Helen Claire McNulty & Checkmate Take North American Junior Championship Individual Gold,
9 years ago StraightArrow Comments Off on Helen Claire McNulty & Checkmate Take North American Junior Championship Individual Gold,
LEXINGTON, Kentucky, July 17, 2015–Helen Claire McNulty who spent the winter with her Checkmate immersing herself in an intensive training program in Florida won the North American Junior Rider Championship individual gold Friday, the first international medal for the 15-year-old rider.
Helen of Holland, Michigan and the 12-year-old KWPN gelding vaulted to the top of the medals podium on a score of 70.816 per cent, a personal best and her first international result above 70 per cent after 14th place finish in the team competition at the Kentucky Horse Park two days ago. Temperatures soared to a high of 93F (33.9C) during the competition.
Cammille Bergeronon on Delfiano won silver on 70.079 per cent after placing atop the individual leaderboard but that was not enough to give her British Columbia/Alberta team a medal.
Chloe Taylor, 17, of Los Angeles who rode Calecto V that Tina Konyot rode for the American team at the Olympic and World Games team placed third on 70.053 per cent.
Helen Claire and Checkmate made their first appearance at the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) championships in 2014 after participating in American Olympian Lendon Grey’s Dressage4Kids Midwest program at Hampton Green Farm two years earlier. The pair won the United States Dressage Seat title last year.
Helen Claire and Checkmate were in the Emerging Dressage Athlete Program and participated in the Dressage4Kids’ Winter Intensive Training Program at Hampton Green Farm in Wellington, Florida, for Lendon’s three months of immersion in developing horsemanship skills.
In six CDIs at the Adequan Global Dressage Festival, the pair placed as high as second and no lower than sixth.
Natalie Pai of Wellington, Florida on Fritz San Tino won the individual Young Rider gold on a score of 69.132 per cent with Catherine Chamberlain of Murrieta, California on Avesto Van Weltevreden won silver on 68.711 per cent and Naima Moreira Laliberte of Quebec took bronze on 68.447 per cent.
Results:
