The vibe at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show. Photo Credit: Meg Gehron
We’ve just wrapped up a marvelous time at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show (PNHS) and are well into the Washington International Horse Show (WIHS) on our Indoor tour this fall. Looking around, we are in awe of the junior riders flanking us in every final we are competing in (and of course, all the ones we are not). They’ve worked all year to beat the odds and get qualified – odds which are considerably stacked against them. Let’s take a closer look at how America’s top junior talent gets to finals week at “Harrisburg,” and “Washington.”
How to Get To Finals
For most finals, the points of the horse’s best 15 shows are tallied up against each other. In the Junior Hunters alone in 2024, there were 700 horses gathering points in the 3’6 division and a whopping 1300 in the 3’3 division. (1)
With only the top 80 riders being invited to the show for the finals (for the 3’6 division), just one in ten junior riders have a shot at making it to the finals. (2)
A whole host of things must go right to make it all the way here.
Points can be counted from the horse’s best 15 shows during the qualifying period to ensure they have enough points to make it into the top 80. This doesn’t mean planning to go to 15 horse shows. This is a minimum of 15 horse shows, assuming at some point they’ll need to scratch because the horse had a bad day, the rider isn’t well, there’s bad weather to contend with, etc… Riders will need contingency plans if they want to make it all the way to finals week!
In the same vein, to make it into the coveted Maclay Finals, a horse must enter 14 Maclay classes in the year (there’s only one each week!) and once he has gathered enough points to qualify, he’s not allowed to continue to compete in those classes. Clearly, the governing body understands exactly how many shows it takes to gather the necessary points.
They must be competitive! Winning one or two big classes is not enough! 70% of the prize money for the entire season of Small Junior Hunters was won by the top 20 horses in 2024! (3) Contenders for finals must be consistently good to make the cut.
Riders must plan far in advance of the final they are going to compete in - triple that if they are going to multiple finals. The horse must have its feet done at just the right time before the show, any vet work must be done as close as possible but far enough out that the horse is within the medication rules, the people and horses must all arrive at the right place at the right time, and (with a little luck) the horse will show up sound and ready to work! (To learn more about this side of planning for indoors, check out this article Grab Your Coffee-It’s Time For Indoors.)
All the Washington International Feels. Photo Credit: Meg Gehron
We try not to take for granted that our hard work must also sometimes be supplemented by a little luck.
The highlight of the PNHS was Furious de Lauravi’s second-place performance in the 1.30m Junior/Amateur Jumper Speed Round and sixth in the $10,000 1.35m Junior/Amateur Jumper Classic Final with Elodie Watrous in the irons. We couldn’t be prouder!
Elodie and “Fury” take on the 1.30m at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show. Photo: Andrew Ryback Photograph
Elodie and “Fury” gallop to ribbons in the 1.30m Junior/Amateur Jumpers at the Washington International Horse Show. Photo: Shawn McMillen Photography
Building momentum, at the time of writing, Elodie also grabbed fourth place in the 1.30m Junior/Amateur Jumper Speed at the WHIS. The pair also earned a fifth place in the $15,000 Show Jumping Hall of Fame Junior/Amateur Jumper Classic on the final day of the division.
Next up - the National Horse Show in Kentucky!
Don’t forget that you can follow along our journey in real time on our Instagram page. We’ll see you there!
(1) USEF.org
(2) PAnational.org
(3) USEF.org
Comments