Jay Z Stands Tall At HITS Ocala Winter Festival

A big heart and husky build combined with long legs and an ample step are just a few of the qualities Ashley Ann McGehee finds appealing—in a horse that is. During the HITS Ocala Winter Festival, Feb. 21-25, Ocala, Fla., McGehee and her 17.3-hand Hanoverian, Jay Z, towered above the competition, winning the large junior, 15 and under, championship.

“He’s gynormous!” said McGehee. “When we measured him, the stick stopped at 17.3, and he was still taller than that!”

Despite his mammoth build, Jay Z rides like a pony and keeps a nice steady rhythm around the course, allowing the 14-year-old McGehee plenty of time to get her eye on the next jump.

“He’s the biggest pony—so easy and fun to ride. He goes in a rubber snaffle and doesn’t change around the course as long as I maintain a rhythm. I have such a ball riding him, I could ride him all day,” she said.
McGehee first rode Jay Z at the Jacksonville National (Fla.), where she took home ribbons in the large juniors, but this was the first time she saw a tricolor ribbon hanging from Jay Z’s bridle.

In addition to showing in the large juniors, McGehee shuffles between rings, riding her sister’s Bold Venture in the small juniors, her equitation mount, San Marcos (on whom she was second in the ASPCA Maclay and third in the USET), and trainer Don Stewart Jr.’s That’s Hot in the children’s jumpers.

“They’re all a blast to ride, but I think Jay is the most fun,” said McGehee. “But, the jumper teaches me the most—like how to control my body.”

Body control is just one thing that McGehee works on during her 6:30 a.m. lessons with Stewart. “He sets up really hard, technical courses. But nothing’s bigger than 3' so that we can work on our riding and position,” McGehee said.

“Ashley Ann is a very good student with a wonderful disposition and good sense of humor. She always has a smile on her face when she’s around me. We work nicely together, and she doesn’t mind getting up early [for lessons]. She’s just a sponge for knowledge,” said Stewart, whose horse, Likewise, was also champion in the amateur-owner, 18-35, with daughter Erin Stewart.

Although McGehee’s trained with Stewart almost her whole life, while at home she rides at Five Fillies Farm, Jacksonville, Fla., a barn her mother, Terri McGehee, started four years ago.

Like Mother Like Daughter
An avid horse enthusiast herself, Alexandra Carlton’s mother, Bernadette Keyes, opened Cedar Brook Farm, Madison, Conn., for their growing collection of horses and ponies.

Following a successful pony career, Carlton moved up to the three-foot division during the HITS Ocala circuit and claimed the children’s, 14 and under, championship with her new horse, Chanel #5, whom she affectionately calls “Lily.”

“She was part of my Christmas present,” said Carlton, 12. “I got her Dec. 16, and so this was only our third horse show at three feet.”

Carlton was making the transition from pony to horse, and trainer Brianna Davis had just the horse in mind. She’d seen Lily showing at HITS Saugerties (N.Y.) over the summer and liked her slow and honest way of going, but didn’t have a customer in mind at the time. After Keyes and Carlton started looking for a first horse, Davis took them to see Lily.

“She’s really lazy and sweet. She doesn’t put her ears back at all, so she looks very happy the whole time going around the course. She doesn’t swish her tail at all and she moves really well and jumps pretty good, but if I don’t keep my leg on her, she’ll break to the trot,” said Carlton, who added that the hardest part about moving up to horses is the extra leg required to get Lily’s motor going.

In addition to winning her children’s hunter championship, Carlton also swept the children’s pony division and won the children’s pony hunter classic. Of the six classes she competed in, Carlton and Float Your Boat, an 8-year-old Welsh, received the top call five times and were third once.

“He can get a little fresh sometimes and is very good at lead changes, so I have to really be on top of holding him on his lead to the jumps,” said Carlton, who hopes to move up to the large pony hunter division in the near future.

Through watching other top riders, like Samantha Schaefer, Carlton improves her riding.

“I like watching the pony hunter riders because a lot of them are really accurate, especially Sam [Schaefer]—I think it’s impossible for her to miss,” said Carlton, who jogged Schaefer’s reserve champion small junior hunter, Monroe, in one of his over fences classes.

Burning The Midnight Oil
Not only was Schaefer reserve champion in the small junior, 15 and under, division with Monroe, she also took the championship in the same division with Keli Colby’s Sunfest, as well as the tricolor honors in the large pony hunter division with Winston.

Sunfest did double duty over the weekend, showing in the junior hunters and the adult amateur, 36-45, division with Colby, who purchased the horse only two weeks earlier from Lily Gildor.

“I saw Sam showing him in the juniors a few months ago and really liked him,” said Colby, who trains with Schaefer’s trainer, Kim Stewart at Glenwillow Farm in Jefferson, Md. “Kim suggested that I try riding him, and we got along really well.”

Even though she started riding at a young age, work and a post-college career took the place of horses for Colby. However, a job change a few years ago has allowed her time to get back in the tack. She’s now trying to make the most of the limited time she has with the horses.

“Kim’s done a lot for my confidence by matching me with animals she knows I’ll feel comfortable with,” said Colby, 45.