He’ll never win a congeniality contest, but he knows how to jump.

Gator B. Careful isn’t the kind of horse most people would want in their stable.
  
He bites—a lot—and he has to be bribed just to leave his stall.
   
But when Kathleen Mitchell gets her feet in the irons, the chestnut gelding transforms into an athletic jumping machine, happy to be at work in the jumper ring. And at the Buffalo International Horse Show, Mitchell and Gator B. Careful devoured the competition to snap up the  hildren’s/adult jumper classic in Buffalo, N.Y., Sept. 19-23.

“He was really up for the occasion,” said Mitchell, 23. “Earlier in the week he had a rail in each class, but tonight he was perfect.”

She and her handy Quarter Horse posted a flawless first round in front of a packed crowd and returned last for the jump-off.
 
The pair dug in deep, slicing the turns and whizzing around the course. They left all the jumps up and tipped the timers half a second faster than Cappuccino and Sydney Christman to grab the top check.

“It was really nice to be last in the jump-off,” said Mitchell, who trains with Jeremy Green. “I’ve competed against Cappuccino before and I know she’s very, very fast, but it looked like she made an odd turn she didn’t mean to make. I knew that I had an inch to spare.”

“Gator” lives in Mitchell’s backyard in Lockport, N.Y. He earned his moniker years ago when trainer Becky Bates brought him home from an auction to find that she had a talented but aggressive horse on her hands.

“He’s an attack horse at heart,” explained Mitchell. “Part of the reason he wears a figure-eight noseband is so that he can’t bite me while I’m getting on. We suspect he may have been abused when he was young, but we don’t really know. But he’s just amazing to ride, and he loves his job.”

Mitchell wasn’t even in the market for a horse when she first rode “Gator.” She was just doing her trainer a favor by taking the latest arrival out for a spin. But the plucky horse was such a blast to ride—and priced so reasonably due to his snappish reputation—that Mitchell and her mother decided to buy the horse to play with while her other mount was being sold.

Little did Mitchell know that over the next five years she and Gator would dominate the adult amateur jumper divisions, filling their tackroom with blue ribbons from Devon (Pa.), Chagrin Falls (Ohio), HITS Saugerties (N.Y.) and St. Clements (N.Y.).

Though the pair qualified for the upcoming NAL Finals at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show, Mitchell has decided instead to make her debut on the Quarter Horse circuit in the adult amateur jumpers at the All American Quarter Horse Congress (Ohio).

As Mitchell preps to attend graduate school to earn her Masters in education, she plans to hand over the reins to her mother, Nancy Mitchell. Nancy has been testing the waters aboard Gator this season, earning the low adult amateur jumper summer circuit championship at HITS Saugerties (N.Y.).

A Hometown Win
As one of the organizers of the 61st Buffalo International Horse Show, Meredith Lipke Bartolone had more than her fair share of eyes glued on her when she and Churchill stepped into the ring on Saturday night.

Dozens of family members and friends flocked to the Buffalo Therapeutic Riding Center to see the local rider vie for the top prize in the G.G. Valentine Handy Hunter Classic, and Bartolone and her 8-year-old Hanoverian didn’t disappoint, putting on a performance to remember and taking home the blue ribbon.
 
“This is the only handy course we’ve done all season, and it was so much fun to ride,” said Bartolone. “It’s such a treat to get to do something exciting like this as an amateur, especially at home.”

Bartolone nailed both courses, striking up a bold gallop and easily negotiating the tight turns on Phillip DeVita’s winding tracks to earn scores of 90 and 88.

Earlier in the week, Bartolone guided Churchill to the amateur-owner hunter reserve championship and her mare Once And Again to the amateur-owner championship for the second year in a row. Once And Again also picked up the working hunter championship with Jennifer Alfano aboard.

Bartolone, who trains with Alfano and Susan Schoellkopf of SBS Farms, acquired Churchill two years ago, and since then he’s served double duty as her mount in both the equitation and hunter rings. Bartolone earned the reserve circuit championship in the adult  equitation division during the HITS Ocala (Fla.) aboard Winston, and the pair picked up tricolors in the amateur-owners at the New York Horse and Pony (N.Y.), the Atlanta Spring Classic (Ga.) and throughout the HITS Ocala circuit.

“Winston is just a dream to ride,” she said. “He was very good in the amateurs—he’s always good—but on Saturday night over those difficult courses he was just amazing. I am so proud of him.”

An Eye For Good Stock
Charlene Graham and Future Stock’s win in the adult amateur hunter classic was a victory three years in the making.

When Graham first laid eyes on the Westphalian mare she was a barely-broke 3-year-old standing in a field. “I just went with my sister [trainer Amy Hughes Graham] to Germany because I’d never been,” recalled Graham. “When we saw Future Stock we knew she was clearly too young and green for any of Amy’s customers. But I loved her.

“I get such a rush out of creating a horse from a baby,” she added. “I love the challenge, and I get a lot of satisfaction out of doing it. Plus it’s the only way I can afford to do it.”

Graham’s eye for talent and easy way with horses has helped her scoop up talented young hunter prospects and bring them up to the amateur ranks throughout her riding career. She got an early start with the babies by helping her father, trainer Chuck Graham, ride green horses on the family farm growing up.

Over the last two years Graham has been putting miles on “Waffles” in the pre-green and adult amateur classes, and she hopes to move up to the amateur-owner division next year.

“I definitely asked a lot of her this year,” said Graham, of Fairport, N.Y. “Last week we were at the Marshall and Sterling finals, where the adults compete on the big grand prix field. She went respectably, but it was a touch overwhelming for her. But coming here she took a deep breath and relaxed and it all came together. She went perfectly.”

In addition to capturing the classic, Graham also earned the adult amateur, 36 and over, and the grand adult amateur championships.

She credited trainer Tony Sgarlata with helping her put the polish on Waffles. “He’s really so wonderful,” said Graham. “He’s helped me figure out better ways to school her and improve her form. He’s really helped me finesse the ride.”

Sgarlata also found Graham her latest project, an up-and-coming jumper named Bling Bling.

Mollie Bailey