PrintA competitive field, spooky ring, evening class and giant course don’t usually add up to derby blue for a first year green horse who’d only jumped at eight horse shows.
But Taken isn’t just any horse. “I’ve sold a lot of very fancy, very expensive horses, but this one may be the best horse I’ve ever had in my entire life,” declared Larry Glefke.
He lived up to that high praise yesterday, May 21, when Kelley Farmer guided him to the top of the $15,000 Chronicle of the Horse/USHJA International Hunter Derby at the Keswick Hunt Club in Keswick, Va., for Nancy Amling.
Farmer rides earned the lion’s share of the prize money, as she placed second aboard Mr. & Mrs. Ernest Oare’s veteran Rosalynn and piloted fellow first year mount Timber Ridge to third.
A strong contingent of hunt country equestrians reserved car spots or pulled up a hay bale to watch the 30-horse field contest Alan Lohman’s big course. The flowing classic course offered lots of naturally decorated fences and five options, the least popular of which was the higher of two split rail verticals. But plenty of competitors opted to take the four-foot in-and-out and a massive maxed-out white oxer.
The class got off to a bit of a later start than anticipated, and by the end of the first round the sun had almost set. By the time the top 12 came back for the handy, riders faced an entirely different course than the one they'd walked three hours earlier, with the shadows and lighting creating their own challenges.
Junior Taylor Shearin’s lovely Rejoice dug in his heels twice at a now-backlit oxer, and another of Farmer’s mounts, fellow first year prodigy Listen, said "No Thank You" to the in-and-out under the new lighting situation. In addition, the split rail vertical, which had toppled a few times in the first round, came down time and time again in Round 2, when riders had to jump it in each direction.
“It was very straight up and down,” said Farmer “It was tough.”
All in all, only the top five horses made it around the handy course without a stop or a rail. The runners-up at the Lexington, Va., derby, Stetson and Jason Berry came close with a medal-final worthy handy round, but the half-Thoroughbred barely caught the lower split rail with his back legs. Bob Crandall had a good go with Casallo, but that lovely jumper suffered a similar fate. And Mary Lisa Leffler on both Zidane and Zhivago and Chris Wynn on The Admiral put in super handy turns, but only Zidane left the rails up for fourth. Brookville, Md.-based Rachel Kennedy guided the elegant Ebony through the tightest turns to earn raw scores of 90 and 88 with matching bonuses of 9 to finish fourth.
But it was the last to go, Taken, who stole the judges’ hearts. His spectacular hand gallop to the split rail and brave inside turns to the highest options earned scores of 95 and 97, with bonus points of 9 apiece to win the handy round and the overall title.
Glefke and Farmer found Taken as an investment horse half way through the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.). Knowing they had a very special animal, they immediately thought of amateur rider Amling, who returned to the show ring after a long hiatus.
“Nancy rides so well; she doesn’t need an especially easy ride,” said Farmer. “He’s so talented I knew it would be a good fit.”
