Clark and Law Take Home Top Honors at Young Event Horse Championships
Release: September 24 2008
Author: severs
By the United States Eventing Association
At this year's 2008 Spalding Labs/United States Eventing Association (USEA) Young Event Horse (YEH) Championships, all of the riders and their four- and five-year-old eventers came to win, and all the final results came down to the last rides of the day.
After the dust had cleared, it was Asterion, owned and ridden by Samantha Clark, who took the championship in the five-year-old divistion, and Amarna, ridden by Leslie Law and owned by Tim and Cheryl Holekamp, who took champion in the four-year-old division. Not far behind them were La Tee Da with Tera MacDonald and Project Runway with Max McMamany who took reserve champion in the five- and four-year-old classes, respectively.
The morning started off bright and early with the conformation portion of the competition judged by sport horse judge Jayne Ayers. The footing was fairly muddy due to the downpours that hit Lamplight Equestrian Center the day before, but most of the horses (and handlers) handled it well.
The leader in the five-year-old class after conformation was Josh Barnacle’s lovely Oldenburg gelding, Globetrotter, who scored a 12.45. Globetrotter is by the Hanoverian stallion Graf Top II and out of the Oldenburg Norhert Anyways. M-S Reddy Fox, an Appaloosa/Thoroughbred gelding by Century Red and ridden by Nicolette Merle-Smith was close on Globetrotter’s tail with an 11.82. Reddy Fox was one of the better behaved five year olds, and stood very nicely for inspection. Law’s own Mad Skillz, an Irish Thoroughbred gelding by Master Imp, was in second with an 11.75. Mad Skills had a few spunky moments in his presentation, but pulled everything together nicely in the end. Eventual winner Asterion, a Trakehner gelding by Dr. Timothy and Cheryl Holekamp's Trakehner stallion Windfall and out of Astra, was in sixth after conformation.
In the four-year-old division, less than one-and-a-half points separated the first-place horse from the last-place horse. Darren Chiacchia’s own Emilia GS found herself in first with a score of 12.3. The beautiful mare is by the Trakehner stallion Heling. Overall runner-up Project Runway was in second with a score of 11.8. The third-place horse after conformation was the overall winner, Amarna. Amarna is a Trakehner mare by the stallion Amethyst and out of the Trakehner mare Actress.
The next phase of the competition was the dressage phase, and this was where the competition started heating up. Dr. Joachim Dimmek of Germany, an FEI judge, and Olympic Eventing Judge Marilyn Payne, who's a sport horse specialist and judge, officiated the dressage phase. Ayers joined them to judge the exciting jumping and gallop phases.
The five-year-old division saw La Tee Da and Tera MacDonald taking over the lead with a nice score of 29.68, giving them a total of 41.4. Asterion jumped four places to second after a fabulous test that scored a 29.26, bringing their total to 40.91. Denira, a gorgeous Wesphalian mare ridden by Martha Lambert, jumped all the way from eighth place to third with a dressage score of 29.12, giving her a total of 40.43. Unfortunately, Globetrotter dropped to seventh after dressage with a total score of 29.26.
The four-year-old rankings were also shuffled after dressage. Amarna turned in the best score of the class, a 28.63, to bring her total to 40.33 and took the lead. Project Runway remained in second, turning in a great score of 27.58 to bring his total to 27.58. Foligno’s Legend, a Thoroughbred gelding by Foligno and ridden by William (Randy) Ward, jumped to third by turning in a solid score of 26.67 to raise his score to 37.72. Conformation leader Emilia GS dropped to fourth.
The final jumping phase saw the competition coming down to the last riders before the final results could be decided. Unlike traditional eventing, this jumping phase consists of both cross-country and show jumps in one jumping test set on the cross-count
