July 16, 2005 – East Dorset, Vermont – Pony riders at the Manchester Summer Festival showed their mettle today, contending for three USEF Pony Medals. Kate Mahoney, 12, of Rye, New York, riding Rambur Blue Denim won the USEF Small Pony Medal. Olivia Jack, 12, of Fairfield, Connecticut, aboard Baubles and Bows won the USEF Medium Pony Medal. Anna Kluger, 12, of Redding, Connecticut, mounted on Remember Me Always, won the USEF Large Pony Medal. Jeff Ayers judged all three classes. The Manchester Summer Festival (July 13-17) is the first week of the five-week Vermont Summer Festival at the Harold Beebe Farm in East Dorset, Vermont.

Kate Mahoney aboard the eight-year-old gray Welsh pony Rambur Blue Denim mastered the USEF Medal test, which included eight jumps with a halt and a trot segment. Mahoney will be a 7th grader this Fall at Convent of the Sacred Heart in Greenwich, Connecticut. Mahoney has been riding since age six and competed at last year’s Pony Finals. She assessed the course today as “not hard because we’ve been doing it for a while. We had a very consistent trip. The pony was very good.” Mahoney has leased the pony for the past two years and describes him with a smile, “He’s very funny. He likes food a lot, he’s very sweet, he gets along with everyone, he’s very friendly, and he likes to show.” In today’s class Mahoney noted that her mount listened to her well, which helped clinch the win over the class of six entries.

Mahoney trains with Karen Lutz and Stephanie Demmon at Stratford Stables in Purchase, New York. Already qualified to compete in the upcoming USEF Pony Finals to be held at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky (August 10-13), Mahoney gained additional national points for her win today. “I’m hoping to do well at the Finals,” Mahoney said. She plans to continue riding as an adult, and aims to compete in the hunters, but acknowledges that competing in the Olympic Games as a show jumper has crossed her mind. When they called her name as the winner today of the USEF Small Pony Medal, Mahoney’s reaction was straightforward, “I was happy,” she smiled.

USEF Medium Pony Medal
Olivia Jack, 12, of Fairfield, Connecticut, riding Baubles and Bows, her 13-year-old Welsh pony mare, claimed the USEF Medium Pony Medal. Jack is a 7th grader at Greens Farm Academy in Westport, Connecticut. Jack competed at the USEF Pony Finals last year in Virginia, and is qualified to compete at the 2005 finals in Kentucky in August. Reflecting on her medal-winning performance today, Jack said, “Sometimes I get a little bit tense after the first part, so I have to think about what I’m doing and not get concentrated on what everybody else is doing.” Jack topped a roster of seven ponies.

Jack started riding four years ago and has owned the mare, whose barn name is “Bubbles,” for three-and-a-half years. She has been in training with Jenny Martin Rudez at Fairfield County Hunt Club for the past three years, but as Rudez was unable to attend today, trainer Michael Kirby coached Jack for the first time. “I was kind of nervous because I wanted to impress him,” Jack said with a laugh. “But he was really nice so he made me less nervous.” Jack described her mare as a pony that “has really good manners, never spooks, and is really always calm and relaxed, but she always perks up in the ring.”

Following her performance in the USEF class today, Jack said she mentally reviewed her trip to “figure out what I could have done better – I wasn’t thinking about what place I would get, I was thinking about how I could use that class to help me in the division.” While competing in a Model class with a different pony, she learned she’d won the Medal. “I was excited!” she said. To prepare for the USEF Pony Finals in Kentucky in August, Jack already has a plan, “I’m going to take a lot of lessons with Jenny and try to get to Kentucky early so I can ride around in the ring and get all the ponies used to everything.”

USEF Large Pony Medal
Anna Kluger, 12, of Redding, Connecticut, riding Remember Me Always, won the USEF Large Pony Medal, topping a class of eight entries. The pony is a 12-year-old, bay Welsh/Thoroughbred cross gelding owned by Cloud Hill Farm and has been Kluger’s mount for four years. Kluger is an 8th grader at Wooster School in Danbury, Connecticut, and has been riding since age four. She trains at Stepping Stone Farm in Richfield, Connecticut, with Jeanie Weber and Juliana Starbuck. Though Kluger qualified for the finals last year in the hunters, and is qualified this year, her plan is to compete in the 2006 USEF Pony Medal Finals.

Riding the eight-jump course with its halt and trot tests did not faze this experienced pony rider. “It wasn’t too tough a course, except for the little trot fence at the end because you had to turn directly off the oxer and trot from there,” Kruger said. “It was a good warm-up class for the division.”

When she learned she’d won the USEF Large Pony Medal, Kruger said, “I was pretty happy. This is my second time winning one. I won one at Westbrook a couple months ago. It’s just nice to know that you can beat all these other girls that did it,” she said with a smile.

Featured Classes Upcoming at Vermont Summer Festival
As per tradition, the Vermont Summer Festival will feature a $10,000 Mini Prix every Friday, as well as a $30,000 Grand Prix held each Sunday for the first four weeks. New for 2005, the Vermont Summer Festival will conclude with a grand finale, the $50,000 Vermont Summer Celebration Grand Prix. The Vermont Summer Festival is New England's largest 'AA' rated hunter-jumper horse show, and is now sanctioned by Equine Canada, the national body for equestrian sport in Canada.

Each of the five weeks will also feature a $10,000 Show Jumping Hall Of Fame High Junior/Amateur-Owner Jumper class, part of the Show Jumping Hall of Fame Jumper Classic Series. Marshall & Sterling and North American League (NAL) classes are also held throughout the five weeks of competition.

For further information on the 2005 Vermont Summer Festival, please visit www.vt-summerfestival.com, e-mail: info@vt-summerfestival.com or call (802) 496-9667 or (802) 362-9023.