Saddle seat equitation athletes will light up the ring at the Lexington Junior League Charity Horse Show from July 3-8 at the Red Mile in Lexington, Kentucky.

The show features the USEF Saddle Seat Adult Amateur Medal Final, a national championship event, which US Equestrian members can watch on the USEF Network on July 5 at 5:30 p.m. ET. There’s also a rare opportunity to see Saddle Seat Equitation Triple Crown winners meet in a single class established by the American Saddlebred Horse Association, the ASHA Triple Crown Challenge.

This year also marks the show's final year at the famed Red Mile venue, a historic harness track in the heart of Lexington. The Red Mile has hosted the Junior League Charity Horse Show since the competition's inception in 1937, and exhibitors are flocking to this year's show for a nostalgic last ride before the Junior League Charity Horse Show moves to the Kentucky Horse Park's Rolex Arena in 2018: the number of horses entered has soared by 66% this year. To accommodate the increased entries, the show is offering 25% more stalls.

The USEF Saddle Seat Adult Amateur Medal classes are open to senior active amateur US Equestrian members aged 18 or older. Won last year by Reagan Upton, the Medal Final offers adult amateur riders a way to continue participation in the discipline of equitation.

"It's really encouraging," said Upton, a registered nurse who lives near Birmingham, Alabama. She will return to try for the Medal Final again this year. "It keeps you competitive; it keeps you going to the barn and riding and practicing. When I started college, I wasn't able to go to the barn as much, and then after college I had my job. But I wanted to pursue my goals again, and this made me more active in the horse community. I go to the barn three days a week to practice. If I wasn't showing in the equitation division, I'd  maybe go to the barn weekly or every other week.

"It was my dream come true," Upton said of winning the 2016 Medal Final. "I showed equitation since I was about eight years old and got heavily into it since I was 13. To win a national title at 27 was pretty cool.

"I've shown every division, and I love that, in equitation, it's all on you," she added. "It's not that the nicest horse in the class wins. It's who's the best rider, who has practiced the most, who is the strongest? And I love the pressure. It's exhilarating!"

The ASHA Triple Crown Challenge takes place during the evening of July 7. There have only been a dozen riders to win the prestigious Saddle Seat Triple Crown, and now the ASHA Triple Crown Challenge brings these riders back to the show ring for a performance class.

The ASHA Triple Crown Challenge competitors include Jama Hedden (who won the Triple Crown in 1982), Kate Harvey Codeanne (1987), Catherine Schuessler McNeese (1988), Amanda Arrick (1994), Sarah Thordsen (2001), Betty Cox (2003), Brittany McGinnis (2007), Faye Wuesthofen (2009), Nick Maupin (2010), Jessie Wuesthofen (2013), and Macey Miles (2016).

The class also is a fundraiser benefitting the American Saddlebred Horse Association Foundation, which is asking supporters to honor their favorite rider by making a tax-deductible donation. 

When they won the Saddle Seat Equitation Triple Crown (the National Horse Show Good Hands, United Professional Horsemen’s Association Challenge Cup, and USEF Saddle Seat Medal), the riders were judged on their form and horsemanship, but in the ASHA Triple Crown Challenge, the focus will be on their horses’ performance.

But that doesn’t mean the riders are taking their rides any less seriously.

Amanda Arrick has been taking lessons at Jimmy and Helen Robertson’s Kentucky farm and also has reunited with trainer Lillian Shively, who coached Arrick and several other ASHA Triple Crown Challenge contenders. One bonus to taking lessons again, Arrick says, is the chance to reconnect with her former coaches and fellow competitors.

“It’s been a lot of fun getting ready for it, because I’ve gotten to get back together with a lot of old friends that I hadn’t seen in a while,” said Arrick.

The class also presents an opportunity to ride with previous champions she admired as a young rider, said Arrick, like Hedden and Schuessler McNeese.

“We all come from an equitation background, and, with most equitation riders, if we’re not complete perfectionists, we border on it!” Arrick said. “Every detail matters. But I hadn’t ridden in a while, except for maybe once a year, for the last five or six years. I probably hadn’t been on a horse at all for the last two years before this. So, for me, it was getting on and realizing that I still have the muscle-memory there, but some of the muscle has kind of gone! We started with the basics, with longeing in the bullpen first. Lillian was very patient!

“But you spend so many years training and working so hard, and it’s all still in there,” she added. “It’s mainly a matter of legging yourself up again.”

Johanna Kapioltas, the owner and trainer at Cirrus Stables in Louisville, Kentucky, has loaned Arrick her eight-year-old American Saddlebred Sir Fabulous. The chestnut will find the Junior League show ring familiar: he was second there in an Adult Three-Gaited Country Pleasure class in 2015. He’s also trained for equitation, said Arrick.

“Johanna has done a wonderful job with him, and I am so thankful to her for allowing me to show him and for the time she dedicated to our practice rides,” said Arrick. “Sir Fabulous is so much fun, because he’s one of those horses that makes it easy, but he makes you do just enough that you think you’re really riding. You’re working at it a little bit … My favorite horses to ride are the ones that make you stay a little busy up there!”

As much as she’s enjoying the journey back to the show ring, Arrick also is happy to help promote the breed she grew up riding and showing.

“I’ve been so blessed to be connected with American Saddlebreds from the beginning,” said Arrick, who grew up in Lucasville, Ohio, and began riding at Silverstone Farm when it was operated by Dr. Mitchell Newman and his wife, Judy. “It was just luck that that happened to be the breed of horse stabled up the road from my family. They’re wonderful. They were bred originally not just for their showy, beautiful look, but also for their smooth, easy gait for riding. You get the best of both worlds: a horse that is very well-mannered and lovely to ride but that’s also majestic and beautiful, as well.”

To learn more about the American Saddlebred, visit the American Saddlebred Horse Association. US Equestrian members also can learn more about this breed in our Learning Center. Join now or log in to watch “American Saddlebred: What Makes a Winner” with Smith Lilly.

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