Natalia DeVencenty and Chex Is The Choice Win First AQHYA World Title in Trail
By: Brittany Bevis
A bridesmaid no more, Natalia DeVencenty has added a golden globe to her collection of bronze trophies. Natalia has four other titles here at the Youth World Show: a bronze and silver in Halter, a bronze in Western Riding, and a bronze in Horsemanship. “I’ve been so close! You know how they say, ‘Always a bridesmaid?’Well, I was never even a bridesmaid; I was the flower girl!”
17-year-old Natalia is a longtime equestrian having started out in the saddle at the age of five on the USEF Hunter Jumper circuit. After her mother decided she wanted to start riding again, but didn’t necessarily want to jump, they were drawn to Quarter Horses. “We thought that the Quarter Horses seemed to have good brains. Jimmy Daurio, who lives about ten minutes away from us, let my mom ride a Hunter Under Saddle horse, and I rode an all-around horse. I fell in love and I said, “I have to have one of these!’ From then on, we started looking for a Quarter Horse Hunter, but two years and 30 vet checks later, and we still didn’t have a horse.”
Finally, they found KM Boalicious, aka “Meatball,” who Natalia showed in novice and 13 and under competition and eventually to a Reserve Championship in Performance Halter. Her next mount was a Western all-around horse named Chex Is The Choice, who was purchased at the Quarter Horse Congress when Natalia was 14 years old. The entire time Natalia and Chex have been a team, they’ve competed under the guidance of Natalia’s longtime horse trainer, Kelly McDowall. “He was my first Western trainer. He taught me everything I know.”
When Natalia saw today’s Trail pattern, she was excited that Tim “The Trail Man” Kimura had delivered another challenging course with a counter canter, extended lope, and side pass. “When I saw it, I was super excited, because Chex can do anything. He’s not the best mover, so we need to have more of a difficult pattern. Then, when the other horses can’t get through it, he can. Today, he really showed what a good Trail horse he is. He totally saved me in some spots.”
Natalia’s favorite part of the course was the extended lope section, where she tried to increase the degree of difficulty to score more points. “It was like going back to my Hunter roots. I took off and was like, ‘I see my distance!’ I watched a couple of goes and nobody really went for it, so that was probably my favorite part of the pattern. It was super difficult and super hard. Our gate was fantastic, the best we’ve ever had, because we usually struggle with it a bit. The extended trot was good, and he had a really good transition. He was good through the serpentine and didn’t hit anything, which I was super impressed with.”
Earlier in the show, Natalia and Chex also placed fifth in Western Riding and sixth in Horsemanship. Now, they’re off to the NSBA World and Quarter Horse Congress.
