PrintAli Tritschler didn’t always want to ride. Her first riding lesson was at age 5, and she didn’t like it.
But when Tritschler told her mom that she didn’t want to ride again, she went against a generation of family equestrians and decades of USEF Pony Finals dominance.
“We were the McKinney girls,” Ali’s mom, Libby McKinney Tritschler said. “From 1967 to 1975 we were pretty competitive in the pony ring. We were fortunate enough to win, and we were just really lucky girls.”
In fact, Libby’s sister Lucie McKinney rode Cock’s Crow Flair to the grand championship at the very first Pony Finals at Deep Run (Va.), while Jean McKinney dominated the pony ring aboard Escort, and Libby rode Touch Me Not, under the tutelage of legendary pony trainer Emerson Burr.
A year passed after Ali’s first riding lesson, and, at age 6, she asked for another one. This time around she enjoyed it, and her family decided to lease a quiet schoolmaster for her. Two weeks later, the schoolmaster died, and Aunt Lucie promptly provided a new pony. A few weeks later that pony died, and Libby feared that Ali might not become the rider that she’d hoped.
“For my 6-year-old to have a pony die,” Libby said, “I thought, ‘This could break her.’ But she still said she wanted to ride. Now, she loves to ride.”
Today, Ali, 12, from Southport, Conn., has a six-day training regimen at the Rabbit Hill Farm with Abbi Ferrigno
and plans to compete four mounts at this year’s Pony Finals at the Kentucky Horse Park, Aug. 10-15. She’ll compete small Clovermeade Somebunny Famous, medium Clovercroft Honey Bunny and large Mookoo Jumbee in the regular pony hunter divisions, and she’ll tack up Clovermeade Bunny Side Up for the USEF Pony Medal Final.
But her strongest partnership is with Clovermeade Somebunny Famous, owned by Rabbit Hill Farm. She’s been riding “Topanga” for 31⁄2 years, but this year will be her last because she’s aging out of the division and outgrowing her favorite partner.
“The goodbye is approaching,” said Ferrigno. “They know each other so well. When Ali gets on Topanga, she knows her canter rhythm, and the pony knows Ali’s soft hands.”
“I’m going to miss her a lot,” said Ali. “I’ve ridden her since I came to train with Abbi. I will be sad, but I also want someone to have the same experiences that I had with her.”
Breeder Cheryl Patton, of Clover-meade Welsh Ponies in Nashville, Tenn., knew that Clovermeade Somebunny Famous (Clovercroft’s Brenin—Clover-croft’s Crystal) was a special animal right from the start. The filly looked so impres-sive that Patton originally planned to keep her for the breeding program. But before she was even weaned, Topanga showed her athletic prowess, so Patton knew she’d have a spectacular show career ahead of her.
“When I was trying to wean her the first day, I separated the filly from her mother and put them on opposite sides of my 600-acre farm,” recalled Patton. “Well, she somehow got out and jumped every fence between her and her mother to get back. Some of those fences must have been 4 or 5 feet high! At this point, I called Abbi and said, ‘She needs to be with you in the show ring.’ ”
