Lexington, Ky.—Aug. 7

It’s fitting that pony jumpers at the U.S. Equestrian Federation Pony Finals are held in an arena as far away from their hunter counterparts as possible, because the two could not be more different worlds. While one set was turning in slow, rhythmical rounds in the Walnut Ring on one side of the Kentucky Horse Park, the other was battling it out in the Alltech Arena with a speedy Nations Cup-format team competition, and Zone 4 emerged victorious.

“It’s so much more fun, and it’s not so political,” said Charles Smith, 17, who rode Venice for Zone 4, said. 

“You go out there, and you don’t have to worry about, ‘How does my pony look? Is he a great modeler? Is he a great mover. You just lift him off the ground and go; it’s great!” said Anna Reising, 17, who rode Blue Me Away for Zone 4. “I think it’s more of the athletic aspect of riding.”

It certainly required a very athletic pony to conquer the Marc Donavan-designed course for the Pony Finals team competition—3’6” doesn’t look so big when its being jumped by a horse, but it’s truly a feat when the ponies fly over it with ease, and not all of them did. Rails, stops and a few falls were peppered throughout the class, and even the winning Zone 4 team ran into trouble in the first round. They posted a team score of 20 faults.

“I had a lot of trouble with the first round, because I didn’t go fast enough,” said Chloe Farnham, 15, who rode Cookies & Cream for Zone 4. Farnham parted aways with ‘Cookie’ in the opening round and was her teams drop score. “In the second round I got everything worked out, so Cookie and I did a lot better the second round.”

Everyone on the team did a lot better in the second round—the three senior members of the team, Farnham, Smith, and Reising; sailed around fault free, and the youngest teammate, 12-year-old Hallie Rush, took a single rail down for a four-fault drop score.

The team finished on their first round score of 20, 8 points ahead of the two teams tied for silver with 28 faults each (a rider from each team jumped off to break the tie, and silver went to Zone 9/10, bronze to Zone 2.

“We were pretty darn excited, because at that point we had sort of lost count of the score,” Zone 4 chef d’equipe Kim Maxwell said. Maxwell has headed up Zone 4’s pony jumper team for six years, with three team gold finishes.

“They’re amazing; every single one of them contributed equally to this championship,” Maxwell said. “I watched them grow as riders from each round, from their round last night to the first round to the second round. It was just phenomenal to watch them learn and explore the process.”

12-year-old Rush struggled to find the words to describe the feeling of competing on a team. She toyed with her commemorative team trophy, a glinting silver cup nearly as big as her head, as she smiled shyly at her teammates.  

“It’s just like, what a big opportunity this is, and having an awesome team to go through with this, and it’s just been amazing with you guys,” Rush said.

All four team members will now compete in the individual final, which takes place Saturday night at the Alltech Arena.

Check out the gallery for pictures of the whole cast of characters competing in the pony jumpers. 

Want more Pony Finals action? The first championships were awarded Wednesday with more on Thursday. Read about the mustang competing in the large greens on Friday and about four first time competitors.

Find all of the Chronicle’s coverage here. Don’t miss our in-depth magazine coverage in the August 24th issue of the magazine. Full Pony Final results are here.