A new name will be engraved on the Hope Montgomery Scott trophy for the Devon Hunter Grand Championship.
Californian Nick Haness took that title for the first time on Wednesday, capping a series of top honors at the show, including the Grand Hunter Championship with McQueen, who was the Green Conformation Champion and reserve in the 3-6 Green Hunter section, and Champion Mare with Stephanie and John Ingram’s Pavlova (reserve in the Green Conformation).
Scott Stewart’s name appears 17 times on the silver Leading Rider tray, but this edition of the show wasn’t one where everything went his way. He had a tough time in the High Performance Hunter Stake, the final class of the division, when Hudson dropped a rail at the last fence, while his other mount, Nottingham, was charged with a refusal there. Nottingham wound up as reserve champion to Cannon Creek, a two-time titleist in the division.
Nick was ecstatic at the achievements he and trainer Carleton Brooks of Balmoral Farm racked up at the show on Philadelphia’s Main Line, and for more than the obvious reasons of being a star at one of the USA’s most prestigious fixtures.
Nick Haness and Carleton Brooks with McQueen’s caretakers, Brian Sanchez and Rodrigo Vega, who won the Leading Grooms Award. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
Ten weeks ago, Nick fractured his right wrist when he got too close to the standard of a trot jump at the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Fla., and his leg hooked on it. The horse kept going straight and the standard didn’t fall, but Nick did, ripped off the saddle backwards. Ouch.
The week before the accident, he had won the $100,000 Hunter Spectacular in Thermal, Calif. To be put out of action by a 2-foot trot jump on the East Coast could only be called ironic. Or maybe bizarre.
With Devon on the horizon, the injury was particularly discouraging.
I asked Nick if a fortnight ago he could have predicted winning the Leading Rider title.
“To say I would have been leading hunter rider two weeks ago in a cast, sitting at home, dreaming of this moment–probably unlikely,” he replied.
“It’s something I’ve always strived to do. I’m so thrilled. I was expecting a lot less of the outcome for the week. To have this much success was beyond my expectations.”
Although it would have been ideal for him to show Strasburg Morin Inc.’s McQueen several times in the run-up to Devon, he couldn’t even ride (doctor’s orders) so Carleton and his wife, Traci, kept the string of horses going, including the 2022 Devon Grand Hunter Champion, Only Always. Carleton believes in the efficacy of working horses at the walk, so there was a lot of that, and hill exercise as well for fitness.
Devon was Nick’s first show since the accident, so he made it count. McQueen was a great partner.
Nick Haness shares a moment with McQueen after the pinning of the Grand Hunter Championship. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
“In every single class he went in, he gave it his all,” said Nick, citing the fact that the son of Cornet Obolensky is a brilliant jumper with a big stride.
“It was fun to show him off here against people who never really knew him or saw him before, because he’s been a West Coast horse mostly. He really wowed the judges every class.”
In the stake class, there was a long gallop to the final jump, an oxer.
“I just thought to myself, `Let it go, McQueen’s got it. You’re at Devon, you’ve got to take a chance.'”
The German import came to the Brooks’ stable in June 2022. They wanted to let him mature, so they didn’t show him much because they didn’t want to break his green status, so he did very little over low jumps.
Nick’s an interesting guy. He’s skipping Devon’s Thursday hunter derby and is headed home to train his two zebras and a pair of camels, part of a vast menagerie on the animal lover’s 20-acre Temecula farm.
I asked Nick why Devon is such a strong magnet to draw him from the West Coast.
“It’s that sign over there, `Devon Horse Show Where Champions Meet.’ You couldn’t say it any better,” he explained.
“That’s the part I love most about Devon. It is one of the most rewarding and exhilarating places to have a great week. I always believe there’s a lot involved, it can go anyone’s direction any week at a horse show.” (Just ask Scott Stewart!).
“If luck is on your side, your horses go well and you can have a week like I did this week,” Nick believes, “there’s nothing better.”
The Leading Lady Rider was Amanda Steege, who won the High Performance Working Hunter Stake with a score of 92 percent on her longtime partner, Cheryl Olsten’s Lafite de Muze. It was the second year in a row that Amanda has taken that title. After getting her ribbon, she took her horse to the rail and let people pet him. She explained that her mission with Lafite is to be “an ambassador for the sport,” and people loved it.
Lafite de Muze meets his public. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
The Regular Conformation Hunter honors went to Stephanie Ring’s Can Can, a former jumper who leaped so high in that division that he wasted time in the air, which isn’t good in a speed class.
“He’s an amazing little horse with a lot of personality and loves to put in a huge effort at the oxers,” said his rider, Chris Payne.
CanCan and Chris Payne. (Photo © 2023 by Nancy Jaffer)
“He still takes the oxers a little seriously,” Chris noted.
“So our plan is to get him to not overthink the oxers and try so hard. He just thinks it’s fun. It’s his first time here, so I’m thrilled with him.”
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