“Developing Future Stars” is the slogan of the U.S. Equestrian Federation’s Platinum Performance Show Jumping Talent Search. And judging by the ability on display this weekend at the competition in New Jersey, there soon will be lots of new stars in the sport’s universe.
The “East” section of the competition (the West section, won by Zoe Brown, was held last month in California) drew a field of 53 to the U.S. Equestrian Team Foundation’s Gladstone facility, where every competition takes on a special luster because of its history. Being staged in the arena behind the stately stable where so many legendary horses and riders trained to represent their country adds extra pressure to an already stressful test.
Lynn Jayne was feeling it as her 17-year-old daughter, Natalie, competed in the Final Four. That’s the climax of three days of competition, where the top quartet of riders–the cream that rose to the top after the flat, gymnastics and show jumping phases–competes over a shortened course and then rides the mounts of each of their rivals over the same route.
Natalie was the only one in the group who didn’t drop a rail during four rounds. Although the class rules state judges must deduct 4 points for a knockdown, the rest of the scoring except time faults is subjective based on the riders’ style, how they handle the course and deal with different horses.
Natalie Jayne at the awards ceremony, with judges Michael Tokaruk and Chris Kappler, Assistant U.S. Coach Anne Kursinski and DiAnn Langer,U.S. youth chef d’equipe to the left; trainers Andre Dignelli and Patricia Griffith to the right with Natalie’s mother, Lynn Jayne (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
While judges Chris Kappler and Michael Tokaruk said the top four were very close, a look at the results for that phase tells a slightly different story. Natalie’s score was 365, while runner-up Dominic Gibbs, the 2020 ASPCA Maclay winner, was marked at 359. Third with 336 was Audrey Schulze, who dropped rails twice at fence 4A, the oxer first element of a double, on her own ride, Mac One III and Dominic’s Cent 15. Audrey was one point ahead of Hampton Classic equitation champion Luke Jensen in fourth place.
Shortly after Natalie collected the championship ribbon, Lynn admitted, “It still hasn’t sunk in, my heart is in my throat still. But I’m really proud of her, she’s worked really hard.”
Lynn is Natalie’s “day-to-day trainer.” The Illinois high school senior also works with Andre Dignelli and Patricia Griffith at Heritage Farm in New York.
“It’s hard to train your daughter at this level,” explained Andre.
Lynn pointed out that her daughter is unfazed by what she faces in the ring.
“Pressure never gets to her. She thrives on it,” said Lynn.
“When you’re in the top four, there’s pressure to do well, but it doesn’t bother me that much,” agreed Natalie, winner of the 2020 and 2021 Winter Equestrian Festival Equitation Championships. Natalie was fifth on the flat in the Talent Search, sixth in gymnastics and third in this morning’s round.
Each of the riders had their moments in the sun over the weekend. Luke, a 17-year-old Texan who is a working student for Missy Clark, won Friday’s flat phase on Conthacco, better known as Taco, a horse leased from jumper rider Schuyler Riley. He didn’t have a groom at this competition and did all the work himself. Interestingly, his mother, Martha Jensen, is the sister of hunter star Hunt Tosh.
Natalie Jayne, Dominic Gibbs, Audrey Schulze and Luke Jensen. (Photo © 2021 by Nancy Jaffer)
Missy called Luke, “possibly the nicest person I have ever met in my life.”
Audrey, 18, a Ridgewood, N.J., resident who was third in the Kathy Scholl Equitation Championship, took the honors in yesterday’s gymnastic test. Her mount, Mac, who went on to win the Grappa Trophy as best horse, is owned by Taylor Madden, the daughter of Audrey’s coach, Frank Madden. He is based at the Schulze family’s Patriot Farm in Saddle River.
Dominic, 18, a native of Colorado trained by Stacia Madden and Beacon Hill, was tops in today’s morning jumping round on his own Cent 15. He is in his last year as a junior.
And of course we know about Natalie’s moment to shine. She rode Heritage Farm’s Charisma, calling him, “awesome in the ride-off. My plan was to just have a nice solid round…and go from there.”
Natalie Jayne and Charisma against the backdrop of the USET Foundation stable. (Photo © 2021 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
As Andre noted about his student, “She’s always ridden well and has a good feel. She’s always looked beautiful, very elegant on a horse.”
Winning the Talent Search hit the target for Heritage.
“This was the goal. The kids know that this class is important to me,” said Andre. Today marked his 11th victory in the class, counting the time that he won it himself at the beginning of his career.
“This format played to her strengths,” he said of the winner.
“She rides a lot of horses for a lot of people and she’s very calm. My feeling was, whatever the result was, I thought she had given it all that she had.”
The ride-off included a long, nine-stride loop from an oxer, fence 2, to a triple bar, fence 3. Chris Kappler an Olympic team gold and individual silver medalist based in Pittstown, explained the idea of that test was “to see who could really tell where they were on new horses. Within inches, they were all very, very solid riders. It was really fun to see the quality of riding in the final four.”
The course posted for the gymnastics phase.
He added, “We tried to use each day to set you up for the next; tried to have things that made sense that you would use in developing your jumper, developing yourself, developing your skills to be ready for a Nations Cup-style competition.”
The gymnastics phase may have looked deceptively simple from a railside viewpoint, but there was a lot to it.
“There were not a lot of options, so it kind of allowed us to really measure each horse and rider similarly, because there was no variation in striding,” said Chris. The design included trying “to use the triple bar with the Liverpool under it to simulate a setting-up for the water jump the final day, so they could get a good strong ride over that triple bar and hopefully give the horses a good confident water-type jump before Sunday.”
As Michael Tokaruk, a Tennessee trainer, put it, “We tried to ask the questions that make sense. Can you ride your horse’s stride, can you go forward, can you ride a track, can you make some rollbacks, can you go forward, then can you shorten and gallop the water?”
Dominic Gibbs won the gymnastics phase on Cent 15. (Photo © 2021 by Lawrence J. Nagy)
We will be seeing lots more of the top four and a number of the others from this weekend for the rest of this season and likely, over the years to come.
“The Talent Search Finals is a great starting point and pathway and the place where we see for the first time many of our up-and-coming athletes,” said Lizzy Chesson, USEF’s managing director of show jumping.
As she pointed out, over the last few months Talent Search alumni have made their mark internationally. Jessie Springsteen rode on the Olympic silver medal team, Brian Moggre was second in the prestigious Aachen, Germany, grand prix, and a variety of others were on teams at big competitions, including the Nations Cup Final in Barcelona.
“All of those guys, the first time that we saw them was here at the Talent Search Finals,” Lizzy observed.
“It really is a stepping stone, a point along their journey of learning and growing and getting to the teams. It works. It gives them kind of a taste of being part of something bigger than themselves.
