Ava Barnes - Devon Grand Junior Hunter Champion & MORE

The speaker compares this year's performance to last year's, noting that it was a big improvement. They discuss the horse's previous mistakes and how they have improved. They talk about their partnership with the horse Atlas, describing him as easy to ride and having a sweet personality. They mention that Atlas has only been with them since November. They talk about how they bought Atlas and two other horses on the same day. They discuss the challenges they have faced as a rider and their superstitious tendencies. I'd like to open up with comparing last year to this year. It was definitely a big step up from last year. It was really fun to go out there and win everything, pretty much. What happened last year? I didn't get anything last year. That's not true. She had little mistakes. She won the big under-saddle class overall, but she was amazing when the last rail fell off for the Oxford mistake. She finally tied it together, and she touched the last Oxford. You're being a little hard on yourself. But yeah, this is definitely a turnaround. A year later, that was her first year doing junior hunters. She'd only been doing it since May. This was a big step from then. Talk about your partnership with Atlas. I haven't been riding him for too long, but he's a really easy horse to just go around on. He's really smooth and really comfortable, and I really trust him a lot with getting long distances or short distances. He's just really fun and easy to ride. What's his personality like? He's really sweet. He's really sweet in the stall and out of the stall. He loves cuddles, and he loves treats, and he's just amazing. How long have you been riding him? We started doing him in November, December? November. November, December, we started doing him a little bit, yeah. He lost his first year horse last year, and he had a great winter with him in the second years, and then they sort of melted together in two of them. He actually loves her ride. She gets there, and she's just soft, and he'll lay, and even Crystal will stand back and go, wow. She just gets there, and he just fires for her. He's so scopy and slow. Really, really a beautiful match. What's his favorite part about coming to Devon? I think it's just a really fun horse show with all the people and the big ring and the carnival horse. It's just a really pretty show. Yeah. You were telling me on the way over here about how Atlas came there. Tell us a little bit about that. He has not even been here a year. He landed in June to Kentucky when we went to Split Rock. It was his first. He landed from Europe. He and Jake Shulman, who was champion in the smalls, came together, and literally the first horse show ever in America was in June. He's really put his foot out there. From the beginning was just so true and high and slow. We actually bought him. It's very funny because I ended up buying three that day, and he reminds me so much of her large running prestige that she was so good on. I told her grandmother, I was like, it is his twin, right? Yeah. That's how I told her. I was like, it's his twin. You have to have him. Nice. Yeah. They got along so well, and now the two of them is just like kismet. Love that. How long have you been on the horses for now? I've been riding horses for about, I want to say, six or seven years. Horses. Ponies and horses. Yeah. Yeah. This is like the third. From large to large ponies to now. Yeah. Okay. Literally she was riding Rico Suave two years ago. I told you on a pony not that long ago. It was not that long ago. We've gotten a lot taller recently. Yeah. It was like crazy. Yeah. We had to move up real fast. Yeah. Yeah. It was really fast. But we had a little growing, because I think growing and learning your body as it grows from small ponies, she was then doing horses at the same time, and it was like, wow. So it's been amazing to see you sort of come into that today. What's your favorite part about training? Training? Ava? You can say a lot about ribbons, and you can say a lot about work ethic and all those things. She's the most compassionate person I've ever seen with horses. She's in there laying in their stalls. I admire her so much about her. She has a horse at home that she plays with every single day, rides every day at her farm. That to me is sort of where my heart lies. I do this because I love the horses, and I love the kids. It's not about, I like blue ribbons. Yeah. But it is sort of, that's my, if I had to say one thing about her, that holds my heart. She's ever passionate about the horses. Ava, remind us where you live. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio. Okay. So you guys live in the same area and everything. Yeah. So you're able to get over to the barn all the time and everything. Yeah. And what kind of stuff do you guys do to prepare, like coming into a big event like this? I'd like to hear the answer. I think for Ava, she's such a perfectionist. It's good for her, and actually what happened this weekend, is practice galloping about the corner and just letting the canter happen. Since being so fixated on being perfect and finding just the average distance is very much a mindset. And today, this weekend, she really, what we've been practicing is galloping up off the corner and letting the jump come out of stride and be high and slow, versus sort of just manufacturing on distance all the time. That, I would think, is what really cumulated this weekend. Yeah. So. Would you say this is your biggest win yet? I would think so. Yeah. You get less bigger than this. No. That was amazing. It kept coming. And talk a little bit about your second champion. Jake? Oh, yeah, Jake. I haven't been riding him for very long either. Obviously, they came over together. I was a little nervous going in on him, but he was just really good. He just acted. He didn't get all the years, all the mileage last summer with Chris. He came a little bit. He was grand champion at Capital Challenge in the 3-3 pregreens. We let him do that for a moment. So, this, walking him to this venue, like she was the guinea pig. Like, literally, we had no idea how he just went like this. And it was just, he's such a game on horse. Yeah. She actually gets along with him just as well as Atlas. It's really a ride. So, that was amazing. Do they ride similarly, or are they really different to ride? They're kind of the same. Atlas is a little more scopey and open than he is. And Jake, you just have to kind of sit a little more and kind of leg him a little more through the turns. So. Atlas purrs underneath you. Jake makes you gallop just a bit. Yeah. And you bought them both on the same day. Same day. It was the same probably three days. Like, one was from England and one was from Holland. And actually, another good horse, the first, on the same trip, and that's never happened to me before. I can barely find, you can barely find one horse that you're like, do I want it? And all of them, her grandmother was a little taken back. I was like, I don't know which one to tell you to buy. You should just buy all three. You should give us a little shell shock for a moment. But it's all worth, I mean, I hate to say it, but Thomas has been an amazing ride so far. Which one was from England and which one was from Holland? Showman's from England, and Atlas was from Poland. So. Can you guys just talk about, I know you mentioned this a little bit, but just about maybe like the biggest challenge you feel like you've been through, like as a rider and kind of how you guys worked through that? I mean, I think a little bit of, I think being an A personality, I think just having that moment of always dictating sort of what's happening versus letting yourself, the best hunter riders are just free and are the most appreciated. You admire them. She's a little A personality, and I think that sometimes you get a little bit fixated on making everything a little bit strategic versus free flowing. Right, right. Would you agree with that? Yeah. That's, if we wanted to tell you the truth. The biggest challenge is when you say, does she have a jumper? She does not like to go fast. We tried that. We tried it twice. Yeah, we prefer the hunters. Yeah, but we've decided like we're at quotation marks, he goes really slow, and he was a jumper, but he's beautiful and slow like a hunter, and does the derbies. We don't really have much desire to do junior jumpers. We've figured that out. That was a challenge for us, going fast at things that we don't know what they're doing. Yeah. Yeah. Now, this is much better, right? Yeah. And you're a little superstitious up at the rank. Just a tad. Did that stress you out? No. She laughs at me. What are you guys superstitious about? I don't like negative karma. Yeah. So anytime something goes through my head that, oh, my God, what if he, what if, or even if you think, oh, that was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. He's beautiful. He's perfect. I'm always like, what are you jinxing this for? What are you jinxing this for? So that superstition, I just put a lot of heart into something. You know, you want the space to be clean. Whatever.