Buddy Brown and Finally Ours overcame a difficult season to win the $20,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at Sonoma Horse Park. Finally Ours had dealt with various health issues throughout the year. Brown felt lucky going into the derby, as his father was watching and their horse drew number 13. Brown took a cautious approach in the second round to win the class. The win was especially meaningful as it was witnessed by Brown's father. Meanwhile, Matias Fernandez also found success in his new partnership with Disaronno VT, winning the $50,000 Grand Prix at Sonoma despite only riding the horse for a few days.

1. 56 The Chronicle of the Horse
HORSE SHOWS
B
uddy Brown and Finally
Ours have been fighting a
bit of an unlucky streak this
year, dealing with everything
from a skin condition, to twisting
a shoe and stepping on a nail right
before a hunter derby, to spooking at
the last fence of an otherwise beau-
tiful round due to a gust of wind.
So when Brown’s father, Graham
Brown, fellow equestrian and part
owner of Finally Ours, came to watch
Buddy compete in the $20,000 USHJA
International Hunter Derby on Sept.
18 at the Sonoma Horse Park Season
Finale in Petaluma, Calif., Buddy felt
his luck was changing.
“Things hadn’t gone well, and I’m a
little bit superstitious,” said Buddy. “I was
born on Friday the 13th, and this derby
was on a Friday, and my horse drew No.
13. My dad was coming out, and it was
like, ‘OK all the things are lining up for
success; let me not screw this up.’ ”
Buddy, of Livermore, Calif., and
Finally Ours came away with the win,
but Hope Glynn and Full Circle were
close behind in second place, and she
took all the high options in the second
round to try to close the gap.
“It was fun; everybody chose what
they thought they could do the best,”
said Buddy of his decision to take
just a few high options. “It wasn’t just
one track or one way the judges were
scoring it. I thought it was a great class.”
This was “Joey’s” first interna-
tional derby win, and it was made
even more special because Buddy’s
father was able to see it. Graham was
also watching when Buddy and Joey
rode to their first national derby win
at Sonoma Horse Park’s HMI June
Classic over Father’s Day in 2014.
“I have to say that last Friday was
my best day ever,” said Buddy. “For
that horse and my dad and everything
else there, it’s a dream.”
Brown’s
Signs Align
For Sonoma
Horse Park
Derby Win
Finally Ours overcomes
a season riddled with
bad luck to come
away with his first
international derby blue.
BY KATIE ALLARD
PHOTOS BY DEB DAWSON
Buddy Brown said his win in the
$20,000 USHJA International
Hunter Derby aboard Finally Ours
at the Sonoma Horse Park Season
Finale was his “best day ever.”

2. October 12, 2015 • chronofhorse.com 57
$20,000
USHJA INTERNATIONAL HUNTER DERBY
Petaluma, Calif.—Sept. 18
Judges: Panel 1: Sarah Booker, John McQueen; Panel 2: Bobbie Reber, Bill Ellis
1ST ROUND 2ND ROUND TOTAL
HORSE/RIDER PANEL 1
SCORE/
HEIGHT OPTION
PANEL 2
SCORE/
HEIGHT OPTION
PANEL 1
SCORE/BONUS/
HEIGHT OPTION
PANEL 2
SCORE/BONUS/
HEIGHT OPTION
1. Finally Ours/Buddy Brown 85/3 86/3 91/9/2 87/10/2 378
2. Full Circle/Hope Glynn 84/3 85/3 94/9/4 82/8/4 376
3. Bunistar/Bert Mutch 83/2 84/2 75/8/2 90/10/2 358
4. Star Quality/Bert Mutch 82/1 83/1 82/7/2 86/8/2 354
5. Davinci/Hope Glynn 80/2 78/2 80/6/2 85/8/2 345
6. Southside/Hope Glynn 77/0 76/0 81/7/1 84/6/1 333
7. Walk This Way/Carly Bechtel 75/1 73/1 79/5/2 81/6/2 325
8. Gabriel/Sarah Ryan 72/0 71/0 83/6/1 83/7/1 324
9. Balios Z/Buddy Brown 86/3 88/3 50/8/2 46/7/2 295
10. Carson/Hope Glynn 48/4 46/4 77/7/4 77/9/4 280
11. Stanley F/Kelly van Vleck 45/4 45/4 62/6/4 73/8/4 255
12. Dinner For Two/Lindsey Johnson 50/1 41/1 45/2/2 45/0/2 189
14 horses competed.
