Competing in the CN North American Junior and Young Riders’ Championships (NAJYRC) has helped pave a path to greatness for many young equestrians. Olympians such as Karen Lende O’Connor, Chris Kappler, Lauren Hough and McLain Ward all competed at the Championships before going on to their highly successful equestrian careers.
Another case in point is Brianne Goutal, who followed her show jumping Gold Medal at the Championships last year with performances that etched her name in the show jumping record books while still a teenager.
At the 2005 Championships at the Virginia Horse Center, Goutal, of New York City, rode her mount Onira to the individual Gold Medal as well as the team Gold as part of the Zone 2 team. She completed five rounds of jumping in the team and individual competitions without lowering a single rail!
“It was so exciting,” Goutal said. “I was a little anxious entering the individual final but my horse had already jumped three clean rounds and I felt that he didn’t owe me a thing. It was up to me to put him in the right place to jump and I was quite fortunate that it all worked out.”
After the Championships, the 17-year-old Goutal, trained by Frank and Stacia Madden, put her name in the show jumping record books with Gold Medals and victories that place her name alongside those of the sport’s most respected legends.
The Pessoa/USEF National Hunter Seat Medal Final and the ASPCA Maclay National Championship have long been regarded as the sport’s most highly sought-after championships for riders up to the age of 18. Goutal won both the Medal and Maclay championships, becoming only the 12th rider in history to win both titles in the same year. Coming on the heels of her 2004 wins in the USEF Talent Search Finals and the Washington International Horse Show Equitation Classic, the Medal and Maclay wins made Goutal the first rider ever to win all four of these equitation championships!
Her win in the Medal Final came at its traditional home at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show in Harrisburg. She topped the second largest field in Medal Final history, with 279 riders vying for the title. Just for good measure, Goutal also won the individual title and the Gold Medal at the Adequan/USEF National Junior Jumper Championship while at Harrisburg.
A few weeks later, Goutal added the win in the Maclay Championship, held for the first time at the Syracuse International SportHorse Tournament. She topped a field of 148 qualifiers to win the Championship that was started in 1933 and has proven to be a proving ground for riders with the ability to go on to represent the U.S. in international show jumping competitions.
One of the best examples of this is the 1952 Medal and Maclay winner, George Morris who won a Silver Medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics and is now the Chef d’Equipe of the U.S. show jumping team. He was one of the two judges for the Maclay Final.
“Brianne proved herself against an outstanding field of riders,” Morris said. “She is a magnificent rider and I have no doubt that she will continue to achieve success.”
Goutal acknowledged that winning the Maclay was a dream-come-true for her. “Being from New York, the Maclay has always been a big deal to me,” Goutal said. “It’s always been a great experience for me to show in the Maclay, and I’ve always dreamed of winning it. It is something that I’ll always treasure, just like my experience at Young Riders.”
The NAJYRC is the premier equestrian competition in North America for junior and young riders, age 14-21. Young equestrians come from the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Caribbean Islands to vie for team and individual medals in the three Olympic equestrian disciplines of show jumping, dressage, and eventing.
For many competitors, the NAJYRC is their first experience riding on a team, as well as their first time competing under the rules of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), the international governing body for equestrian sport.
The Championships began in 1974 as an eventing challenge between the United States and Canada. A Dressage Championship was added in 1981, and Show Jumping debuted in 1982. The first complete Championship was held in British Columbia, Canada in 1982. This year, when the Championships return to the Virginia Horse Center, August 1-6, it will mark the first time that officially-recognized championships for juniors (age 14-18) will be held in all three disciplines along with the championships for Young Riders (age 16-21).
Further information on the CN North American Young Riders’ Championships is available on line at www.youngriders.org.
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