Rachel Shoemaker and Our New Dawn.
Rachel Shoemaker of Malvern, Pennsylvania represents the fifth generation of her family to compete at the Devon Horse Show, and she earned her first blue ribbon and her first championship Tuesday night in the Dixon Oval. Driving Willisbrook Farm’s Rally Cart, she claimed the Single Horse Driving Championship and earned the Championship Apron, presented by Misdee Wrigley Miller.
Shoemaker recalls being at Devon about 15 years ago to compete in Three-Gaited Show Pleasure classes and catching a glimpse of a stunning mare competing in a Park Horse class. Her family bought the mare, named Carrigan’s Magic, and Shoemaker competed her for years before deciding she wanted to try breeding show horses. The result of Shoemaker’s first breeding from Carrigan’s Magic was Our New Dawn, Shoemaker’s partner for her Devon championship.
“I’m very new to carriage driving, but I’ve always loved it,” Shoemaker said. “It’s so pretty, and the attention to detail appeals to me. Over the last few years, we’ve learned a lot more about it. This is such an accomplishment for [Our New Dawn]. I’m not a trainer; this is not my job. She’s been my passion and my hobby for the last several years, and she’s such a fantastic horse.”
The championship win came as a surprise to Shoemaker, who was more focused on making it through her very first Scurry Driving class with the 6-year-old American Saddlebred mare. Scurry classes require precision and quick thinking from the driver, who must navigate a series of cones at speed without knocking the balls from atop the cones.
“It was so nerve wracking!” she said. “I walked the course and immediately determined all the turns were too tight. But all the other competitors were fantastic. They were giving me tips; they were telling me I’m going to be amazing. Next year we’re going to go faster!”
Shoemaker said the win was “the greatest feeling,” thinking back to the days she would watch the Devon Horse Show as a child with her great-grandmother.
“My great-grandmother has always been an inspiration to me,” she said. “I learned an awful lot from her and from coming to Devon and being in this environment. It makes you better at what you do because you’ve got something to aspire to. You’ve got a lot of motivation to do well here.”
Tied for the reserve championship in the Single Horse division were the Mackeand Back to Back Dog Cart, owned and driven by Tanya Mackeand, and the Gentlemen’s Phaeton, owned by James & Kathleen Leo and driven by PJ Crowley. Coaching competitors also returned to the Dixon Oval Tuesday evening to take another step closer to their championship, which will be awarded Friday. Misdee Wrigley Miller drove her own Miller Park Drag to her second victory in the division.
Emily Riden for Phelps Media Group, Inc. International
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