Concerto Z was pointed toward a career in the grand prix ranks, but now the German-bred, gray gelding is making his mark in the hunters. His latest success came when he won the open hunter title on his way to being crowned the grand champion hunter at the Sept. 14-17 Marshall & Sterling League Finals in Saugerties, N.Y.

“Z-Man,” as the 7-year-old is known around owner Ralph Caristo’s Glen View barn, and professional rider Jenny Fischer won the Adequan open hunter division at the upstate New York show, while Fischer was the show’s grand champion hunter rider.

“Nothing seems to bother him. He is very confident and marches right into the ring to go about his job. He doesn’t need a practice round,” said Caristo, who started him in the pre-greens and adult amateur hunters in Florida last winter. “That was his first taste of an American show ring.”

As a 5-year-old, Z-Man had started showing in the jumpers in Switzerland “but didn’t have enough fire for it,” said Caristo. A friend of the Caristos had seen the 15.3-hand horse at a Zurich, Switzer-land, sales barn and mentioned him to them.

“He was so cute, and a nicely put together horse. He has a great attitude, a nice jump and a good stride. He has everything we are looking for to make him saleable,” recalled Caristo.

Z-Man was the reserve champion pre-green hunter at the Lake Placid (N.Y.) horse show with Fischer. And then Caristo’s daughter, Heather, paired up with him for good ribbons in the adult amateurs at the I Love New York (N.Y.) show the next week at Lake Placid.

He has made limited appearances at shows because “we try to save him, just getting him mileage, and he has gotten nothing but better and better,” said Caristo, who this year opened the new location of his Glen View Farm, a mile away from the HITS Saugerties showgrounds.

Z-Man was circuit champion of the HITS Saugerties Adequan division, which made him eligible for the Marshall & Sterling Finals. Caristo had chosen that division–where fences top out at 3’5″–to allow Z-Man to get experience while not breaking his pre-green status.


The Best Ever
Elizabeth Benson has pretty much grown up with Shoot The Moon, the bay crossbred she rode to the children’s pony hunter championship.

“He was great in his over fences classes,” said the seventh-grade student, who has ridden the gelding for four years. “He was second yesterday in his first over fences class, and today he was second. This is pretty much the best I have ever done with him.”

Benson, 12, is the daughter of horsemen Jack and Katie Benson, who run shows on their Briarwood Farm in Neshanic Station, N.J. And she knows her 14-hand Connemara-Thoroughbred gelding well enough to keep his attention focused.

“He sometimes takes a peek at the jumps. So my goal was to just get around the course. He did it here, so I would squeeze him and keep him looking at where he was to go,” she said.

Benson and “Kelpy” currently lead the USEF Zone 2 children’s large pony hunter division year-end standings. Her goals this fall were to qualify for the Marshall & Sterling Finals, and the USEF Zone 2 Finals in Harrisburg, Pa. After this season, Benson will transition onto her horse, Harley, with whom she plans to compete in the three-foot equitation.

Lila Abboud successfully defended her Marshall & Sterling Finals children’s hunter title. Abboud, 15, of Bedford, N.Y., and her Sommersby earned their second consecutive children’s hunter division championship.

The 17.3-hand, bay Hanoverian gelding and the high school sophomore, who are trained by Kim Jones, finished the four-day show with the co-reserve grand champion hunter title.

She bought “Wesley” last spring, to use chiefly for equitation, but also has done the children’s hunters with him. “He makes everything look like it flows and he is really a beautiful horse,” said Abboud.


Prepared To Win
Elspeth Roake isn’t wasting what she learned in her psychology and philosophy college courses from Vassar College (N.Y.). Roake, of New Canaan, Conn., used techniques she learned in those fields to help her win the HBO Adult Equitation Medal Final in her first time at the finals.

“They helped to mentally prepare myself so I didn’t get too nervous. Right now, I am still completely in shock about winning,” said Roake, a working student at Leslie Kogos’ Larkspur Farm in Wilton, Conn., where she grooms for trainer Michele West.

Roake, 24, knew by the tally of her points that she was eligible for the HBO Final. “But I wasn’t sure I would have a horse to do it with,” she said.
Her horse sustained a suspensory injury the month before the finals. But Roake arranged a lease on Posiden, a horse owned by Ashley Di Sabatino. She practiced every day on Posiden, a 17-hand, chestnut gelding.

“I knew I had to trust my horse and let him do the job. I did a warm-up class with Posiden, and he was a little fresh, but he listens really, really well,” said Roake, one of a dozen riders picked by judges Fran Dotoli and Michael Page for additional testing.

“It was very difficult mentally, and I was really nervous. The actual test itself wasn’t that hard, I thought,” said Roake, who is next headed to the Ariat Adult Medal Finals at the Capital Challenge (Md.).

Roake began riding six years ago, when she was living in Germany. “I always, always loved equitation,” she said, but she had to wait until she returned to the United States to launch her equitation career.

Jamie Ringel, 19, of Wilton, Conn., and her Private Ryan, 8, captured the adult amateur hunter division championship to tie for the reserve grand hunter championship with Sommersby.

“Ryan is an all around horse who will do anything you ask of him,” said Ringel who has trained at Leslie Kogos’ Larkspur Farm for 10 years. “Anyone can get on him and have a great ride,” she said of her 16-hand, chestnut Wittenberg gelding.

Ringel got Ryan from Havens Schatt in Florida last winter and showed him in the children’s hunters until she aged out of the juniors. Since she’s off to college at the New School College in New York City this year, she will have to juggle her schedule to get in shows.

Katie Price, 16, named by the judges as the show’s best junior rider on a horse, took the honor after winning the HBO Children’s Medal Final. Her mount, the aptly named Black Tie Only, is a 17-hand, jet black, 9-year-old Oldenberg that Katie has owned for three years.

“My trainer [Michele West] told me to stick to the plan we had for the class by taking it one fence at a time all through the class. It served me very well,” said the New Canaan (Conn.) high school senior.


Nancy Degutis