The US Equestrian competition results for January are in (mostly), which means it is time to celebrate the first Maryland-bred winners of 2025. Maryland produced 10 winners in USEF-sanctioned events in January across four different disciplines — one Grand Prix Dressage winner, two Show Jumping winners, one Event horse winner, and five Hunter winners.
The January winners show the diversity of Maryland’s breeding industry. Four of the winning Maryland-breds are Welsh pony types, three are off-the-track Thoroughbreds, one is an Oldenburg, one is a Hanoverian, and one is a Zangersheide.
Dressage
Vianne, is a 2016 Hanoverian mare bred by Catherine Haddad, foaled at Hilltop Farm in Colora, whose greatest accomplishment to date is winning Bronze in Para Dressage at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. She started her 2025 seasaon by winning two Para Grand Prix classes in Wellington, Florida — the CPEDI3* FEI Para Grand Prix class at the January 22 Global Dressage Festival and the FEI Para Grand Prix class at the January 3 Wellington Season Kick-Off. Vianne is owned and ridden by Wellington-based Grand Prix Dressage rider Katherine Shoemaker, who is also a licensed FEI veterinarian.
Eventing
Giving Gallantry, a 2014 Thoroughbred mare bred by Huckleberry Farm (To Honor & Serve x Pearly Beach (Tiznow)), won the Training (3’3) division at the January 26 Full Gallop Farm Horse Trials in Aiken, South Carolina. This was only the mare’s second time at this level in sanctioned competition; her previous outing was here in Maryland at the Fair Hill International in August 2024, where she did not break into the top ten. She had raced at Maryland tracks in 2017 under the name Giving.
Show Hunters
Maryland-breds competed in the hunter ring up and down the East Coast last month, from New Jersey to Ohio to Florida.
In the first week of the 2025, JudithAnn Hartman’s 2023 Welsh Mountain Pony Copper Beech Welsh Poppy won the Pony Hunter Breeding 2 Year Olds division at the Snowbird Winter show in New Jersey. Two weeks later she was Champion Pony Hunter Breeding at CJL, Inc.’s January 18 show, also in New Jersey.
In Ohio, Nancy Reed’s 2016 Welsh/Thoroughbred cross mare Land’s End Electra, by Land’s End Lovenote out of the Thoroughbred mare Third Try (Feel the Power), was Champion Large Pony Hunter 2’9 at the World Equestrian Center Winter VI (January 15), and Champion Green Pony Hunter at the World Equestrian Equestrian Center Winter XVIII on Jan. 31. Previously, Land’s End Electra was Champion in four different hunter divisions in 2024, and a Champion equitation pony in 2023.
In Maryland, John Almond’s Loafers Lodge Smokin Hot, competing under the name Among the Stars, was Champion Green Pony Hunter Medium 2’6″/Large 2’9″ at McDonogh School on January 24. She is a 2018 Welsh/Arabian cross by Loafers Lodge Smokey Joe out of Loafers Lodge Hot Pink (Rosmel’s Dressed in Scarlet). She was a Champion Children’s Hunter Pony twice in 2024, and a Champion USHJA 2’0 in 2023.
In Florida, John Almond’s Loafers Lodge Peter Pan, a 2011 Welsh Pony gelding (Fox Cry Whinny the Pooh x Loafers Lodge Penelope (Rollingwood’s Pick My Way)), won the Small/Medium Children’s Pony Hunter Under Saddle at the Wellington Equestrian Festival in Florida. Previously, Peter Pan won a champion pony hunter title at Warrenton in 2024, and another at Middleburg in 2023.
Welsh pony types were not the only Maryland-breds to win in the hunter ring in January. Dr. Elizabeth Callahan’s 2018 Oldenburg mare Union City, by Selle-Francaise stallion Ulmar Mail out of Callahan’s own Avalon (A Fine Romance), was Champion Young Hunter 3’3 at the Winter Spectacular in Ocala, Florida the week of January 14.
Union City started her competitive career as an Eventer. She won the Open Beginner Novice class at the 2022 Seneca Valley Pony Club Horse Trials in Maryland on June 18. That year she was the 2022 Reserve Champion in the Four-Year-Old division of the East Coast Young Event Championships at The Maryland 5 Star at Fair Hill on October 12. She has gone on to win championships in several Young Hunter, Green Hunter, and Adult Amateur hunter divisions in Virginia and Florida during the 2023 and 2024 seasons.
Our last Maryland-bred show hunter winner in January is Ethan’s Escapades, a 2014 Thoroughbred gelding, bred by La Bella Vita Farm by Friesan Fire out of Thief in Style (Cat Thief). Ethan’s Escapades won the $200 Take2 Thoroughbred Hunter 3′ class at the World Equestrian Center in Ohio during the week of January 15. This was his first appearance in sanctioned competition since he ended his racing career in 2017. Since 2017 he has won numerous TIP awards at local hunter shows in Pennsylvania.
Show Jumping (2)
Last but not least, two Maryland-bred show jumpers brought home blue bling in January. Anne Herold’s 2016 Thoroughbred mare Indigo Midnight, by Maryland-bred stallion Kozub’s Kin out of Maryland-bred Latifah (Allen’s Prospect), started her competition season by winning the $400 Take2 Thoroughbred Jumper (1.0m) II.1 class at the January 30 Wellington Equestrian Festival in Florida. Indigo Midnight last raced in 2019 and has been competing on the Thoroughbred hunter circuit since then. She was trained In 2023 and 2024 by Olympic Gold Medalist Joe Fargis. Joe Fargis won his Show Jumping Gold Medal on another storied Maryland-bred Thoroughbred, the 1973 mare Touch of Class.
And finally, Dreamcatcher Farm’s Cruisinetty TOO, a 2020 Zangersheide mare by Qui Dandy Windsor Z out of Cruisinetty Z (Cruising), won the 5 Year Old Young Jumper 1.10m II class at the January 1 Winter Spectacular in Ocala, Florida. She won the same class a week later on January 7. Cruisinetty TOO has an excellent European jumping pedigree, and she is off to a terrific start in this, her fist season of sanctioned competition.
N.B. We are not necessarily able to find every result for every Maryland-bred on the competition circuit. If you see a result missing, let us know! Email [email protected].
Photos (sources) clockwise from top left: Vianne (USEF file photo); Copper Beech Welsh Poppy (copperbeechwelshponies.com); Land’s End Electra (undated — Training Wheels LLC); Union City (2024 ESI); Among the Stars (undated — Fox Creek Farm.