Jane Humes of Fort Dodge, Iowa has been showing quarter horses for over 27 years but had never won a World Championship until now. Jane says she has been trying to “claw” her way to the top and finally reached her goal at the AQHA World Championship Show. Within twenty four hours, she won back-to-back gold trophies with her horses, Design By Leaguer (Beavis), who won the Senior Trail with Jason Martin, and VS Check My Pulse (Reba), who won the Two-Year-Old Western Pleasure with Jay Starnes aboard.
“I hid my face and plugged my ears when they got down to the final two in the Two Year-Old Class,” Humes says. “My friend jumped up and was screaming and she was the one that told me Reba had won. They had a parade of the Super Horses and a party right after so it was a lot of fun staying and talking to everyone. It felt like the party was for us,” she says and laughs.
Humes continues, “After the Two Year-Old Class, I couldn’t get to sleep because I felt like a kid wired and excited on Christmas Eve. Then, I had to get right back up the next morning to watch Beavis in the Trail. He had such a beautiful and clean go that I was pretty confident that he could win his class.”
Jane, who runs an Anheuser Busch wholesale company with her family, describes Beavis as a know-it-all. “He is 18, and he knows his job–he may be a little grumpy commuting to work but he loves it when he gets there!” Jane says and laughs.
Beavis has been top ten at the World Show eleven times. Jane and Beavis also won what she calls her first big amateur class when she won the Amateur Trail at the Congress this year. Humes has gotten some offers for her talented black gelding, but, she says she won’t decide until after the World Show whether she will sell him or not. “I’m just too emotional right now to decide and need to come down from my whirlwind week,” she says.
Humes told GoHorseShow that she fell in love with horses as a young girl. She says that her grandfather had horses, but that her parents have never been involved with her hobby and the love of horses must have skipped a generation. “They don’t get it,” Jane explains. “They can’t tell the right from the left lead or really have an eye for it. They are just mystified about the whole thing, and I guess they thought I would grow out of it but I never did.”
The 42 Year-Old blonde grew up in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and she mentions that her mom would probably say that her first word was, “horsey” instead of “mama” and started taking lessons when she was five or six. She got a POA when she was thirteen and her first quarter horse when she was 15. She showed locally with 4-H and open shows and hunter jumpers for awhile but never anything big when she was a youth kid.
Jane ended up in college at Randolph Macon in Virginia and, after she graduated, she decided she wanted to buy another horse. Humes showed some nice hunt seat horses including Sky Blue Summer, Hopeful Conclusion, and Montano Joe as well as finally venturing into western horses and buying well known and talented gelding, Lope On In.
As far as future plans in the show arena, she may show Reba in the non-pro three year-old futurities and qualify her for the Amateur World in the Western Pleasure next year, but she says she is not a planner. “I rode her for the second time ever yesterday and she was great. She is such a beautiful and sweet minded mare,” she says. “I like to wait and see what she tells me,” she says. “I do know that after the World Show that Reba will go to Highpoint for some R and R and some spa days. Then, they will start teaching her how to change leads and maybe some Trail, and just see how she progresses. She is only two so she still has some growing up to do.”
Humes says she plans to continue in the industry for the long haul. “I just love horses because they try so hard and I enjoy the challenge of developing a relationship with them, she says. “I also enjoy all of the people I have met in the industry. It has such a family feeling. It is like our own little world. People outside of the horses may not understand it, but all the horse people understand how special it is.”
Photo © Jeff Kirkbride, Shane Rux, Journal
