Coleen Bull and Timeless Assets Win Third Title of APHA World Show, in Amateur Pleasure Driving
Coleen and her husband Kit are headed to purchase a pair of celebratory boots at M.L. Leddy’s in the Fort Worth Stockyards, for Kit! A gift for being such a wonderful horse show husband.
By: Brittany Bevis
This morning, Coleen Bull and Timeless Assets won their third title of the APHA World Championship Show, in Amateur Pleasure Driving. Earlier in the week, they were named the unanimous World Champions in Masters Amateur Equitation and the Reserve World Champions in Masters Amateur Showmanship.
Following this morning’s win, Tucson now has racked up 17 career World Champion titles and 10 Reserve World Champion titles. He has also been named the Masters All-Around Champion here at the World Show four times.
With all of the complicated equipment, straps, hooks, and shafts, Pleasure Driving can be an intimidating discipline, but Coleen feels very at ease because she has such a solid partner in Tucson. “I’ve seen some accidents,” she says. “If Tucson wasn’t so quiet and solid, and if he didn’t take such good care of me, I probably wouldn’t be able to do it. But it really is so much fun. I trust him so much.”
“I wasn’t sure I was going to like it at first, but I really enjoy it. I think one of the reasons I really like it is because he’s so sensitive and in tune to everything. Mike Short taught him to drive, and he did an amazing job. He and Tucson bonded; they’re tight.”
Last year at the World Show was Tucson’s first time competing in Amateur Pleasure Driving class, and he and Coleen were named the World Champions. “He hasn’t even been hooked up to a cart since last year here at the World Show when Mike drove him,” she says. “He didn’t forget a thing. He just needed to reconnect and rebalance himself and get used to pulling the cart again. I felt more confident and comfortable with the whole thing too.”
10-year-old Tucson is definitely the resident super horse at Bauer-Gooding Show Horses, and he claims his position with relish and all the carrots he can carry. “There is something about him,” she says. “He knows he’s a show horse, and I think he kind of knows when people are looking at him. He does like that.”
“He gives 100% all the time. He’s a really confidence booster. The one thing he does is he thinks he knows what it is you want. I’ve had times where I practice a whole pattern in Equitation or Horsemanship, and then he will do the pattern, kind of without me. That’s kind of unnerving. I remember the first time it happened. About the time I’m thinking I’m going to cue for the left lead, he’s already taking it… He really wants to please and gets really upset when he can’t figure out what it is that you want.”
Later on in the show, Coleen and Tucson will compete in Masters Amateur Senior Hunter Under Saddle, Horsemanship, Trail, and Western Riding. Mike Short will show Tucson in Senior Pleasure Driving and Utility Driving.
