Our team had a great experience at A Finals, the week started off brutally hot out so we strung up our fans to keep our horses comfortable and by the end of the weekend our horses had switched to wearing sheets to stay warm. Although the weather through us for a loop, professional classes during the week went well for us. Zuzu made her comeback debut in the High Training Jumpers and came home with Champion! Alexa Paprosky's Vox also returned to the show ring after a few months hiatus and came out with many good ribbons including a first in the Schooling Hunters out of over twenty horses. Speak Kindly received good ribbons in the 2nd Year Greens, preparing for Harrisburg as well as third in the $1,000 Open Hunter Classic with scores of 86 and 82. Sailor's Delight and Frontier received good ribbons in the Pre Green's and Non Thoroughbred's respectively.
Our week continued with all the students arriving on Thursday and Friday. Lauren Robishaw and Frontier won the IHJA Adult Mini Medal Finals, and went on to win the Modified Adult Hunter Classic with scores of 81 and 83 and earn reserve champion in the Modified Adult Hunters. Mary Katherine Daley and her new pony Good Heavens were Champion in the Short Stirrup Hunter Division as well as the Short Stirrup Equitation, this pair was unbeatable this weekend! Michael Lenard won the IHJA Adult Medal Final Qualifier on Saturday aboard Ja'dore Moi, and borrowed Lauren's horse Frontier to go on to win the IHJA Adult Medal Finals on Sunday! Ashley Meek and her new horse Clockwork, won the final qualifier for the Children's Mini Medal, and went on to place 7th in the IHJA Children's Mini Medal Finals on Sunday! David Waimon and Speak Kindly ended up reserve champion in the Amateur Adult Hunters 36 & Over, winning two of the classes over fences and the hack class. Isabel Scharf made her debut in the horse show ring aboard Little Miss Sunshine. These two made a stellar match in the top three in every class of their division. They ended up Reserve Champion in the Large Children's Pony Hunters and was 2nd in the Children's Pony Hunter Classic. Adeline Rohrbach and her two horses, Cloud 9 and Snow White, earned many good ribbons in the Child/Adult Jumper Division and also found out this week that they are qualified for Pennsylvania National Horse Show in the NAL Children's Jumper Classic! Zoe Thomsen and Ja'dore Moi received many good ribbons in the Novice Children's Hunters. Alexa Paprosky and Vox showed in two classes this weekend in the Modified Adult Hunters and came in second and third out of a large group of contenders. Katie Hochschild and Gentleman's Quarterly earned many ribbons in the top three in the Small Junior Hunters and are looking forward to going to the Washington International Horse Show this year. Katie also earned ribbon's on her new green horse, Sailor's Delight in the Children's Hunters. Sarah Lanphere also rode Sailor's Delight in the Children's Equitation and earned many good ribbons!
We couldn't have asked for a better way to end the show season! We are so proud of the progress that each and everyone of our riders has made over the last year. Good luck to those who qualified for Pennsylvania National Horse Show and Washington International Horse Show!