When you are the All-Time Amateur Hunter Under Saddle Horse Rider Combination in American Quarter Horse Association history you get a lot of questions like “how did you do it?”

Shelly Boyle knows the exact answer.

“First and foremost, it’s taken a physically tough, sound horse that loves his job,” she explained.

At just 16 hands tall and plain brown in color, her show partner, Put Your Spurs On isn’t the biggest, flashiest, fanciest horse in the pen.

“But he is great legged and consistent with a great expression,” Boyle said. “Micky has a tremendous work ethic and he is always full of try.  We are so fortunate that he takes essentially no maintenance for soundness.”

Boyle has spent most of her life showing horses. She got her first Quarter Horse, Poco Tyker Socks, when she was 12 and they competed in Showmanship and English events at open and 4-H shows in the Jamestown, Pennsylvania area where she grew up.  Next came Incredible Corey, the horse that helped her move exclusively into AQHA competition. They excelled in Showmanship but also competed in Hunter Under Saddle, Equitation and some over fences classes.  When an injury sidelined Incredible Corey, Boyle decided she was ready for a change and purchased Chip Off The Redrock in 2007 to show in the western all around events. They competed in everything from Horsemanship and Showmanship to Equitation, Hunter Under Saddle and Trail. Within two years, Boyle knew it was time to get back to her roots so she told her then trainer Laurie Hoopes to find a hunt seat type all-around horse.

An impromptu conversation at a show led Boyle to the 2006 gelding by Potential Investment and out of All In Chocolate, that would carry her to stardom.

“I was training with Laurie Hoopes, and she really stumbled across Micky by chance,” Boyle explained. “During an August show in Harlansburg (Pennsylvania), she struck up a conversation with Ray Carmean and let him know that we were looking for a “tweener.” Ray told Laurie he had just the horse, and his wife, Tonya, would be showing him over the weekend.  The next day we watched Tonya show Micky in the Hunter Under Saddle, and Laurie told me I had to buy him.”

Under Hoopes’ guidance Boyle earned four AQHA High Point titles and top ten placings at the All-American Quarter Horse Congress and the AQHA World Show.

“She spent countless hours on the road with us, sometimes hauling only Micky so that we could pick up that precious extra point when we were hauling for titles,” Boyle said.

In 2014 Boyle enlisted the help of Ohio trainers Darla and Brian Lee.

“I always loved this horse and would always ask Shelly if she wanted to sell him before she brought him to us for training,” Darla said.  I think she got sick of telling me no after a while, so she brought him to us for training.”

Boyle said the move was due to her desire to refocus her goals.

“I am so proud of Micky for being talented and strong enough to earn four AQHA High Points in a row, but I knew it wouldn’t be the right thing for him in the long run to continue to chase those down and I wanted to focus on fewer, higher level shows,” she explained. “We are very fortunate that many of those large and challenging shows are in Ohio.  I also wanted to finish my Equitation superior and discontinue the all-around events, focusing solely on Hunter Under Saddle, which I think has also helped Micky mentally and physically at this point in his career. Darla was able to take Micky to a point where, once I learned a new way to ride, he just became so easy.”

The timing could not have been better since, at the same time, Boyle was in the process of moving to the suburbs of Atlanta, Georgia.

“Many people asked if I would take Micky so the south with me, but I knew the best decision for him was to stay right where he was at Lee Quarter Horses,” she said.  “I have complete trust that Brian and Darla will not only always have my horse ready to compete for me, but they will do it the right way and provide him with amazing care.”

Few horses have a show record more impressive than that of Put Your Spurs On.

In addition to being an AQHA Champion and AQHA Amateur Champion, he earned AQHA Superiors in Open and Amateur Hunter Under Saddle, Amateur Equitation and Amateur Showmanship. He has earned 390 AQHA open points – 378.5 in Hunter Under Saddle and the others in Halter and Trail. In Amateur competition, he earned 849.5 AQHA points. Of those, 708 Boyle and Put Your Spurs On earned in Hunter Under Saddle as a horse/rider combination. Another 6.5 Amateur Hunter Under Saddle points were earned with Tanya Carmean. The rest Boyle and Put Your Spurs on collected in Halter, Trail, Equitation and Showmanship.

