Even though they won the amateur-owner hunter, 18-35, championship, the Trader’s Point Charity Horse Show, Aug. 9-14, in Zionsville, Ind., was probably the only time Megan Palmer will show Abbygale.

Things haven’t gone quite according to plan in the three years since Palmer purchased the chestnut mare. “Abby,” then 4, was quite green, and Palmer was trying to juggle riding her with attending Miami University of Ohio.

“I was having a lot of trouble with her. She was very green, and it was hard for me, going to school and coming home and adjusting to her because she was changing so much,” said Palmer, 22.

So, her younger sister Lindsay took over the reins on Abby. In return, Megan got Lindsay’s junior hunter, Ireland, to show in the amateurs. “Ireland is an amazing horse–he’s 13 now, and he’s really reliable. It was easier for me to come home and know what to expect.”

But Lindsay wasn’t go-ing to be able to show at Trader’s Point, so Megan got the ride on both horses. Ireland claimed second in the junior/amateur-owner classic.

Abby spent two years in the three-foot divisions, and Lindsay moved her up to the amateur-owner division this spring. “I got to ride her one day over the summer, and I was shocked at how far she’s come and how much fun she is to ride,” said Megan, congratulating Lindsay on her work. Abby also shows in the first year green division under Tammy Provost.

When not riding her family’s horses, Megan rides on the Miami University of Ohio intercollegiate team. In her freshman and sophomore years, she won classes at IHSA Nationals. She’s a senior there now, majoring in marketing.

Another Sister’s Turn

Audrie Nuckols might also soon be sharing her ride. While she’s got big plans for the future with Notorious, whom she rode to the large junior hunter, 15 and under, championship at Trader’s Point, she might be passing along Sion, the small junior, 15 and under, reserve champion to her sister.

Nuckols, 15, has had Notorious for just a year and half, but she’s got a lot of history with Sion. This is her third year in the junior hunters on the 10-year-old gelding.

“He was the horse I moved up to 3’6″ on, and I made a lot of mistakes on. He’s the horse I learned a lot on, but he’s getting to the point where he’d rather be a three-foot horse now. My sister’s taking lessons on him, and I’m thinking about passing him down,” she said.

All the years learning from Sion paid off when Nuckols imported Notorious from Europe as a 5-year-old in 2003. “When he first arrived, he was very green and a little bit spooky. He’s become a lot braver. It’s really rewarding to ride him because we’ve put a lot of effort into him, and he’s come a long way in a short time,” she said.

Nuckols rides with Tammy Provost, who also shows Notorious in the first year green division. She’s helped Nuckols develop Notorious into a reliable ride.
“He’s got a huge stride, and he loves for you to float the reins and let him be himself. He gives me a lot of confidence because he’s very scopey and you can trust him,” said Nuckols.

A sophomore in high school, Nuckols plans to show at the indoor venues this fall, but “I don’t chase points; I’m just glad to have success at the shows I go to. Riding doesn’t dominate my life,” she said.

And in her spare time, Nuckols helps out at the eight-stall barn on her father’s farm, where her short-stirrup pony still lives.

All In The Family

Riding is definitely a family affair for Abbie and Lillie Ross of Wheaton, Ill. The two sisters each got to take home a tricolor from Trader’s Point. Abbie rode Amelia Bedelia to the small pony hunter championship, while Lillie tied for the low children’s/adult jumper championship aboard TNT.

Abbie, 9, and Lillie, 11, have each been riding for four years. They got interested in the sport because an aunt rides, and they quickly moved from taking lessons, to leasing a pony, to owning a pony and showing. They now ride with Thomas Cerra and Chari Klapman.

Abbie has just started showing in the small pony classes this year. She leased a short-stirrup pony for two years, and then bought Amelia two years ago. She contested the short stirrup division on the Welsh mare last year and moved up to the smalls this spring.

“She likes doing her job. She’s taught me to jump well,” said Abbie, who also likes to jump “Amelia” bareback. Amelia, 16, is a veteran pony who’s brought multiple children up the ranks. Now, Abbie also gets to ride a medium pony, Golden Snitch, whom her sister outgrew.

