Lexington, Ky.—Aug. 14

In June, when Dana Le and Joey Pedroni started talking about whether their horse Harriett X should make the trip to Kentucky this year for USHJA Hunter Championship Week, rider Chelsea Brittner admits she wasn’t sure they were serious. But the gray mare had been going well all season, so they decided to go for it.

With the decision made and entries submitted, the group flew cross-country—Le, Pedroni and “Harriett” from California, and Brittner from Washington state—with the aim of making it a fun girls’ trip.

“She ended our last horse show jumping fabulous and feeling really good, so we came here on a real positive note, and I think that really carried over,” said Brittner.

They entered Harriett in both the Platinum Performance USHJA 3’6″/3’9″ Green Hunter Incentive Championship and the Platinum Performance USHJA International Hunter Derby Championship, with the idea that the incentive would serve as a good warm-up for the derby later in the week.

“We were thinking really fancy, 3’6″/3’9″ hunters, they’re gonna be better movers, maybe a little bit more refined, but she went out there and shone,” said Brittner, Allyn, Washington. “She just was unreal and jumped as well as we know she does. But I think being able to be out in the bigger venue, in this kind of atmosphere, it just really showcased us.”

The pair earned a respectable 10^th out of 63 horses in the preliminary round to earn a spot in the final, and then later Tuesday afternoon, Harriett rose to the challenge set by course designers Ken Krome and Meghan Rawlins. Her scores of 87, 88 and 88, for a total of 263, put her in a tie for fourth in the championship—as well as topping the Tier II championship. For the first time this year, USHJA offered additional prize money for Tier III riders (those ranked 101st and below on the money won list), and Brittner earned the top spot for both Tier II and Tier III. With her Tier II and Tier III money, Harriett won $10,432.39 in the second round, more than Odette—who won the class with Tier I rider Nick Haness up— earned in the clean slate final ($9,265).

“For her size, she rides so light, and she is so quick on her feet and so, so careful,” Brittner said. “And so it just all came together so wonderfully. I think she walked into the ring, and she was like, this is the perfect place for me.”

Pedroni brought Harriett, a 9-year-old Oldenburg mare (Hickstead White—Coco Chanel, Conterno Grande), up through the young and green hunter divisions from age 5. Last year the pair came to Kentucky for both championships, but didn’t finish in the ribbons. After Pedroni injured her shoulder this year, she and Le asked Brittner if she’d like to show Harriett.

“I don’t think we ever initially intended for this to go the way it did,” said Brittner, who is a freelance rider and meets Harriett at shows. “But the few times I showed her, we got better and better, and I started to get to know her and really trust her and trust her style of going a little bit.

“She’s the boss. She’s a cool customer, but she is the queen for sure,” Brittner added. “She’s super sweet and friendly on the ground. I went and took her all over the grass fields on the buckle. She’s just so smart. You just have to kind of trust her way of going a little bit, because if you try to have her go a different way, she’s not going to love that. But she knows how she does best, and you just go along with her.”

With their success in the incentive, Brittner says the pressure is on for derby finals, now that Harriett has proven she can compete against top company in a championship environment.

“We were just kind of here on a girls’ trip, like, ‘Let’s have fun; see what happens,’ ” Brittner said. “And, you know, none of us expected it. We all know how special Harriett is, but that was truly out of a fairy tale. We really didn’t expect quite that level of success the first day. So now I feel like we’ve got to live up to that—and I know Harriett will, but I’ve got to keep calm myself now. I might panic just a little.”

Derby finals competition begins Friday with the classic round. All competition is being livestreamed on watchushja.org and ClipMyHorse.TV.

Be sure you’re following along with the Chronicle on Facebook and Instagram @Chronofhorse. You can also read full analysis of hunter championship week in the Sept. 26 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse magazine.