At the recent Arizona Fall Championship, The Beat Gos On (Lucy) and Jay Starnes dominated the Senior Western Pleasure class with numerous wins. This team was also named the Senior Western Pleasure High Point Horse by combining The Pinnacle and AZ Fall Championship circuits’ points.
Many people may not know the backstory on this duo, but Starnes broke out the mare as a two-year-old. However, due to an unfortunate stream of events, they never made it to the show pen. Last year was Lucy’s first year to compete. In her first outing, she won the Maiden Slot Class at the Madness in Ohio. At that time, she was owned by Tommy Blanchard.
“We bought her in the spring right before the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to slow things down,” Joetta Bell told us. “So, unfortunately, she has had limited showing this year as well. Lucy is such a talented horse with a huge hock. She’s so cadenced and strong. Her rhythm is so easy to ride.”
At Arizona, Joetta shared the six year old mare with her ten-year-old daughter, Trinity who won the Small Fry Hunter Under Saddle and Equitation Circuit Championships. The pair competed in five events there and ended up reserve high point all-around in the Small Fry division. “Equitation is Lucy’s favorite class. Who would have thought?” Joetta says and laughs.
“It’s just really rare to have a horse that’s competitive in the open Senior Pleasure and also good minded and strong enough to show for a little person,” Joetta adds, “It just shows how much natural self-carriage the mare has.”
As mentioned, Jay Starnes started the mare by VS Code Red and out of Invest N A Zippo as a two-year-old. At that time, the pretty roan mare was owned and raised by Daniel Henson. Unfortunately, she suffered a sports-related injury and wasn’t able to compete that year. Rusty Green later purchased her for Tommy Blanchard.
“We were lucky enough to purchase the mare with Rusty and Katie’s help in March,” Bell explains. “Jay just happened to be out at the show in Arizona, and we didn’t have an open rider there, so we allowed him to show her, and they connected well. Jay plans to present her in the Senior Western Pleasure at the AQHA World Show next month.”
Multiple World and Congress Champion Jay Starnes talked to us about her talent. “I’ve always liked her from day one when we broke her out. She had so much ability and self-carriage; it was truly remarkable. To see her go on and win as much as she did with Rusty and Katie Green was nice, especially with us knowing how well Lucy started when she was two.”
Starnes continues, “When Joetta asked if I could show her at Arizona and maybe the world show, I was excited to get to ride her again, as I have not since she was two, but always kept up with her. We had a good show in Arizona as we got used to each other. Hopefully, Joetta and I can both do well at the world show this year.”
As for 2021? Joetta told us that Anthony Montes has been changing leads on her for two months, and they plan for her to be shown next year in green western riding events and maybe trail with Bruce Vickery and Anthony. “I think she’s versatile enough to be an all-around horse. Lord willing, that will be our focus after this year.”
