Canadian eventers won both team and individual medals at the 2011 Adequan FEI North American Junior and Young Riders Championships (NAJYRC) held July 27–31 at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, KY.
In the Young Rider Two Star Championships division, Team Canada, comprised of Joelle Baskerville of Calgary, AB, Melissa Boutin of Sherbrooke, QC, Christian Bennett of Sutton, ON, and William Dow of Flesherton, ON, earned a total of 237.2 penalty points to win the team bronze medal.
Individually, Baskerville and her Malibu, a 10-year-old Thoroughbred/Hungarian Warmblood cross mare, were the top placed Canadians finishing in sixth place. Sitting in second position on a dressage score of 52.4, Baskerville added only two cross country time penalties to their score, but two costly show jumping rails added an additional eight penalties giving the pair a final score of 62.4. Bennett entered the show jumping arena on his dressage score of 56.6 following a perfect cross country ride with Rolex, a 12-year-old Thoroughbred gelding he co-owns with Kaitlyn Bennett. The pair dropped two rails in jumping to finish in 64.6 which good for 10th place. Dow and Midleton, an 11-year-old Irish Sport Horse gelding that he co-owns with Suzanne Dow, earned a 14th place. Rounding out the Canadian entries in the CH-Y** was Boutin and her own Siamese Kat, a nine-year-old Anglo Arabian gelding, with a 15 place finish.
In the always competitive Junior One Star Championships division, Team Ontario, whose members were Haley Armstrong-Laframboise of Orangeville, ON, Sable Giesler of Powassan, ON, Brook Pickering of Thornton, ON, and April Simmonds of Uxbridge, ON, won the bronze medal with a total of 219.8 penalties.
Two members of the team also earned individual silver and bronze medals. Giesler and her own Evil Munchkin, an eight-year-old Holsteiner gelding, were sitting in third place after dressage with 52.3. They moved up into the leader position after cross country on a fault free cross country performance. One expensive four fault rail in show jumping dropped them one place to win the silver medal. Finishing just behind her teammate and winning bronze medal, was Pickering and Abbey Rhode, the rider’s 13-year-old Trakehner gelding. Pickering and her mount moved up the leader board from their ninth place staring position after dressage to finish the competition on their dressage score of 56.7. Simmonds and Sunday Best, an eight-year-old Canadian Thoroughbred gelding, rounded out the team score finishing in 19th place overall.
Thanks to the generous support of Point-Two, the supplier to the Canadian Eventing Team, each of this year’s Canadian junior and young rider competitors were protected by the Point-Two Air Jacket while competing cross country.
The North American Junior/Young Riders’ Championships are held annually under the rules of the Federation Equestre Internationale—the international governing body for equestrian sport. The 2011 competition hosts the Olympic disciplines of eventing, dressage and show jumping as well as FEI disciplines of reining and endurance. Many of the world’s top event riders, including many Olympic gold medalists, began their careers at the NAJYRC.
For more information and full results for NAJYRC, please visit http://www.youngriders.org/.
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