DERBY HILL

Spring 2011 - Capital City Classic

Derby Hill was once again pleased to take a group to show at the Capital City Classic, hosted at Leone Equestrian’s beautiful facility in Sacramento. As usual, Adrian Ward’s show management staff treated us to a well-run event with beautiful jumps and excellent footing. Clients and horses of all levels were able to get great mileage and earn valuable year end points. This show saw several new matches getting to know each other in the show ring for the first time.

In the Hunter Arena, Annie Bennett and new mount “Santo” proved to be a force to reckon with in the Amateur ranks. The pair were Reserve Champion in the Low Adult Hunters and Champion in the younger Adult Amateur Division, winning all the over fences classes! We thank Beverly Jovais of Chestnut Hill, LLC for allowing us to lease Santo this year. He has been a favorite in California for a long time and we feel lucky to have him!

In the Palms Arena, Jamestown and Madeleine Todd proved to be a successful new match by dominating the .7 and .75 Meter Jumpers, earning a Champion and Reserve Champion tricolor along the way. “Jimmy” has quickly become a barn favorite, demonstrating his ability to lend confidence and inspire a competitive nature in his rider. We are thrilled to see Madeleine growing by leaps and bounds and thoroughly enjoying the journey! Many thanks to Leone Equestrians for making this match possible. Although Jimmy was originally a short-term lease, Madeleine solidified a long-term relationship with the wonder horse by purchasing him at the end of the show. Congratulations; we are looking forward to many more great shows with these two in the future!

Also making their debut in the Palms Arena were Kenton Taylor and his homebred gelding “Liquid Gold”, aka “ZZ”. At 5 years of age, this was ZZ’s first foray into the show ring. The young gelding impressed us with his bravery, handily jumping around the courses and consistently getting good prizes.  The courses were challenging but inviting and introduced a variety of different jumps and questions to the youngster.

We were pleased to have Caroline Albright join us for her first show under our guidance. Unfortunately, a last minute horse substitution had to be made, but Caroline made the most of her catch riding opportunity and placed in the WCE, CPHA, ASPCA Maclay, and Carousel Medals. We thank Leone Equestrians for arranging the ride on “Catalpa” and enabling Caroline to gather valuable experience on an unfamiliar horse.

In the Grand Prix Arena new partners “Ramazzotti 54” and Adrienne Dixon got to know each other in the ring and ended up 5^th in the Low Junior Amateur Classic.  We were thrilled to welcome back the long time , legendary partnership of Topper and Susan Meadows.  The two “eased” back into showing by winning a Modified Junior Amateur Jumper class on the way to earning Reserve Champion honors in the division and jumping double clear in the Classic to ultimately end up 2^nd. Susan was greatly missed last year and her fantastic spirit was welcomed back by many on the circuit. She is one of our greatest cheerleaders in the barn and her support of everyone was tremendously appreciated.

Thanks in part to Susan, Derby Hill’s social scene was particularly active this week. On Wednesday, we celebrated Buddy’s birthday with a post show get together at our tack room. Many exhibitors stopped by for food, drink and birthday cake! Later in the week the rest of our clients were treated to a similar party during the Grand Prix. Happy Birthday Buddy! May we have many more to celebrate and be lucky enough to be surrounded by such great people at all of them.