Well our first day showing and thanks to Monica Hamm and her aged gelding, Team Arizona has its first world show trophy! The aged geldings had 14 in the class and there were a lot of world class contenders this year. Before Monica could even start the horse ahead of her had to come back around and re jog for the judges. So Monica skillfully moved her horse away from the start cone so the horse could go past the judges again. Once that was completed Monica went past the line of judges and went to the line up. As some of you know who might show halter or even showmanship these older horses that have been shown a lot learn when they are in the show arena and know when they can misbehave. Monica handled her horse well and remained calm showing her horse. I know that Monica wanted to win the gold with this horse since this is her last year in Youth but a second will do for sure. Monica and her Sister Kaylee will be showing tomorrow in the 2 year old mares (both in the same class) and then again in the 3 year old geldings (both in the same class). For the past few years now it is always hard to know which Sister will come out on top but I’m sure how ever the placing’s the Hamm girls will be happy for each other.
Lane Kail was going to make his debuted this year at the world show, but since his Mom Andrea just had surgery it was thought best to stay home. Lane has a lot more years to come to the youth world since he is only 9 year old so we will see you next year Lane and all the family. Prayers to your family for a speedy recovery Andrea!
After all of the nail biting from halter tomorrow we will see three of our girls in the prelims of western horsemanship. At her first Youth world for Team Arizona Isabella Nunes will be in the saddle for horsemanship along with Shea Graham and Taylor Searles.
So lets talk about what happen with Taylor, Shea and Sydney at the western riding prelims today. Sydney came out first in the draw and really was having a great ride until just at the last change and had a little bobble, but Sydney kept it together and rode through it to finish her pattern. The judges called out a review for the score so we were hoping for the best. When the review came in was a 199 1/2 which held up for a shoot out spot for awhile. It was a great ride, I’m not sure who was more nervous Sydney or her mother Cathy. I was sitting with Cathy for the ride and she was in charge of doing the video, she was happy that she remembered to take the cover off the lens but I’m not sure about the picture since Cathy was shaking so much. I have to say just wow Sydney on your makeup you looked wonderful, your Mom was not happy when I said you looked 20, sorry Mom. Taylor was up next and her ride was really good 225 to make it back to the finals. Kathy & GW Tobin was there to watch along with Suzie Johns and her son Jeff and of course Grandma Marylou. Kathy sent out a teleapathic message to Taylors horse to be good, and it must have worked because he did really well. Kathy same message at the finals please! I was down at the stalls working on decorations when Shea’s ride was up, but thanks to time delay video I watched it with Shea and Kerry Graham in the warm up pen. I asked Shea how her ride was, she said it was really good and after watching I agreed she scored a 220 1/2 the best Shea had done at a prelim at worlds. This could be your year Shea so hang in there.
Kaylee Hamm as out going AzQHYA President was in charge of coming up with the stall decorations and I think they turned out great. Kaylee’s Dad Doug cut out and painted cactus and made a big chalk board and a big board with Arizona on it then there were nails and numbers on the board. This was a puzzle that when put together came out wonderful. The numbers on the board matched numbers on picture frames and once added altogether it became a wonderful picture piece of Arizona Roots! Lots of pictures of “Old Roots” history from the 70’s and 80’s in the picture frames. We have already had some of the older people stepping up and looking at the pictures and saying I knew them back then. On the two wooden cactus we have old black and white photos of some of the old youth teams and people that have helped our association grow over the years. On the other cactus there are colored pictures of our 2016 youth team and their names. Maybe 10 years from now those will be our roots? It is nice to see all the old with the new and it really captures the theme “my roots run deep”. Thanks to Kaylee’s Mom Lisa who labeled all of the pictures and I know had a hand in getting all of the pictures printed and items gathered. It really takes a village sometimes. The other youth that helped put up the stall decorations were Taylor and Trent Searles, Sydney Frank and her Mom Cathy, Jim Searles, Cruz, Kaylee Hamm , Sunny Parker and myself. I will try to get some pictures of the decorations online for you by face book or twitter.
Those that came into today were the Farrells and the Hemples- glad to have you. I know that the Callaghans should be in tonight. The stalls are starting to fill up.
News of Arizona weather has been on everyone’s phone, the weather here in Oklahoma City is steamy but the rain and in some places the flooding seems unreal in Arizona. We hope everyone is safe and animals too.
Till tomorrow!
Connie Hay
AzQHYA Advisor