Jessica Pye of Area V retained her dressage lead aboard Carte Blanche in the CCI** at the North American Young Riders Championships in Lexington, Va., July 30. Pye posted a double clear cross-country round to stand on her dressage score of 47.3 despite being held for about 15 minutes on course after the coffin at fence 21-22 while officials attended to the fall of Lauren Gardipee and Havana Gold. (Neither horse nor rider were seriously injured).

Laine Ashker, of Crozier, Va., also held on to second place (48.9), just barely behind Pye aboard Frodo Baggins with a clear round for Area II. With the top riders separated by less than a rail, the experience of Pye—who has competed her 16-year-old, gray gelding at advanced all year—as well as the experience of Ashker, who competed at the Rolex Kentucky CCI**** in April, could be helpful.

Rebecca Lynn Huy stands third (51.3) aboard Hot Night for Area III, and Tiana Coudray and King Street stand fourth (55.6) for Area VI. Both the CCI** and the CCI* ran short format for the first time this year.

David O’Connor’s course caused a fair amount of problems, including a fall at the barnyard corner at fence 16 for Ashley Adams of Area II and Vaunted, who had entered cross-country in third place. She remounted to finish but now stands 25th.

Lisa Barry and L’Cedric had entered cross-country in fifth place, but a stop at the narrow keyhole at fence 4 dropped them to 18th. Fence 4 also caused stops for Rebecca Brown and Twinkle Toes, who had been in sixth place, and Amy Mulhern and High Sierra, as well as for Rebecca Barron and Oberon and Kyle Smith on Summer’s Gift.

Brittany Kart fell and retired at the second fence on Trinity Presence, but no other fences caused much trouble—just one stop at fence 11, the snowplow drop to an arrowhead for Alexandra Garr-Schultz and Tom Henry and one stop at the table at fence 3 for Lisa Malek on Festive Way, as well as one stop at fence 21, the coffin, for Mikki Kapaun and Allstar. Janelle Riddle of Area VI had a stop at fence 4 and then two stops at fence 17, the second water.

Sixteen of 27 riders completed without jumping penalties, and 11 completed without jump or time penalties.

Area II (Kate Luce, Rebecca Lynn Huy, Mary Beth Hudson, Rebecca Barron, 168.4) team the team standings over Area V (Bonner Carpenter, Ashley Bailey-Classen, Rebecca Brown, Jessica Pye, 174.6) and Area II (Julia Briskin, Ginny Bryson, Amy Mulhern, Lisa Barry, 199.8).

In the one-star competition, Nate Chambers of Vienna, Va., held his lead on Rolling Stone II (45.7) for Area II, and Katlyn McMorris retained second place with Clifton Peekachu (48.3) for Area IV, ahead of Area VI’s Alison Pavlis aboard Sure Thing (51.0).

The one-star caused very few problems, with 14 of 31 riders finishing with perfect scores and 20 riders finishing without jumping penalties.

Fence 8, the first water, caused the most trouble, causing two stops for Lauren Kieffer with Snooze Alarm and an elimination for Coren Morgan and Early Achiever as well as Alexandra Caspary with Maletto V. Fiona Dodson and Happy Go Lucky II retired here after several stops earlier on course.

The Area II team (Madeline Blackman, Nate Chambers, Alexandra Zavoyna, Julia Ward, 156.7) leads the one-star team competition over Area V (Madison Buchanan, Paige Hewlett, Diana Brown, Valerie Becker, 161.2) and Area VIII (Marty Whitehouse, Melissa Miller, John Their, Lauren Kieffer, 192.6).

Dobbs Jumps to the Top in the Junior/Young Rider Individual Show Jumping Championship

Hillary Dobbs, 17, of Sussex, N.J., rode Maggie Ferguson’s VDL Lodus Excel to clinch the victory in the junior/young rider individual show jumping competition at the NAYRC on July 30. She finished with a total of 8.80 faults after five rounds.

“He felt tired after the fourth round of jumping, but I was able to wake him up a bit before the final round,” said Dobbs, who was fault free in the final round.

Miasha Fisher, of Manhattan, N.Y., rode Falcon Farm LLC’s Kitty 41 to second place. The pair had one time fault in the fourth round and a rail in the fifth. As a result, they were able to sneak past Gabby Slome on Salsa into the second place spot with 8.61 faults.

Going into the final two rounds of Saturday’s competition, Slome, of Riverdale, N.Y., was in first place, but an unfortunate pair of rails cost her the first place finish. The pair finished in third with a total of 8.8 faults.

The top three finishers were all Zone 2 riders. The fourth Zone 2 team member, Whitney Goulart, finished in 13th aboard Eclat with 41.75 total faults. Robertson Tops Dressage Consolation

Megan Robertson of Region 3 won today’s dressage consolation test aboard Leopold (62.61%) over Madison Cloninger of Region 1 on Windvogel (62.16%) and Catherine Duszlak of Region 1 aboard Mandamus (61.61%).