December 27, 2006

Finally Farm Boasts a “Winning Season” for Hunter Champion Elizabeth Towell and Junior Champion Jack Hardin Towell, Jr.

Camden, SC - The Towell siblings ride to win, and in 2006, win they did. It has been a incomparable season for both Elizabeth Towell, 27, and Jack Hardin Towell, Jr., 17, of Camden, S.C.

The streak kicked off in Conyers, GA this past June when Elizabeth, riding her 8-year-old gelding Danube, took top honors in the prestigious $25,000 Horses Helping Horses Hunter Classic at the Atlanta Summer Classic. Since then she has piloted the 10-year-old Dutch warm blood Onassis (owned by Sarah Ward) to a Championship title in the Second Year Green Working Hunter Division at the Capital Challenge Horse Show in Maryland--where she also earned a second-place ribbon in the World Champion Hunter Rider Pro Challenge—and to Reserve Champion in the Green Working Hunter Division at the Washington International Horse Show.

Hardin, meanwhile, dominated the Large Junior Hunter division all year aboard the Christine Russo-owned Miracle, earning the Championship title at Capital Challenge and again in December at the 123rd National Horse Show and Family Festival in Wellington, FL.

In October, Hardin garnered a career first at The Washington International Horse Show when he captured the Equitation Classic Final aboard the 8-year-old gelding Littlefoot. Trained by Missy Clark and John Brennan, Hardin trumped 30 top-level junior riders with three solid class performances and a total score of 269.999. “It was always a goal of mine to win a final”, he said following the triumph. “Missy always told me I would. And she wouldn’t lie to me.” In the same week, Hardin also earned the Best Child Rider Award.

Not to be outdone, Liza capped off her stellar year with maybe the biggest jump of all: Marriage. On Dec. 9 she tied the knot with longtime boyfriend, Blake Boyd, 27, a realtor/insurance agent, and owner of his own horse-transportation business. The ceremony was held at Grace Episcopal Church in Camden and was followed by a reception at the Springdale Hall Club. “We had a fabulous wedding,” said proud Mom Lisa Towell. “It was just beautiful. Blake’s mother and I were college friends. We introduced them!” The couple is honeymooning in Belize.

In between all the Championship titles and the nuptials, the family had even more to celebrate, when, on Nov.7, son Ned, 24, was elected to the Camden City council. “We had to rush home from the Maclay Finals in Syracuse to vote,” said Lisa. “He won by 23 votes and we attribute that to the whole family rallying around to help out.”

Elizabeth and Hardin Towell are based in Camden, S. C, where they work and train with their father, Jack Towell, Sr., on the family-owned Finally Farm. The athletes will next compete at the Wellington Equestrian Festival beginning in January 2007.

Story and photos provided by Flashpoint Media Services, a comprehensive public relations and marking firm specializing in PR for athletes and other members of the equestrian community. Based in Harrodsburg, KY. the company is a division of the nationally ranked Flashpoint Photography.