Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, November 24, 1994 TAG: 9501180015
SECTION: NEIGHBORS PAGE: S10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KAREN L. DAVIS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Horse show jumping, that is.
What makes that so unusual? Most youngsters start out competing in hunter divisions, where horse and rider are judged on their form over fences. Abby skipped that part and moved straight into the show jumping arena, where all that matters is clearing the course in the best time and with the fewest faults. Show jumping events typically have higher jumps and harder courses with more complicated turns than hunter competitions.
Abby, daughter of Jim and Lisa Merrill of Roanoke County, began her riding career by studying dressage through the U.S. Pony Club. Dressage is a riding discipline that demands high-precision training in both horse and rider. At age 6, she entered her first statewide dressage competition. At age 7, she moved into the rigorous sport of combined training, which combines the disciplines of dressage, cross-country and stadium jumping.
By 1993, she was the Reserve Champion Young Rider with the Blue Ridge Combined Training Association, the administrative body for the sport in Southwest Virginia.
That same year, she became the youngest rider ever to win the Southwest Virginia Hunter Jumper Association's amateur championship in the Children's/Adult Jumper Division.
She then set her sights on qualifying for the 1994 Washington International Horse Show. Only the top 35 children jumper riders in the nation get invited to the show. But Abby's high points collected in A-rated show classes offered by the Marshall and Sterling Children's Jumper League qualified her for a spot in the finals held in Washington, D.C., during the last week in October.
In Washington, Abby finished seventh in the Miller's Children's Jumper class and was the youngest competitor to participate in the event in 36 years. The class is for those younger than 18, but most competitors are typically between 15 and 17 years.
``It was the hardest course I've ever jumped, but Tuffy [her horse] was really good, even though we had some rails down,'' Abby said.
Tuff Stuff, her 15-year-old American Quarter Horse, is just one of the horses she rides one or two hours a day to stay in shape for competition. She has even higher ambitions for her new horse, Knight's Templar, the grandson of I Love You, a World Cup show jumping champion.
But before she makes up her mind about going back to the Washington Internationals next year, ``we're going to see what the new horse is ready for.''
Her trainer, Chris Hickey of Wexford Stable in Roanoke, has high hopes for his prize student.
Hickey said Abby owes her riding success primarily to her superb ``clarity of vision in the show ring. She goes in with a very clear picture about what needs to be done'' to clear the rails and beat the clock.
As to whether Abby has what it takes to turn professional one day, ``it's too soon to tell,'' Hickey said. ``It's not just the riding aspects. You have to love the sport, because there's not a lot of money in it. She clearly loves the animal, but whether she loves the sport itself as much, it's just too early yet.''
Abby agrees, saying, ``That [decision] is still a long way off.''
However, she has set her sights on competing in the Olympics one day.
Meanwhile, as an amateur competitor, she remains the No.1 children's jumper in Virginia, as well as in her show region with the American Horse Show Association. That means she holds the highest number of points tallied by the appropriate leagues, and if she maintains that lead when the show season ends at the end of November, she will be honored at an awards banquet in Middleburg on Jan. 8.
by CNB