Friday’s show was filled with the joyful faces of people winning World Championships, and one of our largest classes today was the Western Pleasure Ladies Amateur class with 20 wonderful horses. Pictured at right is Michigan’s Tampa Bay and rider Jessica Marino, the daughter of trainer Lori Marino, who pairs this team. It was a double win for Michigan as Mike Wahl’s entry Cedarfarm Camelot rode right up in the reserve spot with catch-rider Annie Morgan in the saddle. Michigan Morgans really have been doing well here this week, both owners and trainers. Mary Carlton guided Jeff & Lynn Yelton’s spectacular mare Graycliff Miss Liberty to the Open Hunter Pleasure World Championship for the second year against a tough field of 15 to chalk up another title for Michigan. Even the little Michiganders got into the swing of things when little Sara Heidenreich rode M.J. Sklenicka’s Hylee’s Fanflaire to the tricolors in the World Champion Walk-Trot Western Pleasure 11 & Under. And Michigan breeder and ammy exhibitor Ken Martin (whose photos are featured here) even got into the strike zone with his Aljaks Regal Spirit, taking a Reserve World title in the Futurity In Hand Yearling Geldings to Patricia Lloyd’s CBMF Art of War, who went right to the top of his age group earlier in the week. Wondering why I’m so fascinated with Michigan results? Because it’s my home state, so of course I can be biased!
The versatility of our breed has really been showcased today as I ran back and forth between the two show arenas and the coliseum (I hope my scale at home tells me this was a good thing, because my feet are not telling me this). Show Arena 6 was filled to the brim with smartly dressed equitation riders in the UPHA finals and Walk-Trot equitation classes. At the same time, we were watching Show Arena 8 as the Three, Four and Five Year Old Snaffle/Hackamore reiners put on a show for a nice crowd. This exciting division has really been picking up entries the last year or two. We had 9 junior horses competing, 8 in the WC Non-Pro class and 8 in the first and second year green. In the tough World Champion Reining class, 8 horses slid in and it was R-Two Top Dollar with Monty Bruce that slid out with the cooler and roses for owner Sharlene Anderson. If you haven’t stopped over to watch a few of these classes, the best is yet to come in the form of the Free Style finals that are happening at 1 o’clock on Saturday in Show Arena 8. This is a great class that involves music and costumes on these athletes and is simply fun to watch.
Our first evening session of the really big open titles happened on Friday and we were simply WOWED by some of the most competitive classes I’ve seen here in ages. After our 27 rider Leadline Class (redefining the word CUTE here with every entry), the evening high performance opened with a tremendous Amateur Park Saddle World Championship that saw an unbelievable 13 entries come through the gate.
It all boiled down to a three horse workout with two of those horses being sponsored by Broadmoor, who actually had three riders in the class. Dr. Grace Steere and her positively magnetic Lamborghini In Black battled it out with Alyson Nord-Wandtke and CN The Master’s Flyte and Kathy Gutting’s young entry, Get Busy. All three horses are World Champions in the open division and have recently graduated to the amateur ranks. This was a long tough class on the rail before the workout, so it was no small feat for the winner. Alyson rode the class of her life on her mother’s bold and athletic CN The Master’s Flyte to win this incredible class.
We also had a spectacular dual in the Ladies English Pleasure World Championship as Katie Mair and last year’s winner Fait Accompli finally succumbed to the feminine wiles of GLB Perfect Harmony and Stacy Hennessey, who were simply the epitome of a ladies team. Our evening in the coliseum was capped off by welcoming record-breaking Morgan trainer Judy Whitney Harris back to our midst with a standing ovation. Miss Judy was positively beaming as her JW That Special Flaire captured his fourth consecutive World Park Harness Open title with Ken Swanson on the lines for current owner Tara Farm. This amazing horse does not stand to the public, but we’ve heard that there will be one breeding offered in the upcoming AMHA/World Futurity Stallion Service Auction this coming February, so start saving your pennies!As if all that excitement weren’t enough, a large number of Grand National attendees seems to be filling the dance floor at Club Rodeo after the show. If you haven’t been to this place, they entertain the crowd with real bull riding on center stage every hour. Only in Oklahoma City!
--Tami Johnson