PrintA young rider and a seasoned pro walk away with big wins today.
Canadian Samantha Clark may have been the youngest rider in the 5-year-old Spalding Labs/USEA Young Event Horse Championship, but that proved anything but detrimental today, Sept. 9. The 20-year-old rider from Cambridge, Ont., rode her own Asterion, a gray Trakehner gelding bred by Tim and Cheryl Holekamp, to the top of the division with 84.21 points.
Holekamp horses dominated today’s competition, sweeping the top slots in the 4-year-old division as well. Asterion is sired by Darren Chiacchia’s four-star mount Windfall II and out of Asteria. Clark bought the 16.0-hand gelding from Chiacchia two years ago when she first became his working student.
Today’s win came as a visible surprise to Clark, who defeated several veteran riders, Chiacchia included, in the championship. She captured the win with stellar jumping form in the final phase, which was postponed several hours to allow the cross-country course to dry after yesterday’s heavy rains.
“I was just hoping to get in the dressage ring and make some improvements on things, and then have a nice, bold jump course,” she said. “It was just a great day.”
Clark spends her winters in Ocala, Fla., with Chiacchia, but stays at home in Ontario in the interim, trailering to her coach’s farm in northern New York for lessons. She also works with dressage trainer Jill Stedman. When not riding, she works as a waitress and helps her dad at his renovation business.
“I’m just a typical teenager,” she said. “It’s been a challenge. We started out at the bottom together. We’re learning together and still getting to know each other, but I’m hoping he’ll be my first upper-level horse.”
Clark will also be competing her “Smokin’ Silver Bullet” in the amateur training division of the American Eventing Championships later this week.
“We’re hoping for another blue ribbon!” she said.
Tera MacDonald claimed her second reserve championship in as many years with La Tee Da, falling short of first place by less than a point. The pair had the lead after the dressage, but slipped to second after some green behavior in the jumping phase and finished on a score of 83.47.
