July 20, 2005 – East Dorset, Vermont – The Vermont Summer Festival launched Week 2 of the five-week event today with the Manchester Classic Horse Show, which runs from July 20-24, 2005, at the Harold Beebe Farm in East Dorset, Vermont.  More than 900 horses are on the grounds, keeping the five hunter/jumper rings full of action.  Dominating the hunter ring today, Abigail Greer of Cohassett, Massachusetts, riding Nevada for owner Deirdre Catani, won all four of the classes they entered – the Hi Low Hunter, two Green Working Hunter Over Fences classes, and the Green Working Hunter Under Saddle.  The Grand Prix ring was also in action today, showcasing jumper classes, and Kim Perlman of Garrison, New York, aboard Postman for owner Animation/Caroline Sykes won the biggest class, topping a field of 25.  The Vermont Summer Festival features hunter/jumper competition Wednesday through Sunday, every week through August 14th.

Trainer Abigail Greer and Carl Catani, who owns River Wind Farm in Pembroke, Massachusetts, brought 12 horses to the show this week and had an outstanding day with Nevada, owned by Mr. Catani’s daughter, Deirdre.   Nevada is a six-year-old warmblood that Greer has been riding for two years.  Greer also trains Deirdre who shows the bay gelding in the younger Amateur-Owner classes. “He’s a nice hunter and we usually do well under Jimmy Lee,” said Greer, acknowledging today’s judge officiating in the hunter ring for all four of her wins.  “Jimmy Lee likes a good classic hunter and Nevada fits that type.”  Greer showed the horse in three over-fences classes and a flat class to claim the cache of blue ribbons.  “Today he was good at the galloping long run to the oxer,” Greer said.  “He was relaxed and I could just gallop up to the oxer and fire off the ground.  That’s where he probably did his best today.”

Greer is aiming to qualify Nevada for Harrisburg and Washington and show him in the indoors this fall.  “Nevada is a classic hunter. He’s a very good jumper, he jumps in very good form, and he covers the ground very nicely,” Greer noted. Of her clean sweep today, Greer said, “It feels good!”

Kim Perlman Wins Level 4 Jumper
Kim Perlman, 39, of Garrison, New York, rode Postman for his girlfriend, owner Caroline Sykes, to the win in the Level 4 Jumpers, topping the field of 25 horses. It was a bit of a bad luck/good luck for Sykes and Perlman today - Sykes usually competes her gelding but had to sit out this class because she sustained an injury earlier in the week when she fell while riding a young horse; Perlman, who usually only rides the horse at home and prepares him for the ring when Sykes competes was schooling him today when he decided it would be a nice round for the horse to jump.  “I guess I went a lot faster than I thought because I really didn’t have any intention of going in there to win!” Perlman said. “I went fast, but I didn’t think I went that fast.  Lo and behold, one of my students said, you won!”

Perlman was second to go in the class, formatted so that riders in the first round who are fault-free stay in the ring and ride the shortened jump-off course, so when he clocked in clean in 32.327 seconds, he did not expect that it would hold up for another 23 rides, but it did!

Edged into second place by fractions was Claire Parr riding her own Alibi, who cleared the tiebreaker course in 32.806 seconds. Taking third place was Gwen Goodwin aboard her own Panter, who stopped the clock at 34.176 in the jump-off.  All three of the top placers put in double-clear performances today.

Perlman said the course designed by David Ballard included many tight rollbacks, but he noted that Postman was able to leave a stride out heading for the timers and that’s where he gained the fraction of a second for victory.  Postman is a 12-year-old Dutch gelding known as ‘Scubey’ that Sykes has owned for three years.

Perlman and his River Stone farm will participate in all five weeks of the Vermont Summer Festival, with between eight and 14 horses competing each week. Perlman operates River Stone farm in Garrison, New York, and has been participating in the Vermont Summer Festival since the event began, including at Stowe and Sugarbush where it was held before it moved 12 years ago to its present location in East Dorset, Vermont. “We love Vermont!” Perlman said.

Vermont Summer Festival

JULY 13-17 – Manchester Summer Festival
JULY 20-24 – Manchester Classic Horse Show
JULY 27-31 – Valley Classic Horse Show
AUGUST 3-7 – Manchester & the Mountains Horse Show
AUGUST 10-14 – Vermont Summer Celebration

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. 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.