Some of his other accomplishments include:

• AQHA High Point Limited Rider Amateur Hunter Under Saddle in 2010

• AQHA High Point Amateur Hunter Under Saddle in 2011 and 2012

• Top 10 High Point Amateur Hunter Under Saddle 2010, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

• AQHA High Point Senior Hunter Under Saddle in 2013 

• Top 10 High Point Junior Hunter Under Saddle 2010, 2011

• Top 10 High Point Senior Hunter Under Saddle 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018

• Top 10 High Point Open Hunter Under Saddle Gelding 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016

• 2011 Regional Experience Champion Amateur Hunter Under Saddle and Amateur Equitation

• In Level 3 Amateur Hunter Under Saddle competition at the AQHA World Show they placed ninth in 2011, eighth in 2013, sixth in 2014 and seventh in 2017.

• 2015 Tom Powers Reserve Champion Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity

• At the NSBA World Show they earned a bronze in the Limited Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity, top five in the Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity and top 10 in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle in 2016; a bronze in the Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity, top 10 in the Limited Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity and top 10 in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle in 2018.

• At the All-American Quarter Horse Congress they have earned numerous top 10 placings in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle, Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity and Limited Non-Pro Hunter Under Saddle Maturity.

“Shelly is a great showman,” Darla said. “She can get Micky shown even on his worst days, and I can assure anyone that is not an easy thing to do. She is the best kind of competitor because she wants to put the work in to be successful. It is a incredibly hard thing to do, showing the same horse for such a long time. It’s so easy to get stuck in a rut but she always lets us challenge her to get better.”

One of the challenges facing Darla and Shelly is the photic headshaking Put Your Spurs On developed in 2013.

“We were very lucky that the first vet to see him diagnosed the disease and prescribed a course of treatment that works very well for him,” Boyle said. “This disease has retired a lot of horses and has a stigma around it, so we kept very quiet about it for a number of years.  Now we are open about it and I hope seeing that he remains successful helps others not give up on a horse with the same condition.”

And like many extremely successful show horses, he has a big personality and a ton of quirks.

“I could write a book about this,” Darla said. “He is a huge pain in the butt! We joke that he is a yearling filly, which is what he acts like on most days. He hates weird smells and will snort for hours when smelling something funny. He won’t walk over certain things like water or shadows. Hates most wash racks. He is a totally sensitive horse and hates being in trouble.”

And there’s more.

“Some things that most people don’t know about him are that he is terrible in head on traffic and is so hard to ride at the horse shows,” Darla explained. “He’s gotten better over the years but will often have huge setbacks to where we can hardly ride him around. Shelly and I either laugh or cry about it depending on how bad it is.”

But boy is it worth it.

“When something does go wrong, he demonstrates a toughness that not all horses have” Boyle said. “He stepped on a nail at the Congress one year and needed days of IV antibiotics, but the vets were shocked at how quickly he recovered. We have shown two World Shows with a quarter crack, but it never phased him.  And then of course we have his headshaking.  Over the years, I have had a lot of fellow competitors and trainers ask how we manage it, because so many horses just can’t cope.  This horse really just gives his all every day.”

And after all their time together, Darla really does know how to keep Put Your Spurs On at his best.

“I think bringing out the best in him is now about working him hard enough to be in shape but not overworking him,” she explained. “He’s getting older now and finding the right balance for him is what is most challenging.”

Darla always keeps Put Your Spurs On’ best interest in mind and balances that with helping Shelly achieve her goals.

“We continue to work toward Shelly’s goal of leading overall Amateur Hunter Under Saddle Horse,” she said. “And I think Shelly’s goals are to enjoy showing him for as long as she can.”

Boyle has a lot planned for this year’s show season.

“We will be going to the PQHA Mid-Summer Madness in July then on to the NSBA World Show in August to show in the Amateur Hunter Under Saddle and the maturities,” she explained. “We’ll close out August and September in Ohio before the All-American Quarter Horse Congress and then I imagine the AQHA World Show.”

And after that?

“Only time will tell,” Boyle said. “I think Micky has clearly demonstrated that age is nothing but a number and he truly loves his job.  We say that he’s like a fine wine and keeps getting better with age.”

