Lexington, Ky.—Aug. 8

After four full rounds of jumping plus a jump-off, Cisy Zhou of New York City rose to the top of the 68 entries to win the USEF Small/Medium Pony Jumper Individual National Championship aboard Ka-Chow.

Zhou and the 13-year-old small Welsh Pony (Farnley Tiber—Winter Wind) kept a clean sheet all week, and when they advanced to the jump-off they zipped to the top of the class in 28.88 seconds, ahead of runners up Grace Green and Bjerregards Katja. Lacey Powers and A&M Betty’s Secret claimed third.

Fifteen riders took a turn over Jasen Shelley’s short course, with smalls jumping .65 meters and mediums jumping .75 meters, and 10 put in clear rounds. Zhou took advantage of the footspeed of Southside Equestrian’s pony and kept her turns neat and tidy to win the title.

“I trust my pony,” she said. “She just turns when I turn.

“She needs a soft hand, just [enough to steer],” she added. “She does all the work for you. She’s amazing.”

Zhou, 10, matched the record for the youngest winner of a USEF Pony Jumper National Championship. She was ecstatic at her win.

“It feels amazing,” she said. “I really can’t believe it, because this week, I haven’t been really doing that well. So really winning has made me feel like so good.”

Zhou first started riding Ka-Chow two years ago, but she hadn’t ridden the mare since March.

“We always do that,” said Zhou. “We let her go back [to her owners for a while], eat grass, graze in the field, and then we come back, and it just feels like she’s right back in there.”

This is Zhou’s fourth year competing at Pony Finals. She said she feels the pressure from the high stakes at the competition, but finishing well makes her feel accomplished.

“She rode great today, we were almost a little too conservative [yesterday], we were worried about having a rail down in the team because she normally goes faster,” said Patricia Griffith, who trains Zhou along with the Heritage Farm team. “That worked to our advantage, because she’s like, ‘OK, I didn’t go as fast as I thought I was going, and I can go much faster. We haven’t shown this pony in a ring that big, so I think she underestimated that yesterday.”

Zone 4, Team 1 Snags Large Pony Jumper Honors

Zone 4, Team 1 rose to the top of the leaderboard to win gold in the USEF Large Pony Jumper Team National Championship.

Clementine Jordan, 10, of Wellington, Florida, aboard Cillbhrid Pippa, Maddyn Vatland, 14, from Vero Beach, Florida, on Class Act George and Callan O’Toole, 9, Monroe, Georgia, on Drumlane Oscar all put in two clear rounds to boost the squad from the southeast to the top of the podium. All three are Pony Finals first timers.

“It feels amazing [to win at Pony Finals],” said Jordan, who trains with Haylie Rolfe and Alex Jayne.

“I’m very good at controlling [my pony] because she’s easy to control,” she added. “It’s also very fun to just let her have her head so she can run.”

The most experienced Pony Finals competitor, Brooke Buras, 16, of Collierville, Tennessee, and Blue By You ticked a rail in each round. Buras couldn’t have been more proud of her pony, whom she’s brought to Pony Finals to compete in the hunters several times.

 “It feels totally surreal,” she said. “I wasn’t coming here expecting to run any ribbons, really.

“My pony is really fun to ride,” she added. “He’s really easy. I really built a relationship with him, and I think it really helps a lot. And he’ll he basically does anything I ask him to.”

In this year’s re-formatted championship, large ponies and the 1.05 meter section (open to all sizes of ponies) were run together, with just a handful of entries choosing the higher height, and there were 71 ponies in the championship. All four ponies on the winning team were out of the large pony section.

The silver medal went to Zone 8/9: Star Wish and Zahara Henderson, Diarado Des Cibaudes/Jacqueline Sherer, The Duchess/Lillian Thomas and Juan Bay/Elin Uhrig. Zone 5/6—Wildcard and Caroline Sather, Book Smart and Vivian Erickson, Chance Of A Lifetime and Nora Erickson and Laced With Grace and Lucy Rofidal—took bronze.

The large pony jumper riders will return Saturday for their individual rounds.

Want more USEF Pony Finals? Get all the Chronicle’s coverage here. Make sure you’re following along with the Chronicle on Facebook and Instagram @chronofhorse. You can get more Pony Finals in the September issue of the Chronicle.