Eamon Snyder, of Tiverton, Rhode Island, and Partly Cloudy claimed the Overall Grand Champion title at the Kym K Smith/USHJA Young Hunter Pony Championships. Partly Cloudy is no stranger to the spotlight at the YHPC as the 2018 Overall Grand Champion and multiple class winner with owner Vanessa Mazzoli. This year with Snyder aboard, the pair earned the overall title as well as the champion title of the Six- and Seven-Year-Olds 2’ and Six- and Seven-Year-Olds 2’3” divisions.

"It was a nice surprise, and I thought it was great there were a lot of competitive riders and ponies there," Snyder said about the win. "[Partly Cloudy] was relaxed when I was showing him, and he jumped really well. He’s really fun to ride, and he is just a great pony overall."

The USHJA continues to plan educational webinars for members! Mark your calendar:

After much discussion the Zone 1 Committee has made the difficult decision to cancel the the 2020 Zone 1 Horse of the Year Championship due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Championship was scheduled for September 16-20, 2020 at Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts.

The Zone 1 Educational Forums were also canceled for this year. The committee looks forward to having the forums in 2021.

Click here for more info about Zone 1 events.

Capping off a successful three days of junior competition in Traverse City, Michigan, the USHJA Gladstone Cup Equitation Classic - East, presented by Intermont Equestrian at Emory & Henry College, showcased the talents of 67 equestrian contenders throughout the day Tuesday, August 25.

Grace Debney, of Hampden, Massachusetts, dominated the day thanks to three rounds of consistent riding, both on Temple Equestrian LLC’s Quimby, her usual ride, as well as a swapped horse for the final work-off. Leading the way from start to finish, Debney demonstrated her equitation expertise in the Classic round, Handy phase and the final test to emerge victorious, an added bonus following her championship honors earlier in the week during the 2020 Adequan/USEF Junior Hunter National Championship - East Coast.

September 1 is the deadline to participate in the Horsemanship Quiz Challenge!

Participants take two levels of online horsemanship quizzes to be eligible for selection to the HQC Nationals. Click here to register and participate before the deadline.

HQC Nationals will be virtual this year. Stay tuned for more information. Click here to learn more about HQC.

The deadline to nominate a member for the USHJA Youth Leadership Award, the USEF Youth Sportsman's Award and the Vital Horse Show Staff Award is September 1!

If you know someone who is dedicated to the sport, is a positive role model for their peers and exhibits positive sportsmanship, nominate them for a youth award today!

If you know someone who works behind the scenes and whose role is essential for the success of horse shows nominate them for the Vital Horse Show Staff Award.

Saratoga Fall

Sept. 10-13

Stillwater, N.Y.

New England Equitation Championships

Sept. 19.

Capital Challenge Equitation Show

World Equestrian Center

Wilmington, Ohio

Sept. 25-27, 2020

The show season continues to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While showing has resumed in many ares, horse shows also continue to be canceled or relocated.

The USHJA announced the cancellation of the AON/USHJA National Championships earlier this month. Read more about the announcement.

Find the most up-to-date information relate to COVID-19:

This year has been far from typical when it comes to horse showing and accomplishing goals, but we know our members have still celebrated milestones and earned achievements outside of the competition ring.

To say Jay Sargent, a USHJA member and former Zone 1 Committee Member, loves animals would be an understatement.

She trained her childhood dog and a donkey named Pedro, became horse-obsessed and built a career in the equine industry, and while on vacation in Turks and Caicos, developed a special relationship with a dolphin named JoJo.

"I've always been a complete animal nut," Sargent said. "My neighbors had a Pinto and a Shetland pony. I would walk out in the woods and just hope I'd see them, and maybe they'd let me get on. That was the beginning, and then I did once a week lessons."

As her interest in the sport grew, she finally convinced her parents to buy her a horse. As she moved up through the levels, Sargent realized she could pursue a career in the sport.

"My parents were great, they figured if I followed my dreams that was the way to go. I dropped out of college and went into business when I was quite young," she said.

Sargent owns Sandy Point Stables in Rhode Island. She built a training business finding and training sales horses and training riders, and she's also a competition manager.

When she's not working, Sargent loves to visit Turks and Caicos. It's there that she met a special dolphin named JoJo,

"One day I was out on the beach, and I had heard about the dolphins, and I see a dolphin swimming around the buoy. I saw him, swam out there, and told him he was handsome, and he let me follow him. After that point I was obsessed."

Sargent visits JoJo and his friends as often as she can. She has written a blog and books about her adventures and bond with the dolphins, which she says isn't that different from her bond with horses.

"I just think that from dealing with animals, I don't feel they are all that different, and I think that's why it worked. I've always had to make friends with them. It was the same thing with the dolphins."

Read more about Sargent and her story in an upcoming issue of USHJA In Stride. Photo by Ethan Daniels.

Did you know that Green Hunter classes, like many traditions in the hunter division, were originally related to foxhunting experience?

The 1941 rule book of the American Horse Shows Association (now US Equestrian) stated Green Hunter classes were “open to horses which have not been hunted with a recognized pack of hounds for more than one season, and which have not won a first ribbon at a recognized show in the Hunter Division prior to January 1st of the current year, except in classes requiring either no jumping or performance over jumps not to exceed three feet six inches” or in classes for “teams, pairs, local, junior, breeding or three-year-olds.”

Green Hunter Championships at this time were also super competitive, so quite an honor to win: They were awarded on the basis of ribbons won in “Maiden, Novice, Limit, Suitable, Green, classes for four-years-olds and under, Breeding classes for young horses and Handicap classes in which a horse jumps three feet six inches.”

Photo: “Jumping over an outside course in a green hunter class,” from Vladimir S. Littauer, Schooling Your Horse, 1951.