Devon, PA - Gillian King, a winner in Pony Jumpers last year, returns to the Devon Horse Show and Country Fair to try to take home to Malvern, Pa., the High Score Award that she just missed by a couple of points last year.

Riding Crum Creek, King won the first of two classes offered for Pony Jumpers but finished third in the second class, just losing the title to Kaitlin D. Campbell of Upper Black Eddy, Pa., on Magic BB, who won the second class and placed second in the class King won.

Pony Jumpers, which compete Sunday and Monday, May 27 and 28, were added to the Devon schedule two years ago and have been an exciting addition to the afternoon schedule on those days. King, a very versatile youngster, breaks the mold of the great majority of today’s horse show juniors.

Most youngsters today concentrate on one discipline, either show jumping, eventing, dressage or steeplechasing, to the exclusion of all else. At Devon, juniors compete in equitation, hunters and jumpers.

Not all of them even compete in all three of those divisions but tend to concentrate on one or two sections. But King, who is only 14-years-old, not only competes in equitation, hunters and jumpers, she also is a very successful event rider. So successful, in fact, that she won one of the sections of Preliminary division at last fall’s Radnor Three Day Event, beating a field of top adult competitors, including past Olympic and Pan American Games champions.

A freshman at Great Valley, Malvern’s public school, King says she rides three or four horses a day, depending on how much homework she has.

“As far as school is concerned, I’d rather be at the barn,” said King, an honor roll student. “But school is something I have to do to ride, so it’s fine. I love English, My favorite subjects are English and math.”

“I’m so proud of her,” said her father, Doug, a professional horseman who owns Royal Crown Stables in Malvern, a barn that specializes in buying and selling horses. “I think it’s great that she does eventing. She can really gallop cross country.”

While many juniors ride horses prepared for them by professionals, King, young as she is, makes her own horses and helps her mother, Susie Beale, and father with their businesses.

Junior weekend opens the 11 days of competition on Thursday, May 24 and includes hunter, jumper, equitation, pony hunter and pony breeding classes.

Addison Phillips of New York, N.Y., was Best Child Rider on a Horse last year, and she’ll be returning to Devon this year to compete in the hunter division and in equitation.

Equitation classes, in which the form and riding ability of the junior are judged, are featured in the Dixon Oval Thursday and Friday mornings, with pony breeding is judged in the Gold Ring Thursday morning.

Junior hunter and jumper classes are scheduled in the Dixon Oval for Friday and Saturday, while pony hunters compete in the Golf Ring.

Fun classes, Parent and Child, Family Class and Hunt Teams entertain spectators Saturday evening. The piece de resistance of Junior Weekend is the Pony Hunt Team class, held as the last class in the Gold Ring on Saturday.

Pony riders dress up in elaborate, coordinated costumes, often even dressing up their ponies, and take huge baskets with food, drink and many other goodies to the judges to thank them for their work.

It’s all good fun and is a class anticipated and enjoyed by competitors and spectators alike. The Carriage Pleasure Drive on Sunday opens a week of adult competition in hunters, jumpers, three- and five-gaited horses, Friesians, hackney and harness horses and ponies, roadsters and four-in-hand coaching.

Ladies Side Saddle classes are featured Wednesday afternoon, and Thursday, June 1, is devoted to Breeding classes featuring yearlings, 2- and 3-year olds.

Four-in-hand coaching is scheduled during the evenings of Monday through Friday, and the Friday night schedule includes a number of Saddlebred championships.

The final evening of the show includes three- and five-gaited, Hackney Pony, Fine Harness Horse and Roadster championships, building up to the $50,000 Idle Dice Stake, the Open Jumper Championship and the Leading Open Jumper Rider award.

A number of exhibitions are scheduled for the 11 days, including dressage exhibitions, pairs competing in carriage racing and border collies.

The Devon Horse Show and Country Fair, May 24 to June 3, has donated over $12 million to Bryn Mawr Hospital since 1919.

The Country Fair features boutique shopping for sporting clothes, often sporting a equestrian motif, paintings and prints, gorgeous gold and silver jewelry, garden accessories, furniture painted with horses and dogs, fancy hats, leather goods and antiques, collectibles and souvenirs.

The fair offers many diversions ranging from a merry-go-round and more adventurous rides to all kinds of games like shooting metal ducks marching across the stand for prizes like enormous stuffed bears. The Ferris wheel dominates the fair, towering over the Dixon Oval, and is visible for miles away on Route 30.

Food is available for every taste from hamburgers and hot dogs to gourmet dining in the Cafeteria, and the famous Devon fudge. And don’t forget the lemon sticks.

General admission is $7 for adults, $3 for children under 12 and $5 for seniors. Reserved seating is available. Call for ticket prices.

The ticket office is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., until May 18. Tickets may be purchased in advance at the ticket office at the show grounds or call 610-688-2554.