Check out the photos below from Day 12 of the 2009 AQHA World Championship Show (click on the photo to see the captions). For more coverage of the World Show, go to www.aqha.com.

The old man’s not ready to retire.

Vicki McAngus and Jettin Boone had a clean round in the jump-off to win another world championship. (Journal photo)

Jettin Boone and Vicki McAngus still have what it takes to jump higher and faster.

At age 21, some might think a multiple world championship-earning horse like “Jet” has earned a quiet, easy retirement. Those people don’t include Vicki, his owner, who says that the big brown gelding is just getting started.

“He’s just not ready to retire,” Vicki said after picking up Jet’s seventh world championship in open jumping. “He doesn’t know that he’s 21. He still dances and prances around out here like he was a 4-year-old, and I think he’ll tell me when he’s ready to retire.”

Even injury couldn’t hold Jet back. He bowed a tendon on the last jump of the finals in 2008 and spent the next six months recuperating. Vicki got him qualified for the 2009 AQHA World Championship Show in just two shows.

And will she be back next year with “Jet the Not-Ready-for-Retirement Jumper” to defend their title?

“Absolutely.”

Seventeen Quarter Horse fans sent in funny photos of their horses for an AQHA photo contest.

Contest Winner: Page Boys Jet Set, 1991 brown gelding owned by Brett Glass of Vinton, Virginia.

Over the weekend, AQHA asked our Facebook fans to send us funny and/or silly pictures of their horse and tell us why he makes them smile and makes them thankful.

Here were the rules of the contest:

1. The horse must be an American Quarter Horse.
2. Include your name and your horse’s full registered name.
3. Only one entry per person.
4. Answer must be 300 words or less.
5. E-mail subject line must include “AQHA Photo Contest.”

All of the photos were a pleasure to look through, and they all made us smile. We hope they make you smile, too! To view the owner’s answer, click on the photo, and then click on “Open photo in new window” if the caption is cut off.

We will be conducting another funny photo contest just in time for Read the rest of this entry »

Building a partnership with your horse.

By AQHA Professional Horsewoman Lynn Palm

In the last article, I covered what can go wrong when you are not in proper form and balance on your horse. Now I want to discuss correct rider position. Correct rider position will enable you to have a happier, more responsive horse!

If you want to improve your form and, therefore your riding, the No. 1 key is to keep your eyes up and focused ahead of your horse. Improving your concentration starts with your eyes. This sound easy, and it is a simple concept, but it is one many riders have trouble doing consistently.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check out the photos below from Day 11 of the 2009 AQHA World Championship Show (click on the photo to see the captions). For more coverage of the World Show, go to www.aqha.com.

AQHA played host to the world at the World.

Von Reminic, the 2000 NRHA Futurity champion, came out of retirement to compete in the FEI CRI2* at the World Show. (Journal photo)

For the first time in its history, the AQHA World Championship Show played host to a Federation Equestre Internationale CRI2* (Concours de Reining Internationale) event at Oklahoma State Fair Park in Oklahoma City. The FEI competition took place in conjunction with the senior reining preliminaries during FedEx Open Week.

“We had a great event here during the World Show, which can be told by the number of entries we had – 15 – and especially the five international entries that we had,” said AQHA Professional Horseman Pete Kyle, who won the November 16 event aboard Gimme Major Bucks, scoring a 217.5. The Whitesboro, Texas, horseman is also the chairman of the United States Equestrian Federation Reining High Performance Committee.

“It was one of our qualifiers to qualify for the U.S. Team Selection Trial to be held at the Battle in the Saddle in July 2010 in Oklahoma City,” Kyle added.

Members must mark a 68 or higher in three CRI qualifiers in order to qualify for the U.S. Team Selection Trial, which will chose four U.S. riders and one alternate to go to the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games next fall in Lexington, Kentucky.

It’s not a coincidence that a qualifier and the USEF Reining Championships are at AQHA-sponsored events.

“AQHA has a huge involvement with the USEF and helping the sport of reining continue on into the World Equestrian Games,” Kyle said.

Another highlight of the November 16 event was the return of reining superstars Smart Spook, Snow Gun and Von Reminic.