Coming Full Circle
Buddy, 60, and the 12-year-old
Hanoverian gelding (Likoto—Fortuna)
have been partners since May 2013, when
Kathy Coors gave him to Derby Hill
Farm to sell. Joey had an unruly streak
and a nasty spin that would dump riders
on the ground before they knew what
happened. A veterinary check exposed
a chipped tooth protruding into Joey’s
gums. After fixing that issue, Buddy took
his time, trying to gain the horse’s trust
and start with the basics.
“We bonded a little bit before we
ever rode him,” said Buddy. “The
first day, [however], I went to ride
him [and] I walked forward with the
bridle, and he wouldn’t come near me.
So it was not love at first sight.”
Buddy decided to buy the feisty
horse while visiting his father after
a routine surgical procedure. When
talking to his stepmother about the
new project, she offered to help buy
Joey as a surprise gift for his dad.
Buddy and Graham haven’t owned
a horse together since the famous
Sandsablaze, who took Buddy from
an AHSA Medal Finals win in 1973 all
the way to the Olympic Games. Now
Buddy’s goal is to compete Joey in the
USHJA International Hunter Derby
Championships in Kentucky.
In recent years, Buddy has turned
his focus from the jumpers back to the
hunters, where he first started riding,
and it sort of happened by accident.
Buddy’s wife, hunter rider Vanessa
Tuss Brown, asked Buddy to take a
couple of their sale horses and clients
to a show without her, so she could
attend a different show.
“[One of my clients] said, ‘Why don’t
you do him in the derby to get him some
F
ollowing their win in the $20,000 USHJA International Hunter Derby at the Sonoma Horse Park Season Finale, Buddy
Brown let his father Graham Brown take a victory lap aboard Finally Ours in the form of a trail ride.
“We were riding around the property, and everybody was teasing [me], saying, ‘It looks just like you on the horse! If
we didn’t see the beard we would have thought it was you up there!’ ” said Buddy.
Graham, 83, might actually give Buddy a run for his money riding the feisty gelding.
“I have a bad left leg, and I have trouble bending horses to the left, and that’s where [Finally Ours] is the stiffest is to the
left,” said Buddy. “I looked over, and my dad’s sit trotting on him, and he’s got him in a beautiful frame. I said, ‘Damn, well
maybe when I’m 80 I’ll be able to bend him like that!’ ”
Like Father, Like Son
practice for me, so he goes around,’ ”
said Buddy. “I ended up winning and
coming in second, which qualified us for
the finals. And we went to Del Mar and
ended up first and fourth in that.”
His quick success made Buddy
consider a change in focus, especially
since more derbies were starting to
appear on the West Coast.
“The derbies really have inspired
me,” Buddy said. “It’s made me feel like
a kid. It brings back all the memories
of what it used to feel like [riding in the
hunters]. I’ve reconnected to [the begin-
ning of] my career. I started as a hunter
rider and became a jumper rider and
gave that up about six years ago. With
the derbies now it’s given me a new
incentive to compete again.
“I still haven’t come down from
the high of that class to be honest,” he
added. “It’s kind of surreal. I’ve been
walking around, doing my thing and
working, and it almost feels like I’m on
vacation in Hawaii.”
Buddy also has his sights set on the
World Championship Hunter Rider
Finals at Capital Challenge (Md.).
“[Joey’s] only 12, and the way he
feels, he’s going to go until he’s 17 or 18,”
Buddy said. “I’m hoping to go until I’m
about 65, and that’s five more years. If
he and I can retire together, that
would be great.”

3. 58 The Chronicle of the Horse
A New Partnership Is Off To
A Promising Start
Matias Fernandez only got the ride on
Disaronno VT a couple of days before
the Sonoma Horse Park Season Finale.
However, that didn’t stop the pair
from winning the $50,000 Sonoma
Horse Park Season Finale Grand
Prix. Fernandez credits his success
to sticking with his plan to leave out
strides in between certain elements of
the jump-off.
“[The course] was pretty tough,” said
Fernandez. “My horse is kind of slow,
so the only way you can get him [to go
faster] is to leave some striding out of
the lines. It worked, so it was good.”
“Dino” is a 12-year-old Belgian
Warmblood gelding (Emilion—Trivial,
Dominard) owned by Jennifer Santana.
The horse has campaigned under
a number of different riders, but
Fernandez’s long-time friend Chilean
rider Samuel Parot had been showing
him most recently.
“[Parot and I] met in San
Francisco, and he said, ‘I have a
horse for you. I will leave him with
you.’ So I rode the horse one time,
and it was good,” said Fernandez.
Though Dino is primarily a sale
project for Fernandez, he’s hoping
the gelding will stay long enough for
the two to get to know each other
and perhaps contest some bigger
grand prix classes.
