The Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals kicks off today here at the Farm Show Arena in Harrisburg, Pa., at 7 a.m.
There are 287 riders from across the United States—and one from Puerto Rico—riding for a chance at one of the most prestigious equitation titles around.
Julie Winkel and Scott Hofstetter will be judging today, and they also designed the course. Sally Ike will be onhand to scribe for the judges.
The Chronicle is ringside live blogging throughout the day, and you can follow along here.
Other useful links and information:
•You can watch the live feed on EQSports.net
•Results from all of junior weekend at the Pennsylvania National and a schedule are available on Ryegate
•The official hashtag for the weekend: #70thPNHS
•Don’t forget to follow the Chronicle on Twitter and Instagram @Chronofhorse
•We will have full analysis of the competition in the Oct. 26 issue of the magazine.
Round 1 Course
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Judges Julie Winkel and Scott Hoffstetter have set today’s 11-fence course, which features plenty of natural obstacles and options for riders. There’s a split rail snake fence that riders will jump three times (!) in the same course. It looks like this track will require a very precise track to set them up for each test.
The track starts with a triple bar away from the in-gate. Riders then have an option of brush fences heading into the corner, then come around the turn to an airy Swedish oxer with brush underneath, but not in front of the fence. The Swedish is set as the into a broken line to a narrow gate, then riders go through the turn and swing back immediately to jump a snake jump of split rail fences. Fences 6AB is an in and out of airy, wide oxers with no ground line, set across the diagonal. Riders will need to find just the right track to fences 7 and 8, a pair of split rails set as a bit of a broken line. The track they ride there will set them up for their choice to 9, the split rail snake a few strides later. Riders then have to loop around and jump the same split rail again the same direction, then finish over a coop-coop-oxer combination.
