Lexington, Ky.—July 19

 It came down to one rail in hand. The junior eventing team at the Adequan/FEI North American Junior and Young Rider Championships were heading into show jumping without a key pair on their team. Morgan Booth and Twizzel, who sat second individually, were eliminated after the morning jog.

Twizzel had bumped his eye in his stall the night before, which caused some swelling, and had a sensitive front pastern. “He’s normally a very sensitive horse; he flinched whether you touched it or grabbed it, so we think it has something to do with his skin,” Booth said.

Connections who knew the horse thought he was still up to compete, as it seemed to be a superficial condition caused by the mud on cross-country the day before, but the ground jury vetoed his participation and the three Area II NAJYRC rookies—Skyler Decker, Camilla Grover-Dogde and Amanda Beale Clement—were left with a lot of pressure. With Twizzel, they’d have had five rails in hand; wihtout him, they couldn’t afford a misstep.

“We all got the news, and we all cried, had a moment,” said Decker.

But the first-timers got down to business and jumped three double clear rounds for the gold medal—and Grover-Dodge took home top individual honors to boot on Remington XXV, Boyd Martin’s former four-star mount.

“It was a little pressure, but once we were all clear it was just great,” said Grover-Dodge. “I’m so happy for everyone; everyone worked so hard so it was just the best feeling.”

“I was really proud of these girls; they were all first timers and I felt a little bit like the mother hen that was trying to help them through and tell them it’ll be OK, and I was really happy they were able to do it,” said Booth.

The girls credited their performance to their five-day camp experience with coach Sinead Halpin and Meg Kep leading up to NAJYRC.

“I think it just really shows our hard work paid off at camp—the early mornings, the icing, everything, it paid off,” said Decker, who rode Inoui Van Bost. “I think we’re more like sisters than friends now; we’re like family because we went through this experience together. We just knew of each other [before] but had always competed against each other.”

Area V took second place in the team competition while Area VIII rounded out the top three.

“I’m so happy, and I wouldn’t want to do it with any other girls,” said Clement, who rode Peter Pan. “Camp was great, best time of our lives. We bonded so much. We went to Target every day…”

The girls’ camaraderie was evident as they joked in the press conference about spending camp days at the barn and nights shopping at Target, which also included some skateboarding down the aisles and dance parties in the speaker section.

“I need to give a shout out to my man John in the electronics department—he got us hooked on the selfie sticks! We bought so many,” said Decker with a laugh.

Madelynn Snoozy took home individual second place on Udealer.

Shelby Brost took bronze on her off-the-track Thoroughbred, Crimson. Originally from Alberta, she moved to Ocala, Fla., in February to train with Kyle Carter, which made all the difference in her preparation before NAJYRC. Her reaction to landing on the podium was one of happiness and surprise.

For full results, click here.