Smart Spook, who has more than $325,000 in National Reining Horse Association earnings, is by Smart Chic Olena and is out of a Grays Starlight mare. Finishing third with a 216 in the November 16 event, Smart Spook was shown by $3 million NRHA rider Shawn Flarida, who rode Smart Spook to the 2004 NRHA Futurity championship.

Shown by French-Canadian Luc Gagnon, Snow Gun is a 10-year-old daughter by Colonel Smoking Gun, aka “Gunner,” and out of a Trashadeous daughter. In Monday’s event, Gagnon and Snow Gun scored a 213 to finish fourth. Snow Gun appeared on the cover of National Geographic when she performed at the 2006 World Equestrian Games in Germany.

Twelve-year-old Von Reminic, who is by Reminic and out of a Colonel Freckles daughter, was the 2000 NRHA Futurity champion and has NRHA earnings of more than $180,000. The 1997 bay stallion was shown by Josh Armstrong of La Mesa, New Mexico. The pair finished 12th, with a score of 205.5.

“America’s Funniest” just hasn’t hit cow country yet.

Illustration by Gabriel Trevizo.

By Baxter Black, D.V.M. in The American Quarter Horse Journal

It’s curious why more cows aren’t featured on “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” Maybe it’s because we cow guardians always have our hands full of hay forks, reins, twine cutters, squeeze chute handles, syringes or up the back of a cow! If the truth were known, you could stand in a pen or pasture full of cattle all day with your video recorder and see nothing more exciting than you would in a day room full of senior citizens after lunch.

See, cows are not like monkeys, puppies or bull riders who can always be counted on to show you some kind of bizarre body function, tail pulling or booger-related behavior. And yet, I cannot count the number of stories I’ve been told wherein the dull, cud-chomping, cloven-hoofed grazer has made a fool out of our Supermanic cowboy hero. Read the rest of this entry »

Learn to spot symptoms of early Cushing’s disease.

Question:

I have an 18-year-old gelding that is considered obese. I went out to feed, and he was all sweaty. I know he hadn’t been running or my other gelding would have been hot, too. He had no fever. I checked him hourly and got him cooled off. He is very fuzzy from his winter coat, and he always sheds out just fine. It’s not curly hair, either. I only feed him grass hay (brome/crested wheatgrass), and he has a 20-percent lick-tub, so there is no grain. Any idea if something is wrong?

Thanks, Yvonne Rocens

Read the rest of this entry »

Check out the photos below from Day 9 of the 2009 AQHA World Championship Show (click on the photo to see the captions). For more coverage of the World Show, go to www.aqha.com.

“My name is Jill Newcomb, and I am a 16-day cancer survivor.”

Jill Newcomb in the Saddle Up For Life cancer survivors' ride on November 13. (Journal photo)

That’s how Jill Newcomb of Rancho Santa Fe, California, introduced herself in the Saddle Up For Life cancer survivors’ ride during the evening finals of November 13 at the 2009 AQHA World Championship Show.

After a follow-up mammogram just after the Bayer Select World Championship Show in September, Jill’s doctor recommended a biopsy of a spot in one of her breasts he’d found back in February. She worked in the biopsy after a horse show in Santa Barbara, California, and found out the results on September 23.

“I was getting on a plane to Hawaii when they called,” Jill said. “I was going there for the week between the (Scottsdale Classic) show and (the All American Quarter Horse) Congress. He said, ‘We got your report back and it’s cancer; and we need to meet with the surgeon in the morning.’”

Jill’s attitude was to get the treatment done with and move on, she had horse shows she needed to get to. Because it had been caught early, her doctors let her schedule surgery after Congress on October 27. She elected to have a double-mastectomy rather than a lumpectomy; she wanted no chance of the breast cancer returning.

“They said I did amazing during the (five-hour) surgery,” Jill said. “Three days after the surgery, I said, ‘It really doesn’t hurt.’ By Sunday (November 1), we got our tickets and made a plan to come to the World Show.”

Jill rode in the Saddle Up For Life because she wanted to show people you can face cancer and move on.

“I know so many people are afraid of breast cancer, but I caught it early enough by staying on top of it,” she said. “For those people who are over 40 and scared to have a mammogram, or don’t want one, or put it off, being that step ahead can make all the difference in the world.”

