Wellington, FL-December 2, 2001- 12 year-old Dottie Grubb of Wellington, FL captured the honors today in the Final competition for the FEI World Children's Jumping Final at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club. After today's victory, Grubb holds the honors of "The World's Best Children's Jumper (ages 12-14)". Grubb bested the field of 16 starters after she and Pistol Pete posted double clear rounds and the fastest time in the jump-off of 39.87. Grubb finished just under one second faster than Joshua Vanderveen of Elvurn, IL. Vanderveen took second place aboard Bull's Run Glen Ridge after crossing the finish line in 40.78 seconds. Third place went to Elise Lesage of France and her mount Gigilo. They crossed the timers in 41.28 seconds and pulled a rail for a four-fault finish.

"I had not ridden Pistol Pete until Wednesday this week, he is owned by Jay and Dee Matter. He was fun for me to ride, just a little big for me but I got used to him after riding in the warm-up competition on Wednesday. He was so good, I went first in the jump-off and had the fastest time. I just started riding children's jumpers this summer in Lake Placid and was in the ribbon's," said Dottie Grubb. She also said, "I had a great time, especially at Sea World and I made a lot of new friends from around the world". Each course, designed by Steve Stephens, was 10-12 obstacles with fence height's up to 4' and with spreads up to 4'7". Today's final competition had 12 numbered fences with 15 jumping efforts.

The starting field of 28 was narrowed down after two qualifiers to 16 competitors. All competitors started with zero points going into today's final competition. The "A" list was as follows: Lexi Carter (South Africa), Azul Mektoubdjian (Argentina), Kristen Vanderveen (USA), Elise Lesage (France), Rodrigo Luna Benitez (Argentina), Juan Giraldo (Columbia), Haylie Jayne (USA), Joshua Vanderveen (USA), Kelly Kozich (USA), Dottie Grubb (USA), Gubarev Svetlana (Russia), Cady Klimas (USA), Dovile Zelvarite (Lithuania), Amber Levine (USA), Edwin Verdung (USA) and Amelkina Svetlana (Russia).