Q: How do you help your students prepare for the tests at equitation finals?

     ~Jessica H., Indiana

A: I do have a broad range of students, including a fair amount of equitation kids. I typically coach the way that I like to be coached. I try to be firm, but not mean, and try to be thorough.

When we’re really practicing for the finals, I try to come up with exercises and different tests that either I’ve seen before or I’ve heard of before, and I try to leave nothing open for interpretation for my students when they go into the biggest class they’ve ever done. I want them to have practiced everything that we can possibly think of at home. Obviously, that’s not in one day—that wouldn’t be fair to the horse or the rider.

I plan our lessons out with Nick Pongracz, who’s my business partner and fellow trainer. We plan months in advance in terms of when we start practicing tests, when we start practicing different aspects that we might see at the finals, different types of jumps, spooky things, jumping inside. I really just try to make it so that every single kid that goes to these finals feels over prepared almost.

I think you can see with the success we had with Sydney Mohrhardt last year winning two finals—one at Capital Challenge and one at the National Horse Show. That just goes to show that our preparation has worked.

As a junior rider, Jacob Pope competed at the 2012 USEF Hunter Seat Medal Final at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show. ©Amy K. Dragoo

For More:

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About Jacob Pope

Jacob Pope.
©Kathleen Landwehr

International show jumper and hunter rider and trainer Jacob Pope grew up on his family’s small horse farm in Columbia, Maryland. He had a successful junior career, winning the 2011 USHJA Emerging Athletes Program Finals, the 2012 USEF Show Jumping Talent Search Finals – East and the 2012 ASPCA Maclay Finals. After graduating from college in 2017, Pope turned professional and now competes in both the hunter and jumper rings. He and his top mount Highway FBH have been on the U.S. Jumping Team at several CSIO3* Nations Cup competitions, helping the team win gold in Uggerhalne, Denmark, in 2022 and at the $75,000 FEI Jumping Nations Cup Traverse City CSIO3* in 2025. They made their FEI Jumping World Cup™ Final debut in 2026 and finished in 12th place.

In addition to his success in the competition ring, Jacob runs Hickory Ridge LLC, a showing, training and sales business based in Wellington, Florida, and Traverse City, Michigan, with his business partner Nick Pongracz.