A total of 14 horses are slated to compete for a total purse of $36,300 in the $30,000 added 3-Year-Old Maiden Open Hunter Under Saddle slot class, being presented this afternoon as part of the Virginia Maiden at the March To Virginia AQHA Show March 27-30, in Lexington, Virginia. Action is expected to start at […]
As a Pre-K to 5th level STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) teacher at Horry County Schools in Conway, South Carolina, Christine Smith McClure is always looking for a way to show her students how to engineer a fix for problems that arise daily. It’s key to providing them with critical thinking and problem-solving skills. […]
It’s going to be tough to top the year Hay Goodlookn (Gus) foals had in the show pen in 2024 as his offspring recorded earnings well in excess of $250,000. But Blair and Susan Roberts and their daughter, Hillary Timchak, of Capital Quarter Horses, located in Pilot Point, Texas, are confident this is just the […]
He is the top National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA) Open Western Pleasure money earner with over $1.3 million in lifetime earnings. So when Rusty Green selects, trains and shows a young contender, people pay attention. The industry pays attention. That’s exactly the case with the young Western Pleasure sire Top Gunn (Cruz), a 2020 […]
Bestselling children’s author JK Rowling, who penned the Harry Potter novels once said that “family is a life jacket in the stormy sea of life.” Sisters Allie and Madeline (Maddie) Rippeon, of Mount Airy, Maryland would agree. As fierce competitors on the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) and National Snaffle Bit Association (NSBA) show circuits Maddie, 17, […]
If you ever watched the 2005 movie “Batman Begins,” starring Christian Bale, you surely recall the line “It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do, that defines me.” Back then, Batt Man, an American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) leading sire of Western Pleasure contenders wasn’t even born yet. But all of the astute […]
Sometimes, no matter what the discipline, a show horse hits a brick wall in the training process and just fails to perform at the level expected. There are many potential reasons for the change – stress, horse show burnout, a change in rider or discipline. The first thing that needs to happen is that any […]
Anyone with even the slightest bit of experience in the show pen knows that there are many variables that go into the making of a champion. Conformation and genetics have big roles. And of course there’s the training aspect. But when you start with an animal that is a natural things just seem to fall […]
Multiple Congress Champion and Reserve American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) World Champion producer Hot Diggity Joe was humanely euthanized on Friday in Ocala, Florida, following a brief battle with congestive heart failure. The 1998 sorrel stallion, sired by Blazing Hot and out of Jodie Fivette, was bred by and owned his entire life by Kerry […]
Competition in the pattern classes at top breed shows and futurities has improved so much in the past decade that course designers have had to add maneuvers and to the degree of difficulty just to keep up and make the classes challenging. Some of today’s Showmanship Horsemanship, Equitation, Trail and Ranch patterns can get extremely […]
When she was just a kid, growing up in rural Brill, Wisconsin, Ann Lapacinski was lucky to share a passion for horses and showing with her mother. “When I was in kindergarten I can remember getting picked up by my mom on our old horse Rusty who was a Quarter Horse/Welsh Pony cross and we […]
If you are watching the Amateur Hunter Under Saddle or Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity at the National Snaffle Bit Association’s World Championship Futurity this month or at the Quarter Horse Congress, it will be easy to spot Amanda Smith. She will be the one with the big smile on her face, courtesy of her […]