Trader’s Point was just Lillie’s fourth show on TNT. But while TNT is a pony jumper who’s been competing consistently for years, they had to move up to the low children’s/adult division at Trader’s Point because the pony jumpers didn’t fill.

“It was fun, but a little bit of a different experience because the courses were set for horse strides. We had to go fast!” Lillie said. To make the day all the better, Lillie tied for the championship with a friend who rides at the same barn, Sydney Leto on Oyster.

TNT, an 11-year-old, Belgian Warmblood mare who stands 14.1 hands, has been a big name in the pony jumpers for years–she won the 2001 NAL Pony Jumper Finals with Eric Sassmannshausen. When Lillie–who’d only ridden pony hunters previously–tried her last year, it wasn’t a match made in heaven.

“I wasn’t riding very well, so I couldn’t handle her. When I first tried her, she galloped around the ring with me, and it was kind of scary. But then when I moved to [Cerra’s] barn, I worked with her the whole winter, to get me ready for her,” Lillie said. “She’s kind of tough–you have to hold her back because she likes to go. She’s a lot stronger than my other pony. I thought he was really fast until I got her! But now, I can control her and it’s fun.”

Lillie and TNT won the NAL classics at Equifest I (Ill.) and Circle City Equestrian 500 (Ind.) earlier this summer, so she’ll be keeping an eye on qualifying points for the NAL finals at the Pennsylvania National this October.

Vale Vanquishes The Trader’s Point Competition

Aaron Vale and Artur 28 may not have set the world on fire on their European tour this summer, but when they returned, they lit up Zionsville, Ind. Vale and the capable chestnut swept the two grand prix classes at the Trader’s Point Charity Horse Show.

“I guess when your horse is going well, he can win two just as well as one,” Vale said wryly.

They began their streak on Friday by topping the $25,000 Russell Fortune Jr. Memorial Grand Prix, just nipping Margie Engle and Hidden Creek’s Charlie Brown by a half a second.

Then, on Sunday, they repeated the performance, claiming the top check in the $50,000 Budweiser Grand Prix of Indianapolis, with a clean jump-off more than 8 seconds faster than second-placed Niall Grimes on Mr. President.

In both classes, Vale and Artur went first in the jump-off and laid down trips no one else could catch.

“If he’s clean in the jump-off, he’s pretty tough to beat, because he’s got a big stride. There were a couple of long gallops, and he could be fast. I think the real strength of this horse is that he’s quick across the ground, and he’s careful enough that you can gallop at the jumps,” Vale said.

The wins were Artur’s first performances back on U.S. soil after a European tour in June and July. He and Vale participated on the Samsung Super League U.S. team at the Rotterdam CSIO (the Netherlands) on June 15, turning in eight- and 12-fault rounds for the U.S. team’s eighth place.

Then, Vale stayed in Europe to compete at the Falsterbo (Sweden) and Lummen (Belgium) shows the first two weeks of July. They showed in the regular Nations Cup classes there and had four-fault rounds in each of the grand prix classes.

“Obviously, competitively, I would have liked to have been more of a factor in the awards, but I was able to jump some big tracks with my horse, and he was quite consistent. We just missed being in the jump-offs,” Vale said.

“While we were in Europe, I learned some things that I need to work on with him, and I’m trying to fix those things and make them better, and I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Vale continued.

He believes Artur needs to improve “just in overall rideability. The more of that you’ve got, the better you are. It’s just doing it all better.”

But that’s not all he learned. “When you get an old-fashioned ‘whuppin,’ you go home and practice and try to make yourself better,” he said.

Artur has already had a stellar year on home turf. He and Vale won the $100,000 Grand Prix of Ocala (Fla.) in March, and then had another back-to-back winning streak in May–they claimed the $50,000 Commonwealth Grand Prix and the $50,000 Mary Rena Murphy Grand Prix in Lexington, Ky. Vale is aiming Artur for the upcoming World Cup-qualifying classes, with an eye on the FEI World Cup Final in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in April 2006.