Upper Marlboro, MD – In early 2023, Kate Conover set her sights on qualifying for and competing in the $25,000 USHJA World Championship Hunter Rider Professional Finals at the Capital Challenge Horse Show for the first time. On Friday night, October 6, at the Prince George’s Equestrian Center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, Conover not only realized that dream, she made her Professional Finals debut a winning one.
“I made this a focus, and I wanted it,” said Conover, whose brother passed away unexpectedly in January 2023. Following his passing, Conover doubled down on going after her show ring goals, largely for her family. “I wanted it for not just me but for my family, and I couldn’t be more ecstatic that it actually happened. I go through phases where I show a lot, but this year’s been a little different. I kind of changed my focus to riding for my family. My mom really loves it, so I know she’s watching. I can’t call her yet because I’ll cry, but I know I made her really proud. I know my brother’s watching.”
Conover was one of six top professional hunter riders who took on the opening Playoff Round of the WCHR Professional Finals, with Shelley Campf, Nick Haness, Geoffrey Hesslink, Brady Mitchell and Leslie Steele each also qualifying based on their WCHR national standings.
Each rider jumped a Ken Krome-designed handy round on the horse of their choosing before the field was narrowed to the top four for the final phase. Conover left no question that she would be returning for the Final Four as she piloted Small Friendship, owned by R&R Sport Horses LLC, to an average score of 93 from the three judging panels.
That score from judges Chris Wynne and Virginia Edwards, Brian Lenehan and Scott Fitton and Mark Jungherr and Eric Dirks, clinched Conover and Small Friendship the win in the Playoff Round.
“The horse I brought in the first round is one that I show in the first years, and I thought that I should go with one that I really know in that class because that track you had to be handy,” said Conover of the 11-year-old Holsteiner gelding. “I made the right decision going with him, and he rose to the occasion. From there it was pretty amazing, the whole experience.”
With Hesslink, Mitchell and Campf taking second, third and fourth, respectively, in the Playoff Round, they each advanced to the Final Four on a clean slate. One by one they returned to jump four courses, rotating turns on borrowed horses, generously donated for use in the class by their owners.
For Conover, quickly trying to learn and connect with a horse is something that she has had practice with since her days in the pony ring, and it paid off.
“When I was a kid, and my whole life, I never really had the same horse or pony all the time, so it’s a lot of experience of just trying to make a relationship very fast,” explained Conover. “Every horse you don’t ride the same. Riding a lot of different horses my whole life really set me up well for this class here today.”
Aboard Totoka Fuji, Conover took the lead right out of the gate with a score of 88 in the first rotation, and she never let up. She earned her highest score of the Final Four, a 92, aboard Actionable, owned by LG Sport Horses, ultimately finishing with an overall winning total score of 355.33.
For her win, Conover was presented with the All The Way Perpetual Trophy, donated by Elizabeth Busch Burke and Lisa Burke Horkan.
Finishing in a close second place with a total score of 352.99 was Mitchell, of Wellington, Florida. Mitchell’s best round, with a score of 91.66, came aboard Conover’s first mount, Totoka Fuji, a horse Mitchell had been looking forward to riding.
“From the first second this morning [when we saw the horses school], I have to say, I wanted to make the second round so I could ride the paint horse [Totoka Fuji],” said Mitchell of the Belgian Sport Horse, owned by Ingenium Farm. “I knew I was going to like the way that horse felt. I’m really glad that I had a chance to ride all of the horses, but he gave this wonderful feeling and that ended up being my best round.”
Totoka Fuji’s consistently impressive performances in the Final Four earned him the Far West Farms Perpetual Trophy, donated by the Karazissis Family as the horse with the highest cumulative point total in the four rounds of the Final Four.
Third place in the class, with a score of 341.15, went to Campf, who, like Conover, was also making her WCHR Professional Finals debut.
“When I come here [to Capital Challenge], I’m always very focused on delivering for my customers in their classes,” explained Campf, who hails from Portland, Oregon. “I got invited into this class. I haven’t been showing much this summer because I ripped my abductor muscle in my thigh, so it was kind of exciting. I didn’t know how it was going to go. It was really fun to be riding with these riders, and we were all really helping each other. I thought it was a fun environment.”
Rounding out the top four was Hesslink, who, following his second-place finish in the Playoff Round had an unfortunate start to the Final Four. A refusal from his first mount resulted in a re-ride, but after a rail down on the same horse in the re-ride, Hesslink elected to retire from that round. The Wellington, Florida, rider returned to deliver strong scores in the next three rounds, including a 91.33, finishing on a 259.32 total.
“It wasn’t my night tonight, and that’s okay,” said Hesslink. “I find it an honor to be in this class, and I think Kate is one of the most beautiful and most amazing riders so I could not be happier for her.”
The horses generously donated for use in the Final Four included Totoka Fuji, A Little Less Conversation, owned by ElvisTer Putte; Quebeck VD Withoever, owned by Redfield Farm; and Actionable, owned by LG Sport Horses.
