Four AQHA World Show classes and four AQHA World Champion titles. It’s all in a day’s work for Mytesly. The 2010 sorrel gelding owned by Travis and Johnna Dobbs of Jonesboro, Arkansas has completely dominated the AQHA Performance Halter Geldings winning every AQHA World Show class he entered in 2016.
This year he has won AQHA World Champion titles in Youth, Select, and Open. Monday in Oklahoma City, Johnna Dobbs and “Sly” were the unanimous World Champion in the Amateur Performance Halter Geldings Level 3 making it a World Show clean sweep for Sly in 2016 and a very special win for Johnna.
“This is my first AQHA World Championship,” Johnna Dobbs excitedly told us after her win. “I showed the first time at the AQHA World Show in 1997, that’s been almost 20 years. I’ve shown a few times in the halter in the past. There was a lot of pressure to get him shown well today because he just shines out in the pen, so I wanted to make sure I did my part in presenting him. Also, the fact that everyone else in the family has won with him this year; I had really big shoes to fill.”
Most importantly, they have been able to do it all as a family. “That is one of the things I love about AQHA. We can show as a family. We can do the halter, hunt seat, barrels, and the roping – all in the same place and not be spread out going to different events. This year, we also had had fun showing the same horse- that’s been the best part.”
Today, Johnna and Travis Dobbs also had the AQHA World and Reserve World Champion in the Senior Tie-Down Roping with C.R. Bradley.
Mytesly, who is by My Te Cool Mister and out of Last Pleazin Bymr, earned his performance points in the barrels and poles events. “Sly loves to run the barrels and poles,” Johnna told us.
Traditionally, the performance halter has been a class where the judges don’t always agree. That was certainly not the case this year with Mytesly who has beat 110 other Performance Halter Geldings on his way to winning four AQHA World Champion titles.
“He is the epitome of the performance halter horse at the moment because of his conformation. He is not overdone or underdone,” Ted Turner, Jr. told us right after Johnna’s win. “He is very athletic and pretty looking with a gorgeous head and neck. He just has a look about him. People also don’t realize he can run the barrels and poles pretty darn good too.”
In August at the AQHYA World Show in Oklahoma City, Travis and Johnna’s son, Cooper won the first gold trophy under all five judges. Less than a month later in Amarillo, Cooper’s grandmother, Vickie Lee Strickland won the AQHA Select World under all five judges. Last week in Oklahoma City, trainer Ted Turner won the Open AQHA World with four firsts and one second, and Johnna Monday won under all five judges.
Additionally, in 2016, Mytesly also won three Congress Championships; Youth, Amateur, and Open. He was the unanimous winner at the Congress in the Youth and Amateur and had three firsts and one second in the Open at the Congress.
Proud mom, Johnna talked about Cooper’s wins. “Halter is Cooper’s forte. He has been showing halter since he was nine and this year on his 15th birthday, he won with Sly at the Congress. We are very proud of him, and we are all excited to be able to show him in the ranch riding, barrels and poles in 2017.”
In 2015, Sly won AQHA World Championships in the Amateur and Open Performance Halter Geldings.
We congratulate the Dobbs Family on having an outstanding year in the halter pen.
View the SLy Slideshow from 2016. Photos © The Quarter Horse Journal, K.C. Montgomery
