Nelson's Star Is On The Rise At Menlo Charity
August 28, 2009 Issue 

The junior rider is making the most of her dwindling pony years.

Skylar Nelson is torn between two passions—riding and acting. But the Los Angeles-area junior, about to turn 13, put riding first at the Menlo Charity Horse Show, held Aug. 4-9 in Atherton, Calif.

She took her Macy Grey to the championship in the medium ponies, won the USEF pony medal and the pony hunter classic, and was named best pony rider.

Nelson, whose mother, Carlye Byron-Nelson, also rides, said that her mom didn’t want her to take up the sport.

“She told my dad she was never going to put me on a horse,” Nelson said. Byron-Nelson couldn’t keep her daughter away, however. Nelson started taking a few lessons, and the result was inevitable.

“I started riding, and I just love it. It’s so cool,” she said.

Nelson really wants to ride jumpers, the thought of which causes her mother to shudder. “She doesn’t want me to fall off,” Nelson said. “She’s scared, and she walks up and down, up and down, pacing."

Whether or not jumpers are in her future, Nelson may have to give up the ponies sooner rather than later, as she’s growing too tall. Nelson has been promised the chance to ride at Devon (Pa.) next May, but she may be too big for Macy Grey by then.

“My mom said I could go to Devon and then we could lease her out,” Nelson said. “I’m OK with that. If I want to ride her more, I have to shrink, which is kind of impossible and kind of sad.”

Nelson, who trains with Archie Cox and Teddi Mellencamp, hasn’t entirely given up on the shrinking idea. She is addicted to the Harry Potter franchise, and Hogwarts, the school for wizards featured in the books and movies, is full of magic spells that could keep her small enough to ride her pony.

“It’s my favorite thing,” she said of the Harry Potter phenomenon. “I’m on the seventh book now; it’s my second time reading it.”

Nelson bears a striking resemblance to a younger Emma Watson, the British actress who plays Hermione Granger in the Harry Potter movies. Her dream is to play one of Granger’s children, who will appear in the final movie in the series. Since this film is being shot right now, she is unlikely to get the role. She already has one star turn to her credit, though, a principal character in the short independent film Marbles With Thoreau. The film has received excellent reviews at festival screenings and may be expanded into a full-length feature.

Nelson hopes one day to attend Stanford University (Calif.) and major in business. “I don’t really care what I do, I just want to go to Stanford,” she said. 

Getting admitted to Stanford, or to her second choice, Brown (because that’s where Emma Watson goes) will require some hard work at school. “I get As and Bs, sometimes Cs, which is a drag, but when I get Cs, then my tutor comes,” Nelson said. “This year, in eighth grade, I’m going to get all As. I’m going to do it. I know I’m going to do it.”

Nelson doesn’t really enjoy school much. “We’re talking about school here,” she said. “I mean, no one likes school.” There are two subjects Nelson does like, though: “Recess, or lunch,” she said with a laugh. “Either one.”

Matt Hinton