Topping Congress Amateur Trail Classes Are Neiberger, Salazar, Scobie, and Kohman

By: Brittany Bevis

The final Trail classes are now complete here at the 2015 All American Quarter Horse Congress. First this morning, in the Select Trail, Isabel Carmen Scobie rode Range To A Te to score a 230.5 and win “Troy’s” second Congress title of the show. Just yesterday, Whitney Lagace rode the gelding to win Senior Trail with a Congress high score of 241.5.

The Reserve Champion in the class was Teresa Kohman with I’m Pretty Lazy. Third place was Susan Knapp with Heavenly Mac. Fourth place was Ruth Marie Rowe with Always Clowninaround. Fifth place was Vickie Kent with Won Lopin RV Machine.

Sixth place was Kim Neas with Rumors Are Hot. Seventh place was Stacey Stinson with Ima Tuff Barpasser. Eighth place was Ben Debrouwer with Good To Be Macho. Ninth place was Kim Best with Check This Machine. Tenth place was Steve Shum with KM Born To Be Best.

In Amateur Trail, the scores were very tight and the competition was tough. Alyssa Neiberger and Credits For Heaven scored a 231 to win the Congress Champion title. This is Alyssa and Hatch’s first Congress Champion win. The pair was Reserve in 2009 here at the Congress, also in Trail, and the team has won in the discipline at the AQHA World Show as well.

“It feels awesome,” Alyssa says. “Since I was Reserve at the Congress in 2009 and won the World in 2010, there hasn’t been anything since then, so I’m excited about this!”

“We’ve been doing this for six years now, and Trail is our favorite class. He’s really good at it, and I like the challenge of the obstacles. It’s fun. He’s really good at the transitions; going from the trot to lope and lope to trot, and there was a lot of that in this pattern.”

Alyssa and Hatch currently compete under the expert guidance of Robin and Jenny Frid, who gave the pair some helpful advice before they entered the pen to compete. “With this pattern, they said to stay slow and not get him all riled up. When I went in there, he gave me 110%.”

“We ticked the first pole right away, but then we did the gate and the other transition obstacles well. He’s really pretty at the lope, so I feel like we plussed a lot of those parts. Robin always tells me never to give up until you’re done.”

Alyssa and Hatch will apply that same philosophy when they compete in their final class tomorrow, Amateur Western Riding.

The Reserve Champion in the class was Maria Salazar with Winkin For Chocolate; this team also won Amateur Hunt Seat Equitation last night. Maria describes her grey gelding, “Leroy,” as eleven going on four, “a wild little man who still keeps things exciting.”

Last night’s win was very exciting for Maria, because this team was named the Congress Champions in Equitation two years ago. Then, to cap it off today with a Reserve finish in Trail was icing on the cake.

“The Equitation pattern was nice and big, so you could use the whole arena, which is fun,” Maria says. “Then, the rail work was brutal! We couldn’t have our irons for most of it. My favorite part was that we went in first. It was stressful and exciting being able to put my lines right where I wanted them to be and then coming around and seeing that the lines were actually where I wanted them to be!”

Another bonus for last night’s win is that Maria was able to share the experience with one of her best friends, the Reserve Congress Champion, Peyton Bivins and Kamanyawannadance.

This afternoon, Maria and Hatch will compete in Novice Amateur Western Riding.

Third place in Amateur Trail was Scott Allen Reinartz with My Bar Passer. Fourth place was Darcy Reeve with Ima Petite Classic. Fifth place was Hayley Saul with Eye On The Ball. Sixth place was Whitney Walquist-Vicars with Southwestern Gunman. Seventh place was Hayley Saul with Putadrinkinmyhand. Eighth place was Christina Szabados with Invest Ina Machine. Ninth place was Angela Wade with Smooth N Chocolatey. Tenth place was Jane Sutcliff with PF Put It N Park.