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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Nick Haness was Leading Hunter Rider in Harrisburg, Keswick dominated Hunt Night

HARRISBURG, Pa.--Niick Haness of Temecula, Calif. rode Modern Man, Green Conformation Hunter Champion, Green Hunter Champion and Grand Hunter Champion, and won four championships in all to win the Leading Hunter Rider title at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

Nick Haness on Modern Man Andrew RybackNick Haness on Modern Man (Photo by Andrew Ryback)The evening before, Keswick Hunt had dominated Hunt Night to win four of the five classes to take the championship, while River Hills Foxhounds Team 1 won the all important Hunt Teams class.

On Tuesday, Modern Man had two wins and a second place over fences, as well as a win under saddle, for the Green Conformation Hunter Championship.

“I got a phone call earlier this year about this horse,”said Haness. “I knew the horse a few years ago when he was a really young horse, and Shelley Campf and her program had developed him beautifully. I’ve watched Shelley win on this horse throughout our circuits in Thermal and on the West Coast. She wasn’t going to be making the journey back East this year herself. So, she had asked if I would be interested in riding him at the Incentive Finals in Kentucky earlier this year and the summer. Then, depending on how that went, we would keep going through indoors and that was sort of our game plan.”

After the Green Hunter Incentive Championship went well, Modern Man stayed on the East Coast for Haness to ride.

 

“HIS JUMP is so extravagant,” said Haness. “He’s not a horse I have to ever worry about getting a rub in the schooling ring. He just always wants to jump carefully, correctly. He has grown up a lot. He was green at times, but whenever it was important this year, like in Kentucky, at Capital Challenge and in here, he always found a way to rise to the top.”

Hunt Night Champ 1 1024x732Keswick Hunt, Hunt Night Champions (Photo by Andrew Ryback)
“This is just really totally unexpected, but I’m pleasantly surprised to be here as the champions and the grand champions.” he said.

Steven Gregorio on Customized was reserve championship in Green Conformation Hunter.

Haness on Day Won won the Green Hunter 3’9” Championship, and Matt Cypher on Ritz was reserve champion.

“I rode Day Won for Carleton Brooks at Balmoral maybe a year and a half ago when he was a first year green horse in the very, very beginning,” said Haness, and the gelding was then leased out for the past year. “We just got him back. I didn’t even know I was going to show him this week. Carleton kind of sprung it on me two days ago and said, ‘Hey, you want to ride Day Won again this week at Harrisburg? I said, ‘I love riding him. Let’s go. Let’s do it!”

Haness’ third division championship was on Et Cetera in Green Hunter 3’ – Section A, and he was also reserve champion on South Coast.

In Section B of the Green Hunter 3’, Michael Britt-Leon on Maverick was champion,and Elizabeth Naber on Toussaint was reserve champion.

Haness won his fourth championship on Odette in the Green Hunter 3’3”  – Section A, and John French on Kaiden was reserve.

Laena Romond on ForsiniIn was champion in Section B of the Green Hunter 3’3”, and reserve champion was Amanda Steege on Wish.

David Wilbur on Four Aces was High Performance Hunter Champion, and Mary Lisa Leffler on Chime was the High Performance Conformation Hunter champion.

Along with the Leading Hunter Rider Award, Haness won the Style of Riding Award.

“This is a very special show to me,” said Haness. “I have worked my whole life to – it gives me the goosebumps to be on that wall, the leading rider wall. This is a super exciting moment. I’ve won a lot of things in my career. Those have been all great. I’m very excited about those wins and proud, but this one’s a big one to me. Harrisburg is such an important horse show for our industry, and it is just all the best horses and riders. That wall has so much history on it with people I’ve idolized and looked up to for many, many years.”

On Hunt Night Monday evening, for the third consecutive year, Keswick Hunt Club, represented by seven riders, won the Pennsylvania National Horse Show Hunt Night Championship over the11 hunts competing.

“In July, the other clubs started calling us and saying, ‘We’re going to beat you this year!’” said Sandy Rives of the Keswick Hunt Club. “We said that we could put together almost the same team that we did last year and win, and we did! This year, I think we got 47 out of the 50 available points. We take our hunt teams seriously. If you go back over the past 50 years, my father was a big hunt team person. Mr. Wheeler was a big hunt team person. So, we’re really happy to do this.”

In addition to Rives, the riders representing the Keswick Hunt Club included Joel and Nicolette Merle Smith, Matt Sevier, Claire Pacelli, Carly Mayer and Jill Wilson Anderson.

Pacelli on Something Special won both the Field Hunters 35 & Under and the Ladies Hunter Under Saddle and was the Hunt Night Leading Lady Rider.

IAnderson on Ostentatious GSF won the Field Hunters 36 & Over, over 33 entries, and Rives on Just In Time won the Gentlemen’s Hunter Under Saddle.

Breaking through Keswick’s streak of wins were the riders of River Hill Foxhounds, as the River Hill Foxhounds Team 1 won the Hunt Teams competition.

The Horse of Delaware Valley-The Team

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