The final day of the 2015 Pin Oak Charity Horse Show, presented by Irish Day Farm, featured pony and junior hunter action in the Valobra and Otto Hunter Rings on a gorgeous spring day in Katy, Texas.
Even when things didn't go as expected in the Otto Ring this morning, 11-year-old Brooke Brambach kept her cool aboard Nantucket.
"We had a really big bird issue. We were going in our handy and a bird was sitting right in the jump," she said of the Great-Tailed Grackle, a large black bird (pictured below). "There was a perfect distance, and the bird flew up right as he was about to leave the ground and we had to chip. It surprised him a little bit, and so we didn’t do so well, otherwise it would have been really good."
Brombach put that disappointment behind her and returned to the ring with the 18-year-old Welsh cross for the Small/Medium Pony Hunter Classic, where her two-round scores earned the blue ribbon. The classic win came on the heels of the show championship she earned in the Mediums during Week 1 of Pin Oak.
Brooke's mother, trainer Colleen Brombach, offered her daughter encouragement at the gate. "We did much better in the classic round," said Brooke with a smile.
The Brombachs, of Silver Fox Farms in Wimberley, Texas, have been attending Pin Oak for about seven years and especially enjoy the show for its hospitality.
"We’ve come here every year since we moved here [in 2008] from California, and it seems like the pony divisions just keep getting bigger and bigger, and I love seeing that," said Colleen. "So, it’s a great show. I love the prizes, and they treat people well, and that’s what a show is all about; it’s all about having fun and enjoying what you’re doing."
Brooke's goal for 2015 includes a return trip to the Capital Challenge Horse Show in Maryland, where she hopes to compete once again in the WCHR Pony Challenge. The second week of Pin Oak was a USHJA World Championship Hunter Rider competition, and Brooke was happy to earn valuable points.
"Our little joke is that last year the show broadcast announcer at Capital Challenge said, 'I don't know this rider or pony, but the pony is really cute,'" said Colleen laughing. "So, our goal this year is for the announcer to say, 'We know this pony. We know her!'"
In the competitive Small Pony Hunter section, AnnaKate Long and Rollingwoods Lemony Sticket earned the championship for the second consecutive week. The palomino Welsh is continuing his success from 2014, when he carried Long to the WCHR South Central Region Pony Championship and earned the USHJA Zone 7 Small Pony Hunter title.
Long, 11, rides with Robyn Schmidt, of Timbercreek Stables in Magnolia, Texas.
Picking up the Small Pony Hunter Reserve Championship was Avery Glynn, who traveled to Pin Oak from Petaluma, California with her All That. Avery rides with her parents, Hope and Ned Glynn, of Sonoma Valley Stables.
In the Medium Pony Hunters, Be Cool and Megan Winborne earned the championship, with Rollingwoods Top This and Isabella Bosley earning the reserve tricolor.
In the Large Pony Hunter section Casanova with Jordan Cobb earned the championship, and Celtic Creek Early Riser earned the reserve championship with Avery Erickson.
