On March 30 the Mystic Valley Hunt Club (MVHC) in Gales Ferry hosted its second “rated” horse show of the 2008 season. The event, an all-day affair featuring riders from barns all over southeastern Connecticut, was judged by CHSA (Connecticut Horse Shows Association), CHJA (Connecticut Hunter & Jumper Association), and NEHC (New England Horsemen’s Council) officials and saw MVHC riders take home many awards including numerous first- and second-place finishes.
But to anyone familiar with the tight-knit group of riders that compete out of MVHC, the results were anything but shocking.
“The fun part about horse shows is that they are sectioned to have classes by rider’s age and ability level. It is a very nice and fair system,” MVHC owner and president Sally Hinkle Russell said. “This sport takes a dedicated and goal-oriented person. Practice, practice, practice, and your teammate has a mind of its own! We love it!”
Russell has owned the barn, which focuses largely on jumping, since 1983, taking over at only 22 years old. Having ridden horses since the age of 2, Russell was an accomplished rider with an excellent work ethic, something that immediately ensured the future success of the barn. Also of great importance, although she didn’t know it at the time, was the training of one of her first students, a 12-year-old who had already been riding for seven years, Stonington resident Tracey Clark.
Clark, now 36, is one of the fixtures at the stables, a role model for many of the younger girls and a successful competitor. The only MVHC rider who competes in a more competitive division than Clark is Russell, who jumps in the Grand Prix class, the highest level of professional jumping, where gates can be upwards of six feet high. The average horse can jump roughly around three feet off the ground, so many things have to come together for a rider to compete at the Grand Prix level, including the rider’s skill level, dedication, funding, and, of course, the ability of their horse.
To those ends, Russell and Clark have made numerous trips to Europe to procure the finest horses in the world of a German bloodline. Clark, who rides an imported 9-year-old Belgian Warm Blood mare named Darco Symphony, said the mare is the best horse she’s ever ridden.
“She’s great,” Clark said. “Most of all she just has a great work ethic and a huge heart. She’ll give me everything she has, and not all horses will do that.”
The Mystic Valley Hunt Club stables around 70 horses, and 125 riders participate—half of which are adults. Following the lead of Russell and Clark, many up-and-coming riders have begun to experience success of their own.
By the end of the 2007 show season in late November, riders from MVHC had consistently shown so well that the barn produced a myriad of champions and reserve champions, including Clark of Stonington; Christen Scarpa, Emma Sutphen, Frances Moppett and Victoria Stevens of Mystic; Carol Walley and Sarah Walley of Gales Ferry; Megan Coon and Paige Vinson of Preston; Alexis Devlin of Salem; Harpur Schwartz of Guilford; and Colleen Sullivan of Bozrah.
Being named a champion in horse jumping is the culmination of a year’s worth of hard work, dedication, and consistent excellence in competition.
Broken into two major categories, Hunter class (judged more on the horse) and Equitation (judged more on the rider), riders are then placed in age- and skill-level-specific divisions, where they compete against as many as 60 other riders. Allowed to enter no more than two shows each weekend, riders earn points for finishing first through 10th. At the end of the year the rider with the most points in each division is crowned champion.
Nineteen-year-old Scarpa, who rides a 10-year-old Westphalian named Morocco, was the CHSA Adult Amateur Equitation and Hunters champion and placed third and fourth respectively in the NEHC Adult Hunters and Adult Equitation divisions in 2007. A lot of the success, Scarpa feels, can be attributed to the relationship she has with Morocco.
“He’s just like a puppy dog—he wants to just crawl into your pocket if he could,” Scarpa said. “He’ll lick you to death if you let him, he’s always happy.”
And while Morocco may be happy go lucky, 10-year-old Julia Ecklord of Gales Ferry, who just bought her first pony Fiona, will be the first to tell you that not all horses act the same.
“Sometimes [Fiona] can be kind of snarky because she is a mare,” Ecklord said, “but she’s a good pony and it’s fun taking lessons with her and learning new things.”
Another standout is Paige Vinson, daughter of MVHC trainer Robin Vinson. In 2007 Vinson was the reserve champion for both the CHSA Short Stirrup Equitation and Short Stirrup Hunters divisions.
While all the accolades of the many award-winning riders of MVHC are justly admired, a small group of their topnotch riders recently traveled to one of the largest national horse show competitions on the east coast, Ocala, Florida. Among those who made the trip were MVHC riders Russell, Clark, Stevens, Lucy Needham, Harpur Schwartz, Rebecca Mazzaferro, Valerie Cordock, Audrey Mazzaferro, Frances Moppett, Colleen Sullivan, Liz Mahon, Allyson Blais, Sarah Goodrich, and Quellie Moorhead. Competing in very deep divisions with some of the nation’s best riders, the group scored six champion ribbons, five reserve champion ribbons, and several top 10 finishes. For Vinson and Stevens, who had never been to Ocala, the experience was intense.
“It was a successful trip for her,” Robin Vinson said of her daughter Paige’s showing in Ocala. “The first week the pony almost killed her, and the second week she was reserve champion, so there was a dramatic turnaround.”
“It was a great learning experience for her,” Stevens’ mother, Lisa, said. “She got to compete in jumpers for the first time and try out a lot of the different events, so it was great.”
Other than Clark and herself, Russell acknowledged that Stevens spends the most time at the barn and is very devoted to her horse and her sport. But hard work and dedication, Russell said, is something that all of the girls bring to the barn.
“It’s a great tight-knit group of dedicated kids and adults,” Russell said, “and it’s because this is a family environment, we’re all part of a big family here. These girls sacrifice a lot. They miss pool parties and after-school activities, and it’s just because it’s fun and we all love it. We’re a real cohesive group.”