On Sunday, June 28, James Power (Mt. Airy) and Brambleridge Ponder the Truth (Patrick) powered through the rain to a top-ten finish in a field 19 in the CCI2*-S Young Rider Championship at Loch Moy Farm.
The pair had one of only 4 double clears on course designer Andrew Heffernan’s (NED) 2* track but picked up eight penalty points in stadium for a final score of 45.3
Power and Patrick skipping between the rain drops at the final jog on Sunday morning.
PC Erin Gilmore Photography
Power and Patrick competed as part of the Area II team (which is comprised of the mid-Atlantic states plus North Carolina), which team took home the silver medal. They beat out a combined team from Areas I (New England & NY) and VI (California & Hawaii), which took the bronze.
Power with a few of his Young Rider colleagues.
From left to right: Sam Moreland (Area III – GA), James Power (Area II – MD), and Abby Wilberding (Area II – NC).
PC Horse Sport Maryland
This year’s Young Rider Championships included an educational session on how to “Beat The Heat,” with professional FEI groom, Max Corcoran. Corcoran educated the Young Riders and their grooms on US Equestrian’s new heat index protocols, as well as best practices for post cross-country recovery.
USEF introduced its heat index protocols in 2024 in response to rising heat and humidity during the competition season. As the weather becomes increasingly dangerous for horses, USEF encourages organizers to consider alternative competition times.
Powers’s next outing will be tomorrow, June 30. He will compete his young horse, the 2022 Irish Sport Horse gelding Excel Star Black Magic (Lagans OBOS Quality x Stonepark Imp (Master Imp (IRE)), in US Eventing’s Young Event Horse – 4 YO division at Full Moon Farm in Finksburg.
The Young Event Horse program is US Eventing’s “talent search” for potential future CCI5* horses. It plays an important educational role for the horses, and it also incentivizes US breeders to produce quality event horses for international competition.
Watch this space to follow Powers’s developing career as an event horse rider and trainer.
Cover photo by Erin Gilmore Photography