A Horse Show Proposal…

By: Brittany Bevis

If you’re a member of the horse show crowd, chances are you spend a considerable amount of time either on the road to, competing at, or returning home from equine competitions. Therefore, it’s a pretty safe bet that many of life’s milestones will occur during a horse show: anniversaries, birthdays, graduations, weddings, ect. For Kyle Leeman and Chelsea Martz of Ohio, one of these special moments took place at the recent All American Quarter Horse Congress.

If you’ve already seen the exhibitor profile on the Martz sisters in the latest World Show edition of The Equine Chronicle, you read about the sweet birthday present Chelsea recently received from Kyle, a roan weanling filly by one of the Leeman family’s stallions, How Bout This Cowboy. Given that information, it isn’t too big of a stretch to guess that Kyle probably had plans to incorporate horses into a future marriage proposal. However, as we all know, horse shows are predictable only for being unpredictable and even the best laid plans can go awry, especially when they hinge on the decision of the judges, weather, and Congress construction…

“Before the show, Kyle said he had a surprise for me if I won a class,” Chelsea says. “On Saturday, [October 18th] I was showing in Amateur Performance Halter Mares with Onlythebestchocolate, and we placed third. I asked him where my surprise was, and he teased me all day saying I couldn’t have it because the surprise was only for the winner.”

“Later, it was around 11 o’clock at night, and we had taken Katsy [Kyle’s sister] out to go ride. She said we could go back to wait at the stalls because it was so freezing that night. Instead of going back to the stalls, he said, ‘why don’t we go for a golf cart ride?’ I said, ‘Are you crazy? It’s freezing!'”

Despite the chilly Congress weather, Chelsea agreed to a romantic golf cart ride, and the pair set off on a long drive around the show grounds. “We kept driving around to all of these different spots, and he was getting so frustrated,” she says. “He kept saying things like, ‘there used to be a fountain here,’ and ‘I can’t believe they put buses in here,’ so we ended up going back to the stalls. Then, he got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. Then, he said, ‘I didn’t practice this, so you’re going to have to help me get back up.'”

The last part of that statement might need a bit of explanation in order to gain a true grasp of Kyle’s sense of humor. In late 2013, Kyle was involved in a motorcycle accident that required surgery, including removal of nearly an inch of bone in his leg, and extensive rehabilitation. Thankfully, he has recovered, but he occasionally uses a cane for extra assistance. However, there was no way this romantic young man wasn’t getting down on one knee to propose to his new fiance.

“He’d had the ring since August,” Chelsea says. “He told me, ‘I had this whole thing planned out. You were going to win and I was going to go out in the arena and propose and you were going to love it.’ Then, he said he thought about waiting until our families went to Disney World for the holidays, but he couldn’t wait any longer. “

By the time the actual proposal took place, it was nearly 3 am on Sunday morning and the majority of the Martz-Judd Paul Training Stables and Leeman Farm clans were either just waking up to prepare for Sunday’s competition or still awake but half asleep from the previous day’s events.

“Katsy was the first person we told, out in the overhang, and she nearly jumped off her horse,” Chelsea says. “Then, she said something only Katsy [a sister] would say, ‘Thank God you locked that down! Why did we have to wait so long?’

Everyone here at The Equine Chronicle would like to send a big congratulations to Kyle Leeman and Chelsea Martz following the news of their recent engagement and the adorable story behind the proposal!