Lexington, KY—The first CN North American Junior & Young Rider Show Jumping Championships presented by USHJA medal was on the line when the Junior jumpers took to the arena for the Team medal round this afternoon. The competition was fierce from the start and the ultimate winner was decided with a three rider jump-off. It was the first jumping medal presented at the 2009 Adequan FEI North American Junior & Young Rider Championships presented by Gotham North.

Just one rail decided the winner of the jump-off between Zone 2 and Zone 10. Finishing with 12 faults was Zone 2, but sliding through with just eight faults was Zone 10. Zone 10 is made up of Alec Lawler and Live Fire, Taylor Siebel and Thunder-Ball, Richard Neal and Luke Skywalker S and Samantha Harrison and Santika. All four horses jumped well under the guidance of their Junior riders as they earned the well-deserved Gold medal.

“It was a solid track,” Neal said. “The jumps were big, but my teammates had success with it, so I wasn’t really worried about it going in.”

“We’ve all done the qualifiers, so this is the caliber course we’re used to jumping,” Lawler added.

Although the Gold-medal team jumped three rounds today including the jump-off, their horses came out of the competition in good condition. Thanks to a rigorous preparatory schedule, all four horses were plenty fit to deal with the heat and the courses.

“He was sweaty going into the jump-off,” Lawler said. “But he’s as fit as he can be. He still felt good.”

The Silver medal went to the second place finisher in the jump-off. The Zone 2 team – Kaitlin Campbell and Connery 9, Katherine Dinan and Mobile 4, Jazz Mace and Valentino and Jacqueline Lubrano and El Regresso Conga – rode hard and jumped well throughout the competition.

"It was a really big ring, so we had to be sure we didn’t have time faults,” Lubrano said. “After the first round, we definitely had to turn it up a little.”

As an added challenge, this was the first major experience with an open water jump for most of the girls from Zone 2.

“They don’t use the open water enough in Junior jumpers,” Campbell said. “We really didn’t have much practice over it.”

Receiving the Bronze medal was the team from Ontario, Canada. Made up of Miranda Travers-Cavill and The Air Up There, Rachel Schnurr and Magic Jumper, Bronte Gray-Rochon and Southwind and Jessica Whitton and Legende de B’Neville, the Ontario team made a strong showing, but had a few unfortunate rails to drop them to third.

The final team to qualify for the medal was from Zone 8. Zone 8 was one of the two teams made up of only three riders, meaning they could not drop a score to make up their team total. Kelsey Thatcher and Carlotta, Navona Gallegos and Drossana and Haley Griffis and Adjutano all had solid rounds to land them in fourth as a team.

The Young Riders take to the arena later tonight for their Team medal rounds.

For more information, visit www.youngriders.org.

ENDS