Upper Marlboro, MD – October 2, 2011 – Hayley Barnhill, of Collierville, TN, earned an exciting victory today as she topped the North American Equitation Championships at Capital Challenge. Barnhill’s win was followed by a top finish for Pilar Flournoy, of Topanga, CA, in the Taylor Harris Insurance Services (THIS) National Children’s Medal Finals. The day concluded with the North American Amateur Equitation Championships with a victory for Adrienne Dixon, of Hillsborough, CA. This weekend’s equitation competition at the Show Place Arena was presented by BigEq.com. The 2011 Capital Challenge Horse Show will continue through October 9 at the Prince George’s Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro, MD.

Sunday’s competition began with the North American Equitation Championships with two rounds of competition. Nearly eighty competitors started out the day over fences, but the field was sharply narrowed to only twenty who were invited back for a second round. Riding Cayla Richards’ Asparagus, a 17-year-old Hanoverian gelding, Hayley Barnhill posted scores of 90.20 and 90.05 for a two-round winning total of 180.25.

“I’m very excited!” Barnhill beamed after her win. “It was a last minute thing to get to come here, and I love this horse show. I was second in this class last year; I was so close, so it is nice to win it.”

Yesterday’s flat winner, Morgan Geller, rode her gelding Fabricio to second place. Sarah Milliren and War Eagle, owned by Don Stewart, finished third. Conor Perrin and Nat King Cole earned fourth place honors. Alicia Gasser rode Schubert, owned by KMG Equestrian, to fifth place and Oliva Esse guided Oscany, Inc.’s Fernway Park into the sixth position.

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