He ends the six-week series of shows on a bitter-sweet note.

Norman Dello Joio’s victory on Malcolm in the $50,000 Vermont Summer Festival Celebration Grand Prix was a bitter-sweet win. He dedicated his first-placed finish to Max Richter, a partner in the Malcolm Group, which owns the gelding. Richter, the husband of Judy Richter, died a few days before class, held on Aug. 19.

When he learned of Richter’s death, “We almost didn’t stay at the show, because we felt we should be with Max’s wife, Judy,” said Dello Joio, who rode Malcolm to two major prix wins in the last two weeks of the July 11-Aug. 19 Vermont Summer Festival at the Harold Beebe farm in the shadow of the Green Mountains in East Dorset, Vt.

Dello Joio, of Wellington, Fla., said he thought the jump-off for the Vermont Summer Celebration Grand Prix “was very, very fast.” True to his feeling, each of his eight jump-off rivals turned in progressively faster times.

When Dello Joio cantered onto the course, Hillary Dobbs of Sussex, N.J., led with a time of 33.45 on her Corlett. “I was lucky to go last so I knew exactly what I had to do,” said Dello Joio after he beat Dobbs’ time by .20 seconds.

The week before, Dello Joio and Malcolm topped the $30,000 Manchester And The Mountains Grand Prix.

Dello Joio bought the 9-year-old, chestnut Dutch Warmblood son of Concorde two years ago. “We went through a period where we tried to figure out his form. I think right now we have done our homework, and he is coming into his own. He’s a horse with a great future ahead of him.”

North Run In First
Dobbs was thrilled to come in second with her Corlett and sixth with Quincy B. “It’s always nice to have two horses in the jump-off because after you go on your first horse, you know what you need to improve on with your next horse,” said Dobbs, 19, a freshman at Harvard University (Mass.).

Dobbs placed in the top five consistently in the grand prix events throughout the six weeks of the Vermont Summer Festival, and she thought she had a good chance of winning the finale. She and Quincy B put in a clean trip in 33.46 seconds for sixth place.

But she went for broke on Corlett. “She’s naturally faster so I thought I could take a shot at winning, but Norman was the master,” she said.

Both Corlett and Quincy B belong to Sheila Burke, who, like Dobbs, trains with Missy Clark. “Some horses are an honor to ride, and it is so with those two,” added Dobbs.

The banner at Clark’s North Run tackroom was festooned with blues by the end of the Vermont Summer Festival, and Kimberly McCormack added her share.

At the final show of the series, the Vermont Summer Celebration, Aug. 15-19, McCormack, 16, catch rode Burke’s Hertoile Platiere to win the high junior/amateur-owner jumper classic. The Claremont, N.J., teen catch rode Athlone Partners‚ the dark bay mare ridden by Burke, to a 32.02-second victory in the $10,000 Junior/Amateur-Owner Jumper High Classic.

“She has a lot of catch rides and is a very hard worker,” said Clark, who began working with Kim two years ago after training Kim’s older sister, Kristy, to numerous wins.

McCormack’s 16.3-hand mount “has probably the biggest stride of any of the horses in the class, so I did one less stride between the first two fences and the pair after them,” said Kim, who rode Clark’s Nigel S to a pair of high junior jumper classic victories earlier in the show series.

Kim isn’t nervous about following in her big sister’s footsteps. “She opened so many doors for me. I would never be where I am if she hadn’t done this first,” said Kim. The high school senior wants to delay entrance into college for a year to concentrate on her junior career.

Making It Work
The husband-wife team of jumper riders, Mike and Kris Kennedy, of Newtown, Pa., made the three weeks they were at the Vermont Summer Festival profitable. Mike, who works in the title insurance field, was the circuit champion of level 5 jumpers with his Toulouse, 7. Kris, a graphic designer, placed consistently in adult amateur jumper classes on her Quest D’Or, 14.

