Taylor Ann Adams Wins 2007 USEF Pony Medal Final

Zone 4 Wins the 2007 Adequan/USEF National Pony Jumper Team Championship

Stacey Meier and Joanie Morris, USEF

Lexington, KY— Day Three of Pony Finals was overflowing with 202 ponies competing for the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Pony Medal Final along with an evening of show jumping for the Adequan/USEF National Pony Team Jumper Championship. Taylor Ann Adams from Eads, TN, won the Pony Medal Final aboard Millpond Celebrity. Zone 4 ran away with the Gold in the 2007 Adequan/USEF National Pony Jumper Team Championship with a total of four faults; Zones 8 and 9 (combined) took home the Silver with a total team score of eight faults.

In the USEF Pony Medal Final, all riders completed one round of a challenging course, which included a halt during the jump course followed by a trot fence. The riders were judged on their equitation and ability to ride the course correctly. The top 25 riders overall (small, medium and large) were then called back to compete head-to-head for the medal.

Competing for the Pony Medal Final title were 10 large, 13 medium and three small ponies. It came down to the work off to determine the Grand and Reserve Champion. There was very little time to memorize the call back test, which included a very difficult course of five out-of-order fences with maneuvers including a halt, counter canter to a fence, a hand gallop to another jump then returning to the line at a sitting trot. Adams and Millpond Celebrity, recently sold to Olivia Haslam by Sarah Barnett, pulled the whole thing off to win the championship in impressive fashion. The 9-year-old Welsh/Thoroughbred cross gelding fulfilled a special request by Adams and made the trip to Pony Finals thanks to the generosity of his new owner.

“I had confidence in him, I didn’t really have much confidence in myself,” said Adams. “I rode him all this year, now Olivia has him— she bought him from Sarah. They sent him up here because we asked to borrow him for the medal. They were very nice people and sent him,” she said.

Elizabeth Boone of Lexington, KY, aboard 11-year-old Bridgewater took home Reserve Champion after putting in several good rounds. Bridgewater, a German Pony gelding, is also owned by Boone.

Adams was on a winning streak with the reserve champion in the Medium Green Hunter Pony Finals yesterday and a win last week at the Junior Hunter Finals. But the pressure of the work off against a friend was a lot of pressure.

“I was dying, we [Adams and Boone] were sitting out there practically crying together. She’s a really good friend. She jumped the wrong last jump and I was thinking that she was right and I was wrong. I first walked in there and I didn’t know. I thought about it and thought about it and I got it right,” she said.