Dressage-News

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan, Aug. 13, 2021–The Region 7 Young Rider team of California riders, two team medalists at Germany’s Future Champions event in June, one a world championship vaulting medalist and another also competing in hunter/jumpers, won North American Youth Championship gold Friday. Mid-Atlantic Region 1 took silver and Midwest Region 4 bronze.

The winning team was Christian Simonson, 18, of Ventura on Zeaball Diawind, nine-year-old Danish Warmblood gelding, the highest placed individual on 73.588%; Miki Yang, 16, of Los Altos Hills on Donavan, 13-year-old KWPN gelding, second individually on 68.970%; Erin Nichols, 18, of Yorba Linda on Handsome Rob AR, nine-year-old American-bred KWPN gelding, and Katherine Mathews, 18, of San Marcos on Solière, 17-year-old Hanoverian stallion tied for sixth on 67.677%.

Christian Simonson, ranked 17th Young Rider in the world on Zeaball Diawind, led the U.S. team that also included Katherine Mathews on Solière to bronze at the Hagen, Germany Future Champions. Christian competed at NAYC as a junior in 2016 and on the gold medal team in 2017. He moved up to Young Riders in 2018 to capture team silver.

Miki Yang began competing at CDIs this year, riding Donavan to first and second places in two starts. Donavan was competed at Small Tour by her mother, Akiko Yamazaki, in 2017/2018 and by Steffen Peters also at Small Tour in Europe in the summer of 2018.

Miki competed in vaulting on both sides of the Atlantic, including the World Equestrian Games in Normandy in 2014 and was on the world championship bronze medal team in 2015.

Erin Nichols on Handsome Rob AR swept the Young Rider CDI in Temecula, California in May. She competed in jumpers in 2020.

Team results: 1. Region 7 210.235; 2. Region 1 202.089; 3. Region 4 199.735; 4. Region 3 197.059; 5. Region 2 189,117; 6. Region 6/8 187.118.

Results:
Young Rider Team