There’s an old saying that goes something like this:

Great horses make great horse trainers, not the other way around. And Its Game On is living proof of that, says Jamie English.

Jamie and her husband, Jason, spotted the 2018 bay gelding by Machine Made and out of Moonlite In Dixie, while visiting Parrish Quarter Horses in Pavo, Georgia, where he was bred and raised.

“He was supposed to be a Western Pleasure horse but he got too big,” said Montville, New Jersey Non-Pro competitor Tali Terlizzi, who purchased him last September.

Jason and Jamie had purchased Its Game On for another client and the initial plan was for Jamie to show him in the Masters Hunter Under Saddle at the All-American Quarter Horse Congress last year. When Covid-19 forced the cancellation of the Congress plans changed and Terlizzi was given the opportunity to own him. When she got the phone call from Jason, she and her partner of five years, John Harms were on a plane the following weekend.

“I remember saying to Jason, when I got there, that I was afraid to ride him because I thought I was going to love him, and I was right, I loved him,” Terlizzi said.

In fact, she was impressed even before she stepped aboard.

“I loved him from the first time Jamie pulled him out of his stall,” she said. “He was just so well-mannered and sweet, he has a special look to him. He is big and beautiful.”

There was a lot to love, according to Terlizzi.

“He has all the gears. He has an extremely long neck that ties in right where it’s supposed to be so he is so steady through it, he is consistent. He can really trot but the most special part of him is his lope. I mean you literally cannot look away when he lopes, it’s so strong, so slow legged, and so natural for him.”

That did it.

“I had a huge smile on my face, it’s even on video, and I looked at John (videoing me of course). He asked me what it felt like and I just looked at him and laughed,” she recalled. “His response was ‘I guess I’m writing a check today.’”

Terlizzi’s initial plan was for Its Game On to make his show debut as a 3-year-old at the March To The Arch but he progressed so well that Jamie decided to show him in the Green Hunter Under Saddle and 3-Year-Old Open Hunter Under Saddle at the Fun In The Sun Futurity, held at the Fox Lea Farms Winter Circuit in Venice, Florida.

“I think they showed to nine judges and he was first on every card,” Terlizzi said. “So far he is undefeated in his career.”

Its Game On will next show in the 3-Year-Old & Over Novice Horse Hunter Under Saddle slot class at the March To The Arch show in Fort Worth, Texas, this month, where the winner will earn $20,000.

“He has a great ring presence, very welling and enjoys doing his job,” Jamie said.

After that Its Game On will compete at all the major show circuits and futurities this year with Jamie in the irons in Open classes while Tali will get the opportunity to ride her new horse in Non-Pro classes.

“My goal last year was to bring home a trophy from the NSBA (National Snaffle Bit Association) World Show and we did that – ­a few of them, including a BCF (Breeders Championship Futurity) Championship, but I have not yet won an NSBA World Champion title yet or Congress title, so that is my goal for this year,” she said. 

In the meantime, Terlizzi has two other successful show horses to keep her busy.

Al Be Bleu (Elwood) is a 2016 gray gelding by Allocate Your Assets out of Makin The Boys Blue.

“I saw him at the Georgia On My Mind show in Conyers, back in 2019, I was with a different trainer at the time, but Elwood was in training with Jamie,” Terlizzi said. “He was phenomenal.”

When Tali tried him out, she admits, it didn’t feel great.

“But when I watched the video, I was like WOW,” she said. “I purchased him from Wendy Whittington, a friend now.”

Together they have amassed quite the show record.

“He won tons of futurities his 3-year-old year, including the Premier Sires Limited Horse Limited Rider Hunter Under Saddle class, Terlizzi said. “He won every class at the Tom Powers that year in the open (Hunter Under Saddle), and some with me in the Non-Pro.”

In 2020, he was the Reserve AQHA Honor Roll Champion in Junior Hunter Under Saddle. He won the Open Hunter Under Saddle Maturity at the Big A Circuit with Jamie in the irons and was Reserve in the Non-Pro with Tali. Then, at the NSBA World Show Tali and Elwood won the BCF 4-to-6-year-old Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle.

