American Quarter Horse youth riders will head to Kreuth, Germany, July 21-28, with the hopes of taking gold medals back to their home countries.
The 2012 American Quarter Horse Youth World Cup will be hosted at the Gut Mastheshof, one of the biggest and most comprehensive facilitated riding centers in Europe.
“Situated in southeast Germany, not so far away from the border to the Czech Republic and Austria, Gut Matheshof (offers) all elements needed for an event like the Youth World Cup,” according to the official 2012 Youth World Cup website, www.ywc2012.com. “(The facilities boast) numerous indoor and outdoor riding facilities, plenty with stables … apartments within walking distance and a variety of catering opportunities including restaurants, a cafeteria and a pizzeria.”
While in Germany, riders will battle it out in cutting, reining, horsemanship, western pleasure, trail, western riding, hunt seat equitation, hunter under saddle and showmanship. To level the playing field, competing Youth World Cup team members do not show their own horses.
The Youth World Cup is an international event that is held every two years and is hosted by a different country each time. However, every fourth year, the event is hosted in the United States. The 2010 Youth World Cup was held in Oklahoma City and boasted a competition between 16 countries. The 2014 competition is slated for College Station, Texas.
The international event offers more than just a competition – it provides a chance for international American Quarter Horse enthusiasts to learn from the industry’s leading riders and trainers.
While at the Youth World Cup, five youth plus one coach and manager from each country will take part in educational seminars, discipline clinics, leadership training and, finally, competition. Five additional youth from each country are invited by each international affiliate to attend the education and leadership portion of the week’s events and to cheer on their teammates.
At the 2010 event, clinics were taught by renowned reining trainer Shawn Flarida; AQHA cutting and working cow horse world champion Boyd Rice; cutting and western pleasure trainer Gil Galyean; AQHA Professional Horsemen Charlie Cole, Casey Hinton, Robin Frid, Carla Wennberg, Andy Moorman, David Dellin and Teddy Johnson and AQHA judge Holly Hover. Kenny Knowlton, AQHA international committee chairman from Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Marilyn Randall, AQHA Youth Committee chairman, were also very key to the success of the 2010 Youth World Cup.
The impact that the Youth World Cup has on team members and supporters lives is monumental.
“It’s amazing to see where Youth World Cup leads competitors. These are the riders who go on to be industry leaders in their countries,” said David Avery, AQHA director of international affairs. “Just at the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games alone, we had four international riders who had come up through the Youth World Cup ranks. Jessica Sternberg, who back in the day rode at the Youth World Cup for Team United Kingdom, was one of those four riders at the 2010 World Equestrian Games and she’s also had so much success in National Reining Horse Association competition.”
For more information on the 2012 Youth World Cup, visit the official website, www.ywc2012.com.
