Ontario Junior Show Jumpers Win Team Bronze at NAJYRC

Ottawa, ON—The Ontario Junior Team won the Bronze Medal on Friday, July 24, at the 2009 Adequan FEI North American Junior/Young Riders’ Championships (NAJYRC). Presented by Gotham North, the Championships are being held July 21-26 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY, also the site of the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.

Miranda Travers-Cavill of Claremont, ON, Rachel Schnurr of Waterloo, ON, Bronte Gray-Rochon of Toronto, ON, and Jessica Whitton of Acton, ON, had a total team score of 37 faults to win the bronze medal.

The Team competition ran in Nations’ Cup format, with each of the team riders contesting two rounds of competition and aiming for the least amount of jumping and time faults over the challenging courses set by FEI ‘I’ course designer Olaf Petersen, Jr., of Germany

After lowering one rail in the first round riding The Air Up There, an 11-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding owned by Emily Skoggard, Travers-Cavill was fault-free in round two to lead the team to its bronze medal finish.

“The riders got rid of their jitters yesterday, and today they were a very professional team,” said chef d’équipe Chris Delia. “All of our team members are improving round by round and, each time, getting better and better. I think that we will have a pretty solid finish in the final.”

Schnurr accumulated 12 jumping and one time fault in the first round and eight faults in the second for a total score of 21 with Magic Jumper, her nine-year-old Belgian Warmblood gelding. Gray-Rochon had a rough start in the first round resulting in elimination, but returned to lower just one rail aboard her 12-year-old Canadian Warmblood gelding, Southwind. Whitton and Legende de B’Neville, a 10-year-old selle français gelding owned by Ron and Carla Nolan, had 12 faults in the first round and only four faults in the second round.

Teams from USA Zone 10 and USA Zone 2 both had a two-round total of 12 faults, forcing a jump-off to settle the gold and silver medal positions. The gold medal awarded to USA Zone 10 with only eight faults in the jump-off. USA Zone 2 won the silver medal with 12 jump-off faults.

This will mark the fourth time that a Junior Championship is being held in conjunction with a Young Rider Championship, and this addition has proven to make for an exciting competition.

In 2008, Canadian show jumping riders enjoyed success at the NAJYRC with the Junior Riders Team winning the Team Silver Medal.

For more information on NAJYRC, please visit www.youngriders.org.