Local Equestrian Finds Success
at Capital Challenge Horse Show
Grace Shipman of Cooperstown and Ridgefield, CT competed in Equitation Weekend of the Capital Challenge Horse Show last weekend, September 29 through October 2, at Prince George’s Equestrian Center in Maryland. Shipman rode Calamanzo, a grey Holsteiner gelding, to earn champion in the 16-Year-Old Equitation Division–Section A.
She and Calamanzo went on to place ninth in the Palm Beach International Academy-sponsored North American Junior Equitation Championship, a national final in which the fences to navigate are 3’6” in height. There were 148 competitors in this North American championship. Shipman took home a seventh place in the PBIA North American Junior Equitation Flat Championship, as well, which judges the riders on the flat rather than jumping.
In the EMO Insurance/United States Hunter Jumper Association, she placed second in the gymnastics phase of the national final and placed 30th overall in a field of 165 competitors from across the United States.
Shipman is trained by Val Renihan and her team at Findlay’s Ridge LLC of North Salem, New York. She also rides with Olivia Goodnow.
Shipman’s grandparents, Gil and Kaye Solloway of Cooperstown, have had horses in Oneonta and Cooperstown for many years.
The horse and rider are looking forward to competing at their first ASPCA Maclay Finals in Kentucky on the first Sunday in November.