A Keswick Hunt rider won the Junior North American Field Hunter Championship in Lexington, Kentucky on Saturday, with seven other young Virginia foxhunters earning top placings in their age divisions at the national finals.
Thirteen-year-old Mia Valdez dominated the first-flight division, winning the competitive class aboard her pony, Kismet. Valdez, who lives in Goochland, hunts with Keswick.
Middleburg-Orange County Beagles rider, Avery Van Roy, placed fourth.
MOC rider Abbey Schultz of The Plains partnered Leo The Lion to earn the reserve championship in the hilltoppers’ division. Fauquier High senior Samantha Homeyer earned sixth place in first-flight, over 13, aboard Jocelyn Cole’s horse, Thunderpants.
The championship finals attracted nearly 100 competitors from across the country to the hosting Iroquois Hunt near Lexington. The three-phase competition included a mock foxhunt and hack classes open to all riders, with 10 finalists selected from each division for handy hunter tests to determine placings.
The championship was established in 2002, created by Blue Ridge Hunt’s Iona Pillion and Old Dominion Hounds’ Douglas Wise Stuart. Pillion said at the time they wanted to develop a national showcase for young riders in the hunt field.
Fauquier High senior Samantha Homeyer and Jocelyn Cole’s Thunderpants finished in the top 10 in the Junior North American Field Hunter Championship Saturday in Kentucky.
Highlighting the importance of preserving open space to juniors was the goal.
“These kids are the future,” Stuart said. “We need them to under-stand how critical open space is to horse sports, and to wildlife, and to conservation.
“It’s easy to take all this (protected, rural farmland) for granted.
”Qualifying meets were sponsored by foxhunts in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Washington state, plus four qualifiers in Virginia.
In addition to their riding prizes, Schultz and Homeyer were also honored with the sportsmanship award. Homeyer, 17, is a C-1 with the Old Dominion Hounds Pony Club. This is her fifth time to make the championship finals, and her fourth top-10 finish.
Conditions for this year’s finals were far from perfect, Homeyer said. “The whole day of the competition was rainy and cold and muddy,” she said. “The mock hunt was very fun, but the jumps got very muddy at the take-off and landing sides of the coops.
”Complete results and information to get involved for the 2022 championship are on the JNAFHC Face-book page.
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November 04, 2021 at 09:00PM
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Best of the best | Sports | fauquier.com - Fauquier Times
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