Katsy Leeman Wins Big- 3 Congress Championships in Reining With 2 Different Horses

By: Brittany Bevis

Katsy Leeman is on a roll at the 2017 All American Quarter Horse Congress, and the event has only just begun! First, she saddled up with Odds In My Favour, aka “Peewee” in the Non Pro Reining Stakes. Katsy and the three-year-old mare by A Shiner Named Sioux and out of Who Whiz Baby Blue scored a 218.5 winning both the Level 3 and Level 4 version of the class.

“She’s very special to me, because she’s the first horse I’ve bought as a yearling and trained all the way to the show pen,” Katsy says. “I’ve hauled her to my trainer’s [Shawn Flarida] place, basically every weekend during the past two years to get help with her. He’s kept her a few weeks when I’ve been too busy to ride her. I think it’s very impressive that he’s been able to help me so much, even though he’s only put about 45 rides on her.”

Peewee was purchased from Katsy’s good friends, Tim, Linda, Indy, and Sam Roper. Although she’s relatively new to the Reining pen, having only competed for the past five years, she’s quickly developed a love for the discipline. “I used my college team needing more Reiners as an excuse to talk my Grandpa into buying me my first horse,” she says. “I was lucky to start out at Shawn Flarida’s, and he has spent a lot of time helping me. Since I started working at our family cheese plant, Shawn has been out on the track every weekend when we’re home with Sam and I practicing. Aside from Shawn, my Grandpa and Grandma spend almost every night watching me ride her at home. At the show, my boyfriend, Cody, helped me a lot each night. Even though he doesn’t show, he has a very good eye for what the judges will like.”

Katsy was very pleased with Peewee’s ride and cites her dynamic spins and fancy stops as the maneuvers that helped clinch the win. “She had an awesome ride! In the warm up pen, I was very relaxed. Peewee and I have spent so much time together that I knew almost exactly what she would do when we went through the gate. I was a little worried about how she would handle that many people in the stands, but, as soon as we walked in, she glanced at them and then perked her ears up like she was happy to have that many eyes on her.”

“She loves to spin, and that’s what helped us the most to our win. She also stopped really good, probably the best she knows how. The thing that really sealed the win for us is that she had zero penalty points; it was just a clean run. Leaving home, I thought we had a chance at getting into the top 10, so I was flabbergasted to find out our score!”

The second horse Katsy showed to a Congress Championship title was Footwork Revolution, aka “Footwork,” a 7-year-old stallion by Einsteins Revolution and out of DS Fancy Footwork. She and Footwork teamed up to score a 219.5 to win Amateur Reining.

“I’ve had him in the family since Christmas 2014,” Katsy says. “He’s been one of the best horses I’ve ever shown. He took this past winter off to visit the breeding shed. Then, this summer he took Sam Flarida (14 years old) over to Switzerland to compete in the FEI Young Riders Competition. They were silver team medalists. This was his first time back out since he got home from Switzerland.”

Katsy describes Footwork as a very trustworthy and kind horse that always looks out for his rider. “He’s a fun horse, because he loves to compete, and he’s very kind. He’ll take care of whoever gets on him. He was himself from the minute those gates opened. He loves to run and stop, and he especially excels at run-in patterns. I made a few minor rider errors, but he covered them up for me. We’re looking forward to his first foal crop coming this spring!”

For Katsy, who has a background in other events besides Reining, she sees many similarities. “Reining is similar to other pattern classes that I’ve shown in. Competing in any event just requires dedication to the sport and the animals. The most important part of showing, for me, is taking care of my horses. I get nervous from time to time while showing, and it’s always comforting to know that whoever I’m riding will take care of me.”

Katsy would like to thank her Grandpa Fritz and Grandma Carole for supporting her passion and ferrying her to and from horse shows. She’d like to thank the entire Flarida family as well as her blacksmiths, Tom Hansen and Lane Edwards, for keeping her horses in tip-tope shape. “I want to thank pretty much everyone I see! There’s no doubt I’ve mentioned my horses to them at some point. Whether I hear something good or bad, it always gives me new ideas and different directions to take with my horses!”