“You never know, the horse could
disappear tomorrow, but the idea is
to keep the horse a little bit and do
big things,” he said.
Originally from Santiago, Chile,
Fernandez, now 39, began riding at 4,
and he participated in his first horse
show when he was 7. While nobody
else in his family had any experi-
ence with horses, Fernandez said he
caught the horse bug early.
“I just liked horses [from the
moment] I was born,” he said. “I don’t
know why, but I like it.”
Three years ago, Fernandez got the
chance to come to the United States and
work for Debbi Long at her Long Farm
in Tucson, Ariz. Long’s husband, Tom
Long, was in Chile for the summer, and
he and Fernandez discovered they had a
mutual interest in horses.
“We started to talk and [Tom]
said to me, ‘You know, my wife is a
horse trainer, and she needs a rider,’ ”
remembered Fernandez.
He jumped at the chance and spent
two years riding for Debbi before
going to work for Dusty Blackwood at
her Full Circle Farm in Petaluma in
May 2014.
$50,000
SONOMA HORSE PARK
SEASON FINALE
GRAND PRIX
Petaluma, Calif.—Sept. 19
HORSE/RIDER FAULTS TIME PURSE
1. Disaronno
VT/Matias
Fernandez
0-0 44.45 $15,000
2. Luebbo/Jamie
Barge
0-0 44.55 11,000
3. Lasse/Jamie
Barge
0-0 52.15 6,500
4. S F Uryadi/
Lauren Crooks
0-4 46.03 4,000
5. Boccaccio/
Macella O’Neill
0-4 48.25 3,000
6. Apex/Harley
Brown
0-4 48.42 2,500
7. Airwalk VC/Jan
Humphrey
0-8 44.76 2,000
Also competed: 8. Alegria/M. Fernandez, 4; 9. Edesa
Stallone/P. Breakwell, 4; 10. Quite Quick/D. Flynn, 4;
11. Colorado/B. Ikast, 4; 12. Carlton Cafe/J. Prieto, 8;
13. Cash/O. Brown, 8; Nelson T/E. Cooper, E; Abadan/S.
Baz, E; Zubliem/A. Foster, VW; Caloukie/P. Seaton-
Sandoval, VW; Hertogin Ter Drie Leien/J. Humphrey, VW.
Sonoma Horse Park
Season Finale
Petaluma, CA—Sept. 16-20.
PRE-ADULT AMATEUR JUMPER CH: Land Star, Sophia
Davis.
RES: Lordanos, Sheila O'Neill.
SR. LOW EQUITATION CH Tie: Jana Abraham & Megan
Vincent.
LOW JR. HUNTER CH: Burrata, Grace Tuton.
RES: Pompeia, Talia Schonberger.
LOW ADULT AMATEUR HUNTER CH: Love Actually,
Melanie Lee.
RES: Contaro, Bridget Twomey.
CHILDREN’S/ADULT SCHOOLING JUMPER CH:
Aladdin, Pascale Martin.
RES: Lakota, Lynn Peterkin.
PONY EQUITATION CH: Aya Clear.
RES: Sophia Silveira.
LOW JR. EQUITATION CH: Siena Vincent.
RES: Adele Bonomi.
MODIFIED ADULT AMATEUR JUMPER CH: Up In The
Air, Nati Alvarez.
RES Tie: Donny Darco, Shannon Wright & Camaro,
IOS Ranch LLC.
CHILDREN’S/ADULT TRAINING JUMPER CH:
Alexander The Great, Patrick Seaton-Sandoval.
RES Tie: Lordanos, Sheila O’Neill & Aladdin, Pascale
Martin.
LOW CHILDREN’S HUNTER CH: Alejandro, Daylily
Farm LLC.
RES: Fenway, Jennifer Gates LLC.
.80M JUMPER CH: Hello U, Shannon Jones.
RES: Solis, Rebecca Birdsall.
.70M JUMPER CH: SLF Undercurrent, Susan Callahan.
RES: Caravelle, Anna Allison.
6-YR.-OLD JUMPER CH: Skyline, Harley Brown
Equestrian Inc.
RES: Casanova, Elle Campbell.
1.20M JUMPER CH: Tatiana de Monchatre, Carla
Picasso.
RES: Zopilate, Simone Coxe.
1.30M JUMPER CH: True Love, Irish Rose Stables.
RES Tie: Airwalk VC, Leone Equestrians Inc & Cielo,
Matias Fernandez and Disaronno VT only had a few days to get to know each other before
the $50,000 Sonoma Horse Park Grand Prix, but they made the most of that time and
claimed a win.
HORSE SHOWS