Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024

What You Need To Know: 2024 Dover Saddlery/USEF Hunter Seat Medal Final

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The 2024 Dover Saddlery/USEF Hunter Seat Medal Final kicks off this morning, with the first competitor stepping foot in the ring at 7 a.m. It is estimated that the final round will start at 4 p.m. 

Tammy Provost and Rachel Kennedy are judging the class of 169 competitors with drag breaks every 50 rides. Steve Stephens designed the course along with the judges. Oliver Kennedy, Ava Stearns and Sissy Wickes will be commentating live on USEF Network all day. The Chronicle will be blogging ringside all day. You can follow along here. There’s a lot of information to parse through, so scroll down for the course map, course description, order of go and more. 

There is a dotted line that weaves across the ring that riders may not cross before or after their course. Riders start over a tan oxer directly across from the in-gate with a slight right bend to a vertical. They’ll go around the end of the ring and turn right to an oxer set on a diagonal, bending three strides to 4AB, a pair of skinny gates in two strides. Fence 5, the Dover Saddlery rails, is out of the turn off the left lead bending to an oxer with brush rails and pink flowers at 6, continuing to 7, a vertical made of the same material three strides later. They’ll then ride out of the turn to an combination 8AB set along the long side headed home in one stride, jumping in over an oxer and out over an airy vertical. They’ll then bend to a square oxer at Fence 9, with brown rails. They’ve got the corner to regroup, but need to be ready for the next line, which consists of a wingless vertical made of split rails at 10, bending to a Swedish oxer with birch rails at 11. The course diagram specifies that riders should demonstrate seven strides in this line. They’ve got just one more fence, set on the short end of the ring, a skinny with shiny green rails.

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For the second round the judges have requested that riders go directly to Fence 1, a vertical with a little brush under it at the far end of the ring coming toward the in-gate. They then continue in a bending line to a square oxer, turning left after that to a vertical-oxer one-stride in-and-out made of split rails. Riders continue in a bending line over a ramped oxer. Riders come around the end of the ring to a skinny gate, then continue down a line to a Swedish oxer, before riding a bending line to another skinny gate at the end of the ring. Riders turn right around the end of the ring over a square, airy oxer, continuing an end jump. They finish over a one-stride in-and-out headed toward the in-gate followed by another airy oxer in the corner.

Round 2 course

Find full results here. Check out all the Chronicle’s coverage from the Pennsylvania National here.  Check out the November 18 issue of the Chronicle of the Horse magazine for analysis from the competition.

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