AQHYA World Show Crossover Competitors
By: Brittany Bevis
If you’ve been keeping up with our AQHYA World Show coverage, you probably read yesterday’s interview with Western Riding World Champion Deanna Green. In addition to competing in Western Riding, Horsemanship, and Western Pleasure aboard Blazenmytroublesaway, Green also plans to show Platinum Bob in Cutting later in the week. That got us thinking…
How many other crossover competitors are competing in both performance and timed or working horse events here at the Youth World Show? Then, we spotted Shea Graham, a fixture on the AQHA all-around circuit, heading to the pen for her barrel racing run aboard her palomino gelding, JMC, aka “Casper the Ghost.” So we tagged along.
After her run, (she scored an 18.710) we learned that Graham had just raced over from the Trail preliminaries in the other arena. Graham’s mount for Trail, Horsemanship, Western Pleasure, Western Riding, and Equitation is Lets Talk About AOK, aka “Albert.”
“I had more time than I thought I would,” she says. “I got done with trail, got off, came over here, and everybody was changing my horses, so it wasn’t that bad. I was 106th to go in the Trail preliminaries and 36th in the Barrels.”
“I think it would be harder to go from Barrels to Trail, because speed is more relaxing for me. It’s not judged on you, just on how fast you go. I want to try doing over fences too!”
Another crossover competitor who was hard at work today preparing for multiple events was Joshua Briggs. Briggs is competing at the Youth World in Horsemanship and Showmanship with his five-year-old gelding, Definitely A First, aka “Tag.” However, today we spotted Briggs heading out for a lesson aboard Chex By Wrangler, his partner for Ranch Pleasure, Breakaway Roping, and Heading.
“I do the all-around events because my parents got me into that, and that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life,” he says. “My older brother Bryce has gotten me into roping. Our family does a little bit of both.”
“My favorite event is Ranch Horse Pleasure. It’s a pattern class, so you get to lay out a pattern with excellence, but it has more speed to it. It’s a mix of both.”
Recently, at the 2014 AjPHA Youth World Show, Briggs and his double-registered gelding won the inaugural Ranch Horse Pleasure class as well as Reining. Although there can be difficulties involved when switching between disciplines, Briggs feels his background in multiple events helps him to excel.
“It’s hard because there are different buttons on each horse,” he says. “For example, Wrangler’s stop is different than Tag’s stop. I think that roping has helped me ride horsemanship. My balance is better. Everything is better. I ridden a lot better since I’ve started roping, definitely.”
“If I make the Showmanship finals, Showmanship and Ranch Pleasure are supposed to go at exactly the same time. We don’t know how we’re going to do that yet. We’ll see…”
