The USEF Pony Finals National Championships is considered the Mecca for ponies, and the competition is a popular goal for many riders throughout the country.

The competition attracts the best of the green pony hunters, regular pony hunters and pony jumpers from all over the country to one location. Unlike at a typical show, each competitor can only show one pony in each division, and the entered rider is the only person who may school the pony throughout the week. It’s truly a showcase of that special child and pony relationship.

This year three young riders, Katie Ramsey, Louise Graves and Amanda Patton, will attend the finals at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, on Aug. 4-9.

For Ramsey, competing at Pony Finals has always been a major goal.

“She’s pretty tenacious about forming goals and making them work,” trainer David Wright said of the 13-year-old native of Mount Juliet, Tenn.

That tenacity and determination has been useful for Ramsey, whose road to Pony Finals has not been easy. She owns and shows one pony, Champlain Charade, a 6-year-old Welsh-Thoroughbred mare. Wright found the medium pony in Florida 21⁄2 years ago, recognizing the pony’s raw talent. But working with a young, inexperienced pony was a challenge for Ramsey, then 11.

“When I got Charade, she was really green,” remembered Ramsey. “I had to work really hard to get her to where she was rideable. She was a stopper, and she couldn’t canter that well.”

Ramsey never dreamed that the palomino pony would take her to her first Pony Finals 11⁄2 years later. In 2008 the pair placed eighth in the medium green under saddle, but a bobble in their over fences round kept them out of the overall placings. That experience only served to make Ramsey more determined to do well this year.

“I beat myself up some because I could have ridden better, and we could have done a lot better,” Ramsey said.

Still, she enjoyed the competition and is excited to return this year, and not just to improve upon her performance.

“Last year was really fun. I like Pony Finals because all of my friends are there. You also get to see where you are compared with all the other ponies in the country,” she said.

One of Ramsey’s biggest goals for the 2009 show season is to be in the top 20 percent of all the medium ponies at Pony Finals. Despite her rocky start with Charade, this isn’t an unreasonable goal. The two clinched the 2008 USEF National Medium Green Pony Championship.

“She’s come a long way,” Ramsey said of Charade. “She’s still hard enough so that it’s not boring, but she’s not bad. She has a good brain, she just didn’t know what she was doing when I got her.”

Ramsey’s understanding of green ponies has helped her take Charade to the top, and the experience will help her with her new 5-year-old junior hunter prospect.

“I like working with green horses,” Ramsey said. “It’s more fun because you get to see how much better you made them.”
    
Wright is confident that Ramsey is well up to the task of working with a young horse as she moves up from the pony divisions.

“Katie is great to work with,” Wright said. “She follows directions very well and has good feel. She’s good about staying on the plan. She’s shown all over the map–some green ponies, some made. She hasn’t owned many, but she’s been pretty successful with the ones she’s had.”

Although she’s transitioning to horses, Ramsey hasn’t ruled out returning to Pony Finals in 2010.

“I might lease a large pony next year because my horse won’t be ready to show,” said Ramsey, admitting that she’s sadly outgrowing Charade.

A Second Chance

Ramsey isn’t the only rider hoping to improve upon last year’s performance. Louise Graves, a rising seventh-grader from Nashville, Tenn., took third place in the large pony model last year with her Westphalian gelding Grey Goose, but they fell in the standings after the riding phases to finish 39th in the field of 92.

Returning this year with her 15-year-old Welsh cross, Arlington, Graves is determined to not let her nerves get the best of her.

“Last year I didn’t have the best round because I was really nervous,” said Graves, 11. “Arlington is a little bit easier to ride than my other pony, Grey Goose. Grey Goose is a little spooky, and Arlington has been to Pony Finals before and knows everything a little bit better than Grey Goose.”

Though Graves has been finding success this year with both ponies, she hopes that Arlington’s experience will help her perform her best at Pony Finals this year.

