USEF Medal Final

As Meg O’Mara circled for the last time, having jumped her third course, a hint of a smile played over her lips. She leaned forward and patted her horse. To the causal observer, it looked like she was cool, calm and assured of her success.

Perhaps not.

“It was just about the only time I breathed!” O’Mara quipped. “When they read the test to us, I started having a mental breakdown for like 30 seconds. I didn’t know what was going on. But I decided I just had to go out there and ride. I couldn’t freeze, because that’s usually what I do.”

Harrisburg, Pa. – Oct. 14

The Pessoa/USEF Hunter Seat Equitation Medal Finals are underway at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, and the Chronicle is here to provide coverage of all the action.

Meg O'Mara really impressed the judges with her confidence in all three of her rides today and won the 2012 Pessoa/USEF Hunter Seat Equitation Medal Finals! Lillie Keenan took reserve with Sydney Shulman in third.

FINAL ROUND

The 2012 Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals order of go.

Since both the judges for the 2012 Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals—Geoff Teall and Bill Moroney—have strong hunter backgrounds, it comes as no surprise that the first-round course has a very flowing, huntery feel to it.

The majority of the fences—all save two red jumps—are subtle colors. Some have extensive brush ground line fill, but others have minimal ground lines, and the Swedish oxer has no ground line.

Harrisburg, Pa.--Oct. 16

Schaefer Raposa was supposed to ride fourth to last in the second round, but her horse, Charlie Z, pulled a shoe in the schooling area. Maybe it was that little bit of extra time or maybe it was just written in the stars, but Raposa came in as the last of the riders in the second round and put in a flawless trip, and judges Chrystine Tauber and Jimmy Torano said it was the coolness with which Raposa entered the ring and the precision she showcased that put her right on top.

Judges Chrystine Tauber and Jimmy Torano called back 25 riders to ride off in the second round of this year's Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals. Fourteen obstacles (there are two combinations) make up the second course.

The first fence is the former fence 10 (narrow wooden coop) and has been expanded to a coop of standard length, and enhanced with a back rail to create an oxer. Riders canter five strides past the in-gate to fence 2, situated on rail. It is a post-and-rail-type vertical.

Two hundred thirty seven riders will compete in the 2011 USEF/Pessoa Hunter Seat Equitation Medal Final. The preliminary round will begin Sunday Oct. 16 at 7 a.m. Judges Jimmy Torano and Chrystine Tauber may call back 20 to 25 riders to the final round, which is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon.

The order of go is as follows:

Harrisburg, Pa., Oct. 17

It was the one fence that won it for Hayley Barnhill.

After a long day of two courses, a flat test, and a switch of horses, Barnhill ended up on top of the Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals. And it was the first fence she rode on Samantha Schaefer’s horse in the switch that clinched it for her. After two rounds and a flat phase, Barnhill and Schaefer were even in the eyes of the judges, George Morris and Julie Winkel. So, they brought both girls to the center of the ring, and had them dismount and trade horses, without assistance.

George Morris and Julie Winkel have set a classically straightforward course for the Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals. There are only 10 jumps in the ring, and they’re all plain, hunter type jumps, with minimal filler and a natural look. There is the infamous narrow wood coop, set with just a few bushes as wings, at the end of the ring. And it’s jumped twice, once off each lead. That jump always causes a few drive-bys.