Graceful, pretty and sweet is how Alexandra Chavez describes her 2-year old Hunter Under Saddle mare.

Sired by Allocate Your Assets and out of a daughter of Art I Sweet, the bay mare with the wide blaze and four stockings, certainly personifies her name – Pretty Assets.

Amy Brosch, of Sorrento, Florida, raised Pretty Assets and showed her very successfully in the Hunter Yearling Longe Line last year. She won a Congress bronze in the Non-Pro Yearling Hunter Longe Line and Kathie Kennedy captured the Reserve Championship with her in the Open. Pretty Assets was the 2014 National Snaffle Bit Association High Point Champion in Hunter Non-Pro Yearling Longe Line with Brosch.

“I saw her at Congress in the Longe Line, and loved her then,” says Chavez. “I hadn’t seen her since then, so when I saw her this summer at the Little Futurity, being ridden around the grounds as a 2-year old, I fell in love with her all over again. My trainer, Troy Lehn, took Pretty Assets out for a test ride and after about 10 minutes, he got off and told me she’d be a perfect Non-Pro 2-year-old for me.”

Troy Lehn & Pretty Assets at the NSBA World Show

Chavez may have been a little bit partial to another bay daughter of Allocate Your Assets; her first Hunter Under Saddle horse, and first World Champion, was Beautiful Maiden, a bay mare by Allocate Your Assets.

“Everything about Pretty Assets is what we were looking for,” confirms Troy. “Her cadence, the way she naturally holds herself.”

Alex is especially impressed with her good mind.

“She reminds us both of Duke (Only Smokin Hot), my 3-year old last year,” she explains. “She has that same kind of feel, the cadence and the way she locks in.”

Troy agrees, “I knew she’d be exactly what Alex would like and they’d get along great,” he says.

Alex calls the mare Lacy and says she’s really sweet and personable.

Pretty Assets & Alexandra Chavez at the Tom Powers Futurity

“If she could be a lap dog she would be. She gets lots of treats. She is big and beautiful and definitely stands out in the arena with her flashy white legs and blaze,” Alex says. “I think what really sets her apart is her movement, she has an easy way of moving and is great at both the trot and canter.”

Pretty Assets was taken directly from the Little Futurity to the Tom Powers Futurity in Michigan.

“Troy started riding her around when we got there and she progressed each time he took her out to ride,” Alex says. “We weren’t sure if she would show in the futurity there, but agreed if she was ready she would show, if she wasn’t she wouldn’t. We took it day by day. ”

But her debut was more than successful as the pair scored wins on all four judges’ cards to win the 2-Year-Old Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle. Troy also showed her to a win in the 2-Year-Old Limited Open Hunter Under Saddle.

“The weather was perfect when Alex showed her in the Non-Pro,” says Troy. “It was… less than ideal when I showed her in the Open. I rode her around in the mud a little to get her used to it and she didn’t seem to mind mud in her face, so we showed. She handled it all very well.”

Following their successful start at the Tom Powers Futurity, Troy and Alex began working to prepare Lacy for the NSBA World Championship Show.

Only Smokin Hot & Alexandra Chavez at the Congress last year

“She’s always been a phenomenal mover,” says Alex. “We’ve continued getting her more consistent and applying buttons. She is so trainable and eager to learn.”

Pretty Assets proved she is more than just a pretty face and legs in Tulsa. She handled the heat and big show atmosphere like a pro. Troy showed her to win the NSBA World Championship in the 2-Year-Old Limited Open Hunter Under Saddle and was the Breeders Championship Futurity 2- Year-Old Limited Open Reserve Champion. Alex showed her in the 2-Year-Old Non Pro Hunter Under Saddle to win Reserve, and they placed third in the Breeders Championship Futurity Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle. Deanna Searles rode Lacy to a third place finish in the Breeders Championship Open Hunter Under Saddle.

After the NSBA World Show, Lacy came home and took a break for a couple of weeks before starting training again. The Congress is always a challenge for young show horses. The schedule, the competition, the stress can be difficult for horses and people to keep their minds steady. But Chavez is both realistic and optimistic in her plans for the 2-year-old at the Congress, understanding the factors involved in showing young horses at such a large event.

“We plan to prepare her the same way we have all year. We can only hope that on the days she shows that it is her day and she performs at her best,” Lehn says. Alex will be showing her in the Non-Pro and Troy in the Open, with both of them also eligible for the limited divisions. “It’s so exciting!”

Alexandra Chavez & Hot Lopin Goodbar

Alexandra Chavez was raised in Seattle, Washington with two brothers and three sisters. She played soccer during her years at Bishop Blanchet High School and also while attending Seattle University, majoring in Bio Sciences. Her father had horses on his ranch, although it was her sister, Nicole, who took the interest in competing as a professional barrel racer.

Alex’s husband, Eric, was a professional baseball player for the Oakland Athletics when they met. Married in 2003 they have three children: Diego, 10; Dolce, 7; and Cruz 6.

Eric and Alex made their home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. The weather and the baseball spring training locale made it the perfect place for them to live and raise their children. Alex bought a couple of ponies and horses for the children to enjoy. After a while, she sought out a local trainer, Christy Snyder, to help her with the horses and chores. As the children grew and became involved in sports and school activities, they become less interested in the horses. “I used to have them help me with chores,” said Alex. “Until I realized they were actually making more work for me instead of less.”

“They like the horses,” she adds. “During the summer months they are able to travel to the shows with me. They’ve made several friends with other kids at the shows, so they are able to have fun and play with them. You know, they’re in that pack of kids, running around, scaring the horses,” she laughs.

