Team USA Blog- Day 1-2 at AQHA Youth World Cup

Team USA EC Blog

Day 1

by: Kamiah McGrath

We kicked off the World Cup with the Opening Ceremonies. All nineteen countries marched in with their national anthem playing while posting their national colors and banners. At the completion of the opening ceremonies, each team drew the different groups of horses that they would be competing with here in College Station, TX. The team then decorated their stall fronts in their nation’s pride.

After lunch, everyone was able to ride their assigned horses for the first time. During the first ride, the riders determined the strengths and weakness of the different horses to decide the classes that would best be suited for the horse and rider. To complete the full day, we ended with an electric, lip sync battle between all the nineteen countries. With a lot of competition, laughs, talent, and fun, South Africa took home the win!

Day 2

by: Natalia DeVencenty

Day 2 of the AQHA Youth World Cup consisted of Showmanship, Trail, and Equitation clinics. All 19 countries were split up into groups of 15 riders and were led by Jenny and Robin Frid, Dan and Darlene Trein, Mark Dunham, Tami McAllister, Jennifer McGrath, Nikki Riddle, and Melissa Dukes. Each horse and rider combination ran through the pattern once, got advice from the clinicians on how to improve, and then they ran through the pattern again. Each clinician did an amazing job of helping everyone and provided very helpful information on how to improve your score.

Team USA had a fun day riding the horses and deciding what classes they excelled at. After a long day of riding and taking care of our cute horses, Team USA went back to the hotel to lay out a plan for Day 3!

Everyone on Team USA would like to extend a special thank you to everyone at home that’s supporting us and to all of our incredible sponsors that make this possible!