And eventually replacing him will be no easy task.

“Brian and Darla are dreading find my next horse, because we know this boy is irreplaceable,” Boyle said.  “Luckily for us, he is showing no signs of slowing down.  I plan to keep showing Micky and casually looking for just the right young one to come along.”

It’s always a daunting task to find the perfect trainers, who will take good care of your horse and give competitors the respect and attention necessary to succeed but Doyle thinks she nailed it with Brian and Darla Lee.

“It has been and continues to be such a great experience,” she said. “They are fun, humble, hard-working, talented, honest, and committed to both their horses and their clients.  Darla does most of the work with Micky, but Brian stepped in during the final months of her pregnancy a few years ago.  It’s great for me to have both of them to teach me.  They have very different teaching styles, so if the message just isn’t clicking for me from one of them the other can usually drive it home.  I have complete and total trust in the care that they provide for Micky.  I’ve never had to be concerned about his health, safety, or happiness, even when I lived in Georgia.”

Maintaining a long-distance relationship with your horse and trainer is challenging yet so necessary for Boyle to balance her show career with the rest of her life.

After graduating from Jamestown High School, Shelly attended the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy where she earned her Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree in 2008.

It was there that she met her husband, Brian.

“He swears that he went to work that evening and told his boss that he had met the girl he was going to marry,” she said. “We were paired in the same group for the entire first professional year of school, but we didn’t start dating until we were in our second year.”

They married in 2009 at Heinz Chapel on the University of Pittsburgh campus, a place that was special to them since it was on the campus that they first met.

Shelly has worked for Rite Aid since 2005 beginning as an intern in northwestern Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh.  After graduation in 2008, she moved to Ohio to begin her career as a pharmacist and became a Pharmacy Manager in Beachwood, Ohio.

“I discovered a passion for leadership and accepted a Pharmacy District Manager position back in Pittsburgh in 2013,” she explained.

In 2016, Shelly and Brian relocated to the suburbs of Atlanta, when she was afforded the opportunity become a Pharmacy Regional Vice President covering approximately 350 stores in Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Finally, in2018 she moved back “home” to Pittsburgh in 2018, as a Regional Vice President.

Brian is also a pharmacist and works as a District Leader for CVS.

“We have been incredibly fortunate that he has been able to remain with CVS and transfer to new locations as my own job has relocated us three times,” Shelly said.

Shelly’s love of horses comes from her mother, Brenda Campbell, who also started riding as a young girl and competed in some local shows.

“She is very involved with the Pennsylvania Quarter Horse Association and is on the Board of Directors,” Shelly said.  “She still finds the time to come to almost every show with me, crochets all sorts of wild and crazy gifts for friends and family, and never fails to provide tasty treats for the horse shows.”

Shelly’s dad, James Campbell, is retired from Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad. He doesn’t make it to many shows these days but enjoys spending time with his friends on the Ohio River with his boat.

During her longtime involvement with horses, Shelly has enjoyed trying different disciplines and setting new goals – like running for and winning the title of All American Quarter Horse Congress Queen in 2007.

“It was the only year that I was able to participate in the competition, but I was pretty determined to do it right,” Shelly said. “I finished first in the written exam, second in the interview and fourth in the Queens’ Horsemanship on Easy To Be First, who was owned by Madison Eichstadt.

And, her life outside horses is not much different.

“I like to travel,” she said.  “We love Disney, especially Epcot during the Food and Wine Festival and we go nearly every year.  Brian and I just went to Hawaii for our 10th anniversary and I am trying to convince him to take me to Italy next year.  Wineries are a big favorite of ours as well and you can count on us having a case (or three) shipped home from our trips.”

But it’s not all about the race for success. Shelly has learned to appreciate her horse and the accomplishments they have already achieved.

Darla summed it up best when asked what it took for Shelly and Put Your Spurs On to become the All-Time Amateur Hunter Under Saddle Horse Rider Combination in AQHA history.“It is such an amazing accomplishment,” she said. “It took perseverance! Some shows you walk away with no points and it is really hard to not let those shows wear you out. It also takes pure love of showing, which Shelly and Micky both have.”