Read today's Daily Update for

• Results from Saturday

• Photos

• $25,000 Junior/Amateur-Owner Challenge Cup

• Coverage of Pony Champions

• $5,000 Handy Hunter Challenge

• Junior Hunters

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Hooker takes the Ariat Cup; Barnhill Wins $25,000 Challenge

Tracey Weinberg casually walked into the Show Place Arena aboard Cromwell, holding the reins on the buckle. It was her third mount of the night in the $25,000 North American Junior/ Amateur-Owner Challenge Cup and she was the last of eight riders to face the jump-off course. She walked halfway into the arena and the crowd waited. It didn’t look as if there was pressure on Weinberg, but if she wanted to take home the Ariat Congressional Cup for the second consecutive year she knew she had to win - besting Hayley Barnhill’s time of 38.669 seconds on Toucan Tango. Cromwell picked up the canter and Weinberg casually shortened her reins. If she came in second she would tie with Tim Hooker, who won the first two legs of the three-phase event. If they tied, there would be a jump-off. At that moment, Hooker was already preparing his horse.

Letting go can often be the hardest thing for a rider to do. Trusting your horse or pony is a part of winning that has to come from within, and when Taylor Ann Adams realized that, it paid off in spades.

Adams rode the O’Mara’s Franklin’s Tower in the Large Pony Hunter division and secured the championship with three firsts and third over fences. Adams was awarded the Kitty Borisoff Memorial Trophy, sponsored by Archibald Cox and Brookway Stables.
She then went back into the arena to collect a slew of other awards. Franklin’s Tower, also known as Robby, was decorated from one side of his head to the other, wearing long ribbons for the Grand Pony Championship and the EMO Trip of the Show for their high scoring trip of a 90. Adams was also named the Best Pony Rider and presented with the VanderMoore Designs Trophy.
Last year Adams rode Robby at Capital Challenge but it didn’t end as successfully as it did this year. She is quick to blame herself for the outcome saying, “I was not very good. He tried very hard. He was a good boy. He tried his hardest and he still couldn’t fix what I did wrong.”