Katy, TX – April 5, 2025 – Ritz is a barn favorite at Matt Cyphert’s Woodhill Farm, and on Friday evening, April 4th, at the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show, the gelding showed why. With Cyphert in the irons, Ritz jumped to the win in the $25,000 Open Hunter Classic, sponsored by Leaving One Out LLC, and held during Pin Oak Week 2.
A field of 21 horses took on the two-round class at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center, and at the end of the opening round, Cyphert and Ritz sat in second place on a score of 174 (87+87). The pair then replicated that performance over the second-round, Kevin Holowack-designed course, again earning dual scores of 87 to take over the lead with an overall score of 348.
Second place went to Nada Wise and Stacey Thompson’s Chesterfield. The duo led the way after the first round with a score of 177 (89+88), and they coupled that with a score of 167.50 (83+84.5) in the second round for a total score of 344.50. Rounding out the top three on a score of 342.5 were Courtney Lenkart and Chicoletto, owned by Mercedes Flett.
“Ritz has been in our barn for about four years now, and he’s really become family,” said Cyphert of the 10-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, owned by Katie McDonnell. “He’s a barn favorite; he’s all the trainers’ favorite. He’s just a trier – wonderful attitude, loves his job. His owner, Katie, is the same. She’s one of our favorite people. It’s just a great pairing of two wonderful people and animals, and it just sort of makes the whole thing work.”
Cyphert continued, “These classes have been a little bit of a learning process for him – just the environment, the electricity under the lights at night. He’s occasionally gotten a little bit excited, but he’s done enough of them now. Katie’s a great supporter of the sport and of him; she’s allowed him to go and do some really nice classes, and I think he showed his maturity tonight.”
When Ritz is not competing with Cyphert aboard, the gelding that Cyphert describes as being “naturally pretty quiet” can often be found in the 3”6” amateur-owner hunters with McDonnell – including on Friday morning prior to the evening’s featured event. There McDonnell piloted him to the reserve championship in the 3’6” Amateur-Owner Hunter 18-35.
For full results of Friday’s $25,000 Open Hunter Classic, click here.
About the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show
Recognized as a US Equestrian Heritage Competition, the Pin Oak Charity Horse Show is one of the oldest and most prestigious horse shows in the United States. Today, the show features three weeks of top-caliber hunter/jumper events and one week of breed show competition at the Great Southwest Equestrian Center in Katy, TX.
