Vaulting might just be the perfect sport for Mackenzie Thurman.

“She likes climbing on things and she likes horses,” says Bob Thurman, Mackenzie's father. “You combine the two, and that's vaulting.”

As he explains his daughter's passion for climbing, she hops up onto his shoulders and hangs there for a moment.

They are standing in the center of a horse pen on the family's property in Nevada City. Next to the horse pen is a smaller pen with two decidedly smaller animals.

Joanna Thurman, Mackenzie's mother, is quick to point out that they are not llamas. They are alpacas. They are friendlier.

“If you put your nose up to the fence, they'll put theirs right up against yours,” says Joanna as she demonstrates this principle. “They're just curious about you.”

Horse and rider

Mackenzie, 13, practices at home on Granite, a 21-year-old horse, new to the world of vaulting. She is working on her compulsories, a set of seven maneuvers that all riders must execute at competitions.

“It takes about six months to break in a new horse if you do it every day,” says Mackenzie.

Twice a week, she travels down to the Bay Area to work with her team, the Mt. Eden Vaulting Club, which means working with a different horse.

“All the horses have a different style of cantering,” she says. “It's hard to adjust to a different style all the time.”

At various points during a solo routine, the rider will stand up on the horse, flip upside down or jump off and land back on the horse.

Despite this, vaulting is considered one of the safest equestrian sports, says Bob Thurman.

“The horse is everything to a vaulter,” he says. “If you can trust the horse, you don't have to worry about it during the routine.”

If everything is going right, the pair is so in tune that if the horse senses its rider may fall, it will slow down, he says. The animal is trained to know when the vaulter is in trouble.

Still, does Joanna ever get nervous watching her daughter perform aerial stunts on a moving animal?

“Yes, definitely,” she says. “But they fall, and they get back up. It happens.”

A growing sport

There are only about 400 vaulters in the United States, estimates Joanna Thurman.

It is a sport that has not yet caught on with mainstream audiences here, but that is not the case in Germany, where Mackenzie competed a little more than a month ago.

“A lot of people will go to Europe to compete,” says Joanna. “Then you go over there, and the German vaulters are like rock stars.”

It was Mackenzie's first international event, and her team finished in second place overall.

Though the Europeans have a leg up in the sport, the Americans are gaining ground fast, and much of the best American vaulting takes place in California, says Joanna.

Top competitors from around the country will gather this week in Denver for the American Vaulting Association National Championships.

Many of the vaulters Mackenzie encounters at nationals will be older than she is and will have been at it longer.

“She's 13, so it's important to have balance,” says Bob Thurman. “You hear too many horror stories about young athletes pushed too hard and getting injured. Mackenzie's interest is not driven by us. It's driven by her. It's what she's passionate about.”

Mackenzie puts it more succinctly.

“I like vaulting,” she says. “It's a lot of fun.”

To contact Sports Writer Anthony Barstow, e-mail abarstow@theunion.com or call 530-477-4232.