Devon, PA – July 1, 2011 – It was a beautiful night at the historic Devon Show Grounds as riders gathered at the Dixon Oval for the $10,000 Chester County Food Bank Mini Prix. A competitive group of horse and rider combinations tackled the challenging course for the highlight event at the first annual Brandywine Valley Summer Series, presented by Taylor Harris Insurance Services. The top prize went to Samantha Schaefer and Trezebees after they completed a double clear effort in 25.279 seconds over Tracey Weinberg and Larone, who scored the second place honors.
Jose Gamarra set a challenging first round track for the competitors, which featured a triple bar, a liverpool, a vertical-oxer double combination, and a oxer-vertical-vertical triple combination. Seven of the horse and rider combinations were able to master the first round without fault and advance to the short course. They began over an oxer-vertical bending line before making a sharp turn to the double combination. They then turned to a single vertical before galloping towards the finish line over the final oxer.
Samantha Schaefer was fifth in the return order aboard Trezebees, owned by Addison Phillips of New York, NY, and the duo was ready to win it. They picked up a quick gallop to the first fence and never held back. Schaefer was able to nimbly guide Trezebees through each of the difficult turns and they jumped straight to the top of the leaderboard with a blazing double clear effort in 25.279 seconds.
“Tracey [Weinberg] had set a very quick time so I knew I had to go for it,” explained Schaefer. “Trezebees has a lot of scope so I knew I had to be very quick across the ground. She turned really nicely after the second jump and after the combination.”