• Emily Carr of Anchorage won the Eaton Equestrian Centre Hunter Derby, a 3’3″ version of the Robertson Hunter Derby, on Escada Be You, an appendix Quarter Horse owned by Jenny Rousey-Dick. Carr also scored the regular working hunter reserve championship. The 18-year-old rider is entering the University of Alaska at Anchorage this fall on a pre-med track. She’s ridden “Cricket” since last winter.
“This win was definitely the highlight of our season,” Carr stated. “It was probably the hardest class I’ve ever done. But I liked it because it was all open space, and the fences were all natural. It just made it fun.”
• The handy phase in both of the modified hunter derbies, held on a comfortably sprawling, unfenced rectangle of flat land, included a long hand gallop to a single oxer, a trot fence and a dismount followed by hand-walking the horses over a
crossrail.
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• Alicia Hall took home a heap of tricolors from the show, all on her own horses and ponies. The 16-year-old resident of Homer, Alaska, had just flown in from several weeks of showing in Kentucky to ride My Shiny Penny to championships in the pony hunter and open hunter performance divisions. Hall also earned championships in the children’s/adult jumpers and level 1 jumpers, and a reserve championship in level 2 jumpers with Sugar ‘N Spice. She also rode Calamari to the level 0 jumper championship and reserve ribbons in the pony hunter and modified children’s/adult jumper divisions.
• Conducted almost entirely by volunteers from the Alaska Hunter/Jumper Association, the group’s annual horse show is traditionally a benefit event. This year’s proceeds went to help support Abused Women’s Aid In Crisis Inc., of Anchorage.