The 2013 Show Your Colors APHA Show announced all around winners from the show, which was held preceding the NSBA Breeders Championship Futurity and World Championship Show on August 10-11, 2013. The judges for the show were Tom McBeath, Laura Kathryn Gilmer, Kendra Weis and Brendan Brown.
The APHA show saw more than 900 entries this past weekend at Expo Square in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Exhibitors showed for four sets of APHA points as well as in NSBA dual-approved events. All around open, amateur and youth high point winners won Harris work saddles, and all around Novice youth and Novice amateur exhibitors won NSBA bronze trophies.
Taking the Open All Around Harris work saddle was sorrel overo, Shez Eye Candy, owned by Tracy and Suzanne Rogers. Ridden by Ryan Painter, Brad Ost, and Beth Case, the nine year-old mare also competes with a youth rider in the 14-18 events. “Fran” is by Charlie Hilfiger.
Sarah Orsak and My Cowboy Cadillac earned the Youth All Around Harris work saddle. Orsak describes her double-registered AQHA/APHA sorrel overo as always testing. “He makes you work for everything,” she said. “He’s not one of those horses that you just sit there, he always gives you a challenge.”
By Dont Skip Charlie and out of Miss Smokin Pistol, 11-year-old Charlie has been with Orsak for more than two years. The pair teamed up with trainer Reid Thomas just six months ago.
Mikaela Sundgren and Art I Perfect may have had only their third show together as a team, but they made it count by taking the All Around Amateur Harris work saddle. The seven-year-old bay overo by Artful Move and Sundgren have worked around Sundgren’s schedule as a fourth year veterinary student.
“He’s really versatile and had done some all around events, but he wasn’t very finished. He’s a quick learner. My mom Cindy is my trainer, and she rides him when I’m away at school. I come home on the weekends to ride,” Sundgren said. “Luckily we spent the past five weekends preparing before we came here.”
One Cool Son Of A Gun and Brookelynn Baber took the All Around Novice Youth NSBA trophy. In their first year of showing together after having sold her previous horse, Baber said finding Den was love at first ride last fall. The pair have had a busy summer hitting Pinto, Buckskin, 4-H and Paint shows.
For Rhonda Hopkins and Lotza Te Time, a neck and neck high point race with barn mates Katherine Joos and Forbidden Pleasure ended with Hopkins winning the NSBA bronze for All Around Novice Amateur. “Kate Joos and I show together quite a bit, and we’re just part of the horse show family,” she said. “We cheer each other on and urge each other to do our best.”
Hopkins and Joos both show under the guidance of Steven Biller.
The AQHA portion of the Show Your Colors show continues on Monday with three more all around Harris work saddles for the open, amateur and youth award winners, and two more NSBA bronze trophies for the Novice youth and Novice Amateur all arounds to be presented at the end of the day. The AQHA portion of the show boasted more than 1500 entries on Sunday.
The NSBA World Championship Show and Breeders Championship Futurity begins on Tuesday, August 13.
