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.

Related Posts:

• World Show: November 14
• World Show: November 11
• World Show: November 12
• World Show: November 9
• World Show: November 19