
MAKING MY YOUNGER SELF PROUD
4/12/2023 12:00:00 PM | Equestrian, Champions' TriBUne
Riding for Baylor Equestrian had always been a dream of mine

Champions' TriBUne is a special feature through Baylor Athletics that gives you the student-athlete's perspective and the chance for them to share their own story. Dominika Silvestri, a senior from Andover, Mass., earned NCEA first-team All-America honors and was named the Big 12 Flat Rider of the Year. She is 13-2 in flat and has won a total of five MOP honors this season between flat and fences. Dominika is expected to graduate in May with a degree in finance and marketing, but plans on returning to Baylor for her fifth year. Seeded eighth, Baylor equestrian (6-9) will face top-seeded SMU (10-1) in the NCEA National Championships at 7:30 a.m. CT at the World Equestrian Center in Ocala, Fla.:
The opportunity to be a Baylor Bear has been one of the greatest opportunities of my life, but the journey to where I am today all started with a little girl and her love for horses.
Throughout my past four years at one of the most elite universities in the country, I have had one goal: to make my younger self proud. Deep down, there is a little girl inside of me who spent her Saturday's going to the grocery store with her dad, not just to steal a cheese stick to snack on while shopping, but to ride the coin-operated pony ride outside. Twenty-five cents every Saturday soon turned into a much larger investment.
At 7 years old, I got one of the best Christmas gifts a girl could ask for -- a pony. I never thought that a childhood dream of riding horses would turn into what it has. If someone had told me four years ago that I would be wrapping up my senior season as an All-American, I would have told you that they were crazy.
Riding horses has always been a family affair for the Silvestri's. I am the fifth generation on my mother's side to grow up around horses. My mother's great grandfather was a member of the Spanish Riding School of Vienna, which is a prestigious institution that is focused on dressage riding. From there, my grandfather rode throughout his life and introduced riding to my mom and her two sisters. My mom was the only one of her sisters who continued to ride while growing up, and she later shared her passion with me.
My dad spent his younger years around a different breed of horses. In his early 20's, he purchased some racehorses and began to breed and sell them. His brother was a horse trainer, so together they made a great team racing horses around New England. When I was born, my parents still owned a racehorse, so I have some very faint memories of going to the track with my parents.

I began to ride at a local farm in North Andover, Massachusetts, when I was 4 years old. I took weekly lessons for a couple of years before my parents gifted me with my first pony, named Puddles. Soon after, Puddles and I began to compete locally around Massachusetts. We spent a couple years together and she taught me all the basics, as well as some life lessons along the way. Sadly, I grew like a weed, and it was time to move on to the next chapter of my riding career.
With my second pony, Luna, we began to compete on a bigger scale. My parents and I would wake up at 5 a.m. most Saturdays of the summer, drive out to the barn to put Luna on the trailer, and make our way to a horse show in New England. At this age, I had no idea how lucky I was to have both of my parents so committed to my success. Being a "horse show dad" is not the most conventional way to spend your weekends, but my dad did his best to learn how to be one of my biggest supporters. As I got older, riding became more of a sport to me than a hobby.
In addition to riding, I also took dance lessons four times a week. Every day looked the same – school, dance class, riding lesson – and I loved every second of it. I was able to balance this lifestyle throughout elementary and middle school but made the choice to stop dancing before high school. At this point, I knew I would have to make riding my main priority if I wanted to ride for a Division I equestrian team.