“I think that Pony Finals is really, really fun,” Graves said. “It’s one of my favorite shows because all of my friends are there.”

She also appreciates the efforts made by the organizers to make the competition fun for kids.

“They give everyone prizes, even if you don’t win,” she explained. Among these prizes are toy ponies and more useful products like a boot-polishing kit. “Also, they set up ‘kid jumps.’ It was so much fun!”

Graves said she’s especially focused prior to Pony Finals and spends more time in the saddle in preparation.

“Louise is very driven, and she has an extraordinary work ethic,” said trainer Travis Lubow. “She rides two ponies six days a week during the summer and during school.”

Graves has ridden with Lubow and his wife, Haley, in Thompson’s Station, Tenn., for the past three years.

“She likes to have fun, but at the same time she wants to be successful,” Lubow said. “Louise is very competitive and knows when a bigger competition is coming up, so I try to keep everything as laid-back and easy as possible. At the shows, I just let her go in and do her thing.”

The ambitious young rider plans to move into the junior hunter ring next year, but like Ramsey she doesn’t think this will be her final appearance at Pony Finals. She plans to keep showing Grey Goose, who is steadily improving. 

Climbing To The Top

Unlike Ramsey and Graves, 11-year-old Amanda Patton has never been to Pony Finals before. The young niece of show jumping superstar Beezie Madden, Patton has been riding for four years. She owns one pony, an 11-year-old pinto of indeterminate origin. Super Duper, better known as “Squirt,” is Patton’s first pony.

“She bought him very green and has been through many trials and tribulations, but now he marches around,” said trainer Janet Salem.

Patton has been training with Salem for the past year after moving too far away from previous trainer Sunny Stevens. She’s had Squirt for 21⁄2 years.

“We started in short stirrup, then we did our green year, and now we’re doing smalls,” said Patton.

A dedicated rider, Patton lives 45 minutes away from Salem’s barn but rides four days a week after school in addition to going to horse shows.

“As a fluke, she decided to go to Pony Finals at the 11th hour,” said Salem with a laugh, who is a self-proclaimed “big fan” of the show.

Patton teamed up with Stevens at the Tryon Riding & Hunt Club Horse Show (N.C.) in early June, where she won the grand pony hunter championship and qualified for Pony Finals. She’s ecstatic to be headed to Kentucky.

“Everybody says that it’s a fun show because everyone is there,” Patton said. “I have friends who have gone, and they said I should come.”

Patton only rides ponies and had never ridden a full-sized horse before last Christmas, when her family traveled to New York to spend the holidays with the Maddens.

Even though this will be her first Pony Finals, Patton has one experience that none of her fellow competitors share: On Christmas morning 2008, she rode Authentic, Madden’s Olympic gold-medal show jumper.

Squirt has a big stride for a small pony and can easily make it down the lines, but riding him didn’t prepare Patton for Authentic’s athleticism.

“It was really cool,” said Patton of her experience with the big bay. “I didn’t jump him, but I got to canter him. He was a lot different than Squirt. When he started cantering, I pulled him up at first because I thought he was going way too fast, but he just has a really big canter.”

Whatever happens at Pony Finals, Patton is sure to have a good time. Salem is taking 10 ponies to the Pony Finals, and she has her riders take lessons together before the competition to foster camaraderie and encourage teamwork.

“Pony Finals is a very doable goal, and you don’t need to have the most expensive pony to participate,” Salem said. “It’s the kind of horse show where you can go out there and fall off and have the worst round of your life, but when you come to the gate your trainer says, ‘Go get ice cream!’ ”

Salem’s teaching methods are sure to prepare Patton for Pony Finals and beyond. She encourages her students to excel academically by offering a reading list. Any student who reads one fiction book and one training book from the list receives a free lesson, and Patton has been quick to cash in on this opportunity.

“She’s a very hard worker and opts to use as little grooming help as possible,” Salem said. “She’s always the one helping out, and she does everything herself.”