Traverse City, MI – Week one competition continued in the Grand Prix Ring at the beautiful Flintfields Horse Park today for the 2010 Horse Shows by the Bay Equestrian Festival. The Five-Year-Old, Six-Year-Old, and Seven & Eight-Year-Old Young Jumpers completed their second day of competition this afternoon and were presented with top honors. The divisions were generously sponsored by Captivate Farms, LLC, of Schoolcraft, Michigan.
Pierre Jolicoeur set today’s courses in the Grand Prix Ring with a track of twelve obstacles held in a Table II 2B format. The Five-Year-Old Young Jumpers were first to compete with three entries making it to the jump-off to attempt the shortened course in a 38-second time allowed. David Beisel and Ammeretto, owned by Equine Holdings LLC, were first to compete and put in double clear rounds with the fastest time of 31.146 seconds to win the class. Katherine Heywood and Leonard’s Lyric jumped next, but had eight faults in the jump-off round to eventually finish in third place. Competing last in the class, Frankie Chesler-Ortiz and Stevie Wonder were able to jump clear over the short course, and their time of 34.870 seconds finished in second.
Up Next, the Six-Year-Old Young Jumpers had their qualifier over the same course, this time with a win for Frankie Chesler-Ortiz aboard Sher-Al Farm’s Masquerade. The pair had the only double clear in the class to earn the first place honors. Laura Pfeiffer rode Imprimis to the second place ribbon after dropping one rail in the jump-off to finish with four faults.
“I got Masquerade in Holland about a year and a half ago and he always comes out and does his best; he is really special,” Chesler-Ortiz smiled. “I am not actually signed up for the U.S. Young Horse classes because we are from Canada, but it would be nice to do. I think he would do really well.”
Chesler-Ortiz is from Orangeville, ON Canada and runs Sher-Al Farm with her husband, Juan Ortiz. They show in Palm Beach during the winter, but usually spend the summers in Canada. The horses and riders of Sher-Al Farm will be in Traverse City for the first two weeks of the show and are already enjoying themselves. “This is our first time showing here and it is great; everyone is really nice,” Chesler-Ortiz stated. “We do not usually travel much in the summer. This is the first time we have tried this and I am glad we came here.”
Chesler-Ortiz also trains and has several students that have been doing very well at Horse Shows by the Bay. Along with training her students, Chesler-Ortiz has several young horses to compete and plans on showing in the Welcome Prix and possibly the Grand Prix this weekend.
For more information on Horse Shows by the Bay, please visit www.horseshowsbythebay.com.
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