Megan Young is proof that hard work and talent can win. Young, 17, doesn’t have a horse of her own, and works as hard as she can. But she didn’t let that get in the way at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show Junior Weekend, as she rode to the top of the Pessoa/USEF Medal Finals, claimed the grand junior hunter championship aboard the catch ride Navigator, and earned the Best Child Rider on a horse honors.

“She’s proof that if you really want it, you can get it,” said Christina Schlusemeyer, who trains Young along with Bobby Braswell.

Young proved in the second round of the Medal finals just how badly she wanted the win. She’d been called back in second place after the first round, behind Brianne Goutal, who won the BET/USET Show Jumping Talent Search-East (N.J.) last week. But Young’s brilliant ride over the second course moved her into the top spot. Young’s second trip was a model of precision and brilliance. She was one of the few riders to definitively collect and prepare her horse for the roll-back to a narrow white gate, and she struck a huge gallop to the last jump, which the riders were supposed to hand-gallop.

“I really thought Brianne would stay on top, because she never makes a mistake,” said Young. “But I came out of the last corner and went for the last jump and really galloped.”

“She flat out deserved to win,” said Goutal.

After the second round, Young stood on top of the call-back, with Goutal second, Addison Phillips third, and Kendle Handtmann fourth. Goutal and Young switched horses, as did Phillips and Handtmann. None of the four riders made any big mistakes on the change horses. But Goutal and Young agreed that their horses were polar opposites to ride.

“My horse is very stiff and turns like a board,” said Goutal. “But on Megan’s horse, I turned my head to look for the roll-back to the gate, and he just turned!”

“Brianne’s horse is definitely not as easy as she makes him look,” said Young. “I had a little problem getting him turned, but he listened and was wonderful.”

Young rode Crescendo in the class, an equitation horse loaned to her by Cortie Wetherill. She got the ride on the big chestnut gelding in September, when he came to Braswell and Schlusemeyer’s Quiet Hill Farm to be sold. She rode him to win the Monarch International North American Equitation Championship at the Captial Challenge (Md.) two weeks ago, but rode another borrowed horse to her third place in the USET Finals last week.

Young, of Jacksonville, Fla., grew up riding, since her mother, Katie, teaches at their Coriander Farm. Two years ago, she started training with Braswell and Schlusemeyer, always on catch rides. “She rides anything and everything,” Schlusemeyer said. Young doesn’t have a horse of her own, and is immensely grateful to her trainers for their efforts to find her good rides. But they’re usually sale horses, and as soon as she starts winning on them, they find new homes.

While Young and Goutal battled it out at the top two spots, Phillips and Handtmann moved up dramatically in the second round. Phillips was called back eighth after the first trip, but a beautifully fluid second round impressed the judges, Sue Ashe and Mary Chapot. Handtmann was sitting in fifth after the first round.

Haylie Jayne had been in third after the first round, and rode a second round with a big, lopey pace and nice touch. But a long distance at the narrow white gate left her in fourth at the end. Gabby Slome, very impressive in the first round to be called back in fourth, had trouble at the oxer into a three-stride combination, taking out both the top rails and taking her out of contention.

Michael Delfiandra set out to really impress the judges in his second round, being called back in sixth. He took a chance and hit a big gallop to the last oxer, but found a huge flier of a distance and dropped out of the running. Disaster struck for both Julie Welles and Jordan Lubow, called back seventh and eighth, when their horses each stopped twice.

Sloane Coles placed fifth with two very solid rounds. Josephine Nash had a remarkably fluid two trips and claimed seventh, while Maggie McAlary took eighth. Casey Ament moved up from 23rd to ninth, and Carolyn Kelly took tenth.

Some of the favorites for the Medal finals ran into trouble in the first round. Charlie Jayne, mounted on the inimitable Grappa, had a rail at the second fence and a few rubs over the course, and a deep distance to the last fence, a vertical off a long gallop. He was on the standby until the last group was called. Hardin Towell also had a rail, at the first fence, and a tight distance to the last, and was never on the standby.

Blythe Marano had a nice first round, but her horse caught the white gate behind and had it down. Catherine Wright, most recently fourth at the BET/USET Finals, found a very long distance into a one-stride combination in the first round. And Lexy Reed had a few tight distances over the course.

The course, designed by Ashe, Chapot and Conrad Homfeld, had none of the hallmarks of recent Medal Finals courses, It was a traditional type course, with the ring filled with jumps. The first round, alternating between long, flowing straight lines and tight turns at the ends of the ring, really tested the riders’ accuracy and their ability to adjust their horses’ stride. The second round, with open lines, gave them an opportunity to develop a flow and show off, especially on the gallop to the last oxer.