Wellington, FL - November 26, 2025 - The 124th annual National Horse Show and Family Festival returns to the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club on December 5 through 9, 2007, and along with this years edition of the National comes the third annual $80,000 Young Jumper Championships International, showcasing the finest rising show jumping equine stars in the United States.
The year-end championships at the National Horse Show for these future grand prix stars are the culmination and highlight of a full year of competition. Each year the Young Jumper Championships offer over 300 qualifying classes for young jumpers nationwide.
Champions from the Eastern, Midwestern and Western League Finals, along with some of the top young horses from Canada, will be in Wellington for this premier event.
The $80,000 Young Jumper Championships Invitational consists of three sections, one for horses 5 years of age, one for horses 6 years of age, and one for horses 7 & 8 years of age. Qualifying for the event took place between January and October of 2007. Each section is restricted to the top forty entries.
The $20,000 5-Year-Old Young Jumper Championship Invitational consists of three classes, two scored under Table II, Sec 1, Time First Round and one, the Championship, scored under Table II, Sec. 2a, Time First Jump-off. Only the top 15 competitors with the best scores from the first two classes advance to the final event to compete for the $20,000 in prize money. Top prize is $5,600.
Scoring and eligibility is the same for both the $30,000 6 Year-Old Young Jumper Championship Invitational and the $30,000 7 & 8 Year-Old Young Jumper Championship Invitational. The first place prize in each of these sections is worth $9,000.
The first two rounds of each section take place in the DeNemethy Arena on Thursday and Friday, December 6th and 7th, and the Championships will be contested at the Internationale Arena on Sunday, December 9, 2007.
Founded in 1988, the International Jumper Futurity has seen tremendous growth and success over the years. The Young Jumper Championships grew out of the IJF and saw its first competition ten years later in 1998.
Young Jumper Director Cheryll Frank has been a part of this expansion since 2001. “I’ve seen the participation quadruple in size,” she explained. “Feedback from the riders and the owners say the program is the right thing at the right time. The old Preliminary Jumper system just wasn’t working when it came to preparing young horses. The founders of the Young Jumper Championships saw that and created a development program,” Frank detailed. “Now, trainers are saying that their customers really want to search out top youngsters to bring along. Owners are telling us how much they love the program and want to support it,” she added.
The Young Jumper program is now well documented as a proving ground for future show jumping superstars. “According to the 2007 year-end ranking of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses, the two top-ranked American-based horses - Casadora and Cristallo - are both graduates of the Young Jumper program.
Kent Farrington’s former top mount, Madison, is a YJC graduate and was one of the top ranked horses of her years in the program. Madison and Farrington went on to unprecedented success, including AGA Horse of the Year honors. “We’re just sorry we can’t claim Up Chiqui as one of ours!” laughed Frank.
Farrington will be on hand at the National with a handful of exciting prospects. Melissa Hirt’s ice-cream loving Parrot Bay is the top ranked 5-year-old in the country, and he’ll be knocking heads for the title against Charlie Jayne’s duo of Victor and Sir Sean. Jayne will also start with one of the favorites in the 6-year-old section aboard Jonathan Cohen’s Hands Down. Bob Kraut will return in 2007 aboard the defending 7 & 8-year-old Champion, Accordian, owned by Happy Hill Farm.
As Frank points out, the Young Jumper program benefits young riders as well. “One often overlooked aspect of the program is the opportunity for young riders, juniors, local professionals, and amateurs to go head-to-head with Olympians and beat them,” Frank smiled.
Some recent success stories are 13-year-old Greer Hindle and 16-year-old Lisa Goldman. Both earned top ribbons at the YJC Midwestern League Final in Lexington, KY. Hindle competes the 5-year-old Belgian-bred gelding, Centurion B, who was bred in Indiana by
Bannockburn Farm LLC. “I think we’re going to be seeing more and more homebred horses in the Young Jumper Championships,” noted Frank. “Not just American-bred horses, but breeder/owners. Some of the top-ranked young jumpers in the country are already American-bred YJC horses, but what we are seeing now is that many were bred by the owners and or the riders,”
“Last season we reconfigured our annual publication to make it a real year book, and we added a proper stallion directory for the Jumper Futurity stallions,” she said. “People have actually been asking for more information on the jumper stallions and that kind of interest is going to be good for the breeding sector.”
Young Jumpers to Watch For
5-Year-Olds
American-bred Ocean Bubbles will lead the line-up of 5-Year-Olds for the 2007 YJC International. Ocean Bubbles, bred by Joan Irvine Smith and The Oaks, was the winner of the YJC Midwestern Regional in September. Owner/rider Claudia Katonas-Metais narrowly defeated Charlie Jayne and his two top ranked competitors Victor and Sir Sean. The Midwestern trio will be up against Katie Milton, aboard Equine Dreams LLC’s Altitude 13, as well as top finishing Hotspur 23, owned and ridden by Gustavo Prato from the East. Representing Canada will be two of the top young horses in the Canadian Young Jumper Development Program in King Ridge Stables’ homebred Grand Slam 3E and Grande Finale 3E.
6-Year-Olds
Bazooka de Muze and John Brennan are the top finishing representatives from the YJC Eastern League Final where they placed 2nd. The pair will be up against two strong finishing American-breds-Barb Rowland’s No Worries (by Olisco) and Cynthia Johnson’s Rendition (by Rio Grande). Out of the Midwest League Finals comes another Charlie Jayne entry, Hands Down, along with Comfortside Farm’s Uno (Kent Farrington) and Skara Glen Palenque (Candice King). American-bred Adonis (by Magnum) placed 2nd here in 2006 and his half-brother Blue Danube was the previous winner in 2005.
7 & 8-Year-Olds
The winner here as a 5 year-old in 2005, Tatra Farms’ homebred Blue Danube (by Hamar), returns to attempt a repeat performance. The top three finishers from the Midwestern League, American Thoroughbred Thomas Edison and Hungarian-bred Gangsta (Charlie Jayne has the ride on both) along with Stefanie Collier and Teresa Lyons Canadian-bred Clover All Over will be on hand. They’ll be meeting five top Canadian entries from King Ridge Stables, including Double Diamond and Distant Star.
Past Champions
$20,000 5-Year-Old YJC International Winners
2006 - Uno, Laura Kraut, Mary Moricoli
2005 - Blue Danube, Darragh Kerins, Tatra Farm
$30,000 6-Year-Old YJC International Winners
2006 - Mill Creek Sandhya, Sergio Campos, Mill Creek Stables
2005 - Woica, Kent Farrington, Olivia Weeks
$30,000 7/8-Year-Old YJC International Winners
2006 - Accordian, Robert Kraut, Summit Show Stables
2005 - Nocturnal, Laura Kraut, Pin Oak Farm
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