2025 SIP season awards winners

Columbus, OH – The U.S. Trotting Association is proud to announce the winners of the 2025 Standardbred Incentive Program. With 99 awards being presented, the recently concluded fourth season of SIP is the biggest yet. Participant growth was the greatest in the Carriage/Pleasure Driving, English and Three-Phase divisions, along with subdivisions of English 2-Gait, Showmanship and Hunter Pace. There are 30 different horses and 27 riders/drivers being awarded.

The biggest winners for SIP’s fourth season are: Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson with 12 awards, followed closely by Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn taking home 11. Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink will take home nine awards with Beans Brother & Leslie McLaren and Fork & Hayden Swartz each with seven honors.

One of the greatest assets of SIP is it allows horses in Standardbred sparse regions to compete against other Standardbreds for performance awards. There is a high concentration of horses enrolled in SIP based out of New Jersey and Ohio, but there are single-team participants based out of Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Texas and Vermont.

The complete list of 2025 season winners are as follows:

Carriage/Pleasure Driving Division
Champion – Ideal Kiss & Colleen Layton
Reserve Champion – Xing the Delaware & Kelly Conn

Dressage Division
Champion – Wisenheimer & Jenny Melander
Reserve Champion – Ronnie Goldstein & Kimberly Gobeli
3^rd Place – Parade & Brianna Touzjian
4^th Place – Dontmindifigoo & Ashley Parsells
5^th Place – Rubber Duck & Ashley Parsells

Dressage Subdivision
Intro Champion – Ronnie Goldstein & Kimberly Gobeli
Intro Reserve Champion – Stitch In Time & Abby Thompson

English Flat Division
Champion – Ubanji & Alexis Barros
Reserve Champion – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
3^rd Place – Beans Brother & Leslie McLaren
4^th Place – Proven Desire & Paige Usiak
5^th Place – Wisenheimer & Jenny Melander

English Flat Subdivisions
2 Gait
Champion – Ubanji & Alexis Barros
Reserve Champion – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
3^rd Place – Proven Desire & Paige Usiak
4^th Place – Beans Brother & Leslie McLaren
5^th Place – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson

3 Gait
Champion – Beans Brother & Leslie McLaren
Reserve Champion – Wisenheimer & Jenny Melander

Hunter Under Saddle
Champion – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
Reserve Champion – Beans Brother & Leslie McLaren

Gaited Division
Champion – Don Dinero & Lily Kirin

Games & Contesting Division
Champion – Never Say Sorry & Chelsea Chase
Reserve Champion – Fork & Hayden Swartz
3^rd Place – Special T Rocks & Hayley Walters
4^th Place – Firecrackergraham & Hayley Walters
5^th Place – Keystone Sable & Nicole Ratledge

Games & Contesting Subdivisions
Barrel Racing
Champion – Never Say Sorry & Chelsea Chase
Reserve Champion – Fork & Hayden Swartz
3^rd Place – Special T Rocks & Hayley Walters
4^th Place – Keystone Sable & Nicole Ratledge

Fun Classes
Champion – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
Reserve Champion – Clearly Foxy & Lindsay Toms

Obstacles/Trail
Champion – Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink
Reserve Champion – Who’s My Daddy & Audree Herrera-Symonds
3^rd Place – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
4^th Place – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson

Timed Events
Champion – Fork & Hayden Swartz
Reserve Champion – Special T Rocks & Hayley Walters
3^rd Place – Firecrackergraham & Hayley Walters
4^th Place – Never Say Sorry & Chelsea Chase

Halter Division
Champion – Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink
Reserve Champion – Ubanji & Alexis Barros
3^rd Place – Rock On Creek & Leslie McLaren
4^th Place – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
5^th Place – Hidden Galaxy & Crystal Ladd

Handler Performance Division
Champion – Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink
Reserve Champion – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson
3^rd Place – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
4^th Place – Xing The Delaware & Lucy Conn
5^th Place – Hidden Galaxy & Crystal Ladd

Handler Performance Subdivisions
Equitation
Champion – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson
Reserve Champion – Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink

Showmanship
Champion – Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink
Reserve Champion – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
3^rd Place – Hidden Galaxy & Crystal Ladd
4^th Place – Who’s My Daddy & Audree Herrera-Symonds
5^th Place – Beans Brother & Leslie McLaren

Western Horsemanship
Champion – Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink
Reserve Champion – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson

Over Fences Division
Champion – Unthinkable & Avery Torbert
Reserve Champion – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
3^rd Place – Ubanji & Alexis Barros
4^th Place – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson

Over Fences Subdivisions
Hunter
Champion – Unthinkable & Avery Torbert
Reserve Champion – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson

Jumper
Champion – Xing The Delaware & Kelly Conn
Reserve Champion – Ronnie Goldstein & Kimberly Gobeli

Roadster Division
Champion – Overandovervictory & Duncan Huyler
Reserve Champion – Kennebago & Jon Walker

Three Phase Division
Champion – Dash Of Rose & Annabelle O’Brien
Reserve Champion – Parade & Brianna Touzjian

Three Phase Subdivision
Eventing
Champion – Dash of Rose & Annabelle O’Brien
Reserve Champion – Parade & Brianna Touzjian

Trail & Endurance Division
Champion – Shotgun Rider & Merri Melde
Reserve Champion – Ooh Rah & Natasha Collett

Trail & Endurance Subdivision
Hunter Pace
Champion – Ooh Rah & Natasha Collett
Co-Reserve Champion – Beans Brother & Leslie McLaren
Co-Reserve Champion – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson

Western Division
Champion – Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink
Reserve Champion – Fork & Hayden Swartz
3^rd Place – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson
4^th Place – Wisenheimer & Jenny Melander

Western Subdivisions
2 Gait
Champion – Fork & Hayden Swartz
Reserve Champion – Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink
3^rd Place – Wisenheimer & Jenny Melander
4^th Place – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson

3 Gait
Champion – Fork & Hayden Swartz
Reserve Champion – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson

Working Western
Champion – Metro’s Escape & Marcia Harmelink
Reserve Champion – Beans Brother & Leslie McLaren
3^rd Place – Slippery Slope & Shannon Wilson
4^th Place – Sunshine Maeve & Courtney Gramlich

Fresh Off The Track
Champion – Firecrackergraham & Hayley Walters
Reserve Champion – Proven Desire & Paige Usiak

War Horse
Champion – Fork & Hayden Swartz
Reserve Champion – Special T Rocks & Hayley Walters

The Standardbred Incentive Program was launched in May of 2022 and is designed to recognize the participation and achievements of Standardbreds off the track. The current 2026 show season started Dec. 1, 2025 and runs through Nov. 30, 2026.

More information about the Standardbred Incentive Program, the various disciplines recognized, tutorials about how you can enroll and more can be found on this page of the Life After Racing section of the USTA website.

Since 1996, the Standardbred Equine Program has worked with owners of off-the-track Standardbreds to educate the general public about the many disciplines Standardbreds excel at once they are retired from racing. For more information about the SEP at the USTA, visit LifeAfterRacing.ustrotting.com.