Devon, Pa.—May 23

Emi Richard and Clayton Farrell scored the biggest wins of their young careers today at the Devon Horse Show when both riders tied for the R.W. “Ronnie” Mutch Equitation Championship.

The riders finished first (Richard) and second (Farrell) in the final section of the ASPCA Maclay to clinch the championship. With just one class today the riders had to wait around all morning until their class came up. To distract himself Farrell set about polishing his boots a dozen or so times and hung out at the barn. For her part Richard schooled her horse and focused on the confidence she has in Andre Dignelli and the Heritage team to prepare her and her mount for the class.

“I think at this particular show, it takes a little bit of experience [to excel], because there’s a lot of atmosphere here, and you’re showing over two days in two different rings,” said Farrell’s trainer, Stacia Klein Madden. “You’ve worked hard to get here, and you’ve got several different kinds of classes, so the biggest thing is trying to be consistent. And I think the way these results panned out, you had a lot of top kids in the running, and it usually comes down to the last class. So the kids need to have the focus and the ability to really think about the class and not so much about the award, and then the chips usually fall in the right place.”

Farrell won a section of the Washington International Horse Show Equitation Classic Jumper Phase and finished second in sections of the ASPCA Maclay and the Platinum Performance USEF Talent Search, while Richard claimed blue in a section of the Dover/USEF Medal and the Maclay and took fourth in a section of the WIHS.

Richard tacked up Kingsroad for the equitation wins.

“I started riding ‘Roady’ at the beginning of the winter, and we’ve had a great winter circuit,” she said of the 12-year-old Holsteiner (Kannan—Monata, Corofino I) owned by Elin Uppling. “We were kind of trying to save him a little bit for [equitation] finals and everything. He’s good horse, and we’ve really grown a partnership together. He’s such a sweet horse. He always tries his hardest.”

While Richard has been showing at Devon since she was on a leadline (she got fourth one year), this is Farrell’s second year coming here. Farrell rode Pepsi Van T’Hoogstehof, a 10-year-old Belgian Warmblood (Nabab De Reve—Darly Van’t Hoogstehof), whom he also paired up with at the start of the season.

“ ‘Pepsi’ was a horse Stacia had at the farm for a trial on a Sunday, and I remember I was the only one left at the barn that day, and I got to ride him,” Farrell recalled. “He was so lovely that Stacia called my parents, said, ‘This is a really, really amazing horse,’ and I remember we made it happen for me to have him. I had a great time in Florida, and the partnership I have with him is special because I’m the only one who’s ever really done anything with him in the equitation.”

Both Madden and Dignelli, who trains Richard, tweaked their preparation plans for Devon this year in a similar way. Both trainers focused on lessons two weeks before the show, then headed to a three-day horse show the week before the show.

Both Richard, 15, and Farrell, 17, are the children of professionals. Richard’s mother, Jamie Richard, runs Epic Farm in Middlefield, Connecticut, alongside Emi’s grandmother, Jill Kulmann. Farrell’s parents Clay and Kim Farrell run Fox Lea Farm in Venice, Florida.

“We did a lot of practice at home, [over tracks similar to] the courses that might be shown here, and just a lot of practice riding other horses,” said Emi of her preparation for Devon.

The Chronicle has a pair of reporters at Devon bringing you photos, stories from the competition and more at coth.com. 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 20 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