Your Neighbors: Reagan and Lucy Walter

Neighborhood: Sleepy Lagoon
Neighbors since: Lucy, 10, and Reagan, 8, have lived on the Key their entire lives.

Lucy and Reagan Walter’s mother, Janet, worries their bedroom walls are getting cluttered. That’s because they’re covered with ribbons the sisters have won in horseback-riding competitions.

Their latest victory came in May, at the Fox Lea Farm Open May H/J Schooling Show in Venice, when both Lucy, 10, and Reagan, 8, received the grand champion title and first place in the classic part of the competition for their classes.

They both began riding at age 2 or 3 at their grandfather’s farm, in Myakka City. Now, they ride at least five or six days a week at Westport Equestrian in Bradenton on their pony, Better Then Good, aka Goodie, a German warmblood.

“It’s pretty cool to have a passion when they’re that young,” says Janet Walter.

Lucy says that riding horses makes her “happy.”

Reagan says, “It’s fun to play with my horses and tack them up and jump them.”

Both sisters attend St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Bradenton and are Longboat Key natives. Both also plan to stay in the saddle. Lucy wants to be a rider when she grows up; Reagan would like to be a rider and a professional jumper.

Riding is something the whole family enjoys. Their father, Stephen, rides Western saddle, and Janet Walter rides Eastern saddle. In fact, she credits her daughters with motivating her to take up riding.

“They’re better than me, but it’s something we can do together,” she says.