Washington, D.C. – The 2016 Washington International Horse Show (WIHS) began on Tuesday, October 25, with hunter competition at Verizon Center in downtown Washington, D.C. The day featured professional and amateur hunters competing in the first classes of their divisions, as well as year-end championships for child and adult hunter competitors. WIHS features six days of competition through Sunday, October 30, showcasing the best of the hunter, jumper, and equitation disciplines. The entire competition at WIHS is live streamed, so don’t miss a minute – go to www.wihs.org to watch!
Tuesday’s highlights included the $10,000 WIHS Children’s Hunter Championship. Thirty-one entries showed over a first-round course set by Allen Rheinheimer of Zionsville, IN, and the top 12 returned for a second round to determine final results. Kathryn Crenshaw and her own Chapman took the win with scores of 86 and 87 for a 173-point total. Cece Siegfried and her own Finally Found earned scores of 87 and 84 to finish second with a total of 171. Trinity Hammerschmidt and ES Equine Broker LLC’s Spirit scored 170 with a pair of 85-point rounds to finish third. Nicole Dorwart and Lori Dorwart’s Rittani earned the high score of 88 in round one and scored an 81 in round two to finish fourth on 169 points overall.
Kathryn Crenshaw and Chapman
For the win, Crenshaw and Chapman were presented the H. Fenwick Kollock Memorial Perpetual Trophy, donated by Friends of Fen. Crenshaw, a 17-year-old high school senior from York, PA, trains with Chris Gemmill at Woodberry Farm. Her mount is a six-year-old Warmblood gelding (by Contenaro) that she purchased in June 2015.
“This is my first year on Chapman. He is six years old, so he is a baby,” Crenshaw noted. “Winning this is amazing; I can’t even express it. This was my goal for the year. I really wanted to go to this horse show, and just getting here was an honor, much less winning.”
Cece Siegfried and Finally Found
Starting a five-year-old was a big challenge to take on for a young rider, but with the help of her trainer, along with Woodberry Farm’s professional rider Jennifer Marshall, Crenshaw has developed a great young horse.
“I tried a few horses before him, and when I got on, I knew immediately that he was the one,” she stated. “He has grown up so much since he has been in a program. I lesson twice a week with my trainer and he gets a professional ride once a week. The whole journey has been amazing. He walked in here today never even being in that ring before, and he was perfect. I could not ask for anything else.”
Describing Chapman, Crenshaw detailed, “I think he loves this job. He always goes around with his ears up and he is very sweet. He is smooth, point and shoot, but he is also very young. I have to be very direct and set him up for his lead changes. He is really fun to ride; I love him so much. He has been a once in a lifetime horse and I would not take anything for granted.”
Kathryn Crenshaw and Chapman in their winning presentation.
Crenshaw and Chapman showed at Zone 2 Hunter Finals last week and competed in the NAL Children’s Hunter Finals at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show for an eighth place finish the week before. After a wonderful year together, Crenshaw will give Chapman a break before heading into her last year showing as a junior. She plans to head off to college next fall and is not sure what the future holds for her young mount, but hopes that they can continue to compete together.
Final Results: $10,000 WIHS Children’s Hunter Championship
Place, Number, Horse, Rider, Owner, Round 1 Score, Round 2 Score, Overall Score
- 139 CHAPMAN Kathryn Crenshaw Kathryn Crenshaw R1: 86.000 R2: 87.000 173.000
- 641 FINALLY FOUND Cece Siegfried Cece Siegfried R1: 87.000 R2: 84.000 171.000
- 919 SPIRIT Trinity Hammerschmidt ES Equine Broker LLC R1: 85.000 R2: 85.000 170.000
- 400 RITTANI Nicole Dorwart Lori Dorwart R1: 88.000 R2: 81.000 169.000
- 368 INSIDE SCOOP Carly Genovere Taylor Serio R1: 82.000 R2: 82.000 164.000
- 552 BALLINADEE Courtney Salkeld Aoife Magner R1: 83.000 R2: 78.000 161.000
- 569 MARBLE ARCH Lindsay Stephenson Lindsay Stephenson R1: 84.000 R2: 74.000 158.000
- 516 PENDLETON Georgia Fish Georgia Fish R1: 81.000 R2: 75.000 156.000
- 494 GATSBY Hayden Wilkes Hayden Wilkes R1: 76.000 R2: 78.000 154.000
- 223 FRANGELICO Riley King Riley King R1: 79.000 R2: 70.000 149.000
- 692 WEEKEND AFFAIR Kayla Wolfe Robert Gifford R1: 78.000 R2: 45.000 123.000
- 527 CORSAIR Nicole Butchko Small Oak Investments, LLC R1: 77.000 R2: 45.000 122.000