The start of a new show season is often a time of transition, and three riders made that transition in style at Stonewall Country II, Feb. 7-10 at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, Va.

Grace Stuntz took the adult amateur hunter, 18-35, championship on her new young horse, Fitzhugh, in his first show in this division.

Stuntz is no stranger to winning, since her amateur-owner horse, Saving Grace, has been very successful.  “But he had a cold, so I thought let’s show ‘Fitz’!” Stuntz said.

The dark bay Mecklenburg gelding is just turning 5, but he’s moved up the levels quickly since Stuntz bought him in August 2007.  He spent the remainder of 2007 in the baby green division, then moved up to the pre-green classes in December. “He’s only done the three-foot four times,” said Stuntz.

One of Stuntz’s trainers at The Barracks in Charlottesville, Maria Shannon, has been showing him in
the professional divisions. “Maria and I have been kind of sharing him,” Stuntz said.

Fitz takes some time to settle into showing.  At first “he gets nervous and he attacks the jumps,” Stuntz said. “Usually by the second class, he’s better, and by the second and third day, he’s much better.”

The gelding has a sweet face and what Stuntz and her mother, Linda, call “bedroom eyes.” However, he does have some naughty habits. “He takes all his blankets off,” Stuntz said. He and a friend “play all day long,” she said. “They wrestle; they run up and down their hill all day—it’s really good for them.”

In a bid for family harmony, Fitzhugh’s “name is my dad’s middle name,” she said. “We’re trying to get him into the sport a bit.”

Stuntz, who grew up in northern Virginia, is now a second-year student at University of Virginia in Charlottesville, majoring in biomedical engineering. She’s been riding since she was 7. Her first junior horse was her mother’s; her mother still shows him a bit in the adult amateur division.

She got her amateur horse, Saving Grace, when he was 5 as well. Now 10, he was leased out last year so she could concentrate on college, but they reunited in June for Stuntz’ first amateur year. The pair made the most of the summer and fall—they were Zone 3 amateur-owner hunter, 18-35, champions last year.

So far Stuntz is managing both school and horses, with help from her trainers. “I try to hack them both in the morning every day,” she said. If she can’t, her trainers at The Barracks fill in for her. She also rides on the UVa. equestrian team.

Fitzhugh will stay in the pre-green division this year, since Stuntz can’t show in the adult and amateur divisions at the same show.

A New Routine

Zachary Parks is also enjoying his first year out of the juniors. He rode Cadeaux to the amateur-owner hunter, 18-35, cham-pionship. Last year the pair were the national USEF small junior hunter, 16-17, champions.

Parks has been riding since he was 6, and trained “all the way up with Claiborne Bishop and The Barracks” in Charlottesville, Parks said.  Now he’s a college freshman at Virginia Tech and has to meet his horses at the shows.  The staff at The Barracks are keeping the horses in work during the week.

The arrangement isn’t ideal, though—going from spending 40 hours a week at the barn during high school to weekends only is “not exactly what I want,” Parks said. “It’s not that fun—you have to keep on your A game all the time without any practice. I used to have riding as a stress reliever; it’s hard not having that any more.”

The horses “sense that I’m a little more nervous,” he said. “They can sense that I’m not seeing the jumps as far out as I’m used to.” They’re a little concerned about the weekends only schedule, though, Parks said.

“They always look at you when you get to the show like, ‘where have you been?’ ”

So far, he said, he’s been in Charlottesville or at shows most weekends, but “schoolwork is starting to pile up now,” he lamented. Parks is majoring in biology and animal science and volunteers at an equine nutrition lab and at the local humane society. This summer he’s looking forward to being back at The Barracks full time.

Growing Up

Having just aged out of the small pony hunter division, Anna Rossi, 13, is also moving on. She showed her Out Of The Blue, or “Bubbles” to the medium pony hunter championship and won a class of the large pony hunters on her One More Time.

Rossi is used to having multiple rides.  “It can be tiring” showing a few ponies, Rossi said, but “it’s definitely worth it, especially when they go well.”

At some shows last year she showed these two, her small pony, and some catch rides.

Rossi lives in Washington, D.C., and rides with Katie Huber at Stoneridge Show Stables in Great Falls, Va. “My mom rode and had ponies growing up,” Rossi said. “I was trotting on the rail by myself at 3 1⁄2.”

The seventh-grader and her younger brother are home-schooled, with her former third-grade teacher, so she can ride every day. School is “8:30 to 12, and then it’s off to the barn,” Rossi said. She plans to attend high school, though.

Last school year, she and her family went on a trip around the world, in segments so she could come back and show. She wrote of her adventures in the Chronicle’s 2007 Junior and Pony issue (May 18, p. 64).

This is her first year doing the large ponies on One More Time, or “Ditto.” “I started pretty nervous but now I’m O.K.,” she said.

Rossi bought Ditto at the Pony Finals auction in 2006 and showed him in the green divisions last year. The dark bay Welsh cross gelding, now 7, “was a backyard pony until he went to the auction. He’s one of those you can see coming in the kitchen window for food,” Rossi said.

While Rossi is enjoying the new challenges, she misses showing her small pony, Tiddlywinks. “It’s a heartbreaker,” she said. “I’ve had him since I was 7. I showed  ‘Winky’ from children’s to smalls and qualified for indoors two years in a row,” she said.