Addison Phillips is no stranger to winning at Devon’s junior weekend. In her pony riding days, she earned two grand championships. And in 2003 she graduated to the horses with a bang, claiming a junior hunter tricolor and the best child rider on a horse honors.

But it just keeps getting better for Phillips. This year, on May 26-28 in Devon, Pa., she rode Socrates to the grand junior and large junior hunter, 15 & under, championships. Then, she took both the championship and the reserve in the junior jumpers. She also claimed the best child rider on a horse title.

“I think this was probably one of my most rewarding Devon shows. It’s always harder to go back after having had good Devons, and try to accomplish as much. I think this year I accomplished more in the jumpers and hunters than I have in the past. This Devon was definitely an accomplishment for me,” said Phillips, 16.

Phillips, of New York, N.Y., took over the ride on Socrates in April 2004. Missy Clark thought the lovely chestnut, owned by Cayce Harrison, would be a good match for Phillips’ style. So Phillips is leasing Socrates.

“He’s just such an amazing jumper. He goes in his own pace, so you just have to be smooth and give him a quiet ride, and that’s how I like to ride, so it works out well,” said Phillips.

“He’s such a good jumper that when he goes well, it’s hard for any horse to beat him. I knew going into Devon that if I was consistent, we could do really well.”

And consistent they were, winning all four of the over fences classes on their way to the tricolor. Phillips used to own quite a few hunters, but had pared her string down to Socrates and her old faithful, Who’s On First. But she’s in hot demand as a catch rider and enjoys it.

“Riding the hunters is one of my favorite things to do, so it’s fun to find different horses and show them,” she said.

But she’s also become a force to be reckoned with in the jumper ring. Her championship with Cantus Anuberth II and reserve aboard Flight proved that.

“For the past year, I’ve really focused on the jumpers. I want to make sure that I do every aspect of riding,” said Phillips, who’s even done some smaller grand prix classes.

In fact, Phillips won her first grand prix in June last year, the $25,000 Fairfield County Grand Prix (Conn.) with Cantus Anuberth, an 11-year-old mare. “I’ve really never ridden a horse like her. She goes to the ring, and she knows when it’s the jump-off. She just goes, and I just sit back,” Phillips said.

Phillips won the Show Jumping Hall of Fame junior jumper classic on Flight, but placing third in the classic with Cantus Anuberth, added to a win in the earlier class, meant the championship.

“They’re both such different horses, so depending on the course, it depends on how well they do in it. For Flight, the classics are better because she has long legs and can gallop around. And Anna is good at turning and going fast. It’s great that I get so much variety,” she said.

The Right Connection

While Phillips is a seasoned veteran of Devon championships, Jennifer Waxman got to take home her very first Devon tricolor this year. She rode Tuscany to win all four over fences classes in the medium pony division for the championship and the grand pony hunter title.

“He was being so good, and I won the first two, and then I started thinking, ‘Oh, no, I hope I don’t mess up the rest because now everyone knows he’s being so good,’ ” said Waxman.

She’s only had the ride on Tuscany, 7, since January, leasing him from Caroline Spogli. “I’ve been doing pretty well on him, but at Devon I really felt like I figured him out,” said Waxman. “All of a sudden, I got him, and he felt great. He goes a lot more like a horse than a pony, and I really have to work to keep him connected.”

The practice she got riding her pony like a horse paid off, as Waxman also ended up winning one of the small junior hunter, 15 and under classes on her The Frog Prince. “It was my first year doing the junior hunters there, and I was just hoping to get a ribbon,” she said.

Lauren Hogan also made her Devon championship debut, claiming top honors in the large pony hunters with her Time To Talk. She’d been leasing “Timmy” last year, but decided she liked him so much that she bought him.

“All my old ponies were good jumpers, but he’s just amazing,” said Hogan. “He has an uphill canter, and he’s taught me a lot about the little techniques of riding.”

Hogan’s Devon almost ended with a big bang–she was waiting in the schooling area before the final stake class when a tornado hit the showgrounds, blowing a spectator tent into the ring. “There were five left, and I was the last one to go. When the storm hit, it was almost not real, like a movie, with people running everywhere. Timmy was so good–he didn’t panic,” she said.

