PrintCollege brought the California rider East, where she topped the demanding equitation final in New Jersey.
Californian Sophie Benjamin made her first appearance a winning one at the USEF Platinum Performance Talent Search Finals-East, taking the title on Oct. 4-5 in Gladstone, N.J.
Benjamin, of Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., was sixth in the 2007 West Coast version of the finals, but since she’s in her freshman year at Princeton University (N.J.), she decided to participate on the East Coast this year. This year’s West Coast section was won by Hannah Selleck, Benjamin’s teammate on the gold-medal team at the North American Junior and Young Riders Championships (Colo.).
Although her respect for Selleck’s prowess led Benjamin, 18, to say modestly that she didn’t think she could have beaten her if she’d ridden in the Talent Search Finals-West, the East Coast victor faced quite a formidable challenge from a field of 94, one of the biggest entries ever for the rigorous class.
Run over the course of two days in four separate phases, the Talent Search requires the ability to catch-ride, negotiate complicated gymnastics, stay within a time allowed and jump fences that can run 3" higher than the standard 3'6" obstacles of the other autumn finals. Performances in the flat, gymnastics and jumping phases establish the top four riders, who then switch horses and ride again.
Benjamin has had a lot of experience catch-riding. Rather than spending money on horses for her, the winner’s parents decided to build a barn at their house, which their daughter ran.
“They thought it was important for me to learn management and the work ethic,” said Benjamin, who wants to be a professional. “I think that not owning a horse and riding different horses helped me in the final four a lot, because I didn’t get nervous.”
Benjamin, who is based with Beacon Hill in New Jersey, trains in California with Susan Artes and also worked with Karen Healey. Healey found Sir Neel, a Dutch-bred by Darco out of a Guidam mare and thus related to two of the 2004 and 2008 gold medal Olympic mounts, Sapphire and Authentic.
A former jumper, Sir Neel was owned by amateur rider Liz Dickinson “who bent over backwards” to get the horse to Benjamin, she said. Dickinson sold him to Victoria Hobbs, whom the winner regards as practically a second mother.
Benjamin, who leases the horse from Hobbs, said, “as soon as I came out of my jumping round, I said, ‘If this horse
doesn’t win the best horse award, I’ll eat my hat.’ He never lets me down. It’s so nice to go in the ring and know if I mess up, it’s on me.”
Watching her rivals ride him made her proud. “He’s such a professional,” she said.
Sir Neel and Benjamin were “a match made in heaven,” said Healey, who admired her protégé’s efforts. “She’s been a worker her whole life.”
Moving Up
Maria Schaub, 19, won the flat phase, earning a score of 91 points on a horse new to her, the Selle Français stallion Kaiser de la Couer. Schaub works as assistant trainer to her coach, Frank Madden, but the class has no rules against professionals competing.
