A pair of amateur riders ousts the country’s top professionals from the top spots in Lake Placid.

When 27 of the country’s best riders can’t get around a grand prix course fault-free, things don’t look good for an amateur on a new partner.

But Charlie Jacobs wasn’t intimidated to ride second-to-last in the $75,000 Hermés Grand Prix in Lake Placid, N.Y., even with no faultless pathfinder before him. He knew that he and Secret Love had the talent to handle a big track, and he proved it on July 5 during I Love New York, when he laid down the only clear round of the day to take the top check back to Weston, Mass.

Louis Jacobs’ careful ride aboard Kachina nearly prompted a brother-brother jump-off, but the pair ticked a rail over the last fence. As the fastest of nine four-faulters, Louis finished second ahead of Kirk Webby and Sitah.

Two days of on-and-off heavy rain prompted show management to delay the week’s signature class a day until Sunday, when 29 pairs took to Lake Placid’s huge grass field. Conrad Homfeld built a challenging track, with a big uphill combination that shed rails left and right, and a 12-foot open water that sent plenty of horses splashing down.

“I was surprised to win,” admitted Charlie. “I feel lucky that I was the only clean, but I thought we’d have a few more in the jump-off, to be candid. I think I’ve got the nicest pony in the class! I knew that if I gave him a good shot he’d do his best for me. We have a good rapport.”

Secret Love (Burggraaf—Blonde) spent some time on grand prix fields with Allison Robitaille before Charlie took over the ride midway through the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.) He spent a few shows in the amateur-owner divisions before stepping up the Belgian Warmblood to the open classes during the first week of Lake Placid.

“He jumped just beautifully,” said Charlie. “I jumped the open water on him for the first time last week. I just kind of got his motor going and hoped I’d find it. I was more concerned about the skinny oxer a few strides later, but he had no problem.”

Family Fun

Charlie and Louis have plenty of grand prix experience under their belts. Charlie represented the United States in Europe during Nations Cup competition when he was 18, and the American Grandprix Association named Louis their rookie of the year when he was 20.

But as adults the brothers turned their focus to their careers in family businesses. Louis works as the executive vice president of Delaware North Companies in Buffalo, N.Y., and Charlie serves as president of the National Hockey League’s Boston Bruins, as well as sitting on the board of the New England Sports Network.

“Five days a week, or sometimes more, I’m riding a desk,” quipped Charlie. “My horses usually live [at the Jacobs’ Deeridge Farms] in Buffalo. Most of the time I’m commuting from the show to the office or vice versa. I get to ride a bit on a weekend and during the winter, but it’s hard to get out more than that.”

Though Louis can get in the saddle more often as he lives near the family farm, he remained humble about his expectations compared with his horse’s talent.

“I ride as much as I can, but it’s never as much as I’d like,” he said. “I really enjoy more than anything else bringing along a young horse; Kachina was 7 when I got her. With a top rider she could do it all.”

With a dozen riders in the Jacobs family, Deeridge sent more than 30 horses to Lake Placid, one of the fixtures on the family calendar, to compete in everything from the small/medium children’s ponies on up to the grand prix.

Louis’ second-placed performance, coupled with the previous week’s third-placed ride, earned him an extra honor: The Richard and Diana Feldman Perpetual Trophy for Excellence, awarded to the rider with the best grand prix finishes over the two weeks.

“Richard has been a godsend for this horse show, and to get my name on that trophy is a big deal,” said Louis. ”I’ve been the vice chairman of this show for a number of years, and what happens here happens because Richard Feldman gets up 365 days a year and makes it happen.”

A Sunny Weekend For Auletto

When Jaime Auletto lost her longtime amateur-owner partner Back For More last fall, he left behind some sizable shoes to fill. The pair had developed the kind of bond that’s born of spending 10 years together, both at horse shows and on her family’s farm, where Auletto was in charge of his daily care.

“I was so attached to ‘Lenny,’ and losing him was really upsetting,” said Auletto, 28. “The world revolved around him.”

