Saturday September 18, 2004

Successful Equitation Finals at the 2004 MSEDA Championship & Breeders Classic

High Aspirations

Julia Warstler, from Dryden, Michigan was the reserve champion last summer and this year returned to win the thirteen-and-under finals on her 10-year-old, 13.3hh New Forest Pony, Zippity-Do-Da.

Warstler guessed that she would place well, but confided, “There were three or four other riders I knew I had to watch. I definitely was not sure how I’d finished until they announced second place.”

Warstler is home schooled so that she has time to ride and train, spending winters in Florida to focus on horses. She just started competing at fourth level and is training the Prix St. Georges movements. In the summer she trains with Judy Kelly and in the winter with Susan Dutta.

The afternoon was hot and her pony was shedding a little extra hair, so Warstler scratched from her 4th level test one class in the morning to save her pony’s energy for the equitation class, which took over an hour to complete. “I didn’t want to be rushed and I didn’t want my pony to be tired,” she explained.

Though she is already schooling Intermediaire-1, Warstler is not old enough to qualify in the FEI Junior Championships, though she can ride the tests at regular competition. Eventually she would like to ride in the Jr. Championships and then the NAYRC’s.

“I’m going to Devon next week, which means that I can’t do our regionals to qualify for next year anyway,” she said pragmatically. “I have had a great time this weekend, though. I made a lot of friends and had a lot of fun.”