USEA/Spalding
Labs Young Event Horse Series Championships 
Rain
Man and Hanno named 2006 Champions After six months and
18 qualifying competitions, 20 horse-and-rider combinations made their way to
Leesburg, Virginia for the USEA/Spalding Labs Young Event Horse Series Championships,
held October 6 during the Morven Park CCI* and Advanced Horse Trials. The
Series, and the Championships, are split by age into two divisions. The appropriately
named Rain Man (the unpredictable fall weather resulted in gray skies and
cold downpours), a black 16.3-hand Hanoverian (Rosentau-Esperanza) owned by Patricia
Tackett, won the five-year-old division on an impressive score of 89.34.
This lovely gelding has been campaigned all year by reigning Olympic individual
gold medallist, Leslie
Law (GBR), who re-located from Great Britain to the U.S. early this year.
To earn their two scores of 70 or higher to qualify for the USEA/Spalding Labs
Young Event Horse Series Championships, the pair won qualifying divisions at Rocking
Horse Horse Trials in March and Waredaca Horse Trials in August, with scores of
88.35 and 85.7 respectively. In addition, they won their first two novice horse
trials this spring, and then moved up to training level in June, winning two of
their four outings at that level. One of the goals of this Series is to help identify
and develop the next four-star champion, and there is no doubt that Rain Man
will make his mark in years to come. (Leslie and Rain Man are pictured
at the right.) The five-year-old reserve champion, Folk Lore,
aka “Story,” is no stranger to the Young Event Horse Series. The
16.2-hand Hanoverian gelding (Feinerstern – Vast N Bright) owned by Kaiti
Saunders and ridden by Allison Springer, was last year’s four-year-old
reserve champion. This year the pair qualified at the CDCTA Horse Trials in June
with a score of 74.36 and the Maui Jim Horse Trials in July, finishing second
on a score of 76.25. At the same time they moved up from training to preliminary
level horse trials, placing second in their last two competitions, the Maui Jim
Horse Trials and the Richland Park Horse Trials in August. It was
a one-two punch for Darren Chiacchia in the four-year-old Championships.
The Olympic and Pan Am medallist won the division on Hanno and took second
with Fantastik.  Hanno,
a 16.2-hand bay Trakehner gelding owned by Tim and Cheryl Holekamp, looks ready
to follow in his famous father’s footsteps, winning the division with a commanding
lead of 88.35. That father would be Chiacchia’s longtime partner,
the 14-year-old black Trakehner stallion Windfall, with whom Chiacchia won
Olympic team bronze, Pan Am individual gold, in addition to many other achievements
including a Rolex Kentucky win in 2004, and third place on the 2006 Adequan USEA
Gold Cup Series year-end leaderboard and a fifth place representing the U.S. at
this year’s FEI Eventing World Cup Finals. (Darren and Hanno are pictured
at the feft.)
Hanno earned his spot in the Championships
by placing third at Richland Park Horse Trials and second at Millbrook Horse Trials
on scores of 78.2 and 77.51 respectively. Chiacchia moved him up to Training level
this spring, and the pair have finished in the top five in four of their last
five competitions. Stablemate Fantastik, Chiacchia’s
17.1-hand chestnut Trakehner gelding, by Connery, one of Chiacchia’s favorite
stallions (other than Windfall of course) and out of Helia, looks poised to give
Chiacchia’s other mounts (he rode three in the Championships and owned
a fourth, El Paso) a run for their money in the future, earning his reserve champion
title on a score of 83.56. He achieved his first qualifying score at Millbrook
with a 76.06 and his second at Richland with 87.56. The gelding campaigned with
Chiacchia at novice most of the year, winning three of their eight competitions,
and moved up to training in September. For their wins, both of the
divisions’ champions went home with a nice package of prizes, including a
keeper trophy, Stackhouse saddle, Fleeceworks saddle pad, and six-month supply
of fly predators from title sponsor, Spalding Labs. A Little About the
Series: The USEA/Spalding Labs Young Event Horse Series could best be
described as an equine talent search. The Series gives owners and breeders the
opportunity to showcase the potential of their four- and five-year-olds, encouraging
them to produce top-level event horses for the future—the next Winsome Adante,
Custom Made, or Primmore´s Pride, perhaps. The classes at each event,
as well as the Championships, offer four sections: dressage, jumping, conformation
and type, and suitability and potential. While the judges look for horses with
strong abilities in dressage and show jumping, they also look for a horse with
correct, elastic gaits, scope and athleticism over fences, and those that with
the correct training will have the speed, soundness, and stamina necessary at
the top levels of the sport. Each section is weighted in importance with
Jumping 40 percent, Dressage 35 percent, Conformation and Type 15 percent, and
Suitability and Potential 10 percent. In order to achieve these percentages,
good marks for each section will be converted to a percentage using the following
formula: Conformation and Type marks will be multiplied by 1.5
Dressage
total average score will be multiplied by 3.5
Jumping marks will be multiplied
by 4.0
Suitability and Potential will be multiplied by 1.0
A Word from
Our Sponsors The Series is made possible through the generous support
of Title Sponsor, Spalding Labs; Presenting Sponsors: Fleeceworks and
Stackhouse Saddles; Contributing Sponsor, Acorn Hill Farm; and Underwriting
Sponsor, Dunlavin Horses. For more information on the USEA/Spalding
Labs Young Event Horse Series, including complete results, click on the Series
logo on the USEA home page. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | 