Darcy Reeve and Ima Petite Classic Win Second Title of the Day in Amateur Western Riding

By: Brittany Bevis

Darcy Reeve and her trusty gelding “Kramer” have had a very busy two days at the Congress. Last night, the pair placed fourth in the Amateur Versatility competition. This morning, the pair claimed a Congress Championship title in Amateur Trail with a whopping 240 and 1/2. Now, they have won the Amateur Western Riding as well with a score of 233 and 1/2.

“He’s been busy,” Reeve says. “I’ve never heard of a [trail] score that high before. He was perfect. Every pattern he did today was perfect. I swear it’s that pole bending in the Versatility that just makes him give in to life!”

Typically, at such a high stakes event like the Congress, most exhibitors would prefer to keep the fun events like Versatility towards the end of their competition schedule. However, that wasn’t an option for Reeve, who competed in almost all of her western performance classes today, less than twelve hours after a grueling four-hour Versatility competition the night before.

“Last year, we almost did the same thing as today,” Reeve says. “He was so good for the Trail and Western Riding last year after the Versatility that it kind of made my decision easy [as to] if I wanted to do it again. It just makes him so quiet.”

Because Reeve is lucky enough to have the opportunity to show not one, but two, incredible geldings, she is frequently asked which is her favorite. Of course, there’s no way she could choose between her two babies.

“They are both so different in my mind,” she says. “Everyone asks me who my favorite is, and I can’t choose. They are both perfect.”

“Kramer is the kind of horse that if I want to get on and ride bareback around the fairgrounds I could. You can just do whatever you want on him. With Vino, you kind of have to be careful, because he likes to get happy. Kramer is the older horse, but he acts like the younger one. He definitely has the most energy.”

Although there may not be any Versatility competitions in Vino’s future, we might see him make an appearance in Pole Bending tomorrow, depending on how the current Amateur All-Around standings play out…

Amateur Western Riding–

1-Ima Petite Classic/Darcy Reeve

2-Vital Signs Are Good/Theresa Moran

3-A Certain Vino/Darcy Reeve

4-Up The Assets/Brittany Lofton

5-So Much Potential/Joanne Garnett

6-Super Kat Man/Suzanne Randolph

7-All But Sudden/Robert Huver

8-Zip Along Home/Fon Laughlin

9-Zippos Goodfellow/Lisa Neiberger

10-Calling All Cowboys/Amanda Doucette