During high school, my family purchased a horse named Nice, and oh did he live up to his name. He was 6 years old when we bought him and was recently imported from Germany. Originally, he was supposed to be a jumper, which is a type of riding based on speed, but he preferred to move as slow as possible. Nice and I competed locally at first so we could figure each other out, but in no time, we were competing on a national level. We had some magical moments together, one of my favorites being in Lake Placid, where we placed third in a class that was made up of mostly professionals and I was named the highest-scoring junior rider in the class. We continued to compete nationally and qualified for most of the major finals that happen in the fall. Riders from all over the country accumulate points throughout the competition season to compete in the fall. The majority of college recruiting takes place at these finals because it is an easy way for coaches to see the top riders from all over the country. I never imagined riding at this level as a little girl, but I knew I was making my younger self proud.
Riding for Baylor had always been a dream of mine. I grew up around Tyler Bui, Sarah Boral and Marissa Kinnally, who are all Baylor Equestrian alumni. They were some of my biggest role models riding before college, so going to Baylor like they did was exactly what I wanted to do. Once I stepped foot onto the Baylor campus during my senior year of high school, I knew I was exactly where I was meant to be. Luckily, the love was mutual, and I was offered a spot on Baylor's Equestrian team. All the hard work and sacrifices I made growing up, between missing school events and spending all my free time at the barn, had paid off.
Freshman year rolled around, and I was filled with 95% excitement and 5% fear. I was an only child, moving across the country, but I was also chasing my dreams, which I knew could be the best time of my life. Freshman year went as expected. It took a few months to adjust to the 5:45 a.m. wakeup call, countless study hall hours and endless practices, but I knew that all the work I was putting in would pay off eventually. Unfortunately, I spent most of the spring semester in a boot and on crutches after breaking my foot on a mission trip. This put a wrench in the progress that I had made, but everything happens for a reason, which I kept at the forefront of my mind.
My team ended the year by taking down the top-ranked Auburn Tigers in the first round of Nationals. At this moment, I knew that this team was my family. Watching the determination and confidence of my teammates who were competing was an incredible feeling, and seeing the potential of our team made me excited for the future.
Sophomore year was a little less than I had hoped for. I found myself in the alternate spot, or the sixth man. I loved practicing with the roster group and being with the group through the ups and downs of the season, but sometimes it was exhausting. I wanted nothing more than to compete for Baylor, and I knew that all the effort I was putting in would one day pay off, but sometimes it was hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Despite the negatives, keeping my chin up was the only option if I wanted to achieve my goals.

Junior year is when all the pieces came together. Baylor hired a new Jumping Seat coach that completely flipped our team dynamic. Coach Grace Bridges brought the heat from day one. Her commitment, passion and drive to take our team to the next level was inspiring, and still is to this day. There was no adjustment period needed with Coach Bridges, practices were effective and ran flawlessly from the start. When the first meet of the season rolled around and my name was on the roster, nothing that happened in the past mattered anymore. All that mattered was that I made the most of every moment moving forward.
Fast forward to this year, my senior year, which came way too fast. Between COVID, a coaching switch, and all of the other challenges of being a college student, it felt like I had blinked and three years had already gone by.
This year's team is one of the best versions of Baylor Equestrian that I have seen. The confidence and consistency of every girl this year has led us to some big moments so far. One of my first memories of the year was when our sports information director, Max Calderone, told me that I would be on the promotional poster for the year. The 21-year-old me was freaking out, so I knew that 12-year-old me would be so proud.

The beginning of the season started off a little slow. We had some tough road meets that easily could have ruined our confidence, but we did not let that happen. In the fall, we bounced back to beat TCU, which was ranked No. 1 at the time. The win proved to us that we could achieve all the goals we had set, which made me so excited for the rest of the year. At the end of the fall semester, I knew that I was having a solid year but seeing it on paper was kind of shocking. I ended the fall semester 5-1 in Flat, which is my favorite event that I compete in. It made me so happy to see everything come together, not just for me, but for our Flat squad as whole. In the past, our Fences group has been the stronger event, but this year we are strong all around, which is exciting.
The spring season came up even faster than the fall. We had some nice wins and some tough losses, but the team never gave up. The drive and passion were still the same as they were when the year started. At the end of our regular season, my record was 11-2 in Flat, which is one of the best seasons in school history. Knowing I was able to accomplish that was an exciting feeling for sure, but the job was not done.
At Big 12's, we took a tough loss against Oklahoma State in the first round, but made a statement win against Fresno State to end up third in the conference and punched our ticket to Nationals. To my surprise, I was named Big 12 Rider of the Year in Flat, earned a spot on the All-Big 12 Flat team, and took home the Most Outstanding Performer award in Fences for the tournament. I was shocked. This kind of moment was something I had dreamed of, but never thought would come true. One of my biggest role models on the team my freshman year, Madison Day, won similar awards in the past, so it was amazing to follow in her footsteps. The bus ride home to Waco did not feel real. Reflecting on the weekend and the year altogether made me so grateful for the experiences I have been given. All I wanted was to be on the poster, but I achieved that goal and many more.
Looking back on this season, I know that my younger self would be so proud of me. The past four years have been far from easy, but I would not have wanted it to be any other way. I am incredibly grateful to have spent the past four years learning and growing at one of the best universities in the country and look forward to taking my fifth year with Baylor Equestrian. College athletics can be intense, but the result is so rewarding. Don't forget to soak up all the moments and make your younger self proud.
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