The Senior Western Riding Finals at the 2009 AQHA World Show may
forever be remembered as the single greatest western riding event
in AQHA history. Five World Champion western riders made the finals,
and of those, two were ridden by Jason Martin. Martin made his debut on
the great Vital Signs Are Good who had recently sold to the Moran
Family, and he showed Harley D Zip, the most highly decorated western
rider in AQHA history. Martin sat down with GoHorseShow.com to discuss in-depth
his winning rides, his great horses and the very strong class.
The last time we talked, you had just helped facilitate the sale of Vital Signs Are Good (“Lucy”) to the Moran family. We talked that night about the pressure of showing the two best western riding horses in the country at the World Show. Did you feel pressure?
I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I was going to be. Leonard (Berryhill) told me to trust her 100 percent because she’s not going to cheat you and he was right. She is exactly what she is inside the show pen and outside warming up. She does not become a different horse. I was really happy with my first round.
You were first to go in the finals with Lucy. Did you get nervous then?
To tell you the truth, I did get a little nervous in the finals. I was the only one sweating in the warm up pen (laughs) and it was pretty cold to be sweating. All I cared about is that I represented both horses well. I didn’t feel pressure like I had to win or lose. Joe Moran is the best owner in the entire world and they just wanted me to have a good go and let the chips fall where they may. I was thrilled with my ride.
Tell me about your go with Harley?
I thought that was one of the best goes I have ever had on Harley. I’m really proud of him for stepping up, especially being kind of towards the end of his career. The end of their career is not typically when most horses have their best runs.
The finals of the Senior Western Riding will go down in history as one of the greatest western riding classes of all time. Do you agree?
Yes, absolutely. The whole class was excellent. Charlie (Cole) and I just had a chance to watch the video of the entire class and I have to tell you, it was an amazing class. For the 15th place horse to just have one back-to-front lead change, it’s amazing. Usually the bottom part falls apart a little bit. That day, every single horse stepped up and I was really impressed with the quality of the class. It was probably the strongest I’ve ever seen.
The best thing that happened to the western riding is a valid scoring system. They’ve always scored it but the judge would score the whole run and decide ‘That go is a 72.’ They could give you whatever score they wanted. The scoring system now, they have to score you, they have to plus or minus you and this is the reason the class has stepped up. When I’m jogging over my poll, I’m not just thinking about getting over the poll, I’m thinking about how I want to plus-half this maneuver because I need that plus-half. If I plus-half under each judge, that’s a point and a half more. That’s huge in the whole scheme of things. You need to make sure that your transitions are good, your stop is good, your log is good which all add up. People are starting to pay attention to those extra half points and it’s making the class stronger and the senior finals was a prime example of that.
You mentioned that Charlie and you went back and watched the video of the class. You marked a very strong 234 with Lucy. Did you see anything in your go with her that you hadn’t felt?
I knew I was a little bit late on my first change. I had asked her to change and she waited one stride. Our timing was a little off on that first change. I did go back and look at my scores and one judge gave me a penalty one on that first change. I liked my go, I thought she had a really good go.
It’s funny, Kristen always showed her a little bit slower which I always thought looked great. When I go as slow as she is used to going, my timing isn’t right. But I also didn’t want to make her go fast like Harley because her timing wouldn’t be right. So we kind of met in the middle and picked up the pace a little bit. All in all, I thought I had a really nice run on her and I was really happy with it.
Did you see anything on the video of Harley that you didn’t expect?
The thing with Harley, I never can tell how good the go is. I have shown him so many times. I do know when one is not a good one! (Laughs) It felt good to me but I didn’t think ‘that’s the best go I’ve ever had!’ Carol Metcalf stopped me and told me that was the best goes she had ever seen Harley have. It was interesting to have random people talk to me who wouldn’t normally take the time to comment on his go. Harley sometimes will chew on the bit when I lope off or sometimes he anticipates the stop at the end of the pattern because he knows where to stop but he didn’t do any of that. On my changes, I was five strides, five strides, five strides, all the way down the line. It was a good go. I wouldn’t have changed anything.
In the end, it was Deanna Searles and Majestic Scotch, you and Harley and Theresa Moran and Lucy sitting there waiting for the top three placings. Did you know how it was going to play out?
Before the class, I had no idea how the placings were going to wind up. After we had all gone, I thought it was Harley first, Lucy second and Dickey third. Charlie had two really nice rides and he wound up fourth and fifth. I wouldn’t have been surprised if the placings had changed but
it did wind up being the way I thought it was going to be. I don’t think I ride Lucy as well as Kristen and Leonard because I don’t know her as well, so I didn’t expect my go with her to beat Harley’s.
