Sunlight dappled the grounds of the Grand Hunter Ring at Remlinger Farms Equestrian Center as trainer Lee Dennie rode Pharlee toward a four-foot-tall hurdle of wooden poles decorated with flowers.
The name of the game in a hunter competition is ease and beauty. Pharlee, a 15-year-old Dutch Warmblood gelding, seems to understand this as he smoothly clears the jump.
“You want the horse to be in good balance, so that it jumps beautifully,” said Jeff Anthony, president of the Washington Hunter-Jumper Foundation and executive director of the Evergreen Classic. “Compare hunters to figure skaters. It’s about elegance.”
Pharlee was among the more than 450 horses and as many as 5,000 riders, owners and spectators attending the Classic, now in its fourth year at Carnation’s Remlinger Farms Equestrian Center.
Hunter obstacles in the Thursday, Aug. 12, afternoon competition, the $3,500 Bunny Coffin Hunter Classic, are designed to provide a challenge to riders and horses.
“It’s a little different,” said Dennie. “They introduce things you don’t see.”
Dennie, of Sammamish, and Pharlee, owned by Fall City resident Jimi Norton, have been around hunter courses plenty of times to know what to expect, though.
“He’s been a champion with many junior and amateur riders,” said Pharlee’s owner, Fall City resident Jimi Norton. “He enjoys it, I enjoy it and the people that ride him enjoy it.”
Norton was a junior rider and showed jumper horses several years ago. Now, she watches from the owners’ tent.
“This is pretty glorious,” Norton said, eying the hand-decorated hunter course. “It’s a beautiful venue. It’s great that Remlinger farms sponsors this, and it’s getting better every year.”
“This is a summer show; it needs to be out on the grass,” said Jeff Anthony, executive director of the Evergreen Classic.
The horse show was formerly held at Marymoor Park, but left over county fee increases. Four years ago, the classic moved to Carnation, where Remlinger turned a former pumpkin patch into a space for arena riding.
“They turned it into grass, which isn’t the most profitable crop to grow,” Anthony said. “They prepare the ground perfectly.”
The classic is a fundraiser for the Washington Hunter-Jumper Foundation, and was founded to provide a high-quality show in the Pacific Northwest market. The foundation, of which Anthony is president, works to improve the sport and build a permanent, all-discipline horse facility in the Northwest.
The rural experience in Carnation is drawing more locals every year, Anthony said.
“Everybody is trying to make this a special event for the Snoqualmie River Valley,” he said.
• Pharlee, under rider Julie Nagan, took second in the adult amateur hunter 40-and-over competition. Irish Pride, under rider Jodie Davis, owned by Carolyn Marks of Seattle, won the Bunny Coffin Classic.
