There is no doubt that sixteen-year-old Sydnie Ochs of Milton, Wisconsin is living the dream. Just off unanimously winning her first gold globe at the AQHYA World Show in the Youth 14-18 Western Pleasure with her horse, No Doubting Me, the duo followed up with an incredible NSBA World Show.
Ochs swept all of her classes including the 14-18 Youth Western Pleasure, BCF 4-6 Year Old Intermediate Non-Pro, and the Open and Intermediate Non-Pro Maturity Western Pleasure while her trainer, Brian Baker won the Open Maturity Western Pleasure.
“It has just been an unbelievable few weeks,” says Sydnie, who talked to GoHorseShow after her last class in Tulsa. “People were saying that I had a pretty good chance at winning at the Youth World, but I wasn’t so sure, and I always get third or fourth in the maturity classes. I never win, so to be able to do that this year was amazing. I was waiting for something bad to happen at the NSBA World since everyone says something usually does after you win something big like the Youth World, but luckily, that didn’t happen to me.”
Affectionately known as “No No,” No Doubting Me is a NSBA Yearling Sale alum and Ochs tells us how her family came about buying him. “My trainer, Brian Baker is weird about breeding and bloodlines, so we gave him the NSBA Yearling Sale book, and he looked through it and marked the ones he liked. No No was one of the ones he picked, so we went and looked at him at the sale and just fell in love with him.”
“He is a very quirky horse,” Sydnie adds. “You can longe him all you want the day before, and he’ll still be fresh the next day. Last year at the Congress, he decided he wanted to go to the middle of the arena in my class, and he did just that,” Sydnie remembers and laughs. “Brian showed him next, and when he tried to do it again, Brian just scratched his neck, and he relaxed. They ended up winning that class. You can’t get after him when he does something wrong but scratching his neck seems to do the trick.”
The high school junior fondly talked about No No and how he has learned to bow and that she likes to ride him bareback, which she did right after her win at the Youth World, holding her gold trophy above her head. Ochs said they are considering adding more classes like the western riding and horsemanship to his repertoire.
Sydnie credits much of her success to her trainer Brian Baker, who she says is always there to help with the little things. “He has taught me everything about the western pleasure,” Sydnie says. “I had only ever shown the all-around before, and Brian is so easy to ride behind because he gets them so prepared.”
Ochs continues and says she would like to thank her grandparents and parents for all their love and support, and her siblings, who she says takes care of her cattle, pigs and sheep while she is showing horses. Ochs is also a successful showman in the livestock arena.
“Brian and I worked hard for this moment; getting up at early and at odd hours to get him prepared, and it has finally paid off,” Sydnie shares. “I would like to thank everyone who has helped me get to this point. It has been an incredible year so far.”
