Lynn Pace, who owned and operated Dixie Stables Farms in Allenhurst for 45 years, was honored at the American Saddlebred Association of Georgia’s annual banquet Feb. 21 in the State Botanical Gardens in Athens.
Pace received the Frank Kennedy Humanitarian
Award and was named ASHAG’s high-point trainer of the year.
Local riders and stables Bluff Creek Stables of Midway, Dixie Stables of Allenhurst and Gravel Hill Farms of Hinesville also received honors. This year, they produced top horse and rider teams both in performance and academy divisions.
At Dixie Stables, Pace taught hundreds of students and competed in local, regional and national horse shows. She is passing the torch to Caitlin Jarriel and her team at Southern Legacy Stables.
“It was an honor to present Lynn Pace with the Frank Kennedy Humanitarian Award,” Jarriel said. “I know no one who deserves this award more than Lynn. She has devoted her entire life to promoting the American saddlebred … I have benefited from Lynn’s program and it has helped mold me into the woman I am today.”
Jarriel’s protégé, Lily Darsey, won state champion in the academy walk/trot/canter division for 11-and-older, as well as showmanship and equitation.
Cameron Patten won the academy lead-line w/t championship, and Chris Jarriel won the Rusty Stirrups championship.
American saddlebred Santa Cruz, owned by Sarah Tirpak, won the ASB ASHA state pleasure championship and the country pleasure amateur championship.
Southern Legacy Stables had three riders win reserve championships.
Madison Chenevert won in academy lead-line. Emily Egner won the 9-10 w/t academy showmanship and equitation. And elite rider Rachael Griffis won in the adult equitation performance division.
Southern Legacy horses winning top honors were York’s Wild Angel, reserve champion in amateur country pleasure; Glendale’s Daisy Bell, reserve champ in ASB hunter and ASB hunter open.
For Bluff Creek Stables, Sara Kate Garrett was the champion in the 13-and-younger equitation performance and the country pleasure divisions riding Wild Lolita. Lori Harden, riding Twist of Fate, won the adult show pleasure championship and finished in the adult top-five. Academy Rider Sydney Prindaville was the reserve champ in w/t/c showmanship, equitation and championship divisions, riding Princess Periafter.
Also in the academy division, Teya Bly was a top-five finisher in w/t 11-and-older.
Deanna Edgy, trainer for Bluff Creek who is also on the United Professional Horse Association Board, said, “As a trainer, I loved to see the professionals, amateurs and young riders all together at the banquet.”
Liberty County’s Bunny Braun, who rides for Pine Haven Stables in Brunswick and is a freshman at Liberty County High School, was SE Region high-point champion, Region 10 champion and national top-10 in performance saddle-seat equitation. Fellow Liberty County native Lindsey Dasher, riding for Pine Haven Stables, won the ASHA Region 10 championship on Glider Supreme.
Samantha Hocking, representing Gravel Hill Farms, was named amateur owner and trainer of the year. Hocking’s 9-year-old Friesian Syb van de Loekshamhoeve (barn name: Dudley) won the open English pleasure championship.
“Sam and Dudley as a team can compete with anyone in the entire SE Region if not nationally. I am very proud of their accomplishments this year,” Gravel Hill trainer Charles Durrence said.
Show season begins March 21 at Southern Legacy Stables in Allenhurst.