It was a day for patterns and Hunt saddles Friday for NSBA members showing at the AQHA Amateur Select World Championship Show. Four NSBA bronze trophies were awarded to three world champions and one reserve world champion on the day, and The Way To Go caught up with these NSBA exhibitors.
Hunt Seat Equitation
Kelley Simonsen (pictured left) and A Beautiful Moxie earned their first AQHA world championship along with the NSBA bronze in Hunt Seat Equitation. This was their third trip to the AQHA Amateur Select World Championship Show. “It feels amazing,” Simonsen said of her win. “I always dreamed of having one of these globes on my coffee table, but I never dreamed I would get one.”
Simonsen keeps her eight year old bay mare at her home and works with trainer Leslie Lange. “I’m so fortunate to have Leslie to help me with her. My mare tries her heart out. I was attracted to her because she was straight forward, simple and willing. I actually had bought her sight unseen off of a video, and the trainer I bought her from was extremely honest with me. She was everything he said she was.”
The mare known as Beauty is by Triples Crown Jewel and out of Mystical Memory. “I don’t show her very heavy, so I was a little concerned about her being tired, because you have to ride a little more here at the world show,” Simonsen said. “But she was great. We had a great pattern, except we had one little miscommunication on the last maneuver and she backed a couple of steps. Overall it was really good.” (The finals patterns is seen at right)
Hunter Under Saddle
In the Hunter Under Saddle, Kirsten Farris and Lyles Al Lie (at right) earned their third world championship title as well as the NSBA bronze in a finals that came down to two Arizona ladies – Farris and Katherine Tobin, who showed Blameitonthe Alcohol to the reserve title. Tobin had bred the world champion, Lyles Al Lie. Both horses are by Tobin’s stallion, Allocate Your Assets.
“I call him my evening dress,” Farris said of ‘Lyle.’ I only show him about four times a year, at the Sun Circuit, Del Mar, the NSBA World Championship Show and here at the Select World Show. I tell him he has to be good for about three hours a year. He is very exotic. He’s a big and very soft mover, and he shows with a lot of charisma. He’s also very social, so he’s always like ‘hi, I’m Lyle and I’m for Arizona, how are you?'”
Farris has owned the nine year old gelding for six years. “Deanna Searles had seen him be born, and she had picked him out for me and told me he was the horse for me,” Farris said.
“She had picked out another horse for me years ago, and she has an uncanny ability to match me up with the right horse. I’m so thankful that Jerry and Kathy Tobin sold him to me. He has a home for life with me. He is my one in a million horse.”
Hunter Hack
Jo Ann Niffenegger and BMQ All That Gliters also won their first Amateur Select world championship on Friday in Hunter Hack.
“My trainer Kim Tasker has won the Progressive Working Hunter and the Senior Hunter Hack at the AQHA Open World Show, but this was our first world championship together,” Niffenegger said. “It’s very exciting. This is our third time to show at the Amateur Select World Show.”
Talking us through her Hunter Hack pattern, Niffenegger noted: “Walking into the ring, it was important to have Gliter concentrating on the course. When we picked up the canter, we settled pretty quickly into the hunter pace, and we set a straight line to the five-stride. She jumped down the line so nicely. She always has her ears forward, and such good expression with those doe eyes she has. She’s just so pretty, that she always presents a great picture.”
Niffenegger describes her ten year old brown mare, by BMQ Legacy and out of BMQ Traffic Stopper, as a princess. “She thinks everyone should pet her and give her treats. And pretty much everyone does,” she said. “Her favorite treat is a banana.” Niffenegger didn’t have much time to savor her victory, however, as she quickly remounted to rider in the Equitation Over Fences and Working Hunter preliminaries Friday afternoon.
Horsemanship
Daniel Henson and Bud Light Please (shown at right) earned the NSBA bronze along with the reserve world championship title in Trail in the first class of the day on Friday. Henson has shown the buckskin gelding for three years. “This was my fist time to compete here at the Select World Show,” Henson said. “It’s been absolutely wonderful. The exhibitors are so friendly and cheer each other on, and the staff has been amazing. The atmosphere they’ve created is what makes it a great show.”
Henson found the pattern easy, but yet tricky. “It was so easy that it was difficult,” he said. “It was easy to mess up a straight line or a transition, so you had to lay it out out precisely and keep the pace going well all the way through it.” (The finals pattern is shown at right)
Henson and his 15 year old gelding, who is by Protect Your Assets and out of Blondes Do It Best, prefer to compete in the pattern classes. “He will do everything, but I really prefer the pattern classes. I like being intricate and precise, and I love the competition. He’s great because he tries so hard every day.”
The AQHA Amateur Select World Championship Show continues through Saturday at the Tri-State Fairgrounds in Amarillo. To view complete show results or watch the live video feed at the show, please visit the AQHA website.
