Nick Haness and Odette Garner 3’/3’3″ USHJA Green Hunter Incentive Championship

Lexington, KY – August 16, 2024 – The final championship round of the 3’/3’3″ Platinum Performance/USHJA Green Hunter Incentive Championship kicked off competition in the Rolex Stadium on Friday morning during the Bluegrass Classic at the Kentucky Horse Park. The top 30 horses from the first two rounds of competition were invited to return for the final round, where they started with a clean slate. In the end, it was Nick Haness who earned his second title of the week as he piloted Odette to scores 94, 91.5, 93 for a two round total of 278.5 and the winning honors. Kate Conover claimed the second and third place ribbons with Straight On and Courtside, respectively.

The top two finishers, Odette and Straight On, were also tied for the win during the first round of the championship on Wednesday, earning the opportunity to move straight to Friday’s final round.

“The past few days were magical with Odette,” expressed Haness after his win. “She is a very unique animal – I’ve probably never come across a mare as smart and as easy as she is. I think that the format is wonderful that we could show the first day and she went great for us. We were able to skip a day and come back in the third round fresh and give her every opportunity to have the best performance. She’s a mare that does not require a lot of training or practice. She’s pretty much a natural freak all on her own, so the less that we do, the better. This week really panned out in our favor in a great way!”

Ken Krome and Meghan Rawlins set a welcoming track for the horses, featuring flowing lines and beautiful fences set at the 3’ height to begin and then the 3’3” height. Conover and Courtside went at the beginning of the 3’3” section and set the score to beat at 272.5 with the 7-year-old Dutch Warmblood owned by Shadow Ridge Farm. Haness entered the ring just a few rounds later focused on the task at hand and immediately grabbed the judges’ attention. Keeping an even rhythm and jumping brilliantly over each fence, Odette and Haness were awarded a 278.5 to go straight to the top of the leaderboard.

“I loved the course today,” said Haness. “It really benefited an ambidextrous horse. There were a lot of jumps, left lead, right lead. You had a two stride on either lead on each side of the arena, some long bending lines and some long gallop jumps. One of my favorite things to do is to show off a nice loose gallop, especially to the single oxer. There was a lot of pressure on my shoulders with Odette, but once I went in the ring, it felt like an old partnership just coming together like it does every day.”

Odette is an 8-year-old Oldenburg owned by John and Stephanie Ingram, who was purchased after Tom Wright saw Brianne Goutal riding the talented mare during the Winter Equestrian Festival.

“Odette stood out to Tom instantly,” noted Haness. “He texted me and said, ‘I think I just saw the nicest hunter I’ve ever seen.’ And for Tom Wright to say that is a statement – he’s had so many wonderful horses for the Ingram family and other families in the past that he’s trained and he knows his stuff. A few days later we owned the horse and I got to show her for the first time. I have to say, she rarely scores less than 90. I don’t think she even flinched at the atmosphere, the pressure. She didn’t feel any of the nerves whatsoever. She was very focused and she’s a horse that’s so special.”

After winning Tuesday’s 3’6/3’9″ Platinum Performance/USHJA Green Hunter Incentive Championship with Circa, Haness has become the first rider to sweep both sections of the championship.

“The Green Hunter Incentive Program is just so exciting and great for our industry,” he concluded. “For the hunter sport, for the owners to want to purchase and develop horses from a young age and let them develop through the ranks. These championships are something that we strive for when we buy these horses from Europe or if they’re bred in America. We raise them through the ranks and they’re ready and prepared for this big venue. It’s just so exciting to showcase that on such a large, national scale. The feeling here in the Rolex is so exciting. I think that the live stream throughout America, people are tuning in from all over, watching this, learning from it. It is such a great program for these horses to have something special for them.”

Conover and Straight On returned to the ring at the end of the 3’3” section and edged just ahead of Courtside with a score of 274 to earn the reserve championship title. Straight On is a 7-year-old German Sport Horse gelding owned by LSMB, LLC, who is normally ridden by professional Marisa Metzger, and Conover just took the reins this week for her friend.

“Marisa reached out to me a little over a month ago about riding Straight On this week,” explained Conover. “I trust Marisa and she knows the horse really well. She said the less we do, the better he is going to be. I did one round as a practice and he went great the first day. He’s a quiet horse and it was nice that he didn’t have to go both days because I felt today he was just as crisp as he was the first day. This course did require horses to be ambidextrous, and he is very left and right leaded, which was nice. Out of the double you could take your lead and really show flow. He’s got such a big beautiful canter that I felt like I could really show that off today on the course, which was nice.”

The Green Hunter Incentive Championships offer additional recognition to Tier II riders and 20 percent of the prize money through the Green Hunter Rider Ranking System, categorizing riders into two tiers based on their prior competition year earnings within the program. Tier I riders are those who are ranked 1-45 in money won in the program over the past year, and all other riders are considered Tier II. The 3’/3’3” High Score Overall Tier II rider was Dorothy Douglas riding MTM Gift of Gab for Anne Moody, who finished sixth overall with a score of 267.5.

“It’s a fun incentive for riders,” said Douglas. “MTM Gifted Gab is a horse we imported about two years ago. Ann Moody does him in the Children’s Hunters. He was trained by Mike McCormick this week, but normally Patti Shoemaker trains him. I just want to give thanks to that family for sending a couple of horses with us this week. It was a really fun class to bring horses along and he’ll definitely be ready for his kid in the future.”

The 2024 Platinum Performance/USHJA Green Hunter Incentive Championship concluded on Friday, but the week continues with the 2024 Platinum Performance/USHJA International Hunter Derby Championship, featuring the championship handy round on Saturday morning in the Rolex Stadium.

For more information about the Kentucky Horse Shows, please visit www.kentuckyhorseshows.com.