But in Florida this year Auletto found a worthy successor in Sunny Moon, and the pair have already collected a stack of tri-colors, most recently capturing the amateur-owner hunter, 18-35, title during I Love New York. Auletto rounded out her trip to the Adirondacks with two other championships, topping the low amateur-owner hunter division on Winnetoe and earning the adult jumper, 18-40, title aboard Candido Z.

Auletto rode Sunny Moon in the mare’s U.S. debut this winter, earning top honors in the adult amateurs when she was fresh off the plane from Europe. Then they gave the first year green division a try the following week.

“Sometimes she might not know exactly what to do, but she always tries 100 percent,” said Auletto. “She’s fantastic in the handy classes, which is unusual for such a green horse. She’s so game; it makes everything very enjoyable.”

Sunny Moon’s precociousness contrasts with Auletto’s project horse, Winnetoe. Auletto took her time with the green 6-year-old, and this season he’s racked up the show miles he’s needed for everything to finally come together at Lake Placid.

“He’s super cool but different,” said Auletto. “She’s tiny, a little powerhouse. He’s big and very slow and graceful. They couldn’t be two more opposite rides. I’ve had him a while, but he’d always taken a back burner to my amateur horse. Now with the 3’3″ [amateur-owner] division I can get him in the show ring more, and he’s really started to step up this season.”

In Auletto’s career, the horses have always been a family affair. Her two hunters join a pair of miniature donkeys and her mother’s pleasure mounts at her family’s farm in Blackwood, N.J. She stops by the barn before and after working at her father’s catering business, trailers her own mounts to shows, and counts on her mother to lend a hand at competitions when she can attend.

Auletto meets Redfield Farm trainer Emil Spadone on the road, whom she credited with guiding her every step of the way. Before finding her Sunny Moon, Spadone suggested she lease Candido Z and try her hand in the jumpers as a fun break.

“As a junior, I never did the jumpers, or even the equitation, so this was all new,” she said. “In the beginning I’d go pretty slow, and everyone would yell at me not to do hunter turns. But I’ve been going faster, and this season I’ve had a ribbon in almost every classic, but this was the first classic I actually won, which felt great.”

Five For Six

They just don’t come much more consistent than Early Winter and Chris Brown. The pair notched their fifth amateur-owner, 36 and over, championship in their last six outings during I Love New York and earned the grand amateur-owner tricolor as well.

“It’s been a great run,” said Brown, who competed despite two days of rain. “He turned into a mudder this weekend. The first class his greenness came out just a little bit, but we went back, and he was like, ‘I got it, don’t worry.’ ”

Brown’s trainers Avery Dimmig and Rodney Bross picked out Early Winter 11⁄2 years ago, when the big-boned Hanoverian was just 4. They thought he would be a great partner for Brown. Although Early Winter still had to grow into himself, Brown knew there was something special about the horse.

“I told them I didn’t want a pre-green horse,” recalled Brown, who nonetheless decided to try out the green-as-grass gelding. “I told them to set up one vertical and one oxer, and if he goes and does it I’m buying him. He was so great I vetted him the next day and paid for him that day.”

Brown spent last year concentrating on his veteran hunter partner, Carpaccio, and stayed ringside to watch Early Winter show in the first years with Dimmig. He started seriously campaigning the gray himself at the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.), giving his experienced mount a lighter season.

For Brown, riding the talented youngster has been a dream come true. “He’s incredibly soft—I never thought I’d have a horse that goes in a rubber snaffle,” he said. “He’s incredibly easy, with the best mind. Best of all, he comes out exactly the same every day.”

An interior designer based in Oakland, N.J., Brown counts on Dimmig and Bross, out of Monkton, Md., to keep his mounts legged up and ready for the amateur ring. Brown meets up with them when he can sneak away.

“They’ve done a wonderful job with me and my riding,” said Brown. “They have a wonderful program, and the horses stay in great shape. My job lets me have the freedom to go to horse shows and perform. I love it—it’s my escape from reality.”

