Mikaela Kantorowski was a junior guest blogger for Eventing Nation last summer, covering her time as a working student for Jan Byyny and grooming at NAJYRC for Area II. Mikaela is back again to groom for Young Riders, and wrote to introduce us to the rest of her 2013 Area II grooming team. Thanks for writing, Mikaela, and thank you for reading.
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Photo courtesy of High Time Photography.
From Mikaela:
Hey everyone! My name’s Mikaela Kantorowski and I’m super excited to document the adventures of Area II Young Riders throughout the summer! Some of you might remember me from last year when I blogged while working for Jan Byyny and then grooming for the Area II team. We had lots of fun and I can’t wait to do it again!
To catch everybody up on me, I’m from Southern Pines, North Carolina and I’ll be 18 in September. I train with Bobby Costello and recently acquired a fantastic 7-year-old mare named is Ringfort Swan Song (aka Coco). I cannot wait to attend camp and learn even more on her. She really is a horse for the future.
Enough about me because there’s that little event called the North American Junior Young Rider Championships that marks every young rider’s summer and whether a competitor, groom, or even mentor the event always lives up to expectations. This will be my third time attending the Championships and I have made some of my fondest memories there, including sleeping in the RVs in the luxurious Kentucky Horse Park Campground, and attending the wonderful parties hosted by the Horse Park and Spy Coast Farms.
In 2011, I participated in the mentorship program and was lucky enough to be paired with Technical Delegate Gillian Kyle. I learned so much and I would recommend this to anyone! Last year I was assigned as Area II’s head groom. I had a blast and it is one of the most gratifying things ever to watch a shiny horse trot into the arena and know what goes on behind the scenes to make it all come together. I will be attending again this year as a groom and I’m looking forward to it. 2013 will be a bit different as Gwen Dean and Audrey Wiggins have handed the reins over to Meg Kep and Pam Medlin as Area II coordinators. We are so sad to see Audrey and Gwen go but also excited to work with Meg and Pam!
Also David and Lauren O’Brien have handed the reins over to Sinead Halpin as our new team coach. Lauren and David did an amazing job and I know we are all excited to work with Sinead. With all these changes it will be an exciting summer for Area II Young Riders and I look forward to bringing you all the juicy information this summer from new sponsors to all the happenings at camp and then at the Championships. First off, I’d like to introduce our crack staff of grooms behind the scenes! All of the grooms have been chosen through the Area II program. All our riders and grooms will be attending camp and really bonding together as a team. These grooms also had to fundraise for their spot on the team, so good work guys! I’m privileged to be a part of this staff. You will see these girls running around behind the scenes making sure all those whites are sparkling and that the chestnuts gleam like shiny pennies!
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Hi, my name is McKenna Oxenden, I’m a senior in high school and 16 years old (soon to be 17!) and this is my first year grooming at Young Riders. I have evented through training level with 13.2 pony superstar, Dorito Cooler Ranch. I now currently compete a 9 year old, 15.2 Trakehner/Connemara cross, Gossip Girl. Last summer I was based in Virginia, working and training with CCI4* event rider Emily Beshear. I now currently train and work with Courtney Sendak of Defying Gravity Eventing. When I’m not busy riding ponies and doing manual slave labor, I love playing photographer/graphic designer working on little side jobs with my small business, McKenna Erinn Photography (like us on Facebook!). Every Thursday I blog about my ‘secret life’ on Horse Nation—check it out! I’m very excited to have this opportunity to attend Young Riders and cannot wait. Go Area II!
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Kaylin Medlin and her horse Harley: 16-year-old Kaylin Medlin has been in the saddle since she was 7 years old. She started out training as a Vaulter, but fell in love with the sport of Eventing after watching cross-country. She is a very dedicated young lady with big goals and dreams that include international competition on the USET team. Her horse, Watch-Me-Now, “Harley,” is a grey, 11 year old Morgan/Thoroughbred gelding. Kaylin and Harley have been partners for four years, and hope to be together for many more. With Harley’s big heart and willingness to try, they hope to be competing together through the upper levels of Eventing. Kaylin and Harley are currently competing at Training Level and plan to move up to Prelim fall 2013 with a goal to compete at the NAJYRC in the summer of 2014. She has trained with: Susan Beebee, Rebecca Howard, Charlie Plumb and Dana Cooke. In 2012 she was the winner of PRO Junior Training Scholarship with Will Faudree and completed the T3D. She has been a guest blogger for both PRO and Eventing Nation and a feature story in Jack and Jill Magazine May/June 2011 issue. She groomed for Susan Beebee at Rolex Kentucky 3 Day Event in 2011 and was a working Student for Charlie Plumb from September 2012 – June 2013. She is sponsored by Moxie Equestrian and LR Equestrian.
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My name is Eliza Granger and I’ve been riding my OTTB Fred Astaire (Freddie) at the preliminary level since February of this year. I am really looking forward to grooming for our Area II YR team at the championships, and next year I hope to compete. Holly Hudspeth has been helping me for six years now, and has guided me through the levels as an eventer. My horse Freddie has an extremely animated personality that never fails to keep me entertained. He’s a six-year-old chestnut with enough energy and enthusiasm on the cross-country course to keep him hyped long after we’ve passed the finish flags. I have to lunge him before dressage at every show so that I don’t fall off in the sand box. He gives me a lot of attitude, but I wouldn’t trade him for the world.
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Corinne Frankel has been riding for 11 years. She trains with Melissa Hunsberger and Natalie Hollis at Destination Farm in Maryland. She has successfully gone to the preliminary level with her ex-advanced horse Loose N’ Cool who she hopes to take to NAJYRC in 2014. The original goal was 2013 but a torn MCL put Loose N’ Cool in stall rest for 9 months. She hopes to get him going again by early fall. While they were in action they secured impressive wins at Waredaca twice and Seneca Valley all at the preliminary level. She is now focusing on her 5-year-old, Excalibur. She purchased him a year ago as a green-broke baby and has since brought him along and is now successfully competing with him at the training level. She hopes that Excalibur will be the 2nd horse she brings to NAJYRC. In 2012, Corinne groomed for the Area II Young Rider Team at NAJYRC. The experience was so amazing that she is now grooming again in 2013 and is super excited!
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Photo courtesy of Mike McNally.
Hey! My name is Grace Fulton! (Featured on EN’s Rising Stars) I ride and compete out of my family’s barn in Finksburg, MD where my mom is the resident trainer and my dad is a farrier. I ride with both my mom and Laura Beetle on the flat. For some reason I have ended up with three chestnuts on my trailer! Leo the Lionhearted and I have been running preliminary this spring and Wild Orange and I have been running training with a possible move up sometime this fall. Both came to me through the wonderful Ms. Sharon White, and my younger horse FMF The Good Stuff just won her first training this week!. This spring has had its ups and downs like any eventing season does, but I’m sure we will be much better for it. Some of the highlights have been winning the Prelim at Waredaca on Leo and just recently winning the Training at Surefire on Wild Orange. I have really enjoyed being a groom for my sister, Woodge, at NAJYRC these past few years, and I look forward to learning at camp and helping the team all week. Hopefully the team will do well and we will have some more awesome stories to tell at the end of it all!
Go Eventing and Go Area II!
