Charlotters Ribbon at Steeple Ridge
by Nancy Wood,
June 30, 2011, page 16.....

Rhian Murphy had a great show this weekend at the Steeple Ridge Horse Show on the Hinesburg road in Charlotte. She was champion in the Children’s Hunter Horse division and won the Marshall and Sterling Classic and the Marshall and Sterling Medal classes, which help her toward her goal of going to those finals in Saugerties, New York, in September.
To top it off, Rhian won the coveted first place in the NEHC (New England Horseman’s Council) and earned a spot at that final in Springfield, Massachusetts, in October.
All of this is especially rewarding for Rhian, according to her mother, because last August she broke her hip and initially doctors had told her she would never ride again. “Surgery put her back together (including a two-inch screw in her hip) and with her incredible concentration and lots of hard work she is back doing the one thing she is so incredibly passionate about: riding horses.”
Rhian, who is 13, is the daughter of Alaina and John Murphy.
Among the other riders that excelled at the horse show was 11-year-old Adelaide Toensing, daughter of Karla and Brady Toensing. Adelaide, who has been riding since the age of six, earned three ribbons, including one for Pre-Childrens Hunter, jumping 2’3” fences. Adelaide’s nine-year-old sister also rides.
Mindy Hinsdale, owner of Steeple Ridge, and Annie Dotoli are the trainers of both Rhian and Adelaide.