Kansas City, Mo. – Grace Biron ended her junior equitation career on the highest of high notes. After winning the UPHA Senior National Challenge Cup Championship on Thursday at the UPHA American Royal National Championship Horse Show, Biron returned to the ring on Saturday to take the championship in the 2024 USEF Saddle Seat Medal Final.
Biron (East Aurora, N.Y.) teamed up with CH-EQ TSV The Mystery Continues (Undulata’s Nutcracker x Callaway’s Unsolved Mystery), a 2013 American Saddlebred gelding owned by Overtime Farm, LLC, for her final year of junior equitation. She and “Goliath” began their partnership at the American Royal one year ago.
“He is my dream horse, and I’m so lucky to have him,” said Biron. “Every class, every show, we just worked on making improvements and trying to make every ride the best it could be, and it paid off. It’s an amazing feeling.
“He’s the smartest boy in the world,” she continued. “He knows patterns before we even go into it. He’s so smart, and he’s a blast. He feels like you’re riding the Grand Champion three-gaited horse. Honestly, there isn’t a ride this year that I haven’t hopped off him thinking that was the most fun I’d ever had in my life. He’s the best partner anyone could ask for.”
The medal final is something of an endurance test for competitors, who start the day off with a preliminary phase that includes rail work and an individual pattern. The top 12 return at the end of the daytime session for another round of rail work and a new pattern to determine the winners.
Judges Tom Bombolis, Mathew Roberts, and Lisa Waller tested the competitors with patterns that required accurate and tactful riding with gait transitions both on straight lines and on circles, as well as no-stirrups work for the final phase.
“I thought the patterns were so fun. Both were challenging, and both had complicated parts to them, and I felt like we teamed through them really well,” said Biron. “I would say that the straight line on the quarter line in the last workout with lead changes and no irons probably was the most fun and challenging part. We’ve worked a lot on our lead changes at home, so for that to pay off in the ring was super fun.”
Biron has ridden under the direction of Kristen and David Cater and Kasey Saccocia at Cater Stables in Dunbarton, N.H., since she was 11. While the Royal marks the end of Biron’s junior career, this isn’t the end of her equestrian story.
“I definitely want to stay in horses forever,” said Biron. “My mom rode horses, and me and two of my sisters ride horses, so it’s a family thing. Going to horse shows is our vacation and our bonding time. Being in the room with everyone, getting late night ice cream and talking about our classes—I never want to let that go. I want that in my life forever.”
Richie Dallen (Delafield, Wisc.) secured the reserve champion title with Reedann’s Dark Mystery (The Mystery Writer x Reedann’s After Dark), Vetric Enterprises LLC’s 2015 American Saddlebred gelding. Dallen rides with Scott and Carol Matton at Knollwood Farm. Finley Wood (Nolensville, Tenn.) took home bronze after her ride on her own American Saddlebred, SH Rox Nation (Arrowhead’s Bateleur x Roxy Flyer). Wood trains with Shelley Fisher at Sugar Knoll Farm.
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