Region 2 and Catherine Malone Win Gold at the 2005 North American Young Riders Championships

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2005 North American Young Riders Championships

Region 2 and Catherine Malone became the gold medal winners in dressage at the 2005 North American Young riders Championships held at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, VA.

This is the Championships’ first appearance in the mid-Atlantic region.

Team Gold for Region 2

USA Region 2 won the team Gold Medal in dressage at the 2005 North American Young Riders’ Championships. The team competition kicked off the competition on the first two days.

Kaitlyn Hamilton of Oxford, MI and Allie Nichols of Cincinnati, OH put Region 2 in the lead during the first half of the team competition on Wednesday. Hamilton scored 67.111% on Noviembre and Nichols scored 65.600% on Lexington. They were able to watch on Thursday as their teammates clinched the gold. Kassandra Barteau of Gilberts, IL scored 66.578% on Gabriella and Lauren Sprieser of Oak Brook, IL scored 64.800% on L’Etoile 6.

Counting their three best scores, Region 2 won with a score of 199.289.

“This is the kind of team you always dream about,” said Sprieser who’s competing in her third and final Young Riders’ championships. “Everyone is so supportive of each other and we all get along so great. We could all kind of tell through the qualifiers that we would be the four to make it and we really came together well.”

Winning the team Silver with a score of 195.333 was USA Region 7 with the Bronze going to Region 5 with a score of 193.867.

Leading individually entering Friday’s Prix St. Georges is Catherine Malone of Coatesville, PA and Region 1 who had a score of 68.978% on Michigan. Dani Judy of El Cajon, CA and Region 7 is second with 68.622% on Antaeus and Region 2’s Kaitlyn Hamilton is third. The individual medals will be determined after Sunday’s Freestyle.

Individual Gold for Malone

Malone and her 11-year old Dutch warmblood gelding Michigan (by Farrington) won the Individual Gold Medal on the final day of competition.

Catherine Malone of Coatesville, PA rode Michigan (by Farrington) to a score of 70.050% in the freestyle for a three-round score of 208.978 to win the Gold.

Malone's freestyle was set to nicely fitting music (composed by Theo van Bruggen) and showcased Michigan’s talent for the half passes and extended trot to receive a 70.05% and a fourth place in the class, but managing to maintain the leading average. Catherine was surrounded by family and friends, including her wonderfully supportive trainer and former Young Rider Champion, Todd Flettrich while waiting for the final scores to be tabulated. After confirming the results, Malone was embraced by her supporters, who shared a teary-eyed smiling moment with her.

This is Malone's fourth consecutive year competing at the young riders, and Michigan was her third young rider mount. She has steadily improved her performances each year to finally take home the highly sought after gold medal.

“I was nervous but I was more exhausted than anything,” said Malone explaining that Michigan is a very hot horse who had to be worked twice each day throughout the championships. “But he is a great horse for Young Riders and he did his job very well. This is my fourth year at Young Riders and it ’s been on three different horses and I have to say that he is by far the best one.”

The silver medal went to Dani Judy of El Cajon, CA and Region 7 who won the freestyle with a score of 70.875% to take the Silver with a score of 208.547 on Antaeus (by Akzent II).

The Bronze went to Anna Wood of Boulder, CO and Region 5 who finished with 206.989 on the Westfalian gelding Novarredo (by Newcastle) after her freestyle score of 70.800.

Anna Wood from Region 5 and her gigantic and stunning chestnut Westphalian gelding, Novarredo (by Newcastle). After returning from training in Germany, this pair also put in three spectacular rides this week to slide them into third with a 206.989.

Photo copyrighted: Mary Phelps/Phelpsphotos

Complete Coverage of the 2005 NAYRC at Horsesdaily.com