Despite the rain, the Hampton Classic was a great success this year. Shane won the $7,500 Open Jumper Class on Spy Coast Farm's Sienna. Amaretto D'Arco continued his consistent performance with a 2nd in the Open Jumper 1.45 class. D'Arco was one of the few to successfully navigate the $250,000 Grand Prix and FEI World Cup Qualifier. With just a single rail, in a fast time, Amaretto D'Arco and Shane finished 6th.

 

The Sweet Oak Farm horses all came away with excellent ribbons at what is considered to be the most prestigious horse show in the country. Nikki Carr ribboned on Potter in the Marshall & Sterling Children's Jumper Classic, as did Mahogany and Lindsey Tomeu. Lindsay was also 2nd in the Just World Child Jumper class.

 

In the competitive Junior Hunters, Kelcie Brophy and Vulita H continued their consistent ways with ribbons in every class in the under 15 Small Jr. Hunter division. See Shane being interviewed at the Hampton Classic:  Interview

Release: July 26 2009 Young Riders

 

Lexington, KY—The audience was in for a treat as both Junior and Young Riders laid it all on the line and put on a show during the CN North American Junior & Young Rider Championships presented by USHJA. In the juniors, it took two separate jump-offs to decide the winners of the Individual show jumping medals and all four horses and riders jumped their hearts out in an attempt to reign supreme.

 

Kaitlin Campbell and Connery 9 jumped clean and quick in the Gold-medal jump-off to take home the coveted top honors. Campbell and Connery, hailing from Zone 2, left all the rails in the cups and rode fast to finish with zero faults for the her entire competition.

 

“I went before Samantha, so I had to give it my all and not ride it too carefully,” Campbell said of her jump-off round. “I rode as fast as I could and just hope I didn’t have a rail.”

 

Campbell said that Connery was a bit tired, but he gave it his all.

 

Although the time allowed wasn’t a problem for Campbell in the jump-off, she cut it close in all the other rounds.

 

“I came pretty close to the times,” she added. “The time was tight in the other rounds, so that made me a little nervous. But it doesn’t matter how far off you are as long as you’re under.”

 

This also wasn’t Campbell’s first time riding in the big arena. She spends about six months out of the year schooling right next door to the Horse Park.

 

In addition to her Individual Gold medal, Campbell and Connery took home the Team Silver medal earlier this week.

Reprinted from Hunter Jumper News 7/16/2009

 

Shane Sweetnam had three of only four clear rounds in today’s $3,000 NAL Open Speed class at the Horse Shows by the Bay Equestrian Festival. Sweetnam rode Little Emir to first place, UnaDonja to third place and Coasting to fourth place. Brian Shook was the only other clear round of the day to land in second place riding Reno. The 2009 Horse Shows by the Bay Equestrian Festival will continue through August 2 at the Flintfields Horse Park in Traverse City, MI.

 

A class of fourteen entries showed in the $3,000 NAL Open Speed class today over a track set by course designer Guilherme Jorge of San Paulo, Brazil. The class was held in a timed first round format with a time allowed of 87 seconds.

 

Shane Sweetnam was the first to enter the ring this morning, riding UnaDonja to the first clear round of the class with a time of 74.157 seconds, which would eventually end up as the third best time. Three rounds later Brian Shook entered the ring and rode Reno to a clear round in 73.760 seconds. The pair finished just faster than Sweetnam and UnaDonja’s time, but did not hold the lead for long, and would end up in second place after Sweetnam entered the ring with his second mount, Little Emir. Sweetnam and Little Emir laid down an even faster time, jumping clear and galloping through the timers in 71.208 seconds to take over the lead. A few rounds later Sweetnam tried to beat his own time by jumping clear with Coasting, but stopped the clock in 79.229 seconds to earn the fourth place honors. Patricia Griffith and Veronieque ended in fifth place as the fastest four-fault round in a time of 67.599 seconds.

 

After winning the class, Sweetnam and Little Emir were awarded EquiFit boots, along with their blue ribbon and prize money. Little Emir is one of Sweetnam’s mounts owned by Spy Coast Farm, and he has been riding the horse for about two years. “He is a very good horse. He has placed well in a lot of big grand prix classes and he is always really consistent,” Sweetnam stated. “I did the Nation’s Cup last year with him in Florida and he was really good, and two weeks ago he placed well in the jumper derby in Spruce Meadows, which is a very big class. He has been very consistent for me.”

