expect much to come of it — until Greg Paull called with the news that she’d won.
If you read her entry (which is printed below), it’s easy to understand why it rose to the top.
Mango is a 16.2 Thoroughbred with 51 starts and a deeply non-linear story. As Asia wrote in her submission, he came to her carrying both physical and emotional scars, with a reputation that could easily have overshadowed everything else. But instead of becoming a story about what he had been through, Mango became a story about what he and Asia built together.
In our conversation after the announcement, Asia reflected on those early days with refreshing honesty. Working with Mango was her first real experience with a green horse, and she admitted there were plenty of moments when she was probably “a little over-horsed.” But there was also something about him that made her want to keep trying. “With Mango, even today, when it’s good, it’s amazing,” she said. “There’s nothing quite like it.”
Photo courtesy of Asia Siev.
That balance — the high highs, the low lows, and the decision to keep at it through all of them — is what gives Asia and Mango’s story its staying power.
Asia spoke about Mango as the horse who taught her how to celebrate the small victories, even the ones no one else sees. She recalled one event where warm-up for dressage felt excellent, only for things to unravel once Mango entered a new environment near the actual ring. But instead of viewing the test only through the lens of what went wrong, she chose to recognize the bigger win: that he had been rideable, relaxed, and trying in a busy atmosphere. “You don’t see that on Event Entries at the end of the weekend,” she said. “but, it still mattered.”
That perspective is also part of what drew her so deeply into eventing in the first place.
Before Mango, Asia had dabbled in IHSA during undergrad, but said she didn’t feel she truly learned how to ride until she came to eventing, describing the shift as going from “being a passenger to being a pilot.” She now loves the complexity of a sport that demands adaptability across three phases, and she’s found a particular appreciation for Thoroughbreds and green horses.
Outside the barn, Asia works as a legislative drafting attorney for the state of Michigan, a role she described as a great fit for someone who loves reading and writing but never wanted to be a litigator. Horses, she said, offer the perfect physical counterbalance to a job built around desk work and words.
As for what’s next, Asia said this season with Mango will likely be a quieter one as she saves for a wedding, with plans to stay closer to home in Michigan while also bringing along her trainer’s Thoroughbred. Longer-term, she’d love to be comfortable at the 2* level, though, in a very fitting note for this particular story, she made it clear that Mango gets a say in that future, too. “Whatever Mango wants to do,” she said, “I’m happy to do.”
That’s exactly why this entry felt like such a natural winner.
The Horse Heroes Contest was built around the idea that the most meaningful horses are not always the easiest ones, the fanciest ones, or the ones with the glossiest records. Sometimes they are the horses who ask us to grow up a little, dig deeper, get quieter, and redefine what success looks like. Sometimes they are the horses who teach us that bravery is not the absence of fear, but the willingness to try anyway.
Read Asia’s winning entry in full below, and you can also hear her interview with me on the latest episode of The Go Eventing Podcast here.
Asia and Polaris. Photo courtesy if Asia Siev.
The basic facts : Polaris or “Mango”, is a 16.2 thoroughbred, plain chestnut, with a small star. He’s a war horse, with 51 starts. He isn’t a brave horse, by any means. He’s scared of his shadow, the shadow by road, and the bucket that’s in a different spot than it was yesterday. Before he found his way to me, someone tried to make him a barrel horse. The specifics of what happened to him are a mystery, but the trauma was evident.
He was deemed “a danger to those around him.” His racing connections stepped in and shipped him to my trainer, Carrie. He arrived underweight, crippled from being barefoot, and shut
down. Carrie fixed the physical things, but in a busy show program, Mango needed a person. At 21, I was an unlikely candidate to save a “dangerous” horse. I was in my first year of law school and had only ever ridden school horses. To me, a jump over 2’3″ was a mountain. But when Carrie asked if I wanted to learn how to work with green horses, I said yes. After one lesson, a text message changed the trajectory of my life:
Carrie: No pressure but Mango will be for sale if you are interested.
Me: If I wasn’t going to be a poor college student for another 3 years, I’d take you up on that.
Carrie: We can always work out a $50 a month payment plan. I absolutely loved the way you worked with him… if you want to work something out… I’m up for it.
That was five years ago. Transitioning from school horses to Mango was like trading a Barbie convertible for a high-performance sports car with no brakes. He was (and still is, to an extent) sensitive, hot, and reactive. There was a point in the beginning, where Carrie pulled me aside and said, “You need to decide if he’s too much horse for you. It is okay if he is, but you have to make that choice.” That conversation lit a fire underneath me. I rode every horse Carrie pointed me at, and then brought that knowledge to Mango. Together, we’ve checked off every “first” in our eventing careers, traveling from Michigan to Aiken to Maryland.
Along the way, he’s taught me practical skills, like how to make sure the Ulcergard ends up in the horse and not on me. The intangible ones were most important. How to take pride in the small victories, not reflected in a score. The value of trust the day my head-shy horse finally pressed his forehead against my chest in the pasture. But the thing that makes this horse my hero is his resounding willingness to try. He is my hero because he faces a world that once broke him, and decides to trust anyway. He has taught me that bravery isn’t the absence of fear, but the decision to move forward in spite of it.
Mango is my North Star and my guiding light.
And if you were not our lucky winner, never fear! There are still some spots available on this year’s Five Star Eventing Tours trip to Burghley. You can learn more here, and you can also use code GoEventingBHT for a discount!
