The second week of the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival (GLEF), presented by B&D Builders, closed out a busy week of competition in the Main Hunter Ring on Sunday. The $25,000 USHJA National Hunter Derby, presented by the Gajoch Family, highlighted World Championship Hunter Rider (WCHR) Week at Flintfields Horse Park with Jacob Pope of Columbia, MD, taking the win on new mount, Your Welcome BC.
Piloting three horses in the handy round that carried forward first-round scores in the 90s, Pope had a busy afternoon. He and Your Welcome BC returned in the penultimate position with a score of 91.5, putting him only half a point behind the first-round leader, Joey Roman. In the handy round, Pope left nothing on the table and earned a score of 93 to total 184.5 points across the two rounds with Don Stewart’s seven-year-old Belgian Warmblood stallion by Toulon.
“I rode him for the first time in Florida this winter,” recounted Pope of his first time meeting Your Welcome BC. “I did him in a National Derby there and we were second, and I think I showed him once or twice this spring up here. This is our first win together.”
In Pope’s opinion, much of the horse’s success comes from his presence in the ring.
“He’s a flashy looking horse so I think he sets a good tone walking in the ring,” he said. “He’s a beautiful blood bay with four white socks and a blaze and he jumps really well in front and always makes a nice effort.
“The handy round is where he shined today,” Pope continued. “He turned super well, was very smooth, and didn’t rub one jump; between precision and handiness he really was a good boy today. I didn’t have time to walk [the course] so I used my first horse to figure out the lay of the land and I ended up doing the same turns on all of the horses.”
