Kirk Webby guides his Olympic mount to an impressive grand prix victory in Vermont.

It only took Kirk Webby an extra stride to repeat his 2007 winning grand prix performance.

And those few feet set Sitah up perfectly for a super sharp slice to the inside and the first-prized check in the $30,000 Mount Equinox Grand Prix, the closing feature of the Valley Classic, July 22-26 in East Dorset, Vt.

Webby, Whitehouse, N.J., and Sitah, his mount for the 2008 Olympic Games in Hong Kong, represented his homeland of New Zealand. The 16-hand Belgian Warmblood returned to form after a long break. But at age 14, “she has a big heart” to do the job, a fact Webby has learned in the three years he’s had her.

That heart was also something he counted on when he was the only one of the four on designer Ken Krome’s jump-off route to sneak inside the triple bar to save precious time. As the last of four to go, Webby took a chance, and his 36.60-second finish aboard Sitah was 1.34 seconds faster than second-placed Ken Berkley on Carlos-Boy.

“All the other horses were pretty big gallopers,” said Webby, who noted that his mare is cunning and knows how to play the game. “I don’t know if she has any more championships in her, but if she does you might see [her] at next year’s [Alltech FEI] World Equestrian Games in Kentucky.”

Webby co-owns the bay mare with Peter and Tracey Kraft. Although he retains his Kiwi citizenship, Webby has lived in the United States for 10 years and has an American wife and children.

If he doesn’t ride Sitah at the WEG, Hennessey, a bay gelding who finished eighth with 4 faults, could be her successor. The 11-year-old Mecklenburg might have the potential to do as well as she does, noted Webby, who also rode Cosmopolite S to 12th.

Danger Reigns

After dropping a rail in the two-horse jump-off in the high junior/amateur-owner jumper classic, Molly Braswell didn’t think she’d be celebrating her first high classic victory a few minutes later on her Danger.

Her plan was to post a solid, clean round, but it didn’t quite work out that way when a troublesome oxer near the end of the course caused problems.

“I thought I was OK there, but when I took off we were at a distance from the oxer,” said Braswell.

With a rail in hand, her opponent, Charles Jacobs, decided to play it safe and go slowly. But when he took a rail down at a skinny vertical with Pia, he had to turn on the speed to try to beat Braswell’s time. His mare then caught another rail, putting him out of contention.

Jacobs, East Aurora, N.Y., who won the high junior/amateur-owner class on Friday and earned the division championship, swapped places with Braswell in the classic. “I hadn’t even watched him because I was pretty sure he was going to win,” said Braswell with a laugh.

“I felt pretty lucky,” added Braswell, who collected the division reserve championship.

Braswell, 15, Ocala, Fla., trains with the Quiet Hill team, which includes her father, Bobby Braswell and Christina Schlusemeyer.

“This is my first high classic win, so I’m really proud of myself and Danger,” said Molly. “It’s been a very good year for us.”

Danger was purchased and imported by her parents two years ago to be her low junior jumper. But the 11-year-old, bay Belgian Warmblood gelding has “become so much more than we ever expected.”

The pair made their grand prix debut last April at the Aiken Spring Horse Shows (S.C.).

Braswell is enjoying her time with Danger and looks forward to the fall indoor horse shows and perhaps an appearance on the Zone 4 Prix des States team at the Pennsylvania National. “But let’s see how things play out,” noted Molly, who combines competing with her studies by way of the Florida Virtual High School, a cyber facility.

She hopes to attend a college that offers an intercollegiate riding team.

Radish Head Rules

A simple misunderstanding resulted in Katie Strandberg’s jumper Custom Made inheriting his barn name of “Radish Head.” Despite being named after a vegetable, the bay gelding was far from rooted to the ground as he jumped to victory in the low junior/amateur-owner jumper classic over 24 rivals.

A jumper rider who began in the ponies three years ago, Strandberg was trying the 16-hand Belgian Warmblood for a friend but liked him so much she bought him from Emer Coyne.

