Facing challenges is a hallmark of the Bayer Select World.

At 79, Joan De Regt survived the odds of an abdominal aortic aneurysm and was among her friends and peers to show her mare Classy Reprint at the Bayer Select World Show. (Christine Hamilton photo)

Almost every exhibitor you meet at this show has faced incredible challenges to get here. And maybe that’s why you also hear everyone cheering on all their fellow competitors.

Take 79-year-old Joan De Regt. Two years ago, Joan faced an uncertain future following surgery to repair an abdominal aortic aneurysm. The doctors told her children they didn’t know if she’d survive or how long she’d live if she did.

But on September 3, 2009, she showed her mare, Classy Reprint, in the trail prelims at the Bayer Select World Championship Show.

Joan had started showing at the age of 60, after raising her six children.

“They all went off to school, and there I was,” Joan said. “Somebody said, ‘Isn’t there something you’d like to do, that you’ve never done?’ And I said, I’d like to ride.”

Joan was well-known on the California AQHA show circuits as a show mom to her daughter, Lauren, and son, Tom. With the kids out of the house it became Joan’s turn, and she showed her gelding, Every Buddys Choice, primarily in trail; they even qualified for the AQHA World Championship Show.

She had stopped riding a few years before she became ill. And when she miraculously “started feeling better,” she wanted to ride again.

She bought Classy Reprint from AQHA Professional Horseman Cynthia Cantleberry and got qualified for the Bayer Select World. Cynthia raised and trained the 1993 daughter of Barpassers Image.

“I don’t truly think I could do this on any other horse,” Joan said. “She’s so smooth and well-trained, the horse is just a natural. I don’t have it in me to use a lot of leg; I have no strength in my legs. If I had to do a lot of pushing and squeezing, I couldn’t do it.”

During one lesson last year, Joan lost her balance and fell off but Classy Reprint just stopped. “Now, if she thinks I’m going to go off, she stops,” Joan said.

Joan’s daughter, Lauren Dowdy Wood, and a whole crew of California friends came to Amarillo with Joan and Cynthia to help at the show.

“She was on her death bed, and now she’s sitting on a horse,” Lauren said of her mother. “Ride was all she wanted to do. For the prelims, we were hoping she’d be able to get on and have a good enough day and her legs would be strong enough to ride. And she was.”

Joan went off pattern in her prelims, but that didn’t lessen the cheers from her California crew. And next year, at 80, she plans to be back.

Christine Hamilton
Editor
American Quarter Horse Journal

Learn more about the western pleasure riding style, and get tips on how to improve your success in western pleasure with our “Showing to Win: Western Pleasure” DVD.

Check out photos from the final day of the 2009 Bayer Select World Championship Show. Click on the photos to see the captions. Some of the photos are available for purchase at the AQHA Photo Store.