Joy Norris and A Certain Rockstar Win AQHA L1 Amateur Horsemanship Championship

By: Brittany Bevis

22-year-old Joy Norris bested a field of 65 entries to claim the Championship title in Amateur Horsemanship this afternoon at the AQHA L1 Championships Central. Her partner for the class was her 9-year-old gelding, A Certain Rockstar, aka “Gibbs.”

“We keep Gibbs at home, and I go to my trainer, Brad Jewett’s, for lessons,” Joy says. “He’s pretty green in everything, and we’re just getting around to doing Horsemanship. This is the first show he’s really settled in at. We got him four years ago, and he was pretty green. He can be tough to ride at times; that’s why this is such a big deal.”

Joy has been showing horses since she was very young and competed in 4-H, Barrel Racing, Roping, and other events before getting into AQHA competition. Two years ago, the pair won a Championship title at the NSBA World Show in Novice Showmanship. “Honestly, we really haven’t shown much since then. I can count on my hand the number of times. I’m in college at Texas State, and I’ve been working, so it’s been hard to get out to show.”

This isn’t the pair’s first trip to a L1 Championship Show. Two years ago, they attended the Novice Championship Show West in Las Vegas, but this is their first win. “This is definitely my first win here. I’ve never come close to winning one here before. I was just blown away when I made the finals, because I wasn’t even expecting that. Then, when I got in the top five, I thought, ‘thank you Jesus!'”

Despite all of the excitement and celebration now, Joy and Gibbs faced some challenges earlier in the day. “I actually came right off of a very bad Trail pattern, that was my fault, and we had to change super fast to get over to the Horsemanship pen. We had maybe 15 minutes. That was part of the reason why I was a little frazzled, but Brad said to move on and let it go.”

“Honestly, God has blessed me so much, so I just said, ‘Jesus, take it. It’s yours.’ I just wanted to go in and have a good pattern. I needed to fix my mindset, so I took five minutes to clear my head and then we went in.”

When Joy isn’t at college, work, or in the show pen, she can be found combining her love of horses with her studies in Recreational Therapy for people with special needs. “My sister and I created a non-profit called SOAR Therapeutic Riding Arena. We’ve been doing that for a year now, and it’s amazing to see the breakthrough you can have with people and horses.”

Amateur Horsemanship:

1- A Certain Rockstar/Joy Norris

2-Ponderossa Pine/Shay Voorhees

3- Hoo Wants To Dance/Stephanie Manhart

4-Cinimer Jae/Rhonda Williams

5- IE Thumptin Special/Darian Sullivan