Callie Judy doesn’t have much in the way of training infrastructure at her farm in Columbia, Mo., but that simplicity served her well in the CIC** at Maui Jim. The 17-year-old young rider walked her cross-country course alone, snagged a few minutes in the dressage and show jumping warm-ups with Becky Holder and easily took the two-star win aboard her 12-year-old Dutch Thoroughbred gelding, Call On Me.
Judy trains with Leslie Law in Florida in the winter months, but she’s on her own for most of the year, home schooling and training her horses on her family’s farm in central Missouri.
“I don’t have an arena, I don’t have jumps,” she admitted. “I have three fields that my horses live in, and I don’t even get to ride on those.”
Judy does take dressage lessons with Liz Hotchkiss in Columbia, however, and she trailers two hours each way to St. Louis to do jump schools with hunter/jumper trainer Susan Baginski. And the time and effort she’s put in at home have made her a top two-star contender with “Ollie” (Faram—Zoblera) at this year’s FEI North American Junior And Young Rider Championships in Lexington, Ky.
“Maui Jim really was a great preparation for us,” she said. “The cross-country course was really hard, so hopefully the [CCI**] at Young Riders isn’t going to be that difficult.”
Judy gave Ollie some time off over the winter to recover from a pulled muscle, and she’s campaigned him conservatively in preparation for the NAJYRC. But Maui Jim offered the perfect date and location for an all-out run.
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In second place after the dressage, Ollie moved into the lead with her division’s only double-clear on Saturday. Several CIC** horses struggled with the first water combination, and Judy admitted it rode harder than she’d expected, but she managed to push Ollie through.
“The water was hard for us—we definitely had to travel on out of it, but we made it,” she said. “He just galloped and did what he does best.”
Judy had a rail in hand on Sunday, but she didn’t use it.
“I usually never lead heading into the show jumping, so I was definitely nervous going in,” she said. “Becky had helped me walk my course, so she told me where I needed to keep his head up. He likes to really bury his head down in all of the corners, so that prepared me well.”
Judy and her gray gelding finished on their dressage mark of 45.5.
