She reunites with an old friend for multiple victories.
Chiara Parlagreco has a bit of an on-again, off-again relationship with Gibson. But at the Lexington National, Aug. 15-19 in Lexington, Va., they reunited and resumed their winning ways together.
Parlagreco won the Virginia Horse Shows Association Adult Medal Finals on Gibson, and the pair earned the adult amateur hunter, 18-35, championship.
Parlagreco, of Warrenton, Va., showed Gibson, an 8-year-old Dutch Warmblood, two years ago in the adult amateur division. Parlagreco’s trainer, Denice De Risio-Perry, owns Gibson. Parlagreco also got to show him a little bit in Florida this year, but Gibson spends most of his time showing in the junior division. His usual pilot was sick during the Lexington National, however. So Parlagreco got the ride again.
Now 25, Parlagreco has been riding since she was 12. She attended the College of Charleston (S.C.), where she competed on the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association equestrian team.
“It was very different,” she said. “But a good experience in that you meet a lot of people.”
Parlagreco graduated with an inter-national business degree and worked for a year at a marketing firm. With Italian roots, (she was born in Italy) and a father who works for the U.S. Embassy and currently lives in Nepal, she was a natural fit for international business.
ADVERTISEMENT
Her parents never rode and neither did her younger brother, but Parlagreco knew from the first time she took a riding lesson it was something she wanted to do. She’s ridden with De Risio-Perry for more than a decade.
She also shows her horse, Flirt, an Oldenburg, in the amateur-owner hunter division when she can. She moved the 11-year-old mare up to the 3’6″ division last fall. “Flirt’s green, but she’s getting better all the time,” Parlagreco said.
Katherine Newman, 16, has been on quite a roll lately, and she followed up her CN North American Junior and Young Riders Championships individual gold with the win in the VHSA Junior Medal Finals. She also guided Corvet Z to the small junior, 16-17, and grand junior hunter tricolors and Due North to the large junior, 16-17, championship.
Continuing her winning streak, Newman won the Oak Ridge Medal aboard Almelo, owned by Mimi Abel-Smith.
Newman wasn’t always into the horse show scene. However, with her parents in the business, she was born into the world of horses. “I foxhunted a lot growing up. That was always fun for me,” she said.
The family’s farm, Allwyn Court, used to be based in Upperville, Va., but moved to Wellington, Fla., in recent years.
In spite of her success, Newman stays grounded. She is grateful to the owners who let her ride their horses and often travel great distances to watch them compete. “I love my horses,” she said. “Obviously, part of that interaction is trust. You have to trust each other—it’s everything, I think.”
Savannah Jenkins, 12, of Virginia Beach, Va., knows exactly what she wants to do—ride as much as possible!
ADVERTISEMENT
Her mother, Jill, said when Savannah was only 4 or 5, she started talking about riding lessons. Thinking it a passing phase, Jill enrolled Savannah in dance classes. The dance instructor said Savannah wasn’t interested in doing anything and wondered why she kept talking about riding horses.
“Finally, when she was 6, we gave her one lesson,” said Jill. “One turned into two, which turned into leasing, which turned into buying a pony!”
At the Lexington National, Savannah rode her own Wellen Goldsmith to the large green pony hunter reserve championship, and she rode Hunter’s Way’s Rosie Report to the small/medium green pony and small pony hunter championships.
Savannah, who rides with Hunter’s Way, has established herself as a top pony rider who works hard and loves every minute of it. Two years ago, the Jenkins bought Wellen Goldsmith, a 4-year-old green Virginia-bred pony, for Savannah to bring along.
Last year, Savannah went to have a lesson with Peg Seals at Hunter’s Way to work on lead changes. She started riding some other ponies and in 41⁄2 months, on a small pony aptly named Savannah, she qualified for the Washington International (D.C.) and Pennsylvania National. She won the North Carolina Hunter Jumper Association Pony Medal Finals and showed at the Devon Horse Show (Pa.).
Savannah and “Rosie” currently lead the U.S. Equestrian Federation Zone 3 small green pony hunter standings and stand seventh in the national rankings in that division. “We want to be first in the nation,” Savannah said. “I’m positive we don’t want to be second.”
Aynsley Miller Fisher