NAJYRC was a great success this year! The Zone 4 teams won gold medals in both the Junior and Young Rider divisions for the first time in history. Zone 4 had never won a gold medal at this competition until last week! Nepal and I had a very good show. One ten fault round in the nation’s cup class on Friday kept us out of the individual medals, but Nepal jumped great and finished up in 8th place overall.
The final day of competition was very intense! Katie Dinan was in the lead with only 2.14 faults, with Samantha Senft of Zone 4 only .10 faults behind her. The individual final at NAJYRC is comprised of two separate rounds over two different courses. The scores from those final two rounds are added to each horse/rider combination’s scores from the speed class on Thursday and both nation’s cup rounds on Friday to provide a final fault total. The horse/rider combination with the least number of faults becomes the individual champion.
Returning in reverse order of placement, Samantha rode the first course before Katie and had 4 faults. Everyone watching immediately thought Katie would win because she had not knocked a rail down all week! However, when Katie challenged the course she came out with a score of 8 faults. I couldn’t believe that a Zone 4 rider was leading the class! It really looked like we were going to have a clean sweep of the Young Rider division. However, one of the lessons several years of competing at NAJYRC has taught me is nothing is over until the last rider crosses the finish timers in the very last round. There are always so many changes on the leader board that riders can’t get caught up in everyone else’s scores, they just have to ride as best they can and see what happens.
Katie returned to the ring before Samantha in the last round and jumped clear. Samantha just had to jump one last clear round to stay on top! It looked like she had done it, but coming down the last line her horse Early Morning pulled a rail in the triple combination. It was a hard loss for Zone 4, but everyone was still ecstatic that Samantha won the silver medal! My sister Frances also won an individual silver medal earlier in the day in the Junior division after an exciting jump off for gold against Samantha Schaefer and Hayley Barnhill.
All in all, the week was wonderful! Zone 4 riders all wore matching orange shirts and we called ourselves the “Pumpkin Patch.” The girls even painted their nails orange and made signs with pictures of pumpkins on them and slogans such as, “Jump High Pumpkin Pie!” At the end of the day, gold medals at NAJYRC are wonderful, but what really makes the experience great is the feeling of team spirit. Show Jumping is such an individual sport that riders rarely get to feel a sense of support and true camaraderie from one another. When the show day is over, we’re all friends; but when other riders walk in the ring to challenge my leading jump-off time, I can’t honestly say I’m wishing them well. That all changes on team day at NAJYRC, and walking in the ring hearing your teammates yelling their support and seeing them holding up signs covered in ridiculous pumpkins is the best feeling in the world! That is why I truly love this championship.
-Taylor Land
Photo One: Taylor Land and Nepal at the jog. Photo provided by SportFot.