N.Y. rider wins Devon championship

Nina Montross of Bedford Hills, N.Y., rode Paradysz Farm's Indigo to win both Pony Jumper classes Sunday and finished second in the division's first class Saturday to win the championship at the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair with 31 points.

In the $2,500 NAL Pony Jumpers on Sunday evening, Montross beat five ponies that had jumped without a fault in the first round of 20 ponies with a clean round in 24.912 seconds.

Alex Matz, who placed fourth in the NAL Pony Jumpers on Wiseguy, was awarded the Pony Jumper Style Award.

Montross, 11, has been riding Indigo for about a year.

"She doesn't walk," Montross said. "She only trots and canters."

"Indigo gets ridden sparingly," said Montross' trainer, Jennifer Bliss. "We try to save her for horse shows."

"I ride a lot," Montross said. "I have another pony jumper and just got a children's jumper."

"Nina is a very hard worker," Bliss said. "She tries as hard as Indigo does, which is very hard. She started riding pony hunters, but she's definitely headed in the direction of pony jumpers."

Matz, 13, of Unionville, Pa., is in seventh grade at Upland Country Day School.

"Wiseguy is very kind," Matz said. "He'll take you in the ring, but he won't pull you around. He loves to go in the woods and trail ride."

Matz says that he fox hunts but doesn't hunt Wiseguy.

His father, Michael Matz, was an Olympic show-jumping team silver medalist, and he now trains race horses. He trained Barbaro, who won the 2006 Kentucky Derby but had to be put down after breaking a leg in the Preakness.

John Frazier Hunt of Spring City, Pa., drove his four-in-hand carriage to win the class of Unicorns and four-in-hands and returned in the drive-off of class winners to take the championship during the afternoon session.