Annie Cook wins pony jumper event Annie Cook wins pony jumper event (August 31, 2005)

By Kate Daly

Special to the Almanac

Annie Laurie Cook, 12, of Woodside recently won the Adequan/Pony Jumper Individual Championship at the U.S. Equestrian Federation Pony Finals in Lexington, Kentucky.

She is the first Californian to do it, according to her mother, Signe Ostby.

From August 10 to 13, about 100 top riders from all over the country converged at the very hot and humid Kentucky Horse Park to compete in the finals.

The young riders had to qualify for this 38th annual competition by winning at other shows throughout the year.

Annie arrived with her mount, NZ My Mini Milton, a 14-year-old and 14.2-hand New Zealand-bred gelding fresh from having shown successfully at Pebble Beach in both the pony and children's jumping events.

She says that experience helped her prepare for the Pony Finals where she ended up in a heated jump-off to determine who won the gold. Her finish time was 41.295 seconds.

Out of 40 riders, Annie was the only one in her event to complete three faultless rounds over fences ranging up to 3 feet 6 inches, said Ms. Ostby.

"Milton jumps clean, and had been for three weeks," says Annie. "I used a lot of leg though, because I didn't want to have a rail [down]."

A seventh-grader at Menlo School, Annie has been riding for five years, training with Butch, Lu, and Guy Thomas at Willow Tree Farm at Portola Valley Training Center.

Her pony is the first New Zealander to win this competition, too.

In November, she plans to enter the Children's World jumper finals in Simi Valley, where she'll have to switch to a horse and jump up to 4 feet.

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