Double
Gold Medals for Andrina Calder
at Young Riders' Championship by
Jennifer Ward
Toronto, Ontario - Andrina Calder of
Toronto, ON, celebrated a double gold medal victory by winning
both the team and individual competitions at the North American
Young Riders' Championship held August 20-24 in Bromont, Quebec.
Calder,
15, claimed top honours as an individual in the CCIY/J* division,
open to riders aged 14-18, and led the U.S. Area 1 Team to
a decisive victory in the team competition. Calder finished
the three phases of competition - dressage, cross-country
and stadium jumping, on her opening dressage score of 51.30
penalty points. Calder added no jumping or time faults to
her score over the grueling cross-country phase on Saturday,
and repeated the faultless effort in Sunday's concluding phase
of stadium jumping.
"I was very happy with my dressage
test," said Calder. "In cross-country, I had no
penalties and everything rode really well. You could gallop
and get your pace, but I was still a little bit nervous! Going
into stadium jumping, I didn't feel too much pressure because
our team was ahead by something like 48 points."
Sharing in the team gold medal victory were
Alex Small, Alex Felsenstein and Kathleen Hart who claimed
the win with a three-day total of 183 penalties. Sydney Olympian
Robert Costello, Team Coach, and Joe Silva, Team Coordinator
guided the U.S. Area 1 Team to victory.
Calder piloted HerzPrinz, her 12-year-old
American Trakehner gelding, to double victory.
"My horse was great, he's done a lot
of three day events now and he knows his job," praised
Calder. "He finished up really well after cross-country,
he's so fit. And he was very happy and pleased with himself,
he knew he had done well."
Held at the equestrian site of the 1976
Montreal Olympic Games, the 2003 North American Young Riders'
Championship marked the return of the event to Canada for
the first time since 1992 when it was also held in Bromont,
QC. Considered the mini-Olympics for riders aged 21 and under,
the stars of tomorrow compete in the three Olympic disciplines
of three day eventing, dressage and show jumping.
Calder's win at the North American Young
Riders' Championship marked her second victory in a CCIY*
event in 2003. These prestigious International Equestrian
Federation (FEI) sanctioned events recognize only the highest
caliber of competition. In addition to her win at the North
American Young Riders' Championship, Calder also won the the
CCIY* division of the Virginia Horse Trials in Lexington,
VA, in May. In addition to her two CCIY* wins, Calder won
the Young Rider Preliminary Division of the Over The Walls
Horse Trials in Hardwick, MA, in August marking her fourth
major victory in 2003. In April, she claimed the Young Rider
Open Preliminary division at the Beaulieu North American Classic
with an incredible score of 29.9 penalty points. Her first
victory of the year came in March when she topped the Young
Rider Open Preliminary division at the Rocking Horse Spring
Horse Trials in Altoona, FL.
Coached by United States Equestrian Team
member Darren Chiacchia, Calder trains south of the border
at Chiacchia's Independence Farm with bases in Buffalo, NY,
and Ocala, FL.
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