Aaron Vale took all the top checks from the HITS Ocala Winter Classic, Feb. 9-13, in Ocala, Fla., winning the $50,000 EMO Grand Prix aboard Arriscraft Soliel, as well as the $25,000 Thursday Grand Prix with Romulus.

Vale was the first of five riders in the EMO jump-off, and he trusted his horse’s abilities enough to keep the pedal down.

“He’s a very careful horse, so in the jump-off, you’re in good shape,” said Vale of the 9-year-old Dutch Warmblood. “You can go as fast as his little legs will carry him because he’s not going to get flat.”

Owner Keean White sent the horse to Vale last year because he was too spooky at the Winter Equestrian Festival grounds, where White is based. Last year, Arriscraft Soliel won a Thursday class and a $10,000 class with Vale, but the EMO was his first Sunday win.

“He’s still a little spooky, but as he gets older, I think he’ll have enough confidence to go to a spookier-looking venue,” said Vale.

In the jump-off, Vale slowed down a little for a big combination and a vertical off a turn, so he knew he’d left “a beatable time” for the riders who followed him, but not by much.

“I made the others do enough [trying to catch me]. There were some big verticals at the end of the course, and we went pretty darn fast,” he said. “There were a couple of places where he could run, which is his strength, and we were very strong to the last fence.”

Vale was most concerned about Sergio Campos. “He goes really fast, and I was wary that if he left all the jumps up, he’d have a chance,” said Vale.
But Campos pulled a rail on both of his horses to finish third and fifth.

In Thursday’s class, Vale had the opposite challenge–he entered the jump-off as the last rider on Romulus, who missed Sunday’s jump-off only because of a time fault in the first round. “I knew what I had to do, and I was able to do it,” he said simply.

Because Romulus, an 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood, tends to drift left, Vale carefully planned his route to compensate. “There were three turns where you didn’t want to [drift left],” he said. “I went fast, but I was mindful to give myself a little extra room, and he was good on the inside turn back to the last jump.”

Although Vale doesn’t consider Romulus one of his fastest horses, he is very consistent. “He’s learning to be quicker in the jump-off, and he gives 100 percent,” Vale said. “He’s careful, so you can take chances going to fences, and I know what he can and can’t do. He’s a real useful grand prix horse–you can take him to Palm Beach [Fla.], or wherever, and he’s going to try to jump a clear.”

Coming Full Circle

Jamie Planck Martin, champion and reserve in the amateur-owner, 36 and over division, just started showing again in the last two years, following a 24-year break. That time away from horses–during which she went to law school, married, had three children and practiced law for 18 years–has only made her victories that much sweeter.

“I always wanted to ride again,” she said. “I think God has blessed me incredibly to have this opportunity to do this again.”

Over the last year and a half, Martin has bought 10 horses for her Providence Hill Farm in Jackson, Miss. Patty Stovel and Haley Velemirovich show the young horses, planned to eventually become mounts for Martin and her 9-year-old daughter, Tinsley.

At Ocala, Providence Hill Farm’s Shout For Joy also won the conformation hunter championship with Stovel, and Tinsley won the medium pony tricolor on Absolut Snap.

“If we do well this year, it’s because we have been patient finding young horses and a really good team,” said Martin. “It’s been really rewarding to stick to a plan and work hard over two years and see it come together.”

Martin bought her amateur champion, Monte Cristo, from Don Stewart last year. Formerly campaigned by Stewart’s daughter Erin, the Dutch Warmblood quickly went on to win with Plank. The pair won at the Legacy Cup (Ky.) in May, shortly after she bought him, and they qualified for all the fall indoor shows.

Unfortunately, Monte Cristo injured a hoof before the Capital Challenge (Md.) in October and missed the indoor season. Ocala was his first show since the injury.

Fargo, the first horse Martin bought, took the reserve championship, and Cayman finished third in the division.

As a junior, Martin trained with Otis Brown, and she sought him out again when she returned to the sport. Still, it wasn’t an easy transition when she moved up to the amateur division from the adults.

“Trying to start the amateur division took everything I had to walk into the ring,” she said. “I am still very nervous. As an amateur, I don’t get to ride much, only on weekends, but I’m trying to hold it together. It’s hard to get physically strong enough. I know what I’m supposed to do because I used to do it–it’s getting my body parts to cooperate.”

So Martin works out with weights at 5:30 a.m. three times a week, and she runs. “I wouldn’t have said I was out of shape before this, but it’s a different set of muscles,” she said. “I need the time in the saddle to build up my strength and timing.”

Martin isn’t in any hurry to push herself, though. “My motto is: ‘It’s not my last junior year.’ If the footing or something is not right, it can wait,” she said.

