Zone 10 was the "Cinderella story" of the night. Not only has Zone 10 never been represented in this Pony Finals class, they were also one rider short of the four-field rider teams entered in the competition, and their horses had the farthest combined distance to travel. This meant they did not have a fourth rider's low score to throw out. In addition, these three girls were all first-timers to Pony Finals and more than had the cards stacked against them. However, they managed to ride three double-clean rounds, wowing the crowd, along with the other nine teams.
The judges asked five teams to return to ride a second round. Those teams included zones three, four, five, eight and 10. Tonight's winning team was made up of 13-year-old Jocelyn Neff of Newport Beach, CA, riding Cinnamon Twist, her 13-year-old Welsh cross mare; 16-year-old Mackenzie Rosman of Saugus, CA, riding Mentos Junior, her 14-year-old Warmblood pony gelding; 13-year-old Madeline Burkhartsmeier of Camarillo, CA, riding Hocus Pocus, her 13-year-old Arabian/Appaloosa pony mare.
All three girls said they had faith in their ponies, knew they were fast and didn't want to let them down. The girls all credit their ponies for getting them here and for the night's win. They said their ponies would all jump skyscrapers for them if they rode them well.
"I thought it was more fun because we got to rely on each other and got to share the glory," said Neff. "There was the anxiety of watching everybody go and we were just hoping we didn't let each other down," said Burkhartsmeier. They all agreed that being the last to go was probably the toughest spot to have on the team, and Burkhartsmeier showed everyone how it should be done.
Their plan for tomorrow night's pony jumper individual championship -- "same ride," said Rosman.