Lexington, KY— As Day Two of the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Pony Finals National Championships unfolded, the first overall champion was named. One of the busiest hunter riders at the show, nine-year-old Victoria Colvin, won the Medium Green Pony Hunter Championship and the Overall Green Hunter Pony Grand Champion title with a total score of 1,059 aboard Scott Stewart’s Cortina. Colvin also went on to claim the Small Green Pony Championship on Ballou with a total score of 971.

Kaitlin Campbell, 15, and her mount Valentine rode away with the Large Green Pony Hunter Championship title with a total score of 1,021. Campbell, of Upper Black Eddy, PA, and Valentine, a six-year-old bay gelding owned by Boggs Hill, kept their lead from yesterday to win handily over today’s competition.

Under record heat conditions which topped over 100 degrees in the afternoon, today’s over fences classes included the final portion of the green hunter pony competition (large, medium and small) after the completion of the model and under saddle portion yesterday.

Colvin, from Loxahatchee, FL, had nothing but praise for her mount Cortina, a nine-year-old dark bay mare.

“I’ve been riding her for about a year,” Colvin said. “She’s more made than Ballou. She’s pretty perfect and easy because you can loop the reins and she’s an easy swap. She was pretty made when I first started riding her.”

Colvin was riding Ballou, an eight-year-old Welsh Pony, when the weather shifted and storms started rolling in. Before she jumped the first fence, she was asked to wait while the wind died down and the ring crew could reset the jump course. Unfazed by the weather conditions, the pair jumped a winning round. Colvin won’t have much down time to celebrate her wins as she has three more mounts in tomorrow’s hunter division.

“I have a large, a medium and a small [pony] tomorrow. The large that I’m doing, Sunday Best, you loop the reins and he’s very, very easy. My medium, Promise, is a little greener but he’s a great mover and easy. he small that I’m doing I’ve been catch riding him, and yesterday was the first time I’d ridden him in about three months but I already know him,” said Colvin.

The USEF Pony Finals continues its consecutive run as the most prestigious and celebrated events in the United States. This year, Pony Finals celebrates its 40th anniversary.

For more information about Pony Finals, please contact Marion Maybank, USEF’s Director of Hunter and Collegiate Activities at (859) 225-2033, or via email at [email protected].

ENDS