Barbara Batterton, riding Linda Armbrust’s Nicki-Z, is 2012 Virginia Field Hunter Champion / Liz Callar photoBarbara Batterton, riding Nicki-Z for the Blue Ridge Hunt, won the Virginia Field Hunter Championships on Sunday, November 11, 2012. Nicki is owned by Blue Ridge MFH Linda Armbrust, who often leads the field on him. An Argentina-bred Dutch Warmblood, Nicki did some showjumping in that country before finding his home in Virginia’s hunt country.
Kathleen O’Keefe, riding for the Casanova Hunt, was Reserve Champion. Best Turned Out was won by Helen Brettell of Middleburg Hunt.
The Virginia Field Hunter Championships were hosted this year by the Fairfax Hunt at Winter Farm in Middleburg, as a result of Fairfax member Karyn Wilson’s win last year.
Kathleen O’Keefe, Casanova Hunt, was Reserve Champion. / Liz Callar photoEach recognized hunt in Virginia is invited to send two members to the Championship. The day starts with an optional Best Turned Out competition. After a brief break for any necessary tack changes, the competitors show off their horses’ movement and training during a hack phase, with the group doing a walk, trot, and canter in each direction, as well as a hand gallop and hold hard. Then, led by the previous year’s winner, the group is off on a mock hunt through the surrounding hunt territory accompanied by mounted judges who score the competitors on their horses’ behavior, jumping style, and handiness.
This year, the group of twenty-four competitors from fourteen hunts were simply outstanding—truly an amazing group of horses and riders. Karyn Wilson led the competitiors over a well-put-together course for the mock hunt, which included a good variety of coops, stone walls, rail jumps, and other natural fences.
Helen Brettell, Middleburg Hunt, was Best Turned Out. / Liz Callar photoAfter the mock hunt, the judges confered and selected ten finalists to compete in an individual test designed to show off each horse’s bravery, obedience, and form. The test was challenging, incorrporating several coops, a snake raiil jump, trot fences, wall, and the crowd-pleasing requirement of a true hunting pace gallop to the last two jumps, followed by a hold-hard at a round bale.
Posted November 15, 2012