A Serious Season

While Heather Hooker has been riding and showing for as long as she can remember, she’d never considered the horses her sole focus. But all of that changed this winter when she decided to turn her attention to the sport. She switched to a school that would give her more flexibility with her show schedule, gave up her posts as captain of the basketball and lacrosse teams, and started spending every spare moment in the saddle.

That hard work has paid off as Hooker has started jogging closer and closer to the front of the line, and during I Love New York she picked up the small junior hunter, 15 and under, and large junior hunter, 15 and under, tricolors aboard Up To Date and Perfectionist.

“This is her first big year doing the hunters on this level; she’s really getting good quite quickly,” said Scott Stewart, who started training Hooker fulltime this winter. “She really pulled it all together at Lake Placid.”

Hooker got her start thanks to deep family roots in horses. Her father Tim campaigns in the grand prix, her mother Nancy spent time in the hunter ring, and her grandfather Richard Prant has always been a strong supporter of the sport, most recently owning top hunters for Stewart.

“My grandfather owns most of my horses, and he’s very involved,” said Hooker, Wellington, Fla. “Whenever he comes to visit he’s in the barn. If we need help, he’ll muck stalls or whatever needs to get done. I always call him on Sunday night to give him the horse show report if he can’t come.”

Hooker’s two Lake Placid champions are among the most experienced in her string, with Up To Date serving as her first full-sized mount out of the ponies three years ago.

“She’s the one I know best,” said Hooker, 15. “We have a special connection, so when she goes well I get extra excited because she’s my baby.”

Hooker took over the ride on Perfectionist from Samantha Schaefer this year, as well as trying her hand on two of her grandfather’s greener mounts, Castlekeep and Castlewalk, in the juniors.

“It’s exciting learning to ride the greener horses. They can be a little more unpredictable, but sometimes they surprise me,” she said. “I’ll do one of my seasoned horses first so I can see where they might spook or what will be harder on the green one, but sometimes the green horses are calmer than the experienced ones.”

Besides stepping up her game with the hunters, Hooker has set her sights on starting in the jumper ring. She just took over the ride on Perle, another former Schaefer ride, and she’s been steadily moving into the ribbons in the junior jumpers.

“I’m very lucky to have such a great lineup of horses,” she said. “I want to get to the point where I can just focus on riding them better and better. I know that they can always do it, and I want to ride well enough that they can go their best.”

An Early Professional Debut

Most junior riders are content to spend their Wednesdays and Thursdays watching the professional divisions from the rail, but not Katie Dinan.

“I’ve always wanted to do the working hunters, and Angelo did the division some before we got him and afterwards with Tim Goguen,” said the 15-year-old. “I just thought it would be fun to do the four-foot. So [trainer] Steve [Weiss] said I could do it at Lake Placid.”

Dinan and Angelo sat out the juniors to jump to the top of the combined second year/regular working hunter division, clinching the grand hunter title after hacking off against Lyn Pederson’s Oberon.

“I jump higher than four-foot in the jumpers, but those hunter fences look much more built up than I’m used to,” said Dinan, New York, N.Y. “I tried to focus on finding my rhythm. I know that Angelo makes such a big effort over all the fences. I knew if I missed he’d really struggle to do the best that he could.”

Dinan and Angelo (Lasangos—Pretty Woman) started together 11⁄2 years ago, hitting their stride late last season after picking up small junior hunter, 15 and under, titles at Capital Challenge (Md.), the Pennsylvania National and the Washington International (D.C.), as well as U.S. Equestrian Federation Horse of the Year honors. Their hot streak continued at Devon (Pa.) where Dinan was also named best child rider.

“It was a little intimidating riding against the professionals,” admitted Dinan who trains with Weiss, Tim and Kelly Goguen and Ashley DiBongrazio. “The second week they combined the workings with the second years, so I think that my horse was probably the most experienced. He went beautifully.”