What she didn’t realize was that the horse’s show name then was Raddigan; she thought Coyne had said Radish Head. So when she purchased him and took him to the Oak Meadow Farm of her trainer, Mark Rarick, two years ago, “his name was kind of a joke, so we kept it that way.”

Strandberg, Wilbraham, Mass., and Radish Head were one of six pairs to qualify for the jump-off. The 19-year-old Johnson & Wales University (R.I.) sophomore was the last to go, an enviable position. She watched as one rider ahead of her turned in a clear round after the others had gone fast and dropped rails.

“I didn’t think I could go that fast and stay clean, so I went as fast as I could while still keeping the rails up,” said Strandberg who came home fault-free in the fastest time for her first classic victory. “I had done one other classic, and that was at the Old Westbury [Conn.] Hunt Club show.”

More Classic Blues

Ashley Foster earned her best child rider on pony award after showing the top ponies in the pony hunter classic as well as earning the medium pony hunter tricolors.

Foster, 13, Brookeville, Md., guided Holly Hill Farm’s 9-year-old bay Brighton Undeniably, a.k.a. “Zina,” to the blue in the classic and the championship in the medium division. She also piloted Mackenzie McGehee’s Poster Boy to second in the classic and reserve championship honors.

“ ‘P.B.’ knows he’s pretty, goes in and stands, and wins the model. So we knew Poster Boy was ahead in the classic [after the first round],” noted Ashley’s mother and trainer Patty Foster. “But they had a little mistake in the second round for an 82. Then, Ashley and Zina put in a beautiful round for an 86, and Ashley knew she had the winner on that one.”

Zina, a New Jersey-bred Welsh crossbred, likes Ashley a lot and the two get along great, said Patty who had leased the mare for a student at her Rolling Acres Show Stables. When the lease was up in June, the owners of Holly Hill asked if Ashley would qualify the horse for the fall indoor shows. If all goes according to plan, Ashley will show Zina at the Pennsylvania National and Washington International (D.C.) along with her large pony, Will Kennedy’s Smokescreen.

Brianne Link, 11, is also into dominating divisions, and she sewed up some children’s hunter blue ribbons with victory in the Marshall & Sterling Children’s Hunter Classic aboard Silas V while taking the NAL/WIHS Children’s Hunter Classic on her Spock. To top off the weekend, she was second in the low children’s jumper classic on her pony, Tallyman.

Ultimately, Link has her sights set for larger fences, though. “I want to do the big equitation, do the grand prix classes and try to make it to the Olympics,” said the East Islip, N.Y., youngster, who is coached by Jimmy Toon.

Her winning mount Silas V, a bay, 16-hand, 6-year-old Rhinelander, was imported from Belgium last November. The pair quickly forged a winning partnership and earned the Winter Equestrian Festival (Fla.) circuit championship in the children’s, 14 and under, division. Link also took the pony jumper circuit title at WEF with Tallyman for the past two years.

When not riding daily, Link concentrates on raising funds for Just World International, a charity organization founded by Jessica Newman to help children in third-world countries from South America through the Far East. This year Link solicited $2,000 in donations from friends and family members and asked that in lieu of gifts for her birthday and Christmas that she get checks to go to Just World. She was chosen to travel to Guatemala to see the results of her fundraising, which included paying for a new roof on a school, as well as buying medical and kitchen supplies.

“It gave her a whole new perspective on life,” said her mother of Brianne’s trip to Guatemala. Now she wants to raise $8,000 to help children in Guatemala attend college.

Niffer Cancian, 22, Lincoln, Mass., and Volo Lion King’s debut in the Marshall & Sterling Adult Amateur Hunter Classic is one she’ll remember long after she returns to classes in her senior year at Kenyon College (Ohio) this September.

“This is our first classic win, which we got with an 80 in the first round and then an 84 in the second,” said Cancian, who has leased the bay, German-bred warmblood, 14, from Volo Farm Inc. for the past 18 months.

During the winter, when Cancian is in college, the 16.3-hand “L.K.” is used by students who ride in the interscholastic equestrian association program. When she returns home, L.K. is ready for action.

“He has a super sweet and happy personality,” she said. “He’s consistent and likes his job.”