Before this season, Madison Farrar had never won a major equitation final. She’d had plenty of top-10 placings, but she’d never finished higher than third. At age 15, 2022 was her last chance to make a bid for one of the coveted championships, and she made good use of it.
The rider from Kingfisher, Oklahoma started the fall season with a win in the Platinum Performance/USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Final and followed it by winning last week’s International Horse Show Equitation Classic. But she wasn’t done yet. She capped off her junior career Sunday night by winning the ASPCA Maclay Championship at the National Horse Show, climbing from 18th place after the first round of the day.
“I obviously am so shocked,” she said. “I can’t really believe this happened. I obviously went very early this morning, and I thought put in a pretty solid round, but definitely not the best round we’ve ever had. I just kept fighting all day long and was just hoping to do as best I could. This has been so special.”
From 18th at the end of the first round, she moved into 17th following the flat phase. But it was a phenomenal second round that impressed judges Michael Tokaruk and Robin Rost Brown enough to move Iwasaki into fourth. The top five riders (Tessa Downey, Carlee McCutcheon, Luke Jensen, Iwasaki and Isabelle David) then were asked to perform a test which included a hand gallop fence, a transition to walk, a turn-on-the-haunches and a counter-canter fence. That’s where Iwasaki moved to the top of their cards.
“We loved her second round,” Tokaruk said. “We thought she did a beautiful job. She was solid on the flat. She just kept fighting, and this is a long day with a lot of phases, and the sum total of her body of work added up to the win.”