11-Year-Old Cooper Dobbs and Jbees Private Jet Win Aged Geldings at 2013 AQHYA World Show

11-year-old Cooper Dobbs showed the big kids how to get it done this afternoon when he led Jbees Private Jet to an near unanimous win in the Aged Geldings at the 2013 AQHYA World Show in Oklahoma City.

Judges, Tim Finkenbinder, Steve Ferguson, James Heird, Kim Myers, and John Pipkin judged the class of 19 qualifiers. Coming in Reserve was Monica Hamm with RPL My Te Cheerful. The third place winner was Justin Ware leading A Kid By Design.

New to the aged division, Dobbs’s partner “Diesel” is a black gelding by Self Employed and out of Sierras Black Miss. The pair won the Youth 3-Year-Old Geldings class at the 2012 AQHYA World Show.

“I named him Diesel because I’ve always wanted to name a horse Diesel, and I figured this was a good time to do it,” Dobbs says. “He did really good today, [except for] that part when he started to act up a little [at the end].”

“Ted [Turner] said to do five or six steps and then say whoa and then just stay calm and walk slow with him.”

Diesel showed his excitement after being named World Champion by kicking up his heels a bit as the pair exited the award ceremony. But Dobbs, ever the intrepid young horseman, calmed his partner as he prepared to meet the small legion of fans that awaited at the exit gate.

“A lot of people came to watch,” he says. “My mom and dad and my grandma and my two cousins came to see me, and I have a lot of friends.”

Dobbs plans to place his newly acquired golden globe on a shelf next to the complete set that he already has at home.

“I’ve got a silver and a bronze and now I got two golds,” he says.

After the win picture is taken and Diesel is turned in for the night, Dobbs plans to take his fan club out for a celebratory dinner at his favorite restaurant in Oklahoma City, Trapper’s.

“We may go to a restaurant,” he says. “They have really good food and they have a gator in a little cage and you get to look at him.”

Be sure to watch for Dobbs in 2-Year-Old Geldings on Sunday with his newly acquired partner, This Big, a chestnut gelding by My Intention and out of Say Sierra. Although his father, Travis Dobbs, and trainer, Ted Turner, handle the horse selection process, Dobbs is proud to inform us that he is in charge of deciding barn names.

“The two-year-old I just named ‘Si,’ because I always watch the show Duck Dynasty and figured I’d like to name one Si.”

Congratulations to the entire Dobbs family on this young horseman’s exciting accomplishment.

2013 AQHYA World Show:

Aged Geldings-

1-Jbees Private Jet/Cooper Dobbs

2-Rpl My Te Cheerful/Monica Hamm

3-A Kid By Design/Justin Ware

4-Kid B Styling/Miranda Peck

5-Only At Knight/Hunter Griffin- First place Intermediate