Today, May 24, at the Devon Horse Show, it was all about two young riders. Lillie Keenan made a clean sweep of the pony divisions, riding Rolling Stone to the small tricolor, Light Up The Year to medium championship honors and Beau Rivage to the large pony and grand pony championships.  She also claimed the Best Child Rider on a Pony title. 

Jessica Springsteen did a little dominating herself.  With just two rides in the junior hunters, she came away with all the tricolors she could.  Tiziano was her grand junior and large junior, 15 & under champion, while she rode Sublime to the small junior, 15 & under tricolor.  The judges—Linda Andrisani and Danny Robertshaw—also deemed her the Best Child Rider on a Horse.

Jennifer Waxman took the small junior hunter, 16-17 tricolor aboard Zoom, while Katherine Newman catch-rode Castleton to the large junior, 16-17 title. 

Winning Handily
The junior hunter riders had an interesting challenge in their handy hunter course this morning.  Blake Alder designed an unusual course.  They had to jump a vertical along the long side of the ring, then rollback to the right immediately to a snake fence of brush boxes four panels wide.  They had to choose a panel at the snake fence, then proceed in six strides to an oxer.  After a long two-stride combination and a bending line of six strides to an oxer, they rolled back to the right again and jumped the snake fence again, choosing another panel.  Upon landing, they turned left to a trot jump.  It was a deceptively simple course, but asked the riders to be accurate and forward.

Californian girl Laura Ware topped the large junior hunter, 16-17 handy class and won the Third Fox Hill Cup for the top handy score out of all four divisions.  She rode Parker to the blue.  Parker, 7, was originally supposed to be an equitation horse for Ware and he now does double duty in the junior hunters and equitation divisions.  He and Ware finished the weekend as the reserve junior hunter champions and earned ribbons in the equitation classes.  “I didn’t think my handy round was as good as the judges obviously did, but everything came up so quickly and well.  He’s very handy and he’ll do turns and bending lines all day long,” Ware, who trains with Archie Cox and her mother, Carlyn Biava, said.

Springsteen won her handy classes on both Tiziano and Sublime, conquering what has been a problem area for her—the trot jump.  “I had a little trouble with trot jumps with Sublime in the beginning,  We couldn’t do a trot jump for a year!” she said.  But it’s all coming together with both horses.  “They’re both pretty alike.  They’ve got big strides and they don’t look at anything,” said Springsteen.  She’s had both horses for three years and Tiziano, 8, was originally supposed to be a pleasure horse for her mother, Patti Scafila.  But once Springsteen and trainer Stacia Madden recognized his potential, Tiziano had a new career.

Bouncing Back
Keenan got off to a strong start on Day 1 of Devon, winning two classes on Light Up The Year and placing first and second with Beau Rivage.  But she also had a tough moment.  In the first class of the large division, her Vanity Fair slammed on the brakes at an oxer, tossing Keenan over his head.  “I was having a perfect trip, but I laid up the neck when we got there and I can’t do that on him.  He made the right decision.  I needed a wake-up call.  I had to remind myself not to lean up the neck the last stride,” Keenan said.  She and Vanity Fair got back in sync on Day 2, placing second over fences and winning the under saddle.  “It makes me equally proud as winning on the other ponies, knowing that I fixed my mistake on him,”