Devon, Pa.—May 25

Though Isabelle Ehman is no stranger to the pressure of competing at the Devon Horse Show, compared to some of her fellow competitors in the junior jumpers, she’s on the greener side. The 17-year-old from Milton, Georgia, just stepped up to the high juniors this winter and ridden in at atmosphere quite like Devon at night.

Ehman proved she wasn’t just here to participate, but to compete. She won the opening speed class on Thursday with Magnolia and finished third in tonight’s $20,000 Show Jumping Hall of Fame 1.45-meter Junior Jumper Classic to take the division championship and the leading junior jumper rider award.

“It’s my last Devon as a junior, so I was very happy to end it on this note,” she said.

Ehman first started riding the 12-year-old Dutch Warmblood (Mylord Carthago—Dena-Sienne) mare last fall in the medium junior jumpers and stepped into the highs this winter.

“I’ve never ridden her in an atmosphere like this, so it was really exciting,” said Ehman. “It was really new, and I was really excited. I knew that the time wasn’t going to be a big concern for her tonight. There were options that I could take for her that would work out better, so it was a really great track for her.”

Alan Wade set a difficult course that saw just four return for the jump-off, and Ehman had two of those. She was first in on Magnolia but had a rail down, and her second mount, Aston Des Etisses, had the fastest time of the night, but had two down. Elise Stephens and O’Mega H&DB won the classic and ended up as reserve champion for the division.

“I thought the track was actually really nice tonight,” Ehman said. “They had kind of a snug time allowed, so I was mostly concerned about making sure I was under the time allowed and making sure that it was a smooth round because the track does come up really fast. I just wanted to make sure that I could be as smooth as possible and ride it without interrupting them too much to risk having a rail down in the first round.”

Ehman rides with Don Stewart in the hunters and equitation and Katie Prudent in the jumpers. As a result, she spends most of her time on the road traveling between the two trainers and horse shows. She hopes to go pro after she ages out this fall and will be putting her focus towards high-level jumpers.

“We’ve had a great couple of shows this spring, so I was really confident coming into this,” she said. “I trust both my horses with every bit of me, so I was just really excited to be able to come in here and just give it everything with them.”

The Chronicle has a pair of reporters at Devon bringing you photo galleries, stories from the competition and more at www.coth.com. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram to make sure you don’t miss a thing. You can see a full report from the entire competition in the June 17 issue of The Chronicle of the Horse magazine.

Important Links: Devon Horse Show website / Detailed schedule / Results and orders of go / All the Chronicle’s coverage