After a two-hour hiatus to set the grounds back in order, Hogan had to return to the ring and lay down her final trip. She didn’t let the events of the afternoon faze her, posting an 84 to take third and clinch the tricolor.

“I was waiting to see what Timmy’s reaction was, but he was less nervous than I was,” Hogan said.

Hogan, 13, trains with Bill Schaub. She’s just started showing in the pony jumpers with her leased Thunder Jam, and she’s planning on competing at the USEF Pony Finals with Timmy.

Schaefer Raposa’s first Devon appearance, in 2004, ended with the grand and medium pony championships on her Longacre Jack B Nimble, but this year she guided Ingenue to the small pony tricolor.

Raposa, 12, leased out Longacre Jack B Nimble and is just catch-riding now. She rode Ingenue, 7, for owner Adrienne Sternlicht, who broke her leg in a skiing accident a few weeks before Devon. The ride wasn’t unfamiliar for Raposa, though, since she’d shown Ingenue for Sternlicht before.

“I got to practice on her a lot at the farm before Devon too,” said Raposa. “She’s such a good jumper and she jumps so high. It was really cool because I didn’t even think I’d get to show Ingenue at Devon.”

Raposa, of Clinton, N.Y., is the daughter of grand prix rider David Raposa and hunter rider Kara Hanly Raposa. She travels four hours on some weekends to Katonah, N.Y., to ride with Patricia Griffith at Heritage Farm.

Winners New And Old

Lexy Reed and Double Cinco returned to Devon to successfully defend their small junior hunter, 16-17, championship.

But winning at Devon was a new experience for Nicoletta von Heidegger, of Chatsworth, Calif. She considered her small junior hunter, 15 & under tricolor on Breckenridge to be a significant accomplishment.

“It’s one thing to win on the West Coast, but to come to the East Coast, against all the top horses and riders, and win really means so much,” she said.

And the evidence of her accomplishment came as von Heidegger collected her honors. “[Trainer Keri Kampsen] cried, and that meant a lot to me, since we all don’t usually get emotional about things,” she said.

While she wins prolifically, von Heidegger, 14, wasn’t at all sure she’d go home with a tricolor. “I wasn’t thinking I’d do that well. I was only showing one hunter, and I just wanted to ride my best,” she said.

But that one horse was Breckenridge, an 8-year-old warmblood she bought two years ago. “He has the most amazing jump–it feels like you’re flying,” she said. She bought the elegant bay from amateur rider Mary Ann Weisberg Perry.

Von Heidegger, who rides with Kampsen and Joe Thorpe, is still getting used to riding the junior hunters after graduating from ponies last year. “This is really a learning year for me. I want to start excelling in the jumpers and keep getting better and better,” she said.

Brianne Goutal has an impressive resume of equitation wins to her credit, and this year she added the large junior, 16-17, championship to the list. Goutal catch-rode Navigator, who won the same title last year with Megan Young aboard.

“We really liked her riding style. She’s very flowing and loose, and he likes that,” said Patty Foster, who trains Navigator along with Scott Kemery, about Goutal.

“There was a little more drama this year about the championship–it all came down to the last class,” Foster said. “But he jumped just incredibly in the stake class and won it. He likes to rise to the occasion. He’s just a very simple horse to ride and train. He has a great attitude and loves what he does.”

Navigator’s owner, Sarah Alvarez, is at school, but she might show him in the adult amateur hunters this summer.

Carolyn Kelly is embarking on her own victorious equitation career, and tying with Julie Welles (see sidebar) for the Ronnie Mutch Equitation Championship was a welcome addition. “I didn’t win any classes, but my consistency paid off,” she said. Kelly never placed worse than third in sections of all four equitation classes.

Kelly, of New York, N.Y., and trains with Ken Berkley, considers the equitation division a priority, even though she’s also a contender in the hunter and jumper rings. “Equitation is the base for everything you do, so I work very hard at it,” she said. “I didn’t do as well in the hunters and jumpers as I would have liked at Devon, so I was very happy to finish well in the equitation.”