Melissa Taylor Yee managed to harness Schumacker Solyst’s abundant energy to win the open Intermediaire I (69.00%) and Intermediaire I freestyle (75.93%) at the Great American/USDF Region 1 Championships in the Horse Park of New Jersey near Allentown, Oct. 6-8.

” ‘Shumy’ is a fun, forward horse even though he is a little sensitive and hot, but he’s very sweet and has a good head on his shoulders. So he uses his energy and freshness in a very productive way,” said Yee, who runs Legacy Farm in conjunction with her business partner and trainer, Lars Petersen.

“He can misbehave outside the arena, buck a little and jump a little. But he goes into the arena and does his job,” Yee said of the 12-year-old, 16.3-hand Danish Warmblood she bought from Petersen 31�2 years ago. Shumy also was the reserve champion in the open Prix St. Georges (68.62%).

Yee was happy with her score in the Intermediaire I, although she said she overrode him in the trot our, to compensate for the rain-soaked footing. “He stumbled once or twice in the extensions,” she said. “I think I asked for a little too much, but he is a good boy and he just keeps on going.”

Yee and Schumacker Solyst, by the Trakehner stallion Schwadroneur, performed their freestyle to music from a Harry Potter movie. “I need music I love. Every time we do it we seem to get better and better, so the 75.93 [percent] we got was a super score for me,” said Yee, who has been using the arrangement, choreographed by Marlene Whitaker, for 11�2 years.

After placing at the Collecting Gaits Farm/USEF National Intermediaire Championships (N.J.) for the past two years, Shumy is doing Grand Prix movements at home.

“We could bump him up to that level this February or March, or keep him back to do the Pan American selection trials in Florida this winter,” she said. “We are on the fence about that right now.”


Working Girl
Tami Glover, who earned the training level title, was elated with the two big victories BW-Callista (Contucci–Jungle Prince) has had in her short career. She tallied an overall 9.0 to win the 4-year-old test at the Young Dressage Horse Nationals in Kentucky just weeks before the regionals. Then, she topped off the month with the win at training level (71.53%) at the regionals.

“This is the first time I have had a regional championship and, of course before that, a national championship,” said Glover.

Glover, who works at Hilltop Farm in Colora, Md., has been riding the light bay, 16.2-hand, 4-year-old since April.

“She has an excellent mind. Nothing much fazes her. Of course, she is a young horse and she had her 4-year-old days, but she is very well mannered. She is very consistent in her rhythm, although she did get a little unsteady on her serpentine loops [because of the muddy footing],” said Glover. “She did stay nicely forward, in front of my leg the whole time.”

Callista, which is a Greek word meaning “most beautiful,” fits her well, said Glover. The filly was bred at Blue Waters Farm in Chesapeake City, Md., and sold as a yearling to New Yorker Leslie Valente. Valente, an amateur, trains and shows a couple of horses with Kathy Morelli and kept Callista in Hilltop’s training program. Valente wants to show the mare when she gets more mileage, although at one point she had toyed with the idea of making the well-bred mare a broodmare.

“But Leslie decided she would be a ‘career girl,’ ” said Glover. “Leslie wants a horse she can bring up through the levels, and Callista would be perfect for that.”

Valente is considering leaving the mare at Hilltop for the 5-year-old championships. “Obviously, we would love for her to stay here,” said Glover.


On A Roll
“I have had a super two weeks; I just can’t believe it,” exclaimed Susan Springsteen, who took the Prix St. Georges adult amateur honors (69.37%) with her Fanale. “This win was a thrill, to get 69s and 70s, especially since this is our fifth Prix St. Georges.”

Springsteen, a financial advisor with Morgan Stanley Inc. and a stock market daily radio commentator, rode her mare to various high-score awards at Dressage at Devon (Pa.) two weeks before the regionals, including the “Born in the USA” trophy, which went to the highest-scoring American-bred horse. Fanale’s breeder, Jeanine Malone of North Carolina, was there to see her mare and get the honor.

All that came from a horse Springsteen wasn’t really looking for.

“She was 3 [when she arrived], but I just fell in love with her. She trotted around the indoor arena with the look of eagles,” Springsteen said of her 16-hand Hanoverian, now 10. “I wanted a seasoned horse to take me to the international level; the only thing I would not buy was a young chestnut mare, but by the end of the weekend, she was mine.”

The mare had only been ridden 10 times, but that also didn’t deter Springsteen, of Downingtown, Pa. The mare was a finalist for the 5-year-old national championships in Raleigh, N.C., and did a couple of regionals. Then three years ago, Springsteen went to trainer Lars Petersen.

“That was the biggest turn-around in my riding and ability to train,” said Springsteen, who has two early morning sessions on her horses with Petersen before her 8:55 a.m. radio commentary. She worked with the mare for three years, getting the basics solid and muscling her up for their debut this spring at fourth level.

“She has tremendous focus and so much heart,” continued Springsteen, 47. “I am excited about what the future holds.”


No Joke
Messidor may have been born on April Fool’s Day, but the 16.1-hand, chestnut, 12-year-old gelding is far from foolish. He and owner Ashley Pumphrey, 18, of Lake Ridge, Va., took the tricolors in the junior/young rider category for the third (62.55%) and fourth level (57.06%) classes.

A chestnut with three white socks and a blaze, Messidor was imported from the Netherlands two years ago by Pumphrey, who started at first level with “M&M” under the guidance of trainers Mary Flood and Candy Allen.

Pumphrey’s regional victories were a good conciliation for the George Mason University (Va.) freshman who just missed out on making it into the fourth level class for her age group at Dressage at Devon. Nevertheless, she took M&M to Devon and had a lesson there from Flood. That exposed him to the bustling activities of an FEI show.

“It was a good experience, riding with international people and among professionals,” she said. It also solidified her resolve to make the regional team for the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships.

She won at third level at the 2005 regionals and was fifth in the open class at the BLM finals. She also was the GAIG junior/young rider third level champion last year.

Pumphrey will continue to compete while taking full-time academic classes and working part time at a local country club. After graduation she wants to open a business, importing and training dressage horses.


Nancy Degutis