My endless quest for Washington points continues.
The Washington International Horse Show is now truly the last of the glamorous big city horse shows. It takes place in the fall at the Verizon Center Arena in downtown Washington D.C. The horses are stabled in portable stalls on the city sidewalk. The top 30 riders in the point standings are invited to compete. The points are accumulated from a two-phase Equitation class (Hunter and Jumper Equitation) multiplied by the number of entrants.

Zazou with Olympic course designer Steve Stephens in Wellington, FL.

Unlike the other medal finals, the qualifying process for this one continues year round with no cap on the number of wins or classes a rider can enter. I really hope the money goes to a good cause, because it is very expensive to show all year long in this class. And, once again riders from the West Coast or the middle of the country have a difficult time accumulating the same number of points as some of the riders from the East Coast.
Yes, if you did all of the six-week Thermal circuit and won every class, that equals a large number of points. Let me put it this way, as of today, June 15, at 8:14 p.m., there are four Californians in the top 30 in the standings. I would make five, but I am at the moment 32nd in the rankings.
The good news is that I won the class over the weekend at the Oaks II and those points have not yet been reported. I was riding the magnificent equitation horse Gladiator. He has represented the West Coast in the past by winning and placing in the medal finals with a significant number of California riders, most notably Randy Sherman, Nicole Adamson, Alex Maida and his current owner Paris Sellon.
I have the ride on Gladiator because he is for sale and I was coached at these two shows by knowledgeable Meadowgrove Farm trainer Susie Schroer. I also rode the legendary hunter pony, Newsworthy, a.k.a. “Cheers,” both weeks to championships in the Large Pony Division along with a win in the Classic.

A Catch-Rider’s Predicament
I felt like an interloper because the median age of the pony riders is 13 and I am 15. A situation like this can occur for a number of reasons. In this case, the pony’s owner/rider, Bretton Chad, lives in Canada and it is hard for her to get to all of the shows in the U.S. Other scenarios might be that a pony is injured and just coming back or that a pony is young and being naughty with a young or inexperienced rider. Sometimes a pony just needs a rider with longer legs to show it the error of its ways. Either way this is where a catch-rider like me can be useful.
Many of the parents at the pony ring don’t understand this, so I have on occasion been given the evil eye for coming in and ribboning. I assure you that I obtain no satisfaction from beating an 8-year-old, but the flip side of this system is that it provides riders who are on the “economy plan” with a chance to get mileage in the ring on a variety of horses and ponies.
Under USEF rules a rider may ride in the Large Pony division until the age of 18. This is more common in the Midwest and the East where the Green Pony division, for young ponies that lack training, is firmly established. This division is still very weak on the West Coast and not for lack of ponies. I believe the fees are too high and, like the charity shows I wrote about in the last issue, USEF should subsidize or waive the fees that they charge the show, in order to promote the division. Once in place it would broaden the rider/owner/trainer pool by making success in the division a desirable end-goal.
Every green pony eventually becomes a competitive trained pony (in the right program) and then California would have some home-bred ponies instead of relying on the rest of the country to supply a pony with a show record. Pony Jumpers have the same problem, but even more pathetic and complex.

Too Few Boys
The lack of boy riders is a factor here. The division was created in the hope that, like Europe, it would turn out some great boy riders. Nearly every great European rider at some point competed in Pony Jumpers. The fastest pony to leave the jumps up wins. No obsession with proper equitation form, no braids on the ponies, no points off for a missed lead change, and especially no points off for riding the pony like a dirt bike or a motorcycle. There was no way that a macho dad could call the Pony Jumpers too “girly.” Or, that was the hope.
It has been an abysmal failure. For some reason it has never caught on. The horse show managers have told me that it is because the parents can’t decide if the fences should be big, as in Europe, or small so the kids aren’t scared.
Here is the conundrum; if the fences are too small the riders go too fast and that’s when accidents happen. If they are big, yes, they look intimidating, but the rider must develop riding skills. The course is ridden at a slower pace and the rider must choose the most efficient track and be able to adjust the pony accordingly.
These skills are essential for a rider who wants to progress up the Jumper ranks, or in the Hunters or Equitation. But if the parents harangue management long enough to lower the fences, then management eventually gives in and the division is not what it was meant to be.
Back to too few boys, I believe in equal rights for men and women, boys and girls, but this is one of the few situations where I think USEF and the local organizations should get together and waive the fees for new boy, pony riders for the next 10 years. Give the parents an incentive to get a pony for their son and try the sport. It will pay off in the long run. Look at Richard Spooner, Ricky Neal or Hardin Towell. They are all examples of where this sport can lead you. They are all successful riders. Creative thinking is needed to solve some of these problems.

Tee Time
Which brings me to my next subject. When I participated in the George Morris Horsemastership Sessions in Wellington, FL, I met Olympic course designer Steve Stephens. He gave the lecture on strategy in course design and arranged for Beezie Madden and Sara Segal to be the demonstration riders. I remembered seeing a very unique jump that he designed for a WEF Grand Prix the previous year. It was his tee-jump and he kindly offered to share his specs for the jump and gave me permission to recreate it for my riding ring at home in West Los Angeles.
This is where the creativity comes in. We have the plan; we need to get the jump built. With all the remodeling that is taking place, every other street in Los Angeles has a construction site. My mom and I approached homebuilder Hugh Evans and asked for his help. He and his colleagues, Richard Holz, Brian Valle and master carpenter Phil Tarrant generously came through and built the jump for me. I jumped my horse Eva Hesse over it and it‘s really fun and challenging to jump. I am quite certain that I am the only rider in the western United States who has a tee-jump to practice over at home.
I am heading for Lake Placid and then I go on to the Vermont circuit for most of the summer.
Zazou Hoffman is an accomplished junior hunter/jumper rider who lives in Santa Monica. California Riding Magazine is pleased to have this hard working young rider as a regular columnist. She can be reached via e-mail at barnum1126@adelphia.net.