A young rider and a seasoned pro walk away with big wins today.

Canadian Samantha Clark may have been the youngest rider in the 5-year-old Spalding Labs/USEA Young Event Horse Championship, but that proved anything but detrimental today, Sept. 9. The 20-year-old rider from Cambridge, Ont., rode her own Asterion, a gray Trakehner gelding bred by Tim and Cheryl Holekamp, to the top of the division with 84.21 points.

Holekamp horses dominated today’s competition, sweeping the top slots in the 4-year-old division as well. Asterion is sired by Darren Chiacchia’s four-star mount Windfall II and out of Asteria. Clark bought the 16.0-hand gelding from Chiacchia two years ago when she first became his working student.

Today’s win came as a visible surprise to Clark, who defeated several veteran riders, Chiacchia included, in the championship. She captured the win with stellar jumping form in the final phase, which was postponed several hours to allow the cross-country course to dry after yesterday’s heavy rains.

“I was just hoping to get in the dressage ring and make some improvements on things, and then have a nice, bold jump course,” she said. “It was just a great day.”

Clark spends her winters in Ocala, Fla., with Chiacchia, but stays at home in Ontario in the interim, trailering to her coach’s farm in northern New York for lessons. She also works with dressage trainer Jill Stedman. When not riding, she works as a waitress and helps her dad at his renovation business.

“I’m just a typical teenager,” she said. “It’s been a challenge. We started out at the bottom together. We’re learning together and still getting to know each other, but I’m hoping he’ll be my first upper-level horse.”

Clark will also be competing her “Smokin’ Silver Bullet” in the amateur training division of the American Eventing Championships later this week.

“We’re hoping for another blue ribbon!” she said.

Tera MacDonald claimed her second reserve championship in as many years with La Tee Da, falling short of first place by less than a point. The pair had the lead after the dressage, but slipped to second after some green behavior in the jumping phase and finished on a score of 83.47.

The 5-year-old course consisted of several show jumps, followed by a rolltop cross-country obstacle and a decorated log into water. Other “skinny” elements tested precision, and a galloping portion at the end of the course allowed each horse to stretch his or her legs. MacDonald had a few sticky fences, but no major problems.

“He was acting like a baby,” MacDonald admitted. “It’s the typical young horse thing. He’s like riding a football. You just never know which way he’s going to go.”

Despite a few wiggles and looks, the Chicago-based rider was tickled with the young Thoroughbred-Hanoverian gelding she refers to as “Miro.”

“He’s a once-in-a-lifetime type horse for me,” she said. “We bred his mom to one of [my mother in-law’s] racehorse stallions as kind of an experiment, and it sure has turned out well so far!”

MacDonald manages a private breeding farm across the border in Wisconsin and is also a national sales representative for Jump 4 Joy. While her commute and work schedule allow less time for riding than she’d like, horse activities remain a family affair. In fact, MacDonald has her 4-year-old son to thank for keeping Miro (Judge Sefas—Miss Mikimoto) entertained.

“He’s the goofiest horse in the barn,” she said of the gelding. “We try not to leave too many toys just laying around, but he loves picking up my son’s dump truck and tossing it all over the aisle.”

In the 4-year-old division, British professional Leslie Law emerged the winner with Amarna, a 16.1-hand Trakehner mare, with a score of 81.48. Owned and bred by the Holekamps, Amarna (Amethyst—Actress) came to Law in April for training. His wife, Canadian eventer Lesley Grant-Law, has already ridden the mare through training level and will compete her in the training horse division of the AEC later this week.

“She’s got a great temperament and nice movement,” Law said. “She’s a very quality mare. I’m absolutely delighted for [the Holekamps]. They’re great supporters of the sport. Breeding is a long-term plan.”

Law, whose mount All The Buzz won the 2007 5-year-old reserve championship and embarked on an impressive winning streak in the following year, is a proponent of the Young Event Horse series. He also rode two other horses in today’s competition—Super Nova, a Thoroughbred owned by Tracy Corey, and his own Irish Thoroughbred, Mad Skillz.

“I’ve always produced my own horses,” he said. “I always did [the young horse programs] in the U.K. as well. They’re slightly different here, but it’s good to be able to introduce these horses to these kind of facilities. It’s a great introduction for them.”

Close on Law’s heels in the 4-year-old division was California young rider Max McManamy with another Holekamp-bred youngster, Project Runway. A Trakehner-Paint cross, the flashy 15.2-hand gelding (Windfall II—Polarschecke) turned plenty of heads throughout the day. The pair moved into the reserve slot with a calculated but confident jumping round, finishing on a score of 79.31.

McManamy made the 4-year-old division’s course look easy, riding boldly through the open water crossing and pushing through a half-coffin combination that had several of the younger horses on edge.

Did You Know?

The U.S. Eventing Association’s Young Event Horse competitions score horses with positive marks, as opposed to the penalty points used at horse trials and three-day events.

A panel of three judges ranks the field in three phases—an in-hand conformation inspection (worth 15 percent of the total point count), a dressage test (worth 35 percent) and a combined show jumping/ cross-country jumping test for suitability and potential (worth 50 percent).

For the 4-year-old division, 30 percent of the jumps must be at the maximum height of 3’3″ to mirror the specifications for the training level; for 5-year-olds, the maximum is the preliminary standard of 3’7”