Justin Ware and My Ohhh My Win Yearling Fillies at 2014 AQHYA World Show

UPDATE: Justin Ware just led Dock Holliday to his second World Championship of the morning in 3-Year-Old Geldings.

By: Brittany Bevis

Halter classes are well underway in the Performance Arena once again this morning in Oklahoma City at the 2014 AQHYA World Championship Show. The first World Champion of the day was Justin Ware with My Ohhh My in Yearling Fillies.

Ware and “Sissy” currently compete under the guidance of Monte and Anna Horn and have for the past year and a half.

“Monte is a great trainer,” Ware says. “He has a lot of different new techniques, and Anna does too. They both work together and bring in different things. By being with them, I’ve learned new things.”

“This is actually the first year I’ve shown Sissy and the first year she’s been shown. She’s a great mare. She doesn’t give any problem whatsoever in the barn or show arena. She’s a bit skittish, but she’s a yearling filly, so you have to look over that. They love her around the barn. Monte keeps her, and the boy that works for him just loves her. He loves her to death.”

Yesterday, Ware showed one of his other horses, Vendicated, to a fourth place finish in Aged Geldings. He will be heading back into the arena in a few moments for the 3-Year-Old Geldings class. Because Ware competes with horses of different ages, he is well aware that there are noticeable differences when it comes to preparing and competing with an older horse versus a young prospect.

“It really is hard [for a yearling to make it],” he says. “I think she’s really got an awesome hind leg on her. I haven’t really seen it much on a yearling, and I’m not saying the others don’t have the same thing, but she’s just so good. Her back and her neck just come out of her shoulders so pretty, and she’s got a pretty head on her. She’s slick and straight across the back. She’s a pretty horse.”

Given the wide variety of classes available to competitors here at the AQHYA World Show, we wondered why this particular young man chose to focus on the discipline of halter.

“People ask me all the time, ‘Isn’t halter boring?'” he says. “No. At every show, I still build up suspense, and I still get nervous about it. I get this feeling where my heart starts beating and racing real fast, and I get the same feeling every single show. I love it.”

“It doesn’t get boring, even though I do the same thing every time. It’s just like you going out and riding the same pattern every time. I do the same pattern too, and it doesn’t get boring to me. I love it.”

Yearling Mares-

1-My Ohhh My/Justin Ware

2-Executee/Paige Wacker

3-Flawles/James Hamby

4-Enamoring/Hance Sommerer

5-BPF Glamour Girl/Calyn Halvorson

6-TF The Last Waltz/Monica Hamm

7-Secret Sally/Olivia Hennelly