TRAVERSE CITY, Mich.--Kait Meggenhofen on Diva de Talma won the Young Rider individual gold medal on Sunday, Aug. 2 at the North American Youth Championships.
Kait Meggenhofen on Diva de Taima (Photo by Natalie Suto Photography)Meggenhofen just eked out the victory by .61 over JJ Torano, finishing on 12.99 over Torano's 13.60 after five rounds.
“My mindset was really just to keep consistent and keep going start to finish,” Meggenhofen of Zone 5 said. “I was just happy to be here, let alone have my horse jumping clear. I’m not going to lie, the pressure is hard but I just trust my horse. She’ll do everything to jump for me.”
“Diva is a chestnut mare but doesn’t act like one unless she sees a jump and then she’s all game,” she said. “She’s perfect.”
Torano finished with identical scores in each round as Meggenhofen, however his penalties from the Individual Qualifier put him slightly behind her for the silver.
“From start to finish I thought Inge jumped great,” Torano said. “I was very happy with how I rode. Stepping up to this level you have to be pretty perfect to leave all the jumps up. In the last round I don’t think anyone jumped clear, but I was really happy with Inge; she dealt with it great. She stepped up at the last minute so for her to perform like that I couldn’t be more pleased with her.”
TORANO was one of a few riders over the course of the week to post a clear round, and he and Meggenhofen each posted two, the only two to do so.
“I’d say the first round today was straightforward; it walked just how it rode,” Torano. “The height had an impact on everybody. Round two there were no clear rounds, so I thought it was pretty tough. I know my horse well so I knew where I could leave a little more room at the jumps. Mainly just knowing my horse helped me out today.”
Torano’s next move will be later this month, representing the United States as one of just two riders selected for the Youth Jumping Competition held alongside the 2026 FEI World Championships.
Isabelle Ehman on Darra du Soleil won bronze on a score of 22.28.
“I’ve had Darra for a while now and I know her pretty well,” Ehman said. “This was our first championship together but I know what she needs to jump her best. That’s a big confidence booster for me to know what’s expected of me to help her jump. I was never really guessing about what I had to do to make it happen, so that kept me levelheaded throughout the week.”
“After my first championship with her, there were definitely a lot of things I needed to do better this week,” she said. “I learned a lot, and that will help me improve for the next championship we do.”
Brookelyn Roy ofZone 10 on Carlo DC Stables Z won the gold medal in Pre-Junior after a flawless performance, finishing on just 1.65 penalties carried forward from day one.
“In my last round I didn’t ride my best but my horse takes care of me,” Roy said. “My biggest takeaway was probably the consistency that I had throughout the week with him and the memories with my team and my horse.”
Kaitlyn Linck, from Zone 2, on Frenesie de Mars won the silver medal after winning the Individual Qualifier, then just having one rail down in the final round of the Individual Final to finish on 4.00 penalties.
“I think the last round was a bit nerve wracking,” Linck said. “My horse was tired at the end of the week so I wasn’t sure how it was going to go. I had to work quite a bit for the last round but she tried her heart out every round. It’s a lot about being consistent and anything can happen in a championship like this.”
Sydney Cummings on Untouchable 34, from Zone 1, was only a tiny fraction of a penalty behind Linck, wining the bronze medal with a nearly perfect performance , having just one rail down in the Team Competition to finish on 4.04 penalties.
“The last round going into it I was in the middle of the pack and I was nervous but I didn’t have much to lose,” Cummings reflected. “I had to try my hardest and I had a lot of fun and it all ended up working out for us.”
