Lexington, KY – July 26, 2009 – It was a fight to the finish in the Young Rider division. Everyone came out fighting for the Gold, and although the horses had already jumped four rounds, they came out looking fresh and ready to jump.

Jennifer Waxman and Venturo wrapped up their weekend with a big win to take home the Individual Gold medal. The pair, from Zone 5, jumped flawlessly all week and did so again today to wrap it up on a final score of 7.36.

“I was a little worried coming into today because he’s already jumped four rounds,” Waxman said after finishing her courses. Getting over the water has been hard all week. After he went clear this morning, he had tried so hard, I couldn’t let him down in the second round. He just tried so hard all week.”

Although Venturo and Waxman have been together for a year-and-a-half, their success only came recently when something “clicked” at Devon.

“He’s come a long way,” she said. “He did a lot of flat work, but we still weren’t able to post clear rounds. But something clicked at Devon. It was like he started to understand what I wanted. I think any he made were because he was just trying to please me.”

The Silver medal went to Lucy Davis and True Love from Zone 10. The pair has been successful all week and, despite the fact that he was starting to tire, True Love was able to jump solidly for Davis to keep her in second place with a score of 10.3.

“I was a little nervous today,” Davis said after her ride. “We were all so close in points, so I was just trying to go clear. My horse felt great, a little tired, but I couldn’t have asked for more from him.”

True Love is 13 years old, and Davis said that he has taught her so much since she started riding him.

“He has the biggest heart and tries so hard,” she said. “He truly enjoys going out and jumping. He has a little more experience, so it’s been him helping me rather than me helping him.”

Finally, taking home the Bronze Medal was Joelle Froese and Condor from British Columbia. Condor jumped well all week and consistently moved up the ranks. The pair only had one rail down today to bring their total score to 17.11.

“I tried not to think of the scores too much,” Froese said. “I just tried to jump every fence one at a time. I wasn’t sure how he was going to do because he’s done so much jumping this week, but he was great.”

Froese said that Condor loves to jump and that they have been lucky enough to be successful coming up the levels together.

All the medalists agree that they had a great time this year and gained so much from the experience.

“It was really exciting,” said Waxman. “As far as an experience, Young Riders is so important. To go under pressure, to go under the lights, it’s just so important for us to do that. The advantage that the professionals have is experience and now we have it too.”

Article by Erica Larson

Video of Waxman’s winning rounds: