Blake Weis and Hot Lopin Lily Win AQHA World Pleasure Versatility Challenge

By: Brittany Bevis

The choice was clear this evening in the Pleasure Versatility Challenge as Blake Weis won his second title in the class, this time aboard a relatively unknown, three-year-old named Hot Lopin Lily. Well, if she was a dark horse before this evening, she certainly isn’t anymore as she was the winner of the Western Pleasure class, Conformation class, and Pattern class, making a clean sweep of all three events.

Blake and owner, Caroline Cavallo, had no expectations going into tonight’s event, as even changing leads is a new skill for this green mare. “The best part of all of this was that before today, there was no pressure,” Caroline says. “When I got here, the first question I asked Blake was if we were going to show her or not. Once he said that we were, all of the excitement and nerves started. Once she walked in, it was like you could tell she was ready. For a horse that had never done this type of a pattern before, by the end, it was like she became a show horse, and she was really happy. As an owner, that makes me happy to see.”

Blake concurs, saying the mare truly blossomed tonight. “Honestly, she came in as a relative unknown,” he says. “She’s not a very seasoned horse, like some of the others, so we had no clue how she was going to do. But she really focused up, and it was almost like she enjoyed herself. I was definitely not expecting to win the Western Pleasure class. Rusty Green’s horse is a great horse, obviously. It’s interesting, because Lily wasn’t a horse that many people had seen before, so it was really cool to be called out first in Western Pleasure.”

After tonight, Caroline’s hope is that Lily might have the makings of her next all-around horse. “Maybe she can teach me how to do Western Riding, because that’s a class I’ve never done before in my show career. This was so exciting and special for all of us.”

Pleasure Versatility Challenge Overall
1- Hot Lopin Lily/Blake Weis
2- Nothin But Nett/Rusty Green
3- The Whoo/Aaron Moses
4- If It Ain’t Dixie/Beckey Schooler
5- Bestseatnthesouth/Jamie Dowdy

Pattern class
1- Hot Lopin Lily/Blake Weis
2- The Whoo/Aaron Moses
3- Nothin But Nett/Rusty Green

Western Pleasure class
1- Hot Lopin Lily/Blake Weis
2- Nothin But Nett/Rusty Green
3- The Whoo/Aaron Moses

Conformation class
1- Hot Lopin Lily/Blake Weis
2- Nothin But Nett/Rusty Green
3- Best Made Machine/Theresa Wills