Aug. 12—Lexington, Ky.
In a nail-biting second round on Friday night during the pony jumper team championship at the USEF Pony Finals, the girls of Zone 7 gave it all they had to pull out the win over Zone 2. The team was awarded the Willow Grove Farm Perpetual Trophy, donated by U.S. Hunter Jumper Association President Bill Moroney.
The four riders and horses who made up Zone 7’s winning team are as follows:
- Sarah Walker, Dallas, Texas, and La-Ti-Da
- Kaitlin Miller Roberts, Dallas Texas, and Game On
- Brianna Butler, Leawood, Kan., and Al Capony
- Claire Salopek, Lafayette, La., and Sir Lance-A-Lot
After Round 1, Zone 7 entered the second phase, in which the top four teams were called back to ride the same course they had just jumped, tied in second place with the combined team of Zones 8 and 9. Each of these teams had 4 faults. Zone 2 sat at the top with 0 and Zone 4 rounded out the four. With Salopek putting in double-clear rounds and the other three teammates only putting four faults on the board in of their rounds, the team ended up with total 12-fault score to catch their victory.
Although during the first round, rails dropped, refusals were seen and a handful of riders were eliminated as they faced different elements throughout the course. Fence four, a vertical, proved to come up quickly after 2A and B, and its purple rails fell for the first four horse and rider combinations during the second go round, causing the rest of the competitors to take extra caution.
After 15 second round trips, Zone 7, whose territory is comprised of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma, pulled ahead with one faultless round and three 4-fault trips, one of which they were able to drop.
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“They were just incredible,” said Zone 7 chef d’equipe Matt Cyphert, who also acted as the zone’s chef last year. “Some of these girls were on the silver medal winning team last year, and how exciting for them to come back this year and win gold.”
Walker, 13 and Roberts, 16, were both part of the 2010 silver medal winning Zone 7/10 team.
Although some of the girls knew each other before this year’s Pony Finals, the foursome was new as a team unit. “We’ve gotten to know one another over the past week,” said Salopek, who was competing in her first Pony Finals. “And I think we had good team spirit.”
The silver medal Zone 2 team also had a total of 12 faults, but a slower time determined the difference. (Elizabeth Shaffer, Layton, N.J., and Styled With Perfection; Noah Buehler, Wall, N.J., and Porsche; Amanda Shaffer, Layton, N.J., and Little Miss Sunshine; Brooke Gunther, Chester Springs, Pa., and Fire Van Battenbroek).
Zone 4 took the bronze with 16 faults. (Lindsey Toothman, Carrollton, Ga., and Jean Claude; Caroline Hudon, Auburn, Ala., and National Treasure; Peter Droogmans, Palmetto, Ga., and Sky Miles; Julia Curtis, Villa Rica, Ga., and The Waterboy).
Bits And Pieces
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- Only one rider from each of the four zones called back into the second round jumped a clear trip.
- The team championship acted as the second qualifying phase for the individual championship, which will take place tomorrow evening, beginning at 6:30 p.m.
- In Thursday’s “Welcome Class” (and the first individual qualifying phase), Nicole Kehrli of Glenmore, Pa., and her pony Northwind’s Opus took first place honors over Salopek and Sir Lance-A-Lot and a member of Zone 2’s silver medal winning troup, Brooke Gunther of Chester Springs, Pa., earned the third-place ribbon aboard Fire Van Battenbroek. The girls managed to hold onto their placings after each riding clear rounds during the team championship.
Full individual results can be found here.
