Darien, Conn.—June 12
Sydney Shuman jumped in her first grand prix at the Ox Ridge Horse Show four years ago when she was 15, and this year she returned to win the $25,000 Ox Ridge Grand Prix aboard Wamira. Shulman also won the $5,000 ‘Welcome Stake’ qualifying class earlier in the week on her 11-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, Quidam 13.
“Ox Ridge is a special show for me,” explained Shulman. “Wamira is fairly new to me, this is only my second show on her. She was in Florida this winter with one of Rodrigo Pessoa’s clients and I had been watching her because I thought she’d suit me.
“She is really fast, her stride is massive and she doesn’t take much time in the air. In the jump-off, I was literally holding her back—I could have gone twice as fast! She knows her job, so I try to stay out of her way and just put her in the right spots.”
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According to Shulman, the course, designed by Canada’s Peter Holmes, “was aggressive, but it was a good test and for me personally. I have been jumping bigger tracks so it was perfect. The jump-off course was great because it gave you a chance to run, but you needed to balance that, and with questions like the plank to the last vertical, you needed a really careful horse.”
Shulman rides with her mother, Jill Shulman out of their Back Country Farm in Greenwich, Conn., as well as Brianne Goutal and Renato De Vita. Sydney came up through the pony jumpers to the junior ranks and in 2013 she jumped to individual bronze in the junior division of the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships (Ky.).
The $25,000 Ox Ridge Grand Prix was contested by an international field of 35 riders, with four riders achieving clear rounds and returning for the jump-off. Sydney, 19, and her 12-year-old Belgian Warmblood mare Wamira took home the top prize money as well as the Michael S. Griffin Memorial Trophy and a summer lease on a 2015 4dr MINI Cooper, donated by sponsor CallariCars.com. Ridgefield-based Amanda Starbuck of Starbuck Equestrian was second to Sydney and Stephanie Galluci who rides with the Shulman’s Back Country Farm, was third.
Ox Ridge Hunt Club in Darien celebrated its 100-year anniversary in 2014. This was the horse show’s 84th year of the oldest horse shows in America. After a hiatus in 2014, this year’s horse show was at full capacity, encouraging organizers to take an optimistic view toward growth plans for 2016.
