Buddy Laney Leads Best Dawn Yet to Yearling Fillies Win For Suzanne and Melvin Kiser

By: Brittany Bevis

Mrs. Suzanne Kiser was overcome with emotion this morning when her home-bred yearling filly by Kid Coolsified claimed a World Championship title at the 2013 AQHA World Show. This is Kiser’s first World Champion, and, the fact that she is out of Kiser’s mare, A Nu Dawn, makes the win even more special.

“I have her mother, who was shown here at the World Show six times and was top five every time,” Kiser says. “She’s a Mazeratti daughter. We kept this baby in the pasture all last year as a weanling. We just turned her out with the other babies and let her be a baby. She is very special to us because we’ve worked a long, long time to get one like this.”

Kiser has many previous top three and top ten finishes in events like halter and western pleasure, but she’s never been able to capture that elusive golden globe, until today. Assisting in the win was professional handler, Buddy Laney, and Kiser’s trainer, Mitch Leonarski.

“Mitch Leonarski has had her, and he fit her,” she says. “She won the Iowa Breeders Futurity Yearling Fillies with Buddy. Buddy also had her mother.”

There was a tense moment, when the individual judges’ scores were announced, as one judge requested that Laney and Ross Roark line their horses up side by side for closer comparison. After a few agonizing minutes, the judge put Laney in the first place spot. In the overall placings, Roark came in Reserve with Enstyle.

“Oh my gosh, yesterday was the first time I’d ever seen that before!” she says. “Then, when they did that today… It’s all new to me, but I appreciate how they came out.”

Kiser is looking forward to 2014, because she plans to show “Little Dawn” herself in the amateur division.

“The best things about her are her legs and her mind,” she says. “She’s a really sweet mare. There is no aggression about her. We can go in the stall with her and anybody can be around her. She’s that kind of mare.”

Yearling Fillies-

1-Best Dawn Yet/Buddy Laney

2-Enstyle/Ross Roark

3-One Exceptional Miss/Steve Ferguson

4-She’s The Woman/Ted Turner

5-Call Me Maibe/Gene Parker

6-Oh So Righteous/Kathy Smallwood

7-Love Storry/Luke Castle

8-Secretz Galore/Jeffrey Pait

9-E Vivacious/Jason Smith

10-Shez The Exception/Tim Finkenbinder