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DEVON, Pa.--Clementina Brown of Kennett Square, Pa., riding Eagle, just missed the championship and grand championship of the Amateur Owner 3’6’’at the first week of the Brandywine Horse Show series that concluded on Sunday, July 1.

KatieMcVeigh and Goyard, GrandAmateur Owner 3'6"It was the very last fence of the last class that did her  in, so she finished as reserve champion.

"He was terrific," said Brown on Eagle. "I was going to be champion and grand champion until the last fence in the last class, the Handy, It was a tight rollback to the last fence, and I jumped up on his neck. so I blew it."

Louise Serio, who began the Brandywine series and serves as its president, rode Brown's young horse, Monarch.

"Monarch went 3' pre-green," said Brown. "He got some top ribbons, so we were very pleased with him."

"It was oppressively hot," said Brown. "I was lucky that our classes went at 7:30 in the morning. But the show did a great job. The managers (Skip Bailey and Geoff Teall) put out awnings. They had misters for the horses and tents for both people and horses. They were prepared ahead of time."

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THERE WERE beautiful courses," said Brown. "It's a very competitor friendly horse show. There were beautiful flowers. The ring looked even better than Devon's.

The Amateur Owner divisions concluded Saturday, and Katie McVeigh was the Grand Amateur Owner 3’6’’ champion on her Goyard.

In the Amateur Owner 3’3’’ Hunter, Stephanie Danhakl rode Starina B to the grand championship title.

Samantha Cooper on Ellen Malson’s Nandino captured the top honors during the week’s feature class, the $10,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby..

Second place went to Dominique Damico riding Nemesis 11, owned by Ramble on Farm, and third was Samantha Schaefer and In The Know, owned by Madeline Schaefer.

“I really enjoyed the course," said Cooper. "It was our first time doing a hunt and go too, so that was a different format that we haven’t experienced before. I appreciated it because it was so hot, to have the horses be able to get in and be done. I thought the course asked some good questions and gave the riders some flexibility to make some choices for what they thought their horse needed. I enjoyed the course and I was obviously thrilled to win it. It’s this horse’s first win and we’ve had him since he was 4, so it’s nice to be able to see him through from almost the beginning. To be able to have this win is great.”

“His name is Turtle, and he’s a little bit like Dennis the Menace," said Cooper of Nandino. "He’s always into something. I’ve ridden him for the last six years, and he’s been really successful, but sometimes I felt like he would get bored. So when we started doing derbies he got a lot better. In a period of three years I had two kids, so it was a bit of a bummer because he qualified for derby finals twice and we didn’t get to go. It was a little bit rough because I obviously wanted to start a family, but I thought it wasn’t really good timing with him. I felt like I was leaving him in the middle of his prime but he’s actually come back better than ever and seems to be on another level of maturity. He’s physically been ready – he did his first derby when he was 5 or 6 and he just wasn’t ready for it mentally. He was always game and he would jump out of his skin, he just wasn’t mature enough for it. This year, I think he’s really ready to have his head in the game.”

”I’m from Cleveland, so it was our first time at Brandywine and we loved the horse show," said Cooper. "We always loved Devon so it’s nice to have another show at those grounds. We actually came home after derby because Cleveland starts in two days, but we’ll be back next year. We really enjoyed the show and we thought it was run great and it’s a nice smaller venue. A lot of the shows we’ve been too have been so massive and it’s nice to be in a more quaint environment.”

The $5,000 USHJA National Hunter Derby also took place on Sunday, and the class split the junior/amateur and professional groups.

Schaefer and Nino Nacho, owned byMorgan Kazerman, came out on top in the professional group, and Lauren Reid topped the junior/amateur section on Oxford, owned by Capstone Farm LLC.

In the Junior Hunters, grand championship awards were given at both the 3’6’’ and 3’3’’ height.

Emma Kurtz rode Betsee Parker’s A Million Reasons to the 3’6’’ championship, while Caroline Ratigan rode her own Trust to the 3’3’’ championship.

The Grand Junior Owner award was earned by the Caroline Ratigan and Trust.

Olivia Markmann rode Ken Berkley’s Gynhafan Red Kestral to the Grand Regular Pony Hunter Championship, and the Grand Children’s Hunter Pony Championship was awarded to Jacqueline Zhai aboard Redwood Forest owned by Sage Hill Farm.

In the jumper ring, there was a three way tie for the Grand Jumper Championship, with top honors being given to Elenor Kunsman and Escape, Adrienne Marciano and Laspari, and Ellie Ferrigno and I Dottori VD Richter.

The Leading Hunter Trainer for Week I of Brandywine was Scott Stewart and Ken Berkley with River’s Edge Farm.

Samantha Kratz won the Jumper Grooms class.

 

 

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