Jennie Brannigan, 20, of Temecula, posted electrifying performances for a rare double win in two categories at the Wellpride American Eventing Championships, held in the Chicago area’s Wayne, IL ,Sept. 13-16. She won the Training Junior/Young Riders division aboard Plain Jane and the Preliminary Junior/Young Riders division with Cooper and was the talk of the event.
While their performances stand, unfortunately, their ribbons and show records will not, due to a misunderstanding about eligibility for those divisions.

Qualification criterion for all Non-Horse and Amateur divisions require that riders may not have competed during the qualifying period at more than one level above the level at which they are entered at the AEC.
The US Eventing Assn. was quick to praise Jennie’s actions once she learned of the mistake. “In an outstanding display of sportsmanship, Ms. Brannigan immediately relinquished both of her titles and asked that both of her rides be re-classified as ‘HC’ (‘hors concours’),” said a USEA news release. (Hors concours means that her placings are not counted in the final standings and all of the other finishers move up a place.)
“Jennie’s gesture is in the best tradition of fair play and sportsmanship, and exemplifies what it means to be an eventer,” says USEA President and Chairman of the Board Kyra Stuart. “We are all so very proud of Jennie and expect to see this rising star of our sport in the AEC winner’s circle again in the near future.”
Stuart added that the AEC’s status as a national championship meant more complicated eligibility rules. Although it is always the rider’s responsibility to sort these issues out, Stuart noted that USEA had attempted to verify horse and rider qualifications prior to the Championships and regrets that this discrepancy was not caught before competiton.
“Finding out that I was overqualified for these two divisions came as a complete shock,” says Jennie. “I had no intention on circumventing the rules when I entered the AEC. As a Young Rider I believed those were the divisions where I belonged. I would like to apologize to the other competitors, and would like to thank Plain Jane’s owner, Mona Munos, and to all those who helped get me to this year’s AEC, including Jane and Cooper. Both horses were absolutely wonderful at the event, performing beyond my expectations, and I regret that, because of my misunderstanding of the qualification criteria, their competition records will never reflect how amazing they were at the competition.”
Jennie’s disqualification created two new champions: Nina Ligon and her Chai Thai in the Training Junior/Young Riders division, and Olivia Upham and Robert and Lori Upham’s In Any Event in the Preliminary Junior/Young Riders division.

Galway’s New Name
As the Galway Downs competition venue in Temecula readies for its big fall Three-Day Nov. 1-4, it is also celebrating a new name: the Southern California Equestrian Center.
“It’s turned a new page as a facility,” says Robert Kellerhouse, organizer of the Galway Downs events.
The facility, founded in 1968, was called the Southern California Track and Training Center and was home exclusively to Thoroughbreds and Quarter Horses in race training. It was later renamed Galway Downs, and Kellerhouse gave the events he started running there the same name.  Today the Southern California Equestrian Center houses as many as 200 racehorses and hosts a wide range of equestrian competitions each year.
“So this new name harks back to the old roots, while at the same time indicating that it serves a broader spectrum of the area’s equine community,” says Kellerhouse.
The Namco Capital Group of Los Angeles purchased the center out of bankruptcy proceedings in late 2004. Since then, they’ve spent more than $350,000 on improvements and repairs to the barns, fencing, irrigation system, and service infrastructure (plumbing, electricity and phone). Plus they’ve put in new footing for the cross-country course, the rings and the training track, and added a grass jumping arena.
“It was time for a name change, because it looks like a new place,” says Kellerhouse. “It’s always been a very pretty location, and now it’s pretty and it works well.”

Slaughter Update
The last remaining, of three, horse slaughter plants in America was shut down Sept. 21 with a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that confirmed the constitutionality of an Illinois law banning horse slaughter for human consumption. The Illinois legislation had been signed into law four months earlier, but the plant operators, Cavel International of Belgium, immediately filed a federal lawsuit contesting the ban. The plant was allowed to operate while its lawsuit was pending. Cavel can appeal the new ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, but advocacy groups expect the Court would reject the case, as they did earlier this year when two Texas slaughter facilities appealed their respective closures.
Since the inception of anti-slaughter legislation efforts, advocates have always worried that wiping out slaughter plants in America would mean American horses would then be subject to longer travel to worse treatment at foreign processing plants, namely in Mexico and Canada. In an effort to promote the passage of the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, (S.311 and H.R. 503) the Humane Society of the United States presented video footage of American horses meeting horrible fates en route to and at processing plants in Mexico. The footage was attained by a HSUS investigative team and presented during a news conference in Washington, D.C. on Oct. 4.
The Gallop welcomes news, tips and photos. Please contact Kim F. Miller at 949-644-2165 or via e-mail at kimfmiller@msn.com.