New Amateur Hunter Under Saddle, Showmanship, Horsemanship winners crowned

Source: Text and Photos by Courtney Archer

HUS WinnerIt was two different days, two different 3-year-old horses and two World Championship titles for T. Sharnai Thompson, Pilot Point, Texas, at the AQHA World Championship Show in Oklahoma City.

Thompson won the Hunter Under Saddle Wednesday aboard Only Blue Couture (aka Azzy). The 2011 gray mare by Hot Ones Only and out of Blue Couture is owned by Holly Johnson, Tomworth, New South Wales. Thompson is leasing Only Blue Couture and following the World Championship Show she will travel to Australia where Johnson will show and breed her.

“We have shown Azzy all year in the 3-year-old futurities and have done great,” Thompson says, “so to win the World Championship on her is icing on the cake.”

Only Blue Couture is the first Hot Ones Only offspring to capture a World Championship so the win was special for Thompson since her family owns the young sire.

“Every time we show Azzy she keeps getting better and better and today I couldn’t of asked her to be any better,” she says.

A total of 36 competed in the class judged by Karen Watters, Clay Farrell, Sissy Anderson, Bob Kail and Mike Hay.

Boys Move Over and Courtney Suzanne Brockmueller, of Whitesboro, Texas, were Reserve Champions in the class.

ShowmanshipEarlier in the day Kaleena Weakley captured her first World Championship title in Amateur Showmanship with her 2006 sorrel mare, Ours Yours And Mine. Weakley won the class across the board with all five judges selecting her in their top spot.

Ours Yours And Mine (aka Blondie) is sired by The Radical Hour and out of One Pretty Blaze. She has been Weakley’s show partner for six years now.  The finals pattern had a lot of downward and upward transitions, a lot of trotting, two set-ups and the key to the pattern was competitors had to nail the marks.

“I could not have asked Blondie to be any better today,” Weakley says. “In both set-ups it took her two moves and she was square. It was definitely our day to shine and it’s a day I will never forget.”

Judges for the Amateur Showmanship, with a total of 54 entries, were Bob Kail, Mike Carter, Steve Heckaman, Cynthia Rucker and Sissy Anderson.

It was late into the evening when Whitney Walquist-Vicars, Cleburne, Texas, won the Amateur Horsemanship World Championship title aboard Southwestern Gunman, a 2006 bay gelding by Dress Western and out of Ms Southern Border.

A total of 61 entries competed in the class judged by Mike Carter, Kelly McDowall, Laurel Walker-Denton, John Dean and Cynthia Rucker.

Reserve Champions were Ginnin and Caroline Ammons, Englewoon, Colorado.

The Amateur portion of the AQHA World Show continues all week in Oklahoma City. The Open Division gets under way on Saturday and continues all next week. For more information on the AQHA World Championship Show, including a schedule and complete results visit www.AQHA.com

 

 

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