PrintVictoria Colvin had never picked up a championship at the Devon Horse Show & Country Fair, so when she traveled to the show in Devon, Pa., for Junior Weekend, May 27-29, she had a mission.
Aboard three ponies and four horses, Colvin picked up four championships and two reserve championships, the grand junior title and the reserve best child rider on a horse honors. Of the 220 possible points she could accrue, she had 139 points with nine blue ribbons.
And as icing on the cake, the only equine she owns, Ballou, earned the grand and small pony hunter championship with Daisy Farish in the irons.
Of all of her titles, she was most excited about the one she didn’t earn herself. “It was great Ballou was champion,” she said with a grin. “He’s the best pony in the world.”
Colvin, 12, Loxahatchee, Fla., guided Scott Stewart’s junior hunters Ovation, World Time, Krystall and Way Cool to the a near-sweep. Ovation earned the grand and small junior, 15 and under, champion, World Time the reserve; Way Cool was the large junior, 15 and, under champion, while Krystall won a class over fences.
“She’s perfect; she knows exactly what to do,” said Stewart, her trainer of about three years. “The horses really like her. Whether we win or lose, it’s always fun to watch her ride.”
Farish, 9, Versailles, Ky., has been leasing Ballou from Colvin for just over a year. The pair earned the grand pony hunter title with 32 ½ points under the guidance of Heritage Farm trainers Patricia Griffith and Andre Dignelli.
The partnership of Ballou and Farish came about in an unusual way said Daisy’s mother Kelley Farish. “Patricia had a dream, and in the dream Daisy was riding a pony. At the end of the dream she said Daisy was on Ballou. And it was so weird,” said Kelley.
So the next day Patricia arranged for Daisy to meet Ballou for the first time, and her dream became reality.
“We were all curious how he would be with another child since Tory was the only one who had ridden him,” said Kelley. “But once he trusted her, they were the perfect match.”
Daisy shares Ballou with her younger sister Coco, 4, and the sisters enjoy trail riding and walking around their Lane’s End Farm aboard the personable chestnut gelding. Ballou also did double duty at Devon, carrying Coco to eighth place in a section of the leadline on Saturday afternoon.
Like Colvin, Samantha Schaefer, 16, Westminster, Md., also earned her first Devon championship and, as she said, “broke the Devon jinx.” Schaefer won the large junior, 16-17, championship aboard Garfield and was honored as the best child rider on a horse.
“I’ve been coming here since 2001 when I did the small ponies. I could never get it done. I’m so happy,” said Schaefer. “It didn’t start out all that well yesterday, so I had to come from behind. Yesterday, I had an unlucky rail on Garfield, but today in the handy he was really good.”
Trainer Kim Stewart imported Garfield as a 3-year-old, with 30 days under saddle, and he’s come up the levels to become a consistent junior hunter winner at age 9.
“He’s such a great horse,” said Kim, who owns Garfield in partnership with Sam’s mother, Stacey Schaefer. “He really has come into his own and matured.”
