Bruce Vickery Scores 235 to Win Junior Trail With Zipschocolateimpulse

By: Brittany Bevis

Kicking off the festivities this evening at the 2013 AQHA World Show was the highly anticipated frisbee toss with proceeds from the sale of the $5 frisbees going to benefit Rein In Cancer and the Shirley Bowman Foundation. Participants in the stands were trying their hardest to knock over Tim “The Trail Man” Kimura’s Laker Monkey, who was strategically placed in the middle of the trail course. The winner of the competition will be awarded with a 100X Shorty’s hat. Three additional frisbee throwers will win Weatherbeeta blankets.

The Junior Trail competition that initially began with 42 horse and rider combinations concluded this evening with 17 finalists vying for the top spot. Taking home the World Championship title and bragging rights for 2013 was Bruce Vickery who scored a 235 aboard Zipschocolateimpulse for the win. “Shaq” is a five-year-old gelding that Vickery has had in training for the past three years.

“He’s such a cool horse,” Vickery says. “From the beginning, he has been very special. He’s one of those that’s really natural and carries himself over the poles. It’s easy for him. He’s super careful. It’s a rare occasion that he ever hits. He has a lot of style.”

“What’s really cool about him is that he’s really good at what you would consider to be the slow stuff, like the back through and boxes. Part of it is because he’s so little. He’s 14.2, so he fits anywhere and makes it look like it’s simple.”

Although the 14.2 hand tall Shaq doesn’t exactly live up to his basketball great namesake as far as height goes, he makes up for it in heart and length of stride.

“He thinks he’s big, and his step is huge,” Vickery says. “That’s what’s kind of cool about him. He can fit in all the little places, but, when you go to the big obstacles, he can stretch his stride out for a mile.”

Vickery not only claimed a World Championship in Junior Trail for Shaq’s owner, Lee Reeve. He came right back in the very next class and was named the Reserve World Champion in Senior Trail aboard She Made It Happen for Brenda Gower. In addition, he showed three other horses in the finals tonight.

“There was a total of five tonight that I showed,” he says. “It was really tough; I won’t lie. I had incredible help this year. Those guys did an amazing job of getting everything ready for me.”

In a fun turn of events, Vickery claimed his World Championship title just before midnight on Tuesday, November 19th. As a result, he celebrated the first hours of his birthday on Wednesday, November 20th, doing interviews and taking win photos. Congratulations and Happy Birthday!

Junior Trail–

1-Zips Chocolate Impulse/Bruce Vickery (235)

2-Unfaithfully Good/Garry McAllister

3-My Vital Valentine/Chad Evans

4-Surely Im Sultry Hot/Whitney Lagace

5-Too Hot To Frisk/Joni Nelson

6-Only One Way To Rock/Jason Gilliam

7-In My Sunday Best/Brad Jewett

8-Im Barely Lopin/Tami Adams McAllister

9-Let’s Shake Em Up/Chad Evans

10-Hot Star/Ryan Cottingim

Intermediate–

1-In My Sunday Best/Brad Jewett

2-Im Ever Certain/Butch Campbell