“He is very exotic moving, with a big, sweepy, slow legged trot, and fires his legs at the canter,” Tali said.

But he has quite the personality.

“Oh Lord, he is the most annoying horse in the world and a total goofball,” Tali admits. “We literally call him ‘Baby Shark’ because well, he always has to have something in his mouth, whether it’s a lead rope, reins, or an arm. It seems like the good ones always have weird quirks!”

Al Be Bleu will be shown this year in Level 3 Junior Hunter Under Saddle classes and Open Hunter Under Saddle Maturities by Jamie and in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle and Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturities by Terlizzi.

“I would love for him to prove himself in the pen a little bit more as he matures,” Tali said. “I think he will be an awesome senior horse. I truly believe he deserves to be out there with some of the best horses.”

Terlizzi admits he is sometimes a challenge for her to get shown.

“I’m still learning him, he is one of those horses that you have to stay out of their way, he knows his job and he is so talented he doesn’t need help. It has been a huge challenge for me, but he has taught me so much.”

Tali has been horse crazy for as long as she can remember. She got her start riding Hunters when she was just four or five.

“I did some local stuff and then really got into jumping, but I hit a point in my jumping career where jumps started getting taller than me, and the falls hurt more,” she recalls.

Terlizzi has always had a passion, however, for the Quarter Horse world and although she didn’t have a youth career like most people in the industry did, she jumped right in as a Novice Amateur competitor and showed a couple pleasure horses while she was a student at Kansas State University, majoring in Agricultural Business with a specialization in Equine Studies. She got hooked on hunt seat horses but was always fascinated by the Western Pleasure discipline because her grandmother, Joan Terlizzi, competed in Halter and Western Pleasure.

That perhaps explains the draw she felt the first time she spotted Pinball Machine, a 2018 sorrel gelding by Machine Made and out of Too Lazy To Pass at an AQHA show in Conyers, Georgia early last year.

Kelby Hutchinson was riding the flashy youngster around and he moved so effortlessly that he caught Tali’s eye.

“I always said if I got one (a Western Pleasure contender) it had to be amazing, and he was. I watched him lope to the left and then asked Kelby to lope him to the right and that’s when I decided I had to have him,” she said. “Plus, he could jog too.”

Pinball Machine made his show debut at the 2020 NSBA World Show by winning the BCF 2-Year-Old Intermediate Open Western Pleasure and a bronze in the 2-Year-Old Intermediate Open Western Pleasure. And, he won the 2-Year-Old Intermediate Open Western Pleasure at the Tom Powers Christmas Challenge with Kelby’s wife, Kaitlin, in the saddle.

He finished the year as the NSBA High Point Champion in the 2-Year-Old Intermediate Open Western Pleasure. This year Pinball Machine will be shown in Open 3-Year-Old events with Kelby and Kaitlin and Tali will show him in 3-Year-Old Non-Pro and Novice Amateur Western Pleasure classes.

Long-term, Tali would like to keep Pinball Machine to get her son, Knox, 3 and daughter, Trevi, 2, started riding.

“He is about to start his career in the Lead Line with Trevi,” she said.

Terlizzi is always looking toward the future. A stay-at-home mom, she operates a small breeding program on the side and she and John recently announced their engagement. They are waiting for Covid restrictions to lighten before setting a date for the wedding and, in the meantime, are focusing on their horse operation.

Tali bred and raised Im Nexxt, a 2019 gelding by The Next Detail and she has high hopes for his future as a show horse.

“He is currently in training at High-Point Performance horses (Pilot Point, Texas) and I’m really excited about him for this year,” she said. “I think he will be a great 2-year-old.”

She also recently purchased Heres To The Blue, a 2020 stallion by Good I Will Be out of the great show mare, The First Ride.

“Nancy Sue Ryan bred and raised him and I just purchased him from Beth (Case),” she said. “He will start his career this year in Longe Line and then move on to his career with Beth at Highpoint when he is a 2-year-old. The hope is that he will be a breeding asset in our industry,” Terlizzi said. “We have high hopes for this guy and are so excited about him. It’s been a goal of mine to own a stallion for some time.”