Today started out with the finals in trail and Shea Graham and her horse had a good go until the very last maneuver which she stepped out of so it hurt her in the over all score. Just to make it to the finals is wonderful and know they were hoping for a higher placing’s but Shea ended up as a finalist in trail today. On the bright side I think this has really been the best world show Shea has had in a long time. You looked great out there Shea!
Hunter under saddle and hunt seat equitation prelims were today, this like the horsemanship classes of the other day seem to go on all day. They split the class up into different splits they go, then they take 10 out of the split then they come back and go with the other splits until they get the top 20. Those top 20 come back and do it all over again to see who goes to the finals. I know with the heat and humid here it is really taking a toll on the horses. In the Hunter Under Saddle after all of the splits and things Taylor Searles made it back to the finals that happen tomorrow. Hunt Seat Equitation had Isabella Nunes, Shea Graham and Taylor Searles and again going through many splits they all made it into a split. On the second round Isabella didn’t make it to the semi finals, she said that she was almost happy about it her horse worked really well in the class today and was almost out of gas. Her horse is not sweating enough and it is really taking a toll on both rider and horse. I talked to her and she had a great experience at her last Youth world show and was so happy and thankful that she could be on team Arizona for her last youth world. Glad to have you now in Arizona and hope to see more of you at our Arizona shows. Both Shea and Taylor made it through the maze of splits to make it to the semi finals. The show gods did not favor our two youth today in this class they both missed the cut and I thought they both had enough to get to the finals. Cheers to them I know they tried their best today but it just didn’t come to play that we have riders in the finals for Equitation tomorrow.
Tomorrow brings the finals for hunter under saddle for Taylor so we are hoping the best for her in the afternoon.
My reiner girls are up tomorrow for their prelims. We have four of our five girls all in the top 23 of the draw tomorrow so the morning will go really fast for most of our team. Kate Buchanan will be showing two in the reining and with already a 4th place win under her belt from Ranch Riding and her trainer Matt Mills, Kate is looking to add to her winnings. New to our team from New Mexico is Jessica Liebold, Robbi-kay Pederson from Scottsdale both have their Mom’s here and have their trainer and new AzQHA Board of Director Patrick Flaherty to help them. Kaylee Naylor riding two horses has her Dad Brent as her trainer and truck driver extraordinar and Mom Brandy also helping out. Chandler Winard has Dan Huss here for her trainer along with Mom Diane as her support group. These girls are ready to run hard, slide and spin into the finals! We are so glad to have these girls on Team Arizona. All of these girls normally ride in NRHA shows but have come over to the AQHA side and we are glad they have. This year the AQHA Youth World is adding a special added class into the reining as part of the FEI reining, so from the reining draw AQHYA is making teams of 23 so there will be about 5 teams. AQHA will be giving medals to the top teams from those 5 teams. Remember I said AzQHYA had four of our girls in the top 23, I think team one might be really hard to beat. We will see how all of that goes tomorrow.
We took down our stall decoration today, thank you to the Farrells who helped, Paul and Sunny Parker and Diane Winard. Shandiin Farrell drove her truck with the decorations and stall curtains to the storage and we packed them in the storage unit for another year. Not sure if I thanked Jim Searles for letting me use his truck to pick up the stall decorations at the start of the show- Thanks!
Its getting close to the end of the show and I want to thank all of the trainers, parents and youth that made this Youth World a great experience for all of team Arizona. Job well done everyone!
Till Tomorrow!
Connie Hay
AzQHYA Advisor