Hayley McGuire of Oregon State (pictured) won the Intermediate Western Horsemanship at Region 4 Western Regionals hosted by the Beavers on February 27th. McGuire has also sent us a write-up on both the Western Regional show and a similar Hunter Seat Regional show held the next day (Photo courtesy Hayley McGuire).

2010 ZONE 8, REGION 4 REGIONALS RESULTS

Corvalis, OR - Zone 8, Region 4 began a long weekend of competition with a single Western show on Saturday, February 27th providing riders with a chance to advance on to the Regional competition held later that day. Thanks to the final regular season show, three riders (Allie Fraser of the University of Washington, in beginner western; Katelyn Lewis of Oregon State University, in open reining and Ashlee Branham, University of Oregon, also in open reining) earned a place in the Regional competition in the afternoon.

The Regional competition began with Class 16, Open Reining. In a field of four riders, Lewis and Branham slid their way into the top two positions, thus qualifying themselves for spots in the Western Semifinals to be held in Cazenovia, New York March 27th and 28th. With only one rider qualified in Class 15 Open Horsemanship, the usually competitive class was easily won by Elizabeth Whitman of Oregon State (Aren't these classes of one the ultimate nail-bitters? - Editor).

With eight riders competing (five from Oregon State and three from Linn-Benton Community College), Class 12 Intermediate Horsemanship turned out to be the largest class of the show. Hayley McGuire and Amber Penerya (both from Oregon State) earned the Champion and Reserve Champion spots, respectively. Earning the top spot in Class 13 Novice Horsemanship was Kaci Sintek of Oregon State while Abigail Curtin of Western Washington University advanced to Semifinals with a second.

Class 14 Advanced Horsemanship was won by Julianne Sovince of Oregon State, followed by Casey Rohrbacher of the University of Washington, Jamie Hanna of Oregon State, Corie Townsend of the University of Oregon and Katie Henigen of Linn-Benton Community College. Unusually both the second and third place riders have opted not to travel to Semifinals in New York. It remains to be seen if one of the riders who placed below third will represent Region 4 along with Sovince in the advanced western at Cazenovia.

In the final class of the day, Class 11 Beginner Horsemanship, Jessica Johnson of Linn-Benton and Scotia Collins of Western Washington were awarded the top two spots and will represent Region 4 in the Individual Beginner class at Semi's.

After a short night of rest, Region 4 was back at it in Boring, Oregon, with the University of Oregon’s Hunt Seat Regional competition. With only 18 riders total qualified for Hunter Seat Regionals - and four classes made up of only one rider - the show was a short one.

The University of Oregons' Brittany Kelly (in Open Fences), Seattle University's Melanie Christensen (in Open Flat), Lauren Kallaway of Oregon State University (in Intermediate Fences) and Clara Obelnicki of Linn-Benton Community College (in Walk-Trot) were all immediately awarded spots at the Zones competition to be held in Stanford, California on April 10th (perhaps April 11th if it rains) due to the fact that each was the only rider to qualify for Regionals in their respective divisions.

With five riders in the class, Class 5 Intermediate Equitation on the Flat was won by Erin LeHouillier of Seattle University while Madeline Helper of the University of Washington was second. In Class 3 Novice Equitation on the Flat, Whitney Lindberg of Linn-Benton and Chelsea Farnsworth of the University of Washington advanced on to ride in the Zones competition.

Class 2 Beginner Walk-Trot-Canter Equitation had eight riders competing, making the final division of the weekend also the largest over the course of both regional shows. Out of this large field Soraya Issa and Hana D’acci (both from Oregon State) were awarded the top two spots in the class. Zone 8, Region 4 wishes their riders the best of luck at their upcoming Zones and Semifinals and hopes to see continued success throughout the remainder of the season.

---Hayley McGuire