LEAP OF FAITH

An equestrian depends on a lot of factors to win—the horse, the trainer, the training, the environment—but for rising athlete Paola de Leon Lorenzo, being good has a lot to do with faith and careful, deliberate planning

Paola de Leon Lorenzo doesn’t like to leave anything to chance. A few minutes into the conversation and already we are made to observe, in full display, her no-nonsense, straight-to-business conduct that probably got her here: one of the country’s equestrians-to-watch.

The 24-year-old show jumper’s composure is almost like a fortress that only unbolts and emits its power once she’s on her horse. It may also be because she is used to a little bit of chaos, growing up with 11 siblings—eight boys, four girls.

“I’m number eight,” she says, in that shy yet decisive way she answers all our questions. “Yeah, it was fun, but it was pretty gulo. It was harder to get things organized, but now that we’re older, everyone’s doing his or her own thing. When you come to our house now, you don’t really notice that we’re 12 children.”

Of those 12 children, her three eldest brothers were riders, so at the early age of six, she began riding, “just for fun,” sometimes along the vast lands of Bukidnon. (Her parents are Leah and Martin Lorenzo, whose family used to operate Del Monte Philippines, which runs a pineapple plantation in Bukidnon.) At 11, she began taking riding lessons two to three times a week, and by the time she was 13, she had won her first competition, at one of the events organized by the Manila Polo Club in Makati City. Her passion for the sport hasn’t wavered since, but her upbringing also taught her the practical side of life.

“When I was younger, I thought I would ride my whole life,” she says. “But as you get older, you realize it’s not sustainable—the costs are too high.” In her late teens, she decided to stay in the Philippines, so she could get her degree in Management Engineering from Ateneo de Manila University.

“School is very important for me,” she says, emphasizing the need to get her priorities straight all the time. “Balancing everything is about proper time management. You just have to organize your day according to what’s most important.”

While in school, Lorenzo has represented the Philippines in several international competitions, including the Hong Kong–CSI Juniors and the Asian Equestrian Federation 3rd Junior Championships, both in 2018.

After she graduated in 2022, she spent a year in Europe to train—between Switzerland and Spain because her trainer is based in the former, but competes in the latter, especially during the colder seasons.

Living away from home, in a foreign country, wasn’t as daunting as people expected, Lorenzo says. It wasn’t her first time, anyway, because she used to spend her summers in places like Germany, and as she got older, she was allowed to travel alone. This time, though, she was living independently for a whole year.

“It was hard at first, when I left—just saying bye to my family, especially my youngest brother because we’re close,”