Upper Marlboro, Md. - After working for six years to qualify for and achieve her ultimate goal of winning the ARIAT National Adult Medal Finals, Rachel Boggus of Indianapolis, Ind., succeeded. She rode Papillon 136 through two rounds of equitation competition and came away with the win over 30 competitors.

Since it's inception in 1994, the ARIAT National Adult Medal has given adult riders the opportunity to compete in a competitive equitation class over fences 3' in height. The classes are held at select shows across the country and riders collect points to qualify for the Finals.

The top 10 from the first round returned for the second round, and Boggus stood on top with an average score of 89. She and Papillon extended their 2.1 point lead after a stellar second round, where they received judges' scores of 91, 89, 90, 90, and 90 for an average of 90 and a total of 179. They won by a margin of 10.05 points.

When she saw scores of 90s, Boggus was thrilled. “It was great, and gratifying that my hard work is paying off, and that I’m accomplishing my goals. I think maybe once in my life I’ve gotten a 90, when I was 14 in a hunter classic at a local show! Never at a big show, so to do it here in this class has been a goal and that horse, who I love so much, and my trainer, who tries so hard, and my groom, I didn’t want to disappoint my groom [Jose Castillo]—he’s so into it. When I came out of the first round, he was more happy than anyone, hugging me. He gets really excited and really tries hard and wants everybody to do well. And so I like to represent the team.”

Amy Cooper rode last year's winner Acovibu to second place with scores of 85.90 and 83.05 for a total of 168.95. Third place went to Carly Corbacho and Blue Highway. They scored 82.55 and 85 for a total of 167.55.

Regarding achieving her goal, Boggus said, “It’s just never come together for me. I’ve always had to lease a horse, or my horse was hurt, or I’m using a horse that’s just coming back from an injury. So I was talking with (trainer) Abby (Blankenship) last year, and this was my main riding goal.”

To achieve that goal, Boggus needed a dedicated equitation horse. When Papillon 136, a 17-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding by Guidam de Dartay, stepped to the three-foot level, Boggus and Blankenship knew he would be perfect. “Pappy” had a stellar career in the big equitation finals with junior riders like Jessica Springsteen, Sloane Coles, Mahala Rummell, and Kristen Mohr. Boggus jumped at the chance to ride him, and has since purchased him. Following this win, he will do select classes next year and then live a life of leisure at Treesdale Farm in retirement.

With one piece of the puzzle solved in Papillon, Boggus turned to fine-tuning her riding. “This year has just been really about concentrating on tweaking things and perfecting things because it’s so hard to go in that ring on a horse you don’t know. I felt more prepared this year because I’ve been riding him all year, not just for a month, or only at finals,” she explained. “I’ve been watching a lot of videos of myself riding and videos of some of the top equitation riders. And I think, the best way Abby and I described it, is last year I was almost too workmanlike. You could see all my adjustments very obviously. So this year we tried to make everything very smooth. When I see the distance, don’t attack it, just let it happen. And then same thing when he’s settling: don’t sit straight up and pull and make him obvious, just kind of sink down and be more subtle about it. So this year we really tried to perfect the more subtle aspects of my riding. And Papillion is perfect.”

With more than 60-hour work weeks as an anesthesiologist, Boggus has to manage her time well in order to stay riding fit and ready to show. For the past five years, she has used her one week of vacation to come to Capital Challenge. With a win and her goal achieved, she laughed, “I might take maybe a real vacation now!”

Final Results: ARIAT National Adult Medal Finals
1 667 PAPILLON 136 RACHEL BOGGUS
89.00 89.00 90.00 88.00 89.00 89.00
91.00 89.00 90.00 90.00 90.00 90.00 179.00
2 1405 ACOVIBU AMY COOPER
87.00 86.00 87.00 85.00 84.50 85.90
82.75 82.75 83.75 83.50 82.50 83.05 168.95
3 680 BLUE HIGHWAY CARLY CORBACHO
79.50 79.00 86.00 84.50 83.75 82.55
86.00 85.00 85.00 84.00 85.00 85.00 167.55
4 1271 ANUCCI ALEXA BAYKO
82.50 81.50 85.00 84.00 84.00 83.40
83.50 84.00 84.50 83.00 83.00 83.60 167.00
5 1283 L. ALTA VIDA LAURA OWENS
85.00 85.00 84.75 85.50 85.00 85.05
82.00 82.00 81.00 81.00 81.50 81.50 166.55
6 1453 VALENCIA AMANDA GROHER
83.00 83.00 84.00 83.00 82.00 83.00
84.00 83.00 79.25 79.00 78.00 80.65 163.65
7 970 PACINO RAVEN WEINLEIN
82.00 80.00 81.75 82.00 82.50 81.65
75.00 77.00 76.00 73.00 72.00 74.60 156.25
8 968 KENNEBEC REBECCA CLAWSON
86.00 84.00 83.50 82.50 83.50 83.90
72.00 74.00 67.00 68.00 71.00 70.40 154.30
9 1452VINCE MELISSA GROHER
86.50 87.00 88.00 87.00 86.00 86.90
40.00 40.00 40.00 40.00 40.00 40.00 126.90
10 785 VINDOCTRO MEGAN BIFANO
88.00 88.00 83.00 81.00 80.00 84.00
EL 84.00