With an excellent dressage score of 49.33, a fast and clear marathon phase, and just 3 penalties in cones, Sarah Reitz (Honeoye Falls, N.Y.) and her Section B Welsh Pony, Fferm Gwenffrwd Onyx Star, were the winners of the Intermediate Single Pony division with a final score of 117.59.

Photo: Sarah Reitz and Fferm Gwenffrwd Onyx Star. ©Leslie Potter/US Equestrian

“I got ‘Onyx’ out of a field when he was a weanling and I’ve been driving him for 14 years now,” said Reitz. “I’ve driven him in a pair for years, because I own his brothers. He does everything from pleasure driving to combined driving.”

Reitz has been working on improving her dressage with Onyx to earn successful overall results with strong scores in all three phases.

“The highlight of this competition is winning dressage now,” said Reitz. I’ve been working with [Taz] Lester, and it’s improved our dressage immensely. We’ve always been sort of good at marathon and used that to get back to the top after dressage, but it’s kind of fun now having a trainer that I work with and we really click. And now we’ve been coming out of dressage in first.”

Learn more about the Tryon Fall CDE here.

Results