Wellington, Fl – November 8, 2025 - The 123rd Annual National Horse Show and Family Festival returns to the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club on November 29 through December 3, 2006. One of the featured events is the $80,000 Young Jumper Championship Invitational, showcasing the finest rising show jumping stars in the United States.
The $80,000 Young Jumper Championships Invitational consists of three sections, one for horses 5 years of age, one for horses 6 years of age, and one for horses 7 & 8 years of age. Qualifying for the event took place between January and October 2006. Each section is restricted to thirty top entries.
The $20,000 5-Year-Old Young Jumper Championship Invitational consists of three classes, two scored under Table II, Sec 1, Time First Round and one, the Championship, scored under Table II, Sec. 2a, Time First Jump-off. Only the top 15 competitors with the lowest scores from the first two classes advance to the final event to compete for the $20,000 in prize money. Top prize is $5,600.
Scoring and eligibility is the same for both the $30,000 6-Year-Old Young Jumper Championship Invitational and the $30,000 7 & 8-Year Old Young Jumper Championship Invitational. The first place prize in each of these sections is worth $9,000.
The first two rounds of each section take place in the DeNemethy Arena and the Championships will be contested at the Internationale Arena on Sunday, December 3, 2006.
Founded in 1988, the International Jumper Futurity has seen tremendous growth and success over the years. The Young Jumper Championships grew out of the IJF and saw its first competition ten years later in 1998.
Young Jumper Director Cheryl Frank has been a part of this expansion since 2001. “I’ve seen the participation triple in size,” she explained. “Feedback from the riders and the owners say the program is the right thing at the right time. The old Preliminary Jumper system just wasn’t working when it came to preparing young horses. The founders of the Young Jumper Championships saw that and created a development program,” Frank detailed. “Now, trainers are saying that their customers really want to search out top youngsters to bring along. Owners are telling us how much they love the program and want to support it,” and she added, “It’s the same in Canada. We compare notes with the Canadian Jumper Development Series people, and they tell us that even owners who had left the sport are returning and only want to do the young horses.”
The Young Jumper program is a demonstrated proving ground for future show jumping superstars. “One can’t talk about the Young Jumper Championships without mentioning Judgement,” said Frank. “He’s our poster boy as he was nominated to the International Jumper Futurity as a yearling, and came up through the Young Jumper Championship program. Even though Judgement hasn’t added an Olympic medal to his accomplishments, he has still enjoyed a remarkable and long career at the highest levels of sport,” she said. “We estimate his career earnings to be somewhere in the vicinity of $1 million dollars,” she said. “We are also looking forward to seeing his first foals in the ring as 4-year-olds in 2007.”
Kent Farrington’s top mount, Madison, is a YJC graduate and was one of the top ranked horses of her years in the program. Madison and Farrington have gone on to unprecedented success, including AGA Horse of the Year honors in 2005. Madison is the frontrunner for this year’s title as well, and the duo has posted eleven major wins over the last two seasons.
“More recently, many of our U.S. team members campaigned YJC graduates in Europe this summer,” Frank detailed. “Casadora (Lauren Hough) finished 3rd as a 6 year-old in 2002, ahead of Onira, Don Stewart’s Contendress, and Nona Garson’s Languster. Jeffrey Welles’ Sampras was named Appassionata when he competed in the Young Jumper Championship. Likewise, Allegiance (Laura Kraut) finished in the top ten under the name Montega,” she said. “Onira placed in the Finals at the Hampton Classic as a 5 and 6-year-old with Sulu Rose before Brianne Goutal purchased him and Jane Clark’s Neuville, who was a big winner in Europe this year under the guidance of Molly Ashe, is another graduate,” said Frank.
As Frank points out, the Young Jumper program benefits young riders as well. “One often overlooked aspect of the program is the opportunity for young riders, juniors, local professionals, and amateurs to go head-to-head with Olympians and beat them,” Frank smiled. “Some recent success stories are Tonya Henning and Aimee Aron. Aimee won the $30,000 6 Year-old Final at the Hampton Classic when she was 15. Another one who’s done all the hard work is Casey Hodges. She’ll be at the National Horse show in the 7/8 Year-olds with Audio K.”
So, what does the future hold for this stellar program? “We added the Young Jumper Championship International in 2005 and that was a success. In 2006, we added the YJC Midwestern League Finals and that was a success,” said Frank. “Now it’s time to refine the program and do it better. We still have issues with consistency in qualifiers across the country, so we need to do a better job educating show management and course designers about the particular needs of young horses. We are always working to make the program better than before.”
Frank says that record keeping and documentation are also something the organization will be focusing on. “We’ll be reconfiguring our annual publication to make it a real year book, and we’re including a proper stallion directory for the Jumper Futurity stallions,” she said. “People have actually been ASKING for more information on the jumper stallions. As someone who has worked in the breeding sector for the past couple of decades, I can’t tell you how exciting it is when a rider wants to know about the breeding on a horse!”
“I think we’re going to be seeing more and more homebred horses in the Young Jumper Championships,” noted Frank. “Not just American-bred horses, breeder and owners -some of the top-ranked young jumpers in the country are already American-bred YJC horses, but what we are seeing now is that many were bred by the owners and or the riders,” she detailed. “One that comes immediately to mind, because she was so impressive at Kentucky, is Schuyler Riley’s Undine (Hamar-Terra Cotta). Harold Vogel’s Silver Lining (Saluut II – Night Flight, by Abdullah) is another one,” Frank Said. “Harold Vogel didn’t breed her, but she came from a ‘show home’. She’s was the top ranked 7/8 Year-old in the country last I checked.”
And Frank concluded, “One west coast owner told me that it is now “the thing” to compete a home bred young jumper. How cool is that?”
Cool, indeed.
Young Jumper Schedule at the 2006 National Horse Show and Family Festival
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 31, 2025
DENEMETHY ARENA - 10:00 AM
1501 YJC 5 Yr Old Jumper Round 1, Table II Sec 1
1504 YJC 6 Yr Old Jumper Round 1, Table II Sec 1
1507 YJC 7/8 Yr Old Jumper Round 1, Table II Sec 1
FRIDAY DECEMBER 1, 2025
DENEMETHY ARENA – 8:00 AM
1401 The NHS Children’s Jumper Welcome Stake
1301 The Palm Beach Daily News
NHS Adult Amateur Jumper Welcome Stake
1102 Amateur-Owner Jumper Welcome Stake
1202 The NHS Junior Jumper Welcome Stake
1502 YJC 5 Yr Old Jumper Round 2, Table II Sec 1
1505 YJC 6 Yr Old Jumper Round 2, Table II Sec 1
1508 YJC 7 & 8 Old Jumper Round 2, Table II Sec 1
SUNDAY December 3, 2025
INTERNATIONAL ARENA - 8:00 AM
1204 SJHOF Junior Jumper Series - Finals
1205 Junior Jumper Championship presentation
1104 SJHOF Amateur-Owner Series - Finals
1105 Amateur-Owner Championship presentation
1503 5 Yr Old YJC International
1506 6 Yr Old YJC International
1509 7 & 8 Yr Old YJC International
More information can be found on the Young Jumper Championships website (www.youngjumpers.com) or by writing to the Program Organizers at P.O. Box 1445, Georgetown, KY 40324. Questions concerning the program may be sent via email to [email protected] or by calling (502) 535-6787.
You must be logged in to post a comment.