Bonnie Canter Earns Top Honors in First Level Adult Amateur Championship
After being the bridesmaid so far this week with two Reserve Championships earned aboard her small tour horse, Bonnie Canter of Hockley, Texas (Region 9) finally made it to the top of the podium with a winning score of 75.370% aboard her youngster Franziska, a five-year-old Hanoverian mare (Franziskus x Wempy by Weltmeyer).

Photo – Bonnie Canter & Franziska (Susan J. Stickle)

“I bought her off a video from a farmer in Germany – she was affordable, small (which I like), and had a gorgeous hindleg,” Canter remembered. “She’s got a really gentle nature and you just fall in love with her. She also has a super rhythm and she floats along which gives a really nice picture. She’s comfortable doing the First Level work and she’s a happy girl.”

Former Finals champion and fellow Region 9 rider Ashlee Watts of College Station, Texas also found success with a rising star in her seven-year-old Westphalian mare Ricarda (Riccio x Samira by Sure Hit, bred in the U.S. by Westphalians for USA LLC) as they earned 75.231% for Reserve honors. “I actually bought her when I was at Finals two years ago and picked her up on my way home,” said Watts. “Today she was amazing. She was perfectly on my aids and didn’t do one thing wrong.”