Frank Sinatra’s, “I Did It My Way” is the perfect theme song to the final curtain call of Karen Hornick and A Certain Vino’s show career. This very special team went out on top on Sunday afternoon in their final performance ever in the Senior Western Pleasure at the AQHA World Show. This duo dominated the class with three firsts and two seconds and scored 85 points higher than second place. With this win, Vino now has 15 AQHA World Championships – a combined total of 14 in the western pleasure and one in the Amateur Western Riding.
An emotional Karen Hornick said her ride reminded her of a young Vino. “It felt incredible, just like when he was three or four years old. It was one of the best rides I’ve had on him. He was very content to do his job. He wasn’t mischievous or didn’t monkey around like he has been known to do in the past.”
After the class, Karen fondly reflected back on her career and last ride with the most dominant western pleasure horse in AQHA history. “I was just so happy that I could still be riding him and have a chance to be at the top,” she told us. “It was the last time riding him and looking down on him and seeing those ears.”
As far as Vino being the best western pleasure horse of all time? “I think so,” Karen states. “He has set a high standard. He can show off the rail and look natural with a lot of flow. It’s easy for him. I cannot thank the Reeve family enough to have the opportunity to ride him. They never questioned and never batted an eye as to what we wanted to do with him and followed the program to a T. They are great people.”
Vino’s owner, Darcy Reeve, shared that it really hasn’t set in yet that this is his last show. “We are just so happy with how he looked and how he showed and the final results.”
Darcy’s father, Lee Reeve, told us about how they came about purchasing Vino. “Eleven years ago, I bought him when he was a two-year-old. Of course, I never dreamed he would do this at the time and I’m sure other people didn’t either. When we bought him, we were looking for an all around horse for Darcy, but Bruce Vickery told us about Vino. He said, ‘I know he isn’t an all around horse but you have to buy this horse’. We had enough faith in Bruce, so we did. Then, we ended up buying Ima Petite Classic for Darcy’s all around horse, so it all worked out great.”
Lee adds, “It’s been a lot of fun and we have met a lot of great people through the years because of Vino. It’s so inspiring to have a horse like him that is so good and solid. He deserves his retirement. He gets to have his shoes pulled off and live in a pretty red barn in Garden City, Kansas.”
Be sure to watch for Vino later in the show in the Amateur Western Pleasure with Darcy. This class will be Vino’s final class before he is retired.
View a slideshow below of pictures taken by Hollie Byers of Vino’s final performance in the Senior Western Pleasure
