Fallbrook is home to champion pony

The Girl Next Door is tiny. She's also a national champion who resides in Fallbrook.

Patty Arnett owns and trains The Girl Next Door, a full thoroughbred pony who won the 2018 United States Equestrian Federation Pony Jumper Championship in Lexington, Kentucky, Aug. 11. According to the American Horse Shows Association, the USEF Pony Finals is the most prestigious and celebrated event of its kind in the U.S.

The Girl Next Door was bred to be a racehorse, but her breeders knew immediately that wouldn't be her career. The Girl Next Door was a twin – the other twin didn't survive – and severely reduced nourishment throughout fetal development resulted in her being undersized.

The Girl Next Door didn't let her diminutive stature bother her, according to her breeder, Helen Capacchione, who told Arnett that after being weaned the pony nicknamed "Dinky" was put in a big field with other thoroughbreds, a herd that included yearlings and 2-year-olds.

"Thoroughbreds grow really fast really early, so they're quite tall," Arnett said. "And of course Dinky, being not only a weanling but a pony weanling, was just minute compared to these massive other babies. Well, Helen said she ruled that field. She was in charge."

The Girl Next Door was foaled in New York and raised on Capacchione's farm in Preston, Connecticut. One winter day when a gate latch froze open and horses started running free, Dinky came to the rescue.

"The horses were headed down the lane at a dead gallop, and everybody is trying to figure out how to get this herd to turn around and come back," Arnett said, relaying a story told to her by Capacchione. "Helen tells everyone to wait a second and then yells, 'Dinky!' Dinky comes to a sliding stop, wheels around and runs back. The whole herd stops, turns around and follows Dinky back inside. That's how much a herd leader she was."

The Girl Next Door grew to be 14.1 5/8 hands, and at age five was sold to a lady in Long Island, where she competed on the East Coast as a pony hunter until age 9. She made her way to California with a new owner who only had her for a short time.

Arnett took over ownership of The Girl Next Door in March 2012. In September 2017, they moved to their Fallbrook home, where Dinky and her 13 equine friends enjoy 5 1/2 acres.

Arnett said she always knew The Girl Next Door had talent as a jumper but couldn't find a rider who could bring out her best. That changed in March when she had 12-year-old Zacko Hardin – whose mother, Kristin Hardin, rides competitively at the highest international level – get on Dinky at a horse show in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"We decided in the middle of April that we were going to try for pony finals because Zacko rode her so well in that Scottsdale show," Arnett said. "That left us six weeks to qualify, and we competed every single weekend for that six-week period. We did two shows in Temecula, three shows in Del Mar and two shows in Texas."

Hardin, who lives in the Santa Barbara county town of New Cuyama, and The Girl Next Door accumulated 98 points in the six weeks to qualify for the Pony Jumper Championship in Lexington, Kentucky, where they competed both individually and as part of the Zone 10 team, representing California, Washington, Oregon and Nevada.

As a final prep for the finals in Lexington, Kentucky, Arnett had Hardin and The Girl Next Door compete in a show in Huntington Beach in July.

"We really focused on trying to ride strictly for a clear (no jumps knocked down) first round, because in the past it's been proven that if you can put in clear rounds every single time you step in the ring at the finals, you're pretty much guaranteed a medal and you're almost guaranteed a gold medal," Arnett said.

Hardin and Dinky had nothing but clear rounds in Huntington Beach and that gave Arnett confidence going to Lexington, Kentucky.

"So then I knew we were ready and I thought we had a really good shot (in Kentucky), because I felt like he and the pony and I had kind of really solidified everything and we had a good, strong plan," Arnett said. "I thought if we could maintain that into the finals, we had a really good chance.

"It does take awhile to develop a partnership, and it's almost three ways because you have your coach, you have your rider and your pony," Arnett said. "We did it in an extraordinarily short period of time, but I think everything jelled by the time we got to Huntington Beach. I kind of had a clear picture of what Zacko needed to hear, he had a clear picture of what he needed to do on the pony and the pony was just right there for us every step of the way."

Hardin and The Girl Next Door pitched a perfect game in Lexington, Kentucky, accomplishing clear rounds in all four rounds of the competition. In addition to winning the individual championship, their performance helped Zone 10 win the team championship.

"I'm so overwhelmed and excited," Hardin said in the winner's circle after earning the individual championship. "Everything just felt great. I didn't have a doubt about a distance to any jump, anything at all. I felt like it was the best round I have ever had on her."

The championship in Kentucky resulted in no monetary award for Arnett, just elation.

"For me, being a horse owner and trainer of my own horses, and taking them to the shows, my bottom line is to try and help that horse achieve its best athletically," Arnett said. "I always knew this pony was that good; I just had never been able to find someone that could ride her well enough to achieve that. And when I finally got the opportunity with Zacko, I just knew that she could deliver, and so she achieved what I always felt she could do, and it's just so rewarding as a trainer to see your horse or pony do something so fabulous as that. It's the height of euphoria."

Arnett, who had the thrill of seeing her stallion, Arthos, compete in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta under champion rider Will Simpson, has worked with top riders throughout her 36 years in the horse show business and is very impressed with Hardin.

"He's very dedicated and very goal oriented and works diligently," Arnett said of Hardin. "He's got a fabulous work ethic and is so focused. I felt like I was coaching a top-level professional rather a 12-year-old boy, that's how wonderful it was to work with him."

As for The Girl Next Door's attributes, Arnett said her leaping ability and confidence are key factors in her success.

"She jumps so high and so clean," Arnett said. "She's just not clearing those jumps, she's 2 feet over the jumps. She doesn't think of herself as small. She thinks she's as tall as all the other horses, and so she jumps as if she's a big horse. She is not intimidated whatsoever."

The Girl Next Door currently is being pointed for a pair of shows in November. Though she may be short, the competition knows it can't overlook The Girl Next Door.