Having qualified two of his three rides for the 10-horse jump-off for the $100,000 Footing Authority Grand Prix, held March 18, the final day of the five-week HITS Ocala Winter Circuit in Ocala, Fla., the odds were in Kyle King’s favor. Having dropped a rail with Capone I after a tight inside turn to a liverpool in the second round, he returned with Linda Opdycke’s Spitfire and a new game plan for his second trip around the shortened course.

“My father said he thought it was smarter to go around [a clump of standards] to the liverpool, that the inside turn didn’t save you that much time and you got a much better line to the fence,” explained King, who now bases his business in Ocala. “I really wanted him to be clean today. Capone is better suited to a somewhat bigger course, but with this horse I could really taste it on this course.”

The strategy worked, as King, seventh in the jump-off order with Spitfire, posted the first clear round within the time. Manuel Torres jumped clean immediately before them, but Chambacunero’s energetic antics between fences and a slip before the liverpool cost them 1 time fault.

With three four-fault rounds already posted and two refusals/falls at the triple bar by Debbie Stephens with All Star and Sergio Campos with Zizou, Beth Underhill and Magdaline followed Spitfire’s clean round with one of their own that was 2.68 seconds slower to claim second place.

The big triple bar hadn’t posed much of a problem by itself in the first round, but many horses weren’t able to come back to clear the vertical three strides later. Although that vertical was a waterloo for many, dropped rails were spread fairly evenly throughout the original course, designed by Buddy Brown. “Buddy and I worked together this summer in Canada, so I know what to expect with his courses,” said King, who also won one of Ocala’s $25,000 Ariat Grand Prix events with Spitfire on March 1.

King got the ride on Spitfire in August after Opdycke, who normally rides the 9-year-old, French gelding herself in the low amateur-owners, broke her leg in a fall from the horse.

“This has been his biggest test so far,” said King, noting it was his biggest prize to date as well. “Everything’s easy about him—even though I know he bucked his owner off, but that can happen with any horse! He’s like riding a children’s jumper, shoot and go.”

Rock Star Performances
Jennifer Alfano of SBS Farms Inc., Buffalo, N.Y., rode Jennifer Burger and Bright Star 158’s Rock Star to the second year green hunter circuit championship and the regular working hunter reserve circuit title at Ocala, also taking top honors in the regular working division with Meredith Lipke Bartolone’s Once And Again.

Louise Serio found Rock Star, an 8-year-old warmblood, and Alfano began showing him a little more than a year ago. “He’s an unbelievable horse. He’s never let me down,” she said. “He’s been absolutely amazing this circuit. He only showed three weeks in the regular working and got the reserve circuit championship. He really came into his own this year. I think this is his year.”

Once And Again took the lead from Rock Star in the regular working division with a championship in week 5, although she too only showed three weeks. “The four-foot is so easy for both of these horses. They’re so much fun to ride,” said Alfano.

Bartolone, who runs a charitable foun-dation that benefits arts and education, rides Once And Again in the amateur-owners and also earned the circuit’s reserve championship in the adult equitation, 36-45, with Churchill. “She’s really an easy horse to ride overall as long as I stay out of her way,” said Bartolone, of Buffalo, N.Y.

She has moved back up from the adult amateurs thanks to the mare. “It’s very nice to be on a horse like her who is very forgiving. She’s absolutely the reason I’ve been able to do the amateur-owners; she brought me back to the division,” said Bartolone.

Although Kacey McCann, 16, trains with Alfano and Susie Scheollkopf at SBS, she posted two definitive circuit championships in the older junior hunters for Don Stewart Stables of Ocala without even showing the final week. She earned the small junior title with Stewart’s Mustique, and the large junior tricolor with Caroline Weingart’s Chloe Z. “She’s in [Wellington, Fla.] doing the Ronnie Mutch Equitation Classic as we speak,” said Alfano.

McCann, of Palmyra, Pa., home schools so she can devote more time to the horses and has ridden with SBS since she was 12. “Kacey works really hard. It’s really a priority for her. A lot of other kids have other sports or things they’re involved with, and she just does this. She’s very dedicated,” continued Alfano. “She works at the barn too; she doesn’t just show up and ride.”