 

Sweetnam did well with all three of his mounts in today’s class and explained how his plan with each of them was a little different. “The first one I jumped, UnaDonja, is a young mare and she is still learning,” he noted. “With her I just went quick enough, but not crazy fast. It worked out that I was clear with her, but I didn’t do anything silly with her either.”

 

“With Little Emir I went a little bit quicker and it was the same thing, everything seemed to go my way,” Sweetnam continued. “Then the last horse, Coasting, I just started riding this week and he is a really nice horse. I didn’t go as fast with him because I am just getting to know him, but he jumped around nicely as well.”

 

Sweetnam added, “I think it was a good, consistent course today. Guilherme is a very good course builder; he does a lot at Spruce Meadows and WEF. There were a couple of turn options and it wasn’t just all galloping. I think it rode nicely and it was good for the horses.”

 

Sweetnam will be leaving to show in Europe next week, but he has enjoyed his time competing at Horse Shows by the Bay. “Most of my horses are owned by Spy Coast Farm, so it is nice to see them winning some classes, and we love showing here, so it has been a lot of fun,” Sweetnam smiled. “This is our third year in a row coming here and it has been really nice.

Our expectations were high since we have heard so much about it. Often that is the kiss of death but it is an amazing venue and the show is run like no other in that we have been to in the U.S. Four impeccably groomed, enormous (I mean really enormous) grass arenas that groundskeepers keep in perfect condition while the classes are going on they are putting down dirt, fixing divots, making sure the footing is as perfect as possible for each rider. The jumps were big and beautiful and unusual and the course designers put everyone to the test.

For the two weeks we were there the weather could not have been more cooperative. The competition was incredibly fierce in all divisions. Eric Lamaze, Beezie Madden, Rodrigo Pessoa, Jill Henselwood, Ian Miller, Will Simpson and Mario Deslauriers had multiple mounts in all the classes. The courses were extremely tough, technical and the time allowed in every class was tight. All classes had some combination of water, bank jumps, grobs, and liver pools. The bank in the Speed Derby was so steep that even a top notch skier might have found it daunting.

Julia Lourie on Triviant nearly won the 1.30 Jr./AO class Canada One week on Triviant, her new mount; only the very last horse in was able to catch her. She stood on top the leader board for a good part of the class. This 2nd place finish garnered her a stall plate as well, quite an accomplishment with competition in this class from France, Mexico and many strong Canadians. This pair is sure to be ones to watch the rest of this year. Julia also put in a clean round at the final Spruce show of the series in the $10,000 Jr./AO Speed Derby placing just out of the ribbons with Trivi.

Sienna was a superstar with Shane Sweetnam and Kaitlin Campbell, placing in numerous classes. In the first week at Canada One Shane was 1st and 2nd in the Meter 1.35 division. Shane was 4 seconds faster than Will Simpson and 5 seconds faster than 3rd place finisher Kent Farrington. Kaitlin and Sienna had a clear round Week 2 at The National Tournament in the 1.30 Jr./AO Class; they had an extremely fast time in the jump-off only to have a rail at the second to last jump. The pair still garnered 10th place. Sienna was also 9th in the 1.30 ATCO Junior/Amateur Barrage having the fastest time of the 4 faulters.

Julia was a top winner with Odette in the meter 1.10 Jr. Jumpers placing 3rd and 5th against a very tough and large group of competitors. In all the Jr./AO divisions there were top riders from all over the U.S., Mexico, France and of course the best of the best from Canada.

The Derby’s in all divisions were brutal….very long courses with multiple combinations and the jumps were set big so there simply was no room for error. Julia had yet another clean round with Triviant in the Junior/Amateur Speed Derby Classic and was just out of the ribbons. Kaitlin was first to go in the 1.30 Fast Track Derby on Taboo with a clean round in a fast 104 seconds. She finished up in 6th place after all 48 had gone which was a a great showing for Taboo, who Is only 7 years old and by far the youngest horse in the class. Taboo, owned in partnership with Spy Coast Farm, was also 5th in the Akita Drilling Power and Speed Class held in the Meadows on the Green ring. She was extremely fast in 36.6 seconds but the Canadians were hard to hold down and Taylor Bland was the winner nearly 2 seconds faster than the rest of the field.