Ashley Hadlock Wins First Congress Championship in Amateur Showmanship With Touched N Moonlite

By: Brittany Bevis

Ashley Hadlock was overcome with emotion when the announcer revealed that she and her 8-year-old gelding, Touched N Moonlite, were the Congress Champions in Amateur Showmanship. Ashley and “Regis” have been a team for the past three years, and this is their first Congress Championship win. They currently compete under the guidance of Ryan Cottingim and Mandy Gately.

“When I got him, I told him my favorite class was Showmanship. He had never done it before, but I told him that it would be the easiest class he would ever do, because it involves no riding. When I got him to Ryan, he had about ten days Showmanship on him. We went to a show, and Ryan signed me up for Showmanship. Ever since then it has been one of Regis’s best classes. All the credit goes to Ryan, because he has done so much work with him.”

Coming up next, Ashley and Regis will compete in Amateur Trail. Then, it’s on to the AQHA World Show where they will show in Showmanship, Trail, Horsemanship, and Senior Trail.

“Today, I really liked my final go. I took some areas in my prelims, that I didn’t love as much, and I tried to polish them up. I have to say, it worked. Today, I felt liked he was walking well and was very crisp. I asked for a little more trot, and he gave it to me. He stopped hard, turned good, and backed nice.”

Because the app hasn’t been showing updated scores on the practice pen screens, Ashley had no idea where she’d ended up in the overall placings. “Poor ‘ole Regis was a trooper. We came up here for the second split, and they took a break to do the callbacks for the Select. Then, after my first go, I didn’t know if I’d made it back, so he’s been up here forever!”

The Reserve Champion was Kaleena Weakly with Hours Yours and Mine. Third place was Shannon Brown with Ima Good Margarita. Fourth was Jessica Baird with Cool Lopin Lady. Fifth was Sabrina Klinkhammer with One More Time.