The Young Rider First Individual Qualifying Competition started off show jumping at the 2007 North American Junior Young Riders’ Championships, and Zone 10’s riders demonstrated that they are serious contenders this year. Aurora Griffin and Tucker captured the blue ribbon in today’s speed round. Eduardo Vazquez from Mexico North looked unbeatable, but Griffin shaved almost a second off his time. Right on her heels was teammate Karl Cook aboard his Uno deLaubry. Vazquez had to settle for third.
Megan Edrick rode to a 9th place finish with Kandel, and Katie Harris rounded out the Zone 10 team in 13th with Billy Orange. Callie Layland, riding as an individual finished 26th.
Thirty junior riders contested their course, and Anthony D’Ambrosio’s track proved challenging. Only two riders managed clear rounds: Katherine Newman (Zone 3) and Taylor Land (Zone 4). Zone 10 riders put in solid performances. Danielle Korsh and Saer Coulter both posted four fault rounds with less than half a second separating the two riders. Paige Dotson also had just one rail down and snuck ahead of her two teammates in the standings.
Annie Cook and Meredith Hursh both had eight fault rounds and wound up in the middle of the pack.
Paige, Danielle, and Saer finished 7th, 8th and 9th respectively.
Chef d’Equipe Butch Thomas was very pleased with all of the Zone 10 riders. “The hard part is over. Anything can happen in the first speed round. Now they just need to hold it together.” Thomas felt that his teams were well prepared for this event thanks to the comprehensive selection trials Zone 10 Jumper oversees. “Our trial process is well organized and probably one of the best in the country.”
While Thomas is a huge supporter of this event and the international experience it offers riders, he would like to see more. “There needs to be a ‘bone’ at the end of this championship,” stated Thomas. “The top U.S. riders should get a trip to Europe. We need to do something to make this event more rewarding and to have more incentive to come here.”
Aurora Griffin and Karl Cook shared their comments of today’s competition. Regarding their one-two finish in the speed class, Karl commented, “It is one of those things where you don’t want to be overconfident going into the upcoming rounds.” “At the same time,” added Aurora “doing well gets rid of the nerves and gives you confidence. Today’s course was technical, but not too big. It was manageable.” “The course was fun,” stated Karl. “There were some hard inside turns, but they really helped you. Plus, there were parts of the course where you could settle a bit. It would have been nice to have the water jump,” added Karl. Aurora agreed that the inside options in the course were beneficial. “It was nice because taking risks paid off.”
Like their Chef d’Equipe, both riders are looking forward to tomorrow’s team competition. “After today I feel good and everyone was really consistent,” stated Aurora. Karl added, “I feel like all of us are really well prepared. Both Aurora and I have done bigger classes, and we’ve been here before. Megan (Edrick) has been here also.” “Megan is really cool under fire,” added Aurora. “This is Katie’s first time, but she is riding really well,” said Karl. “Tomorrow we just have to keep our cool and keep our focus.”
Friday is “Team Day” and the riders have to negotiate two courses. Team medals are determined from this Nations Cup format, and the two scores each rider earns count toward their second and third qualifying scores for the Individual Final.
Congratulations to Region 7 (California) Dressage riders for capturing the Team Gold in yesterday’s Team Dressage Competition.
Complete results are available online at www.youngriders.org.
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