Sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone and doing something totally wild and crazy pays off.
For Anne-Marie Fortenberry and trainers, Tim and Shannon Gillespie, taking a chance on a weanling filly in a pasture paid off greatly when Elle Oh Elle was named APHA Reserve World Champion Yearling Longe Line.
Speaking with Anne-Marie and the Gillespies after the win, it became clear that this win was especially sweet, which is fitting considering the filly is affectionately known as Tootsie.
“Marsha Matthews kept calling me last year telling me that she had a weanling filly owned by Diane Lahr that was amazing that we just had to go look at,” said Tim. “We kept turning her down because we generally don’t buy weanlings because of the risky investment. But she kept insisting.”
“We went to look at her and within five seconds of seeing her knew we had to have her,” recalled Shannon. “So, I called Anne-Marie and sent her a picture and a video.”
Anne-Marie agreed that the beautiful filly, sired by RL Best Of Sudden and out of Diane Lahr’s NSBA World Champion AQHA western pleasure mare, Krymsun Truffle had to be hers, but… she had to do some convincing first.
“I had to sweet talk my dad,” she laughed. “I told Shannon to give me two days.”
Sure enough, Tootsie became Anne-Marie’s and the Gillespies’ brought her home and turned her out to pasture around Thanksgiving of last year.
“We really like for them to just be a horse and grow up,” said Tim.
Fast forward to six weeks before the World Show and Tootsie came in from the pasture to see if she would be a longe line contender.
“We handle them throughout the year, but really don’t like to do the longe line unless it is really easy and natural for the horse,” said Shannon. “Tootsie has always been really easy to work with.”
“She knows when she does well and every time you praise her, she licks her lips,” added Tim.
The Gillespies took the filly to a local show just to see how she would handle the atmosphere but didn’t show her, and she passed the test with flying colors.
“The first time she ever entered a show pen was here at the World,” said Tim.
Tootsie and 29 others competed in Yearling Longe Line and she walked out an APHA Reserve World Champion.
While all of that is impressive, there is another element to Tootsie’s story that makes it super sweet.
“Three years ago I lost my soulmate, A Good Intention,” said Anne-Marie tearing up about her multiple APHA World Champion gelding who passed in 2013.
Anne-Marie and the Gillespies shared that when Mac (as he was affectionately known) was a two-year-old, Shannon caught rode him to a Reserve World Championship in the Two-Year-Old Western Pleasure wearing a fake tail that he came with when Anne-Marie purchased him.
“No one has used that tail since,” said Tim. “And as I was looking in the trailer and came across it, it was the best yearling tail to use on Tootsie, so I put it on but didn’t tell Anne-Marie.”
Needless to say, when Tim broke the news to Anne-Marie after their win that Tootsie was wearing Mac’s tail, it was an incredibly emotional moment. Tears all around.
How sweet is that?
