Amateur and Non-Pro contender April Baryton, of Conyers, Georgia really knows her show partner, After Midnite.

“Midnite is very willing to do anything you ask him…. but you must ask nicely, you never tell him what to do,” she explains. “He loves to eat anything you’re eating but will beg and stalk you for peppermints.”

A lot of people would have given up on the 2008 black gelding by RL Best of Sudden and out of Sweet Talkin Jeannie, but she and her trainer, Jason English never lost faith.

“We bought him in May of 2010, with hopes of having him ready for the Coughlin 2-Year-Old Western Pleasure at the Quarter Horse Congress,” she explains. “It turns out that Midnite was not ready to show until he was a 3-year-old, so our journey began then.”

Brayton says English has always believed in this horse, and never ever gave up.

In 2011 Brayton and After Midnite won the Novice Novice Western Pleasure at A Little Futurity; placed third in the 3-Year-Old Non-Pro Western Pleasure at the Tom Powers Futurity; won the All-Age Novice Non-Pro Western Pleasure at the National Snaffle Bit Association World Championship Show and placed seventh in the 3-Year-Old Limited Non-Pro Western Pleasure at the Quarter Horse Congress. That sounds like an impressive record but Brayton said it didn’t come easy.

“Although, our 3-year-old year was a struggle,  Midnite kept getting better and better as Jason pushed for more,” she says.

In 2012 Brayton and After Midnite claimed two NSBA World Championship titles, and won the Novice Horse Novice Rider Western Pleasure class at the Tom Powers Futurity and Reichert Celebration. They were also Reserve Champions in Novice Amateur Western Pleasure at the Congress and finished the year as NSBA High-Point Champions in Novice Novice Western Pleasure and Novice Amateur Western Pleasure. English and After Midnite won the Intermediate Open Western Pleasure Maturity at the NSBA World Show that year and placed third in the $10,000 Western Pleasure Maturity at the Congress.

Brayton had been attending the Congress for the past 20 years as a spectator but never got to show there until she purchased Midnite.

“I never thought I was good enough to compete,” she says. “But now that I have shown there, I must say it is such a great experience.  I remember jogging into the Celeste arena in the finals and trying to soak it all in and remember this feeling, it was so surreal.  The arena was so big and the music was playing and the bleachers were full of spectators, there is nothing that compares to that.  It was one of the best experiences in my life, and then to be Reserve Champion after all the splits and semi -finals was such an amazing feeling.  I was so proud of my horse and Jason English for always believing we could do it.”

Last year, Brayton and After Midnite placed in the Top 5 of the Intermediate Division of the Non-Pro Western Pleasure Maturity at the NSBA World Show and fourth in the Limited Division of the Non-Pro Western Pleasure Maturity at the Congress.

“We have accomplished lots of goals in our short show career,” Brayton says. “He is one of the most talented, big hearted, and special horses I have ever had.  I am blessed to have the opportunity to own and show him.”

This year she is competing in Amateur and Non-Pro Western Pleasure and has added Novice Horsemanship. After Midnite is already qualified for the Amateur Western Pleasure and Senior Western Pleasure at this year’s AQHA World Show. They plan to show at the NSBA World Show, Congress and AQHA World Show this year. In addition, English has started him in Western Riding. They hope to get him qualified in that event as well and Brayton will add that event later this year.

When she is not at a show Brayton is busy at work and at home. A 1992 graduate of American College for the Applied Arts with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Interior Design, Brayton started at Scientific Atlanta in September of 1993, first job out of college and has worked for Cisco Systems (formerly Scientific Atlanta) for 21 years.

“Cisco Systems is a supplies network geared to thousands of companies,” she explains. “ Our site provides cable set top boxes to the top cable companies.  I spent most of my career working in the Work Place Resources group as a project manager and space planner. I have recently changed jobs and moved over to the engineering side of the company and now do project management and lab documentation.  I provide fiber infrastructure drawings, lab drawings, as well as lab rack design drawings.”

The daughter of Durwood and Mary Allen, Brayton says she has loved horses all her life, but growing up in the city, she never had the opportunity to have one until later in life.

“After I got out of college my mom got a horse. She bought a Palomino, and decided to show him at the Palomino horse shows,” she says. “This piqued my interest and it wasn’t long after, that I bought my first Quarter Horse.  As soon as I bought my first horse, I knew that they would forever be a part of my life.”

April says her husband’s passion is “horse…power.” She met Robert Brayton on a blind date and have been together ever since.

“We dated for two years and have been married for almost 21 years,” she says. “He prefers drag cars and muscle cars. In fact, he still owns a drag racing car.”

When she is not working, at a show or traveling with her husband, Brayton enjoys doing design work.

“I am always redoing something in my house, whether it is painting a room, recovering furniture, making pillows or creating landscape designs,” she says. “ I love to design, and it really doesn’t matter what it is. I am addicted to the DIY network and love to watch shows with interior improvements.”