Julie Welles Taking 2005 USEF Show Jumping Talent Search–East Title

Ride-Off is Crucial

Johnson, McAlary, Schaub and Welles made the cut to the final ride-off. Johnson ran into trouble in the second go when she was on McAlary’s Mid-Accord. She placed him wrong for the second part of an oxer and he brought down the rails at that element for a fourth place finish. McAlary was looking good until the last round when she was on Johnson’s Chagall. She had already been too close to the first and second elements of the oxers (the fourth obstacle) and then pulled in too close to a vertical two stops down the line. Perhaps one error could be overlooked, said Healey “but not two.” McAlary ended up third.

That left only Welles and Schaub who have known each other since Schaub got her fist mount a pinto pony, “because I liked his buck.” Welles rode a school pony “who couldn’t get his canter leads, so we had to hope he landed right,” said Welles’ mother, Debbie, who is the administrator of Ethel Walker School’s equestrian program.

Naughty ponies must have taught both girls the basics of riding. Schaub has an elegant presence about her each time she entered the ring but she admitted in hindsight “I didn’t have the right striding on my horse or Julie’s until after the second round. Then I corrected it.” By then, though, that would make the difference. Welles, however, never waivered in her approach.

“I felt really confident on all four (horses) I rode. I did the same number of stride to each jump,” said Welles who will join McAlary and Johnson on the Zone 1 team to compete in the Prix des States during the Pennsylvania National the following weekend. But there will be more match-ups between Welles and Schaub who are expected to ride against each other in the USEF/Pessoa National Hunter Seat Medal finals during the Penn National and at the Syracuse (NY) International in November.