Taylor Brown of Strathmore, California and her mount, Just Hit Town, just brought home the gold trophy in the highly competitive Trail class at the AQHA Youth World. The always challenging Tim Kimura pattern with multiple raised poles and a back through with cones caused quite a few problems for the competitors. However, Brown had only one tick over a lope log and conquered the back through to score a 222.5.
“It was an amazing feeling and somewhat unreal,” Brown told GoHorseShow. “It is still sinking in but I was really happy with my go. On paper the course didn’t look that hard, but it was a challenging pattern with all the raised poles.”
At 20 years-old, Just Hit Town (Hamilton), is a veteran in the show pen, but he was feeling his wild oats right before the class.
“I don’t know what his deal was–but I went to watch a few of the patterns and I came back and Hamilton was running circles around my mom and was upset about something,” Brown recalls. “I started getting real nervous because I didn’t know what to do to calm him down. Fortunately, when we got into the alleyway he settled down and he knew what to do.”
Brown is under the guidance of highly respected trainer, Kellie Hinley of Trendsetter Performance Horses of Chino Hills, California.
“I’m just so happy for the family. You couldn’t ask for it to happen to a greater group of people,” Hinley says. “Hamilton is such a great horse that I think he helped Taylor out in the really tough parts. He loves to go in and do his job.”
Brown adds, “I just love working with Kellie. The barn is so much fun and we are always doing fun things together. Last night we were doing chair races at Shorty Smalls and having a good time.”
This is Brown’s first World Championship in the Trail where she bettered her ninth place finish from last year. Taylor says that the barn will probably go out for ice cream after her preliminary run in the Reining later today. We congratulate her and Hamilton on a huge win!!
Click here to see her winning run from AQHA