Another of Stewart’s jocks, Taylor Ann Adams, of Eads, Tenn., earned the medium pony hunter and medium green pony hunter circuit championships with Bibby Farmer Hill’s Sassafras Creek. Adams, 13, also trains with Bill Schaub of Over The Hill Farm. “I just got to know Kacey, and I don’t think I’ve met anyone sweeter—she always has a smile on her face,” said Adams.

Getting the ride on “Tiger Lily” at the beginning of the Jacksonville International Horse Show (Fla.) in January, Adams also earned the green title at that show. “She’s a very sweet, loving girl. We get along really well—I love mares, though,” said Adams. “She tries very hard. She walks in the show ring and says ‘Watch me.’ ”

She also began riding Stephanie Keen’s Lyle for Stewart in the small junior, 15 and under, division at the beginning of Ocala, earning the championship week 1 and reserve week 3. “I’m very lucky there,” she said. “I swear I could just tell him the course, and he could walk in there and do it.”

Adams began showing in the juniors last year with Schaub’s horses and has noticed a very different vibe between that division and the ponies. “The ponies are their own culture. You get to the pony ring and everybody’s so competitive and ready to go, and then you get to junior ring and people are more [mellow]. It’s like two different worlds, but I like them both,” she said. “I love the ponies, though; I don’t know if I could give them up.”

Adams traded top placings in the juniors and ponies all circuit with counterpart and good friend Sam Schaefer, who trains with Kim Stewart but also rides for Don Stewart. Schaefer earned the small junior, 15 and under, circuit title with Keli Colby’s Sunfest, the large junior, 15 and under, title with Jackson, and dominated the large pony hunters, earning the circuit championship with her Winston and the reserve with Elite Storm Front.

Rapunzel and Lynn Seithel, a student of Don Stewart’s from Mt. Pleasant, S.C., topped a field of nearly 90 competitors to win the $25,000 Marshall & Sterling Children’s/Adult Jumper Classic on the final Sunday of the circuit, despite navigating the first round half-blinded by her helmet, which had slipped down to her nose at the second jump.

A wad of toilet paper was a good enough fix for her to see her way to the top of the eight-horse jump-off. Seithel, 38, an attorney specializing in pharmaceutical litigation, is in the process of buying the 13-year-old Dutch Warmblood from Don Stewart and some of his clients.

“Last year we were just hoping and praying we wouldn’t die when we went around, and this year we got a win,” she said. “We keep talking about what a big difference a year can make.”

Don Stewart suggested the spirited mare might be a good match after seeing Seithel, who grew up riding Thoroughbreds, handle some of her horses, who she admitted were “acting a little nutty.” She usually keeps about 10 investment horses in various stages of development with Stewart or at her farm, St. Charles Place, but she said that Rapunzel isn’t going anywhere.

Amateurs In Action
Betty Oare was all over the amateur-owner, 36 and over, division with her horses Madison, L’Alezon, Estrella and Starbound, earning championships and reserves throughout the circuit with all four. L’Alezon won the championship in week 5, but it wasn’t enough to take the overall title from Madison.

Not wanting to push any of her horses too much, Oare didn’t show Madison the final week after the 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood earned championships in weeks 1 and 4. “He’s like a big pony. He is a great animal for my ride,” said Oare, of Warrenton, Va. “He’s really honest and sort of a trouper.”

L’Alezon, whose name is a feminine reference to her chestnut color, did win the circuit championship in the modified amateur hunter division. The 7-year-old Belgian Warmblood, who Oare purchased last July from Quiet Winter Farm, didn’t show much last year due to a minor injury.

Starbound earned the championship the third week but went on R and R with an injury of his own. Estrella, “the love of my life,” according to Oare, is only shown lightly but came on strong with the win in the amateur-owner classic and the reserve championship in the final week.

“This is all thanks to the horses, my brother Bucky Reynolds, who is the trainer, my husband, the men at the barn—it’s a family affair,” said Oare. “I’m probably the oldest one out there, but age is relative and this is a lot more fun than doing aerobics! And we work hard at it. I take it seriously and always try to do the best I can. As you get older, you really have to keep working at it, and you still learn something new every day.”

Kingston and Julianna Johnson-Merton, 29, of Pottersville, N.J., earned the amateur-owner, 18-35, circuit championship after topping the division three of the five weeks. Her second year showing the 12-year-old warmblood imported by Emil Spadone, Merton trains with Sandy Lobel.