Right now, the kids don’t ride regularly and don’t have an interest in showing horses.

The Chavez Family

“I thought Dolce would, I even bought her a show outfit,” says Alex. “That’s probably what cursed that. She plays tennis and the boys are into sports too.”

Eventually, the lure of competition got the best of Alex and she decided to explore the world of horse showing. With guidance from Snyder, her first show horse was Hocus Boston Flame, purchased in 2011. Alex showed the sorrel mare in Novice Amateur Western Pleasure, earning a top 10 at the AQHA Novice Championships Show in Tennessee, eventually pointing out of the novice eligibility.

Her second show horse was a bay mare named Beautiful Maiden, purchased just before the 2012 AQHA World Championship Show. The daughter of Allocate Your Assets, rewarded her new owner with a World Championship title in Junior Hunter Under Under Saddle.

Alex connected with trainers Rusty and Katie Green, and purchased The Best Sign Yet, a red roan gelding by RL Best Of Sudden out of a daughter of Vital Signs Are Good. The gelding had won the 2012 Congress Non-Pro Western Pleasure Maturity with Kerk Sanders and would prove to be an excellent partner for Alex as she made the step from Novice Amateur to Amateur Western Pleasure.

A shot of Chavez’s arena and barn in Paradise Valley, Ariz.

Alex’s husband, Eric, retired in 2014 as the third baseman for the Arizona Diamondbacks. While he played ball, their home was his personal training facility. As Alex’s horse interests grew and she began to compete, the property adjusted too. The facility now includes a 12-stall barn, with a couple of turnouts, arena, hotwalker, and round pen – next to the batting cage.

“He’s been really supportive of me and what I want to do with the horses,” Alex says. “He’s not very comfortable around the horses himself but he is behind me in what I want to do. It’s nice, because the years he played ball I traveled with him to the ballgames and now it’s fun for me to come first.”

“He doesn’t ride, but he likes the horses. He’ll come out to the barn and pet them and feed them,” she says. “He refers to them as ‘the brown one’ when he doesn’t know their name.”

Alex now has 10 horses at home and a couple with the Greens. Two more are in training with Katy Jo Zuidema and she also owns two broodmares.

“Beautiful Maiden is raising babies with recipient mares,” Alex says. Her other mare is the dam of her Hunter Under Saddle gelding, Only Smokin Hot. “We loved Duke so much, I had to go buy his mother.”

Troy Lehn & A Chrome Cookie at the Arizona Sun Circuit

Troy Lehn is Alex’s resident trainer for her All-Around and Hunter Under Saddle horses at home in Paradise Valley. Lehn grew up on his family farm, with two brothers and a sister, in Decatur, Illinois, showing steers and participating in 4-H and showing POAs before making the step into AQHA. When he was 20 years old, he moved to Georgia to work for Dean Bogart. About eight years ago, he moved to southern California to work for Gary and Kelly Roberts, until Alex hired him in 2014. One of their first projects together was a 3-year-old Hunter Under Saddle gelding, by Hot Ones Only. Only Smokin Hot (Duke), earned Congress Champion and Reserve Champion and NSBA World and Reserve World Champion titles. Alex showed Duke in the Non-Pro and Ryan Painter showed him in the Open and Limited Open events.

When the couple lived in New York while Eric played for the New York Yankees, Alex assisted with a local therapeutic riding program and worked as a sidewalker. “The EWD classes at horse shows didn’t exist when I was helping with the group in New York,” she says. “Now that the kids are older and busy, I have a hard time finding free time that I can devote to volunteering right now.” Chavez is pleased to support the Equestrians With Disabilities program in the NSBA. “It’s really neat to see it at the World Show.”

Alex wants to focus her program on the foals she is raising and futurities. “Most of the futurities are held during the summer months, which is when the kids are out of school,” she explains. A futurity show schedule is more accommodating to maintaining family life.

“The most difficult show for me is the Sun Circuit,” she shares.

Alexandra Chavez & Only In Showbiz at the Silver Dollar Circuit

While most exhibitors are enjoying a winter break vacation, Chavez is simply adding a horse show to a full day-to-day life at home schedule, with school and activities.

“When I travel to a horse show, I’ve made plans and the kids are cared for, and arrangements are made, and I don’t have to worry,” she says. “During Sun Circuit, there’s still school and home stuff to do every day, in addition to the show.”

“Congress is a little scary,” Alex admits. While the thought of competition has never bothered her, and she’s enjoyed tremendous success at the Congress, the number of horses she is taking adds to the excitement of it all this year.

Troy will be showing A Chrome Cookie in Junior and Green Trail. “He has a real talent for it,” says Lehn.

The challenging class is probably Lehn’s favorite event. He says his ultimate goal is to win an AQHA World Champion title in Trail.

“Trail is a difficult class, I’d say he definitely has it in him to be able to win it,” he says. “It depends on the day and how things go. I’d be thrilled if I could win it on him.” The pair has been very successful this year with several large circuit championship wins, giving them both some confidence.

Alex will show Only In Showbiz in the Amateur All-Around events, and Cruzin Softly in Showmanship. Troy will be showing Good Like Jagger in the 2-Year Old Limited Open Western Pleasure and The Best Sign Yet in Green Western Riding. Harriet Yakatan has leased the gelding to show in Amateur Select Western Pleasure. Hot Lopin Goodbar will be Alex’s partner in the Amateur Western Pleasure and Non-Pro Maturity, under the guidance of Rusty and Katie Green.

Katy Jo Zuidema will be presenting Hoos Got Legs, a 2- year old mare by Hot Ones Only, in the Masters Hunter Under Saddle class for Chavez.