Elizabeth Shoudy

When Aaron Vale started training Paige Andros in February, he had no idea that her ambition would leave him gasping for breath during the Kentucky Hunter/Jumper Association Grand Prix. The class was held in Lexington, Ky., during the KHJA Horse Show, Aug. 23-27.

"I was really hoping to win when I went in for the jump-off. I was second to Aaron and Mobile U the week before, so this week I really wanted to make him run," said Andros with a smile.

And she did.

From business suit to blue jeans to boots and breeches, Louis Jacobs has spent much of his lifetime perfecting a balancing act that comprises horses, family and a career.

At 42, Jacobs, of Buffalo, N.Y., divides his time between his wife, Joan, two children, Charlotte and Louis Jr., a full-time career and a barn full of horses stabled at his father's Deeridge Farm.

Lee Kellogg had the old saying "practice makes perfect" in mind when she bought Gratified in the fall of 2005. Purchased as a horse to practice on before showing her other two amateur-owner hunters, Gifted and Duplicated, she never imagined that Gratified would be the horse that she'd take home the amateur-owner, 18-35, championship on at the I Love New York Horse Show, July 5-9 in Lake Placid, N.Y.

When Katherine Bateson-Chandler heard the results of the Grand Prix on Feb. 17, she thought she'd finished second (69.51%) behind George Williams and Marnix (70.06%) at the Zada Enterprises, LLC Florida Dressage Classic in Wellington, Fla., Feb. 16-19. It wasn't until she was driving out of the show on Saturday that she realized there'd been a mistake.

In her first grand prix event of the year, the 2005 American Grandprix Association Horse of the Year, Madison, ridden by Kent Farrington, proved she is still on top of her game by winning the $60,000 Kilkenny/ICH Internationale Cup CSI*** in Wellington, Fla., on Feb. 12.

Kimberly Prince and Marlou, owned by the Windmill Ranch, also made their 2006 grand prix debut and were rewarded with second-place honors.

A disappointing performance and a 10th-placed finish in the USEF High Performance Grand Prix didn't stop Arlene Page and Wild One from rising to victory in the USEF High Performance Grand Prix Special two days later. With a score of 68.80 percent, Page and Wild One topped the field of seven contenders during the Wellington Dressage show in Wellington, Fla., Feb. 3-5.

Gerry Briggs isn't the first one to arrive at the horse show in the morning, but many horse shows don't start without him--it's his friendly voice over the loudspeaker that begins the day.

When Briggs sits in his announcer's booth, he's faced with dubious challenges. In a typical day, he struggles to pronounce hundreds of names and towns, strains his eyes reading the surplus of class sheets, and when he's doing the in-gate as well, answers the many questions that are fired at him from every direction.

When Joni Werthan left home in 1977 for college in Boston, Mass., she didn't anticipate that one day she'd operate one of the most successful hunter breeding farms in the country.

As she packed her bags for the long trip from her home in Tennessee, Werthan thought she'd be pursuing a career in fashion design. Now, almost 30 years later, she's the owner of Warioto Farm Inc., one of the leading show hunter breeding farms in the United States.

Traders Point Hunt
R.D. 1 Zionsville, Indiana
Established 1931
Recognized 1934
Overcoming Adversity
Jan. 21, 1955

Only seven years ago, Joshua Vanderveen swung his leg over a horse for the first time. In an unbelievably short climb to success, Vanderveen, aboard Bull Run's Apollo Anton, achieved his first major grand prix victory on July 31 in the $30,000 Lamplight Grand Prix at Equifest I, July 27-31, in Wayne, Ill.

"It was such a great feeling to gallop around first in the victory gallop with no one in front of me," said Vanderveen, 17.