I loved the fact that they didn’t announce the scores this year in the trail and western riding. I can remember when I first won on Harriett Yakatan’s horse in 1993 and she literally almost fell into the arena because there was that moment of excitement that you just don’t get when they call the scores out. This year there was that adrenaline rush when you get down to the last two.
Because you showed two horses, you needed someone else to ride one of them into the arena during the award presentation. Is that why Theresa rode Lucy?
Yes, I wanted people to know who Theresa was and know her as the new owner. That was the first time Theresa had ever stepped on her. It was a very special moment for Theresa and we were all really happy with her performance.
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After they announced you as the World Champion with a score of 236, you reached up and gave Harley a really good pat.
I was definitely proud of him and I told him so. Funny thing is, I talk to Harley a lot. Nobody really knows this but I tell him when the pressure is on. I always have. I don’t know why because I don’t talk to any of the other horses, just Harley.
What did you tell him before the finals?
I told him going down the alleyway that it was probably going to be between him and Lucy. I always tell him the situation. I tell him when he really needs to try his hardest. I knew when we walked in the ring that we were going to have a good go. Harley is really weird. You can tell how Harley is by his right ear. He’ll cock his right ear back if he’s kind of crabby or isn’t paying attention. When he walked in the pen his ears were perfectly forward all the way over my log. Normally when I’m jogging up there he’ll cock his right ear back and when I ask him to lope off he’ll cock his right ear back. In the finals, his ears were pricked forward and he never opened his mouth. I don’t know if he listened to me talking to him as we were walking down the alleyway, but he was definitely trying to show off a little bit.
What’s it like showing the two greatest western riding horses ever?
What’s so nice about having two great horses is one doesn’t dominate the other. It comes down to if one makes a mistake the other one can win. Also, if you have three pleasure judges in there, they’re going to go with Lucy. If you have three all-around judges in there, they might tend to go with Harley. There are some really great horses including Majestic Scotch who can always jump up there too. It definitely comes down to personal choice if they both have good goes. That was the case at the World Show. They both gave me really clean goes and it just came down to personal opinion.
What makes Harley so great?
There are very few horses that will point his toe like he does when he changes leads. That’s what sets him apart. When you change leads on him, sitting on top of him, you can see from his knee to his toe. His whole foot points out there. As far as movement, that’s what sets him apart a little bit. He always shows great with his ears, especially down the line, and he doesn’t swish his tail so it’s always the whole package. The odd thing about Harley is that he never cheats (knock on wood). He always waits, he doesn’t cut in. The only thing that he has learned to anticipate is coming up the center because for so many years I always asked him for a really hard stop because I was trying to get that plus-half so he started to anticipate my spurs. Last year all we worked on all year was not spur stopping him in the middle, just to have a zero stop and really get him to where he’s waiting for the big spurs. Well, in the finals I did the big spur stop again which he’ll probably make me pay for come January. (Laughs) That’s the only thing he does and that makes him very special.
Harley will be 15 and he’s been at this at the very top level for a long time. What’s the secret to his longevity?
The thing about Harley is I never ask him for 100 percent. We never peak him except for the Youth World, Open World and a little for the Select World. So when we really need him, he always seems to step up because I rarely have to ask him to. I think that by not having to demand perfection of him except a couple times of year, we are able to save him.
It’s unbelievable if you look at Harley’s western riding statistics I think he has 2500 open western riding points and the second all-time horse is Zippos LTD with 800. And LT showed until he was 20 and was a great horse so it’s a real testament to Harley. I don’t think any horse will ever catch him in the record books. He’s leading the all-around for the fourth year in a row and we don’t show for it but he gets a lot of points when he does show.
You’ve made multiple references to Harley being toward the end of his career? Do you plan to retire him soon?
I definitely will stop showing Harley at the World level if I don’t think he can be the winner. Say next year he’s second, that’s fine. I think second is a great achievement. I don’t think he has to be the winner but I feel he has to be capable of being the winner. My ultimate goal would be for him to show two more years so Ali (Papendick) could finish her youth career and do a year in Amateur and then retire. Ali really wants to concentrate on the horsemanship and western riding. We’re just cutting his classes back.
Everybody is on the same page as far as if he doesn’t look good, not feeling good, not moving good, he won’t do it. Or if he doesn’t want to do it any more. When you show him in the pleasure, you can tell he doesn’t want to do it. This year I had to show him in the pleasure to get five points to be eligible for the all-around and if he’s outdoors he will show pretty good. But he has made it perfectly clear that he does not like to show the pleasure and if he ever acts like that in the western riding, we absolutely won’t force him.
Thank you, Jason. We wish you the very best.
You’re welcome.
Click here to view Harley D Zip’s winning run from the 2009 AQHA World Show on AQHA.com. Press play to view the video.
Click here to view the final results from the class.
