Monday, October 21, 2013

USEA Press Coverage of YEH East Coast Championships!

Mr. Bojangles & Mr. Davidson, Sr. Win the 2013 YEH East Coast Championships

Posted
Fri, 2013-10-18 22:49
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Mr. Bojangles and Bruce Davidson, Sr. winners of the USEA YEH East Coast 5 Yr Old Championships. Photo by Sarah Connell-Spriggs
Fair Hill NRMA, MD - It was a beautiful crisp fall day at the USEA Young Event Horse (YEH) Championships at the Fair Hill International Festival in the Country, but perhaps the day was most beautiful for Mr. Bojangles and his rider Bruce Davidson, Sr.  The Davidson homebred Thoroughbred owned by Buck Davidson and Carl Segal showed ample future potential throughout the competition.
Mr. Bojangles and Davidson found themselves in the lead after a lovely Dressage test and a solid showing in the Conformation phase of the YEH Five-Year-Old Championships. 

While Friday’s 43.35 jumping score was not the highest of the day, it was more than enough to solidify his cumulative point total to win on a final score of 82.53.  In the words of judge Susan Graham White, “[Mr. Bojangles] had a lovely Dressage ride, forward, fresh, which showed off his gaits”, while his jumping exhibited his “quickness from behind, and scope.”  The highest jumping score of the five-year-olds, a 43.95, came from the 2012 USEA YEH East Coast Four-Year-Old Champion Esccord RGS (a.k.a. Garth). Garth is a Hanoverian bred by Page Brook Farms by Escudo I out of the dam EM Arabella RGS, and ridden and owned by Katie Murphy.   Their superb jumping performance enabled Garth and Katie to finish the competition as the reserve champions in the division.

In the Four-Year-Old Division Championship, two horses bred by Dr. Laurie Cameron of Clear Blue Farm in Stockton, NJ proved themselves to be the top mounts.  Rider Lillian Heard won the Championship aboard Cameron-bred Quarlotta, an Oldenburg by the stallion Quite Capitol out of the mare Merging.  Then, Cameron-bred Early Review, a Hanoverian by the sire Earl out of the dam Lois Lane, received the Safe Harbor Award.  That award is given to a horse that the judges view as exhibiting the most graceful and rider friendly performance throughout the competition.  As a "small time" breeder, Dr. Cameron noted that it is “very exciting that the YEH is now a part of the USEA record on these horses…hopefully more people will be riding American bred horses in the future.”


Breeders, owners, and competitors had a sense of optimism regarding the quality of the field of YEH entrants in the competition this year.  Marilyn Payne, the Chair of the USEA’s YEH Task Force, noted that there was not only a “phenomenal number of horses” but also the highest “quality of horses” that they have seen at a USEA YEH Championships to date. 

She attributed much of that success to the lure of the Holekamp/Turner YEH Lion d’ Angers Grant.  The grant, made possible through the work of Timothy Holekamp of New Spring Farm in Columbia, MO and Christine Turner of Indian Creek Farm in Spring Branch, TX, supports costs associated with competing the highest scoring USEA YEH Champion as a 7 year old at the FEI World Young Horse Championships at Le Lion d’Angers in France. 

The owners of Mr. Bojangles will now have to wait on the results of the USEA YEH West Coast Championships taking place later this month at Galway Downs in Temecula, CA to see which of the YEH Champions will have the highest score to be awarded the grant.

For information on the Holekamp/Turner Lion d’ Angers Grant visit the following link.
For the full results of the USEA YEH East Coast Championships visit the following link.

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