Jill showed two horses in the senior trail prelims on November 14. “I didn’t make it back (to the finals),” she said with a smile. “That would have been a better story!”

Check out the photos below from Day 8 of the 2009 AQHA World Championship Show (click on the photo to see the captions). For more coverage of the World Show, go to www.aqha.com.

The 2009 amateur 3-year-old mares world champion Miss Miraculous and her "family." (Journal photo)

Miss Miraculous is a family affair.

Gayle Hamlin-Steidel has wanted a world championship since she was a girl. Now that she and her husband, Ken, are retired, she finally bought a special mare in December 2008, Miss Miraculous, to try to do just that.

Her granddaughter, Kelly Hamlin, has also been bitten with the horse bug. Kelly qualified “Missy” for the 2009 Built Ford Tough AQHYA World Championship Show 3-year-old mares youth world championship. where they won the

You can imagine Gayle’s surprise when the October 2009 issue of The American Quarter Horse Journal appeared in her box with Kelly and Missy on the cover in a candid shot with their world championship gold trophy.

Now Gayle has her own trophy: She and Missy won the amateur 3-year-old mares on November 13. And Ken has said he’d like to try to go for one, too.

“I think we’ll be in it a long time,” Gayle said with a smile.

Do you like your horse events western?

Then you will not want to miss Battle in the Saddle, a new event that showcases the best horses and riders in five western disciplines: reining, working cow horse, roping, cutting and ranch horse competition.

The inaugural Battle in the Saddle is July 6-10, 2010, at State Fair Park in Oklahoma City. The show is owned by Oklahoma State Fair and managed by AQHA, but is open to all breeds with $130,000 in added money for an estimated $340,000 in purses. Cutting, reining, roping and working cow horse classes Read the rest of this entry »

Cleaning Tack: Be a Super Soaker!

You might think your horse pal doesn’t care about having clean clothes. He rolls in the pasture, slurps water from his bucket and couldn’t care less about the shavings in his tail.

But what if your mom never did your laundry? Wouldn’t that be gross? So don’t give your tack the “smell test” to see if it is clean enough.

Good AQHYA members and Junior Master Horsemen know it is important to take the time to clean Read the rest of this entry »

Special care and nutrition are required for your young horse.

From the American Association of Equine Practitioners, an AQHA educational marketing alliance partner

A healthy foal will grow rapidly, gaining in height, weight and strength almost before your very eyes. From birth to age 2, a young horse can achieve 90 percent of more of its full adult size, sometimes putting on as many as three pounds per day.

Genetics, management and environment play significant roles in determining individual growth patterns. Through research, we also know we can influence a foal’s growth and development – for better or worse – by the nutrition we supply.

Read the rest of this entry »

Check out the photos below from Day 7 of the 2009 AQHA World Championship Show (click on the photo to see the captions). For more coverage of the World Show, go to www.qha.com.

Would you pay $2,000 for a show halter?

Mary Helen Borsch (right) and the halter worn by multiple world champion Pick Me Please. Pictured with her daughter, Mimsy Lovering. (Journal photo)

You might if it had belonged to a legendary horse and it was being auctioned off to raise money for an organization you supported.

That’s what Mary Helen Borsch of Pilot Point, Texas, did. She was a very determined bidder for the silver show halter that used to belong to multiple world champion Pick Me Please. The bidding stopped at $2,000.

Mary Helen bought the halter at the 2009 World Conformation Horse Association banquet and benefit auction on November 11, held at the Oklahoma State Fair Park alongside the AQHA World Championship Show. The banquet featured a stallion service auction and live and silent auctions of items donated to benefit the 2-year-old association. Other items donated included two Pittsburgh Steelers jerseys signed by NFL Hall of Fame quarterback and halter exhibitor Terry Bradshaw.

Why did Mary Helen want the halter? “Because I have a beautiful filly that will wear it and maybe win,” she said with a big smile. “We’re hoping for some good luck from it.”

A 1989 daughter of Mr Conclusion and out of Sissydator by The Intimidator, Pick Me Please was the 1993 world champion aged mare, 1992 youth and open world champion 3-year-old mare and 1991 world champion 2-year-old mare.

And as of November 12, the WCHA officially joined forces with AQHA as an alliance partner.