She enjoyed the opportunity to ride in Ocala’s picturesque new main hunter ring, which features tracks weaving around two large, moss-draped trees. “The courses have been different each week and really fun to ride,” she said. “[Kingston] is a real showman, and he’s very forgiving, covering up my mistakes for the most part.

“He was a three-day horse before, so it’s kind of amazing that he’s doing this job so well,” added Merton, the chairman of the board for Olana Museum in upstate New York who designs jewelry.

Catherine Nicholas, 39, piloted Dark Skys to the adult amateur, 36-45, and modified adult circuit championships, thanks to her friendship with the 8-year-old Quarter Horse’s owner Carol Stillwell, who owns Four Winds Farm in Colts Neck, N.J., out of which Bill Ellis and David Connors train.

Connors spotted the mare five years ago at a Quarter Horse show, and she’s proven a consistent performer ever since, leading the standings in last year’s AQHA hunter rankings and “carting the amateurs around,” according to Nicholas.

Stillwell hasn’t been able to show as much as she’d like, due to work commitments. “I have a career that requires me to be there a lot so that I can pay for them!” she said of her business, Stillwell-Hansen, which sells sophisticated air conditioning and back-up systems for computers.

Dark Skys is by the Quarter Horse stallion Skys Blue Boy, who also sired another of Stillwell’s horses, Little Count Blue, who won the low hunter reserve circuit championship with Ellis. Ellis also rode her Billy Elliot to the division’s circuit championship.

Irish Eyes Are Smiling On Waters At Ocala
Donning a hunter green jacket and matching embroidered collar to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, Dana Waters found her own pot o’ gold, winning the $10,000 low junior/amateur-owner classic with her 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood Biloxi on March 17 during the Ocala Winter Finals (Fla.).

“I’m going to say he’s Irish, just for today. We were for sure feeling the luck of the Irish—my number even added up to 17!” said Waters, 46, wife of green-blooded grand prix rider Chuck Waters.

The two live in Valencia, Pa., and have a farm in nearby Spar, Fla., but it’s clear there’s still a big spot in Dana’s heart for her hometown of Biloxi, Miss., having changed the gelding’s name last year to reflect that. “I do think a lot about that place. My brother still lives there, one block from where we grew up, trying to rebuild,” she said. “We think about him on days like today.”

The end of the circuit treated the Waters right, with Chuck placing second in the previous week’s $50,000 Iron Springs Farm Grand Prix with 747 and daughter Hayley taking the reserve circuit championship in the equitation, 11 and under. “This is the most time I’ve spent at the jumper ring in five weeks!” said Dana with a laugh.

Despite a solid circuit, the win was definitely her personal highlight. “I feel very lucky and very blessed,” she said. “I have four terrific horses to show this winter, which doesn’t usually happen because my husband sells a lot of horses. It seems I managed to take horses to show every time someone comes to look at them, but now he’s having people come to look at horses while I’m at shows—I didn’t realize he had me figured out!”

As first to go in the jump-off for the $25,000 high junior/amateur-owner classic, Henry Pfeiffer, 17, of Temperance, Mich., played it smart, posting a clear round with Fox Meadow Farm’s Sargeant that was fast enough to hold up to the three remaining riders. “My aunt [trainer Polly Howard] always says that in the jump-off it’s not about how fast you go, it’s about going clear and making tight turns,” he explained.

His show ring smarts also translated into the equitation, 16-17, circuit championship and the week 5 modified junior hunter championship with Milo.

“What did you tell me this morning?” Dana asked him after his win. “He said, ‘Dana, let’s show ‘em how it’s done!’ ”

Another rider getting it done week after week was Morgan Mayer, of Tampa, Fla., who won the low children’s jumper circuit championship with Donegal, her 12-year-old Irish Sport Horse, posting four championships and one reserve along the way. The 14-year-old got the big gray about a year before from Brian and Catherine Egan Murphy of Ocala, only showing one week of the circuit last year.

“She is fearless, an excellent student, and she loves her horse more than life itself. She’s a beautiful, talented child, but most of all, she takes care of her horse and he takes care of her,” said trainer Trish Vogel of Hunter Oaks Stables. “He will do anything for her. He will give that child anything she asks of him.

“She was thrilled [to win the circuit title],” she continued. “The first thing she did was hug her horse and kiss him.