Hannah Hutter and Galway Get the Win in $5,000 Kickapoo Ponies USHJA Pony Hunt & Go Derby

Thermal, Calif. – Some of Desert Circuit’s smallest competitors took to the show’s biggest field on Friday, January 24, for the $5,000 Kickapoo Ponies USHJA Pony Hunt & Go Derby. From a starting list of 23 ponies, the win on the Grass Field at Desert International Horse Park went to Hannah Hutter and Galway.

In the one-round, two-phase class, Hutter and Galway earned scores of 90 and 88 for a 178 winning total score. Second place with scores of 89 and 84 (173 total) went to Everly Cain and Chiccobello, owned by Charlotte Cook, and Stella Rumanes and Crocodile Rock, owned by Micaela Kennedy, rounded out the top three with a 172 (85+87).

“I thought it was really fun!” said Hutter of her first time competing on the Grass Field. “I really liked how, in the handy, you got to do some tight turns and then let them open up to the oxers and let them travel a little bit. [Galway] loved the grass. Yesterday, when we were doing our warm-up, he was having so much fun. I think he really liked all the space.”

Hutter has been competing Galway just since the fall of 2025, but she and the 9-year-old Warmblood cross pony, owned by Bonnie Way Equestrian, meshed quickly and have already proven successful in the large pony hunters.

“I really have had a nice time getting to know him,” said Hutter, 13, who trains with Christa Endicott of Pegasus Show Stable. “He’s been really great. He’s super easy, and he keeps the same rhythm. He’s such a good boy.”

For full results of the $5,000 Kickapoo Ponies USHJA Pony Hunt & Go Derby, click here.