Ellexxah Maxwell & Zips Bossy Chip Break the Record!

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178 – January/February, 2018

BY ALISON FOSTER

In 1987, AQHA Hall of Fame gelding Van Decka cemented his place in the record books by earning more youth points than any other horse in AQHA history. At the 1987 Quarter Horse Congress, after nearly two decades in the show ring, Van Decka and his final youth rider, Tara Green, earned 30 points and placed first in the 11-and-Under Horsemanship, a win that brought Van Decka’s total youth point tally to 4,270 points.

For nearly three decades, no youth horse was able to challenge that record… until now. In early September 2017, at a small horse show in northern Ohio, Ellexxah Maxwell walked out of her Horsemanship class and burst into tears. With two firsts and a second, Ellexxah and her mare, Zips Bossy Chip, had earned 4,280 points, breaking Van Decka’s record and making “Annie B” AQHA’s new All-Time Leading Youth Horse.

Riding is in Ellexxah’s blood. Though she’s just 17 years old, it wouldn’t be much of an exaggeration to say that she has spent nearly every day of those 17 years on horseback. As the daughter of AQHA Professional Horsemen, Brent and Melissa Maxwell, she grew up in the industry and learned to ride long before she learned how to walk.

“I guess you could say that I’ve always been on a horse!” Ellexxah says. “I was just three days old when I first went to the Congress. I would just get passed around all day from person to person, while they rode, and apparently I loved it. By two, I was sitting in the saddle on my own and competing in lead line. I haven’t had a year off of showing since. Thankfully!”

“Ellexxah has lived in this world her entire life,” says her mother and AQHA Horsewoman, Melissa Maxwell. “She has been a natural from day one. She was doing leadline at 18 months, and there has never been any fear or any doubt in her. She has known from the time she was little that this is what she wanted to do with her life.”

Though based in West Mansfield, Ohio, Ellexxah and her family spend most of their time on the road at horse shows. It’s a grueling schedule, rarely allowing backto-back weekends off and requiring Ellexxah to do her classes and coursework for her online public high school on the road, but Ellexxah loves it. She says, “I think we travel to about three to four horse shows a month, with things slowing down a bit from November to January, but any less and life seems boring! It’s a family affair. It’s just my parents, our three dogs, and me. I consider myself lucky. How many kids get to have such a close relationship with their parents?”

Click here to read the complete article
178 – January/February, 2018