And she has her own cheering section when Tinsley is on the show grounds. “I’m more nervous when she goes in the ring than when I do,” said Martin with a laugh. “[When I’m riding], she stands at the ring and says, ‘Go, Mom, go’ and ‘That’s my Mom!’ “

Since Martin started riding with Brown when she was 10, and her daughter now rides with him as a 9-year-old, Martin feels that things have come full circle. Of course, things have also gotten a little better.

“I never in my wildest dreams would have thought I would have horses this nice,” said Martin. “I was a working student as a junior rider. Horses are such a gift, and after having been away so long and come back, it’s amazing how much more I appreciate them. This time I have time to know my horses and appreciate what fine athletes they are and that they really try.”

Passing It On

Like Tinsley Martin, Megan Massaro’s introduction to horses came from her mother, Janis Massaro, who rode as a junior. “When I was born, I lived on a pony,” said Megan, 16, of Ocala, Fla. “I wanted to ride until my feet fell off.”

At Ocala, Megan had no shortage of rides, or victories. She secured the large green championship and reserve on Grey Goose and Caberneigh, as well as the reserve tricolor in the children’s horse division on Memento and the medium green pony championship on Macy Grey. She rides with Don Stewart and Bibby Farmer Hill.

Macy Grey was sent to them from California two or three weeks before the show. “She’s one of the best ponies I’ve ever had to ride,” said Megan of the 6-year-old Welsh-cross owned by Carlye Byron-Nelson. “She’s good at everything she does, and she has a great mind. It was her first show ever in the mediums, and I didn’t know what to expect because she’s really green. She was absolutely perfect.”

Megan has ridden Bill Schaub’s Grey Goose for a year. “He’s really, really fancy,” she said of the 7-year-old. “He wins the model and is a great mover and jumper.”

Her weekends are spent riding, and two or three times a week, she goes directly from school to the barn, to ride as many ponies as she can until dark. But Megan has other plans for her professional future.

“I’m really interested in medicine; I’m trying to decide which field of medicine,” said the 11th grader. “I will always ride, but college is my main priority.”

Megan participates in the Health Academy, a school program in which she gets to shadow different doctors at the hospital and see what most interests her. She hopes to get an intercollegiate riding scholarship to the University of South Carolina.

Kacey McCann also earned one title after another at Ocala, including the large junior, 15 and under, champion and reserve and the equitation, 12-14, tricolor.

McCann, of Palmyra, Pa., rides for SBS Farms and Jennifer Alfano. Her large junior winner, Barbara Kearney’s Shogun, also competes in the adult amateurs with his owner.

“He gets very bored if he’s not doing anything before Barbie rides him,” said McCann, 14, of “Gunner.” “I keep it interesting for him and ride him everywhere but the ring.”

The 9-year-old warmblood used to be a jumper in Ian Millar’s barn.

McCann scored the reserve championship on Pharrell, whom she started riding a few weeks earlier at Jacksonville (Fla.). “He’s a super easy ride, really straightforward and one of my favorites,” she said. Pharrell’s owner, Euri Uchiyama, also shows him in the juniors.

McCann owns her equitation horse, My Way, 8. “He’s come a long way since we got him [two years ago]. Jen rode him in the beginning to get him ready for me,” she said. “He does the junior hunters off and on, too, just for practice for me.”

McCann is living this winter with Alfano, across from the show grounds, and is home schooled, working via computer with a friend of her mother’s who is a science teacher. In addition to riding, McCann helps around the barn most of the day, cleaning tack and grooming. “I’d love to be a professional,” she said. “I’m 100 percent sure horses will be in my life forever.”

Jodi Czaplick’s high school wouldn’t allow her much time off to show, so she’s taken a year after graduation to spend with her horses. She and Untold were Ocala’s amateur-owner, 18-35, champions.

The pair, who trains with Keith Powell, ended their junior career last year with the large junior, 16-17, titles from Zone 2 and Long Island, as well as finishing in the top 10 of the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s large junior standings.

Czaplick, 18, of Long Island, N.Y., has owned “Bart,” a bay, Thoroughbred gelding, for four years. Jenny Fisher had shown him in the first year greens before he caught Czaplick’s eye at a show. “He has a ton of personality. If he doesn’t like what you’re doing, he’ll let you know. You have to be on his team, make him happy,” said Czaplick.

Czaplick also shows her other horse, Oblivious, and she braids during the week to cover her expenses. But she also has great family support. “Both my parents are really into horses and helped me a lot more than the average horse parent,” she said. “My mom [Debbie Czaplick] helps me get my horse ready and feed. The horses are in our backyard in New York, so we’re right there every second.”