Six years after Amanda Steege and Lafitte de Muze won the World Champion Hunter Rider Professional Challenge at the Capital Challenge Horse Show, they did it again Wednesday night in Maryland.
Scores of 93.66 and 91.16 over two rounds gave Amanda a total of 184.82, 6.08 points ahead of runner-up David Wilbur with Four Aces.
Amanda Steege and Lafitte de Muze (Shawn McMillen Photo)
On Friday night, Scott Stewart took the $30,000 WCHR Pro Hunter Rider Final, in which the top four riders rode “donated” horses they had not competed previously in a format like the Final Four, which used to decide the world show jumping championships.
It was the eighth time that Scott, 60, had won the title.
Despite his record, “I still get nervous,” he conceded.
“It’s a great honor to be included in these group of riders. I’m hopeful that I’ll get to keep doing it. I’ve won it enough, and I just enjoyed doing it, so I wasn’t really expecting to win, but I was, I would say, probably the most relaxed I’ve ever been.”
Scott had a 20-point margin over second-place Geoffrey Hesslink. Amanda was third and Nick Haness, the 2022 winner, finished fourth.
Of her victory earlier in the week, Amanda said, “We pick certain classes throughout the year that we really aim Lafitte for and try to have him peak at.”
Lafitte, who is owned by Cheryl Olsten, has the right bloodlines for victory. The son of Darco is out of Everlychin de la Pomme, a mare who won the Grand Hunter Championship at Capital Challenge in 2013 with Scott Stewart aboard, after she had campaigned in the jumpers with Shane Sweetnam.
Amanda, who is based in Califon, N.J., and Wellington, Fla., has a motto of “calmly confident” with her 13-year-old Belgian warmblood mount, “just trying to go out there and pick up the canter and show a little pace without overdoing it and attacking the jumps.”
“To win this same class again is very exciting,” she said.
“I think it’s remarkable to have a horse like Lafitte for seven years and have him still be so at the top of his game. Every round that I do on him, he tries so hard. He never comes out of his stall and feels like he doesn’t want to go to the ring. I just am so thankful to have him for the last seven years, and I’m looking forward to quite a few more.”
Amanda noted that Lafitte is “unbelievably intelligent” and “really a ham” who is always up for a photo session and posing with his prizes.
The rider gives credit to her partner, Tim Delovich, who “is so responsible for Lafitte being Lafitte.”
“Lafitte is amazing, but he’s an athlete and he’s sensitive,” she explained.
“Tim is his person and sort of pulled it all together with him. I really do think Lafitte understands this whole thing and that he’s really supposed to be showing off when he’s out there. He makes us all better.”