United States Eventing Association

CH-J*: Don’t Mess With Texas

The team from Area V led wire to wire at this year’s Adequan/FEI North American Junior and Young Rider Championships finishing 20 points ahead of the silver medal team. Alexa Ehlers and In Any Event set a strong pace as the lead pair for the team with a four-fault round – a good finish as rails were dropping like flies in the Rolex Arena. Avery Klunick and In It To Win It were the next to ride for the team and they matched Alexa’s one-rail round. Victoria New and Alyssa Phillips were set to ride back-to-back as they were in third and second positions overnight. It was a tense moment for the team when Victoria fell at the second element of the triple when Bally Whatnot put on the brakes. Alyssa was able to bounce back though and claim the individual gold medal by jumping her 19-year-old Sundance Bay to one of only three double clear rounds in this afternoon’s one-star show jumping phase.

“Winning the medal is so surreal,” said Alyssa. “Honestly it hasn’t even sunk in. It was my dream goal and I can’t believe it is accomplished. Coming into the event I didn’t even think I would ever come close to a medal. When I saw that I was in second after dressage I was just crying tears of joy.”

Fourteen-year-old Alyssa was overcome with emotion when asked to describe her longtime partner, Sundance Bay. “He is just one of a kind. You would never believe at 19-years-old he would still be going like he is. He has just done so much for me.”

Team Silver was claimed by Area VI who started the competition in fourth place. The team lost one rider, Madeline Sexton, after a fall on cross-country so only had three participating in today’s show jumping phase. Zachary Brandt and Cavallino Cocktail led the team with a fourth-place individual finish. Kaitlin Veltkamp and Flashpoint D added four faults and Piper Leddick riding Emmie Lou took down three rails.

The bronze medal went to Team Ontario despite the fact that they did not have a drop score since one of their riders, Haley Armstrong-Laframboise, was technically eliminated yesterday for jumping an incorrect fence on course. April Simmonds’ horse Sunday Best unfortunately did not live up to their name with six rails down in show jumping today. However, team member, Brook Pickering was able to claim one of the three double clear rounds with her horse, Abbey Rhode. The pair climbed up five places throughout the competition to take home the bronze individual medal. The overnight leader, Sable Giesler dropped a rail with Evil Munchkin to lose out on the top spot, but was still able to earn the silver.

CH-Y**: Area III Defends Their Gold

The Gold medal is staying in Area III for the second year as the team was able to regain the lead that they had lost after dressage with three double clear show jumping rounds. In addition to the team gold, Area III won the individual gold and bronze medals for the Southeast. It was third times a charm for 19-year-old Devon Brown and Donna Miller’s 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse Gelding, Dynamic Image (Dan). On their third trip to the Young Riders Championships they were able to pull all of the phases together to earn double gold.

“It is unreal winning double gold,” said Devon. “Dan has been having some confidence issues this year after moving him up to Advanced, so I dropped him down and came here hoping for just a good run in each phase and to give him a confidence building weekend. It is just amazing that we were able to finish on our dressage score and earn gold.”

“Today’s show jumping course was definitely difficult,” continued Devon. “I thought that it rode harder than it walked too. All the horses came out feeling really good after yesterday’s long cross-country course and were able to jump around great.”

Also from Area III was individual bronze medalist, Sarah Kamensky and Urlanmore Beauty who jumped a double clear round. “This is only the second two-star Ricky and I have completed,” said Sarah. “He is a really good jumper and has a great gallop, so my main concern today was just making sure he was listening to my half-halts and didn’t get too distracted by the atmosphere in the arena.”

Libby Head riding Sir Rockstar and Emily Renfroe with her mare, Walk The Line rounded out the members of the Area III gold medal winning team.

With a nail biting finish, the combined team from Areas V and IX had to settle for silver as the riders had a few too many rails down this afternoon. Seventeen-year-old Jacob Fletcher and his 14-year-old Australian Sport Horse Gelding, Falcon Splash were the trailblazers for both dressage and cross-country, but the spot in the line-up didn’t seem to faze them and the pair moved up from ninth after dressage to finish with the individual silver medal on their dressage score of 57.2. “My biggest worry after cross-country was that he will have enough energy for show jumping,” said Jacob. “But he definitely had enough today. The course was also perfect for me because a lot of the lines were waiting and Splash has a short stride.”

“The coolest thing about Young Riders is that it is a team competition,” continued Jacob. “You just don’t see anything like it except at the Olympics, WEG, and Pan-Ams, and I am not going to be competing there anytime soon!”

Like their one-star compatriots, Team Canada took home the bronze medal in the team competition. The members of this team came from all across Canada and didn’t know each other before the event, but were able to come together and create a sense of team spirit.

And so another Young Riders championships comes to a close as work begins for next year and another group of future eventers set their sights on Kentucky.