“I usually win one or two up here, but last year I didn’t win any,” said Kris. Since her “Snoopy” has proved that his specialty is the adult jumper division, she’s concentrating on the Marshall & Sterling and NAL classes to qualify for finals this fall. The 17-hand bay won the NAL/WIHS adult amateur jumper classic during the Valley Classic, Aug. 1-5.

“Mike wants me to retire Snoopy, and he wants to give me his horse, but I don’t think Snoopy wants to retire,” Kris said of the gelding she has had for eight years.

Snoopy, a Belgian Warmblood, “is always bored with the first round, but he likes the jump-offs. He likes turning tightly and going fast,” Kris said.

Jaylaan Ahmad-Llewellyn was also a force to be reckoned with in the adult amateur jumper classes with her Evian and Minute Maid. During the final week of showing in Vermont, she topped the NAL/WIHS adult amateur jumper classic aboard Minute Maid, or “O.J.,” a mare she bought sight unseen on the word of her previous trainer, James Lala.

“She was a 1.45-meter horse and had been doing mini-prix classes when I bought her. You ride her like a hunter to really big jumps, then she powers up,” Ahmad-Llewellyn said of O.J., a daughter of 1996 Olympic individual gold medalist Jus de Pomme.

“She’s incredibly fast and turns really fast. She lands off a fence, going halfway to wherever you are going,” Ahmad-Llewellyn said of the chestnut warmblood mare, 8, who she has had for two years.

Ahmad-Llewellyn, 29, lives in New York City, and her time with her horses is dictated by the pace of her businesses, one of which is a record company and the other a new line of equestrian clothing. She now trains with Jeffery Welles and hopes to move up to the high amateur-owner jumpers.

Multi-Tasking
Canadian trainer Angela Covert-Lawrence rode Oxford to the regular working hunter circuit championship for the second year in a row.

“ ‘Oxie‚’ was a jumper up until two years ago when we put him in the hunters. It was our idea to make him a hunter because a lot of his offspring were excelling in the hunter ring,” said Covert-Lawrence, of Halifax,
Nova Scotia.

“He breeds about 35 mares a year in addition to showing,” Covert-Lawrence said of the 10-year-old, chestnut, Dutch Warmblood son of Burgraaf. He was imported as a 2-year-old from the Nijhof breeding stable in Holland by Patricia Metcalf’s Quo Vadis Stable. Covert-Lawrence started riding Oxie in 2004.
Oxie debuted as a four-foot horse and was champion of the regular working hunters at last year’s St. Clements Saratoga I (N.Y.) in May, “so we thought we were on the right track,” Covert-Lawrence said.

The second year green working hunter circuit champion, Sam Adams, came to Patty Foster’s barn in Brookeville, Md., through a client who offered to sell “Sam” to Foster.

The 9-year-old, bay Dutch Warmblood does triple duty as a junior hunter for her daughter, Ashley, 11, and in the amateur-owner division with Foster’s husband, Kevin. Foster’s sister, Mary Lisa Leffler, rides the
15.3-hand gelding in the second year division, making it a true family effort.

Ashley was named best child rider on a pony the last two weeks of the Vermont Summer Festival, riding her Hillcrest Blue Snip, a gray Welsh pony. The pair also earned the small pony hunter circuit championship.
Another pony from Foster’s barn, Meant To Be, claimed the large pony hunter circuit title with Lexi Selldorff aboard. “We just bought the pony, and it was exciting because it was the first time Lexi rode in the three-foot division,” said Foster.

Gerald “Gerry” Camera and his Lothario, a 17.1 hand, chestnut Oldenburg gelding, 7, claimed the amateur-owner hunter, 36 and over, circuit championship.

“We won a couple of classes this year in Florida, and I took him to Devon [Pa.],” said Camera, of Ottisville, Pa. “He has gotten more and more consistent.”

Camera’s longtime trainer, Jeff Ayers, campaigned “Luther” in the first year greens and some second year green classes before Camera, who runs a financial planning firm, took over.

Nancy Degutis