Jennifer Waxman has already reaped the benefits of inheriting one mount from former junior rider Whitney Roper, and now she’s started collecting wins on another.

On July 24-26 in Saugerties, N.Y., Waxman rode Roper’s Sister Parish to the USEF National Junior Hunter Finals-East grand championship and large junior, 15 and under, tricolor. In May, she’d ridden Roper’s Saloon to the grand junior hunter championship at the Devon Horse Show (Pa.).

“They’re both really fun and just nice to have. I have to say thank you to Whitney and Mrs. Roper, and to their trainer, Susie Humes, and my trainers, Ken and Emily Smith, and my parents, for making it all possible,” Waxman said.

While she’s had the ride on Saloon all year, Waxman just started riding Sister Parish in May. The bay mare came to the Smiths’ farm, and Waxman started riding her. They got along, so Waxman arranged to lease Sister Parish beginning in July.

“I was really excited because she’s so nice. It took me a while to get to know her,” said Waxman. “She’s a little bit of a different ride for me. I’m used to horses you have to make go, and she takes you to the fences, so I just had to get used to it.”

Waxman, of Chagrin Falls, Ohio, didn’t show Saloon at the Junior Hunter Finals and decided at the last moment to compete with Sister Parish. “She went the best she’s ever gone, and I really feel like I got to know her better,” she said.

Despite the newness of their relationship, Waxman and Sister Parish won the under saddle and the stakes class and were second over the handy hunter course. The handy course was intimidating, as it was held in the expansive grand prix ring and involved rollbacks, inside turns, a trot jump, and a hand gallop to the last oxer.

“I usually don’t do well in the handy–I personally have trouble with doing trot jumps. But she went so well in that big ring, and the trot jump worked out well, so I was really excited,” Waxman said.

Waxman also rode Becky Gochman’s Vanity to the reserve championship in the small junior, 15 and under, division.

Catch Rides Conquer
Megan Massaro is no stranger to catch riding, and she proved her knack for it by winning the large junior, 16-17, championship and reserve grand championship aboard Intermezzo, a horse she’d just started riding a month earlier.

Intermezzo gained show miles in the green divisions and had shown lightly in the adult amateur classes with his owner, Jane Ehrhart, for a few years. He traveled to trainer Don Stewart Jr.’s farm in June to be sold, and Massaro got the ride.

“He’s extremely fancy. He’s still a little nervous about some things, but he’s really fun to ride,” Massaro said. “He’s beautiful to look at, and he jumps in amazing form. He just has a presence about him.”

Intermezzo and Massaro began the weekend by winning the handy class. “It was a thinking course,” she said. “I wasn’t nervous, and I’m usually pretty nervous. But he just galloped around and was perfect.”

Next they were fifth in the under saddle and second in the stakes class for the tricolor.

Massaro, 17, won the USEF Pony Medal Finals in 2003, and she’s been a prolific catch rider for trainers Stewart and Bibby Farmer Hill for years.

“This is the first year that I really had no ponies to ride, and I was riding a lot of horses. Don let me ride some great horses,” she said. “Horses and ponies are totally different, and there’s a totally different atmosphere to showing horses, and I love that.”

Winning at Junior Hunter Finals was a good way for Massaro to celebrate the beginning of the end of her last junior year. While she still plans to compete at the fall indoor shows, in mid-August she headed off to the University of South Carolina to begin her higher education.

She received a scholarship to ride on the USC Intercollegiate Horse Show Association team, so she won’t be too far from the show ring. Massaro plans to study nursing, with the hopes of becoming a physician’s assistant or a nurse practitioner.

Kacey McCann lives a life much like Massaro’s, living with her trainer, Susie Schoellkopf, and home-schooling so she can concentrate on riding and showing. McCann has proven herself to be quite a proficient catch-rider, but at the Junior Hunter Finals she got to win on a horse she’s leasing for the year, Fern Walk. She rode the chestnut to the small junior, 15 and under, tricolor.

Fern Walk is no stranger to winning in the junior hunters. Erin Stewart was just the first of many riders to guide him to big wins. It’s been a treat for McCann, 15, to ride him, since she’s used to greener or more difficult horses.

“He’s had a lot of experience, and he really knows what he’s doing,” she said. “It’s definitely different. I can trust him a lot more than some of the ones I get on, so it’s a lot of fun for me. I don’t have to worry in the ring–I can just have a good time. He’s got such a great jump. I have to ride him kind of boldly and go out and truck around. If I get him to the base of all the jumps, he just fires off the ground.”

McCann made a name for herself last fall, placing second in the ASPCA Maclay Finals (N.Y.). “I was really nervous going into Ocala [Fla.] because I’d done so well,” she said. “I was thinking about what I was expecting of myself and what everyone else was expecting of me, but as the year’s gone by I haven’t felt that. I’ve become more confident in myself, and I think everyone else has too. I think I’ve matured in my riding, too.”

And this year at indoors, McCann might be chalking up more wins. “It’s kind of exciting because I think I’ll be able to go to indoors with Fern Walk, and it’ll be my first time showing a junior hunter at indoors. I’ve been doing the equitation there for years, but it’ll be fun to have a hunter,” she said.

Thursday Night Shines Bright
Alex Paradysz isn’t as well known in the junior hunter ranks as the other three winners, but she’s catching up fast. She piloted Thursday Night to the top of the small junior, 16-17, division.

“I had to pinch myself,” Paradysz said. “Going into the stakes class, I was standing third, but Lyle and Bold Venture still had to go. I thought, ‘It’s going to be impossible to beat them, just go in and ride your best.’ And for once in my life, luck was on my side, and we ended up winning. I was so surprised when they called us in as champions.”

Paradysz, 17, and Thursday Night had started out with a fifth in the handy class, but then earned wins in the under saddle and the stakes class for the tricolor. “In the stakes class we were just on it, and he was so good,” she said.

Thursday Night, or “Teddy,” is Paradysz’ first junior hunter. She made the transition from ponies to horses last year. She tried Teddy in July of last year but didn’t buy him until September.

“I knew he was the one from the start, but we wanted to see what other horses were out there,” she said. “And we ended up back with him because he was the best. I felt more comfortable on him–he’s the first horse I’ve ever had.”

Paradysz, of Mill Neck, N.Y., grew up in New York City and started riding at the Claremont Riding Academy in the city. When she was 10, her parents decided to help support the habit and moved to Long Island and bought a farm. Paradysz started riding with a summer day camp, and then four years ago moved on to trainer Pamela Polk and began to show in the short stirrup division.

She advanced quickly and began showing ponies on the A-rated circuit while leasing Tickle Me Too. She made her Devon debut in 2004, and she showed at the indoor shows that fall and in 2005.

Last year, she began riding with Bill Cooney as well and credited him with polishing her skills.

“Bill makes me focus on the little things. He drills everything into your head. He says one thing in a lesson a thousand times until you’re saying it in your sleep,” she said. “He’s a perfectionist. I am too, in most things, but I hadn’t realized that I wasn’t really in my riding until I started training with him. He’s really made me even more of a perfectionist.”

That tutelage helped Paradysz make the transition to the junior hunters an easy one. And Thursday Night proved to be just the right partner.

“He’s very quiet. He takes a lot of leg, but once he’s out in front of you, he just goes and is always the same,” said Paradysz. “He’s helped me learn to keep my cool because nothing’s ever dramatic with him.

“I was really nervous for the handy hunter class in the grand prix ring because it was so big,” she added. “But Teddy just took me right around the course perfectly.”