Mikaela Kantorowski, a groom for the Area II Young Riders team, is keeping us up to date on all the action leading up to the North American Junior and Young Rider Championships later this month. Today Mikaela introduces us to the Area II CCI* team, and we’ll get to hear from all the team members in their own words. Congrats to the Area II CCI* team, and best of luck in Kentucky!
Maddie Parisan and Hope to Star. Photo by Steve Berkowitz.
From Mikaela:
We have had some exciting new developments here in Area II! Everyone has been working their tails off as the final weeks draw to a close. Rich Frankel has been organizing an amazing fundraiser, and Pam and Meg Kepferle have been ironing out the final details of camp. There are so many people that go into making each team a success, and I could never name each and every person — from the parents who put up and encourage our dreams to our siblings who spend countless hours in the truck going to events and helping. I know I speak for the whole team — grooms and riders — when I say we could not do this without you.
Also, thanks to Sinead Halpin, who gives her time to us at camps and events, making sure she helps any way she can and that she knows each and every one of us. And last but not least, I have to thank all our sponsors, who ever so graciously donated products and funds to help make this trip a success. Every penny matters, and we could never do it without them.
What each athlete goes through to qualify and keep all these horses feeling their best is amazing and a huge congrats goes to them as well. It is a massive undertaking to organize such a trip and to make it happen and I can’t believe it is now so close! Camp starts on Monday and The Fork has been so gracious to let us use their facilities! Now I’d like to introduce our one star team!!! I’m sure they will represent area two well.
Chase Shipka and Palm Crescent and Victory Shetan
Chase rides with longtime coach Jan Byyny and has recently started riding with Allison Spivey on the flat, who works with Lauren Sprieser. Her goals for the rest of the year are to, of course, do well at the championships and hopefully move up to intermediate at the end of the summer or fall. Chase owns and rides three super talented horses. Toddi (Victory Shetan), Bagel (Ever So Lucky) and Palmer (Palm Crescent), all of whom qualified for the NAJYRC’s at VAHT by placing 1st, 8th and 9th respectively. Palmer, the youngest of the three, is an OTTB and is only 7. Bagel was campaigned by Area 9’s Kendyl Tracey through the Advanced level. Her final horse Todi has been her longtime partner, and the started at novice and moved up to the one-star level. Each horse has their separate funny personalities, and everyone enjoys having them in the barn. Chase can’t wait to head to Kentucky and be a part of the Area II team!
Madeline Parisan and Hope to Star
I’m Madeline Parisan and I’m 14, my horse “Carson” aka Hope to Star is a 19 year old flea bitten grey thoroughbred, I’ve had him for five years and I trained him for eventing on my own. I started doing jumpers with him then I trained with young rider champion Alex Zavoyna to start me off in eventing. I now train with Molly Kinnamon and fast forward some and some of the big accomplishments were when I competed at the Fair Hill three day at prelim, we got second place finishing on our dressage score of 28.6 and throughout the year we had never had a stop on cross-county and finishing in top six a lot, and we finished that year with plantation fields CIC*. He was awesome; he was double clean cross county and only one rail in stadium. Coming around to the next year (2013) this is the year we want to make the young rider team. We did a prelim and CIC* at fair hills spring three day, and he ended great. All three phases went well at the Virginia CCI* including a super dressage, a fantastic cross-county and only one rail in show jumping, we finished in 7th place. A huge step for us, I was very happy. I am so excited to head to Kentucky this July!
Morgan Booth and Lucky Little Spy
My name is Morgan Booth and I will be competing at NAJYRC with my horse Lucky Little Spy in the CCI*. After a great experience at Young Riders last year with my longtime horse Cameron Creek, I was motivated to make 2013 Young Riders a goal for Spy and me this spring. Spy is a 10-year-old OTTB who was beautifully produced by Kristin Bachman, and I have had him since last fall. Spy is an incredible horse, and I am so grateful to have him to continue my riding education. I have been working with Will Coleman for several years, and I’m spending this summer as a working student in order to get ready for the championships. My qualifying run was at Bromont in early June, where we had a great run. I learned a lot about my horse and what I need to do to improve on our performance. I was extremely lucky to have had experienced coordinators, coaches and team members last year. I look forward to another great year in this new chapter of Area 2 Young Riders. Meg, Pam and Sinead have been working really hard to get us all to this point, and we couldn’t do it without them. Thank you to my coach, family and friends for helping me get where I am, and I can’t wait to head to Kentucky again in a few weeks.
David Pawlak and Just Bailey
Hi, my name is David Pawlak. I am 16 years old, and I have been riding for my entire life. I started eventing when I was 7 years old and have been doing it ever since. My horse Just Bailey is a 15.1 chestnut Thoroughbred that just started doing preliminary this year. Bailey and I have been on the fast track this spring doing his first and my second preliminary at The Fork and placing 5th. We had three more runs at Louden, Plantation and Fair Hill, just qualifying for the 1* at Virginia. We placed third at the Virginia CCI1* and received Best Turned Out as well as Best Conditioned Horse. I mainly trained with Po (Alexandra) Tatham, but also some with Hannah Burnett and the occasional lesson from David O’Connor. I have to thank all of these people along with my dad, who is also the farrier, and my mom, who helps me and supports me at every event. Without them, I would not be competing at the championships this year.
Caroline Day and Malibu
Hi! I am Caroline Day riding Malibu in the CCI*. I am 14 years old, turning 15 on July 17, and I am going to be a sophomore in high school. I live in Rockleigh, N.J., and board Malibu in North Salem, N.Y., where I train with Mikki Kuchta. Over the past year, I have completed three CIC*s to qualify for the selection process of young riders. This is Malibu’s third year attending Young Riders; however, this is my first year going with her. I bought Malibu about a year and a half ago. Prior to me buying her, Malibu was owned by Joelle Baskerville and lived in Canada. Malibu and Joelle did very well in the Young Riders CCI** and CCI*. I aspire to continue eventing through college and to have a career involving horses as an adult because riding is my true passion.
