The Inaugural Heroes Horsemanship Challenge Debuts at the 2022 NCQHA Tar Heel Classic

North Carolina Trainer Jake Hartman always had a strong admiration for members of the military, but not too long ago, he met a military family and it spurred him into action. “The father of the family is retired military after 20-plus years, and after hearing what they went through during his deployments, it made me want to give something back,” he explains.

Then he met Ryan Bandy, a veteran who participated in Heroes on Horses at the All American Quarter Horse Congress and at the NSBA World Show.  After hearing what the horses did for him, and to be able to see what the horse does for so many, Hartman knew since he had knowledge of horses, he needed to act.

Together with AQHA Team Wrangler and AQHA Professional Horsemen, and the support of North Carolina Quarter Horse Association, Hartman established the Heroes Horsemanship Challenge, a way for horse trainers and the American Quarter Horse community to give back to the military members and families that have sacrificed so much. It kicked off June 11, 2022, at the NCQHA Tar Heel Classic in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Rather than the traditional rail class, the challenge embraces the team concept, assigning the military personnel and their family members to teams that are each led by a professional horse trainer. The participants start out with a group clinic on the afternoon of the event to learn the basics of horsemanship, and they spend the rest of the afternoon together with their team to practice and prepare for their horsemanship patterns.

Then Saturday evening, the team competition begins with each rider presenting their horsemanship pattern to a professional judge. Each rider’s score gets contributed to the team total, and the team with the highest average score is crowned champion!

To see the concept in action on Saturday night was more rewarding than Hartman could have imagined.  “We had three people on each team with a total of five teams,” he explains. “To hear how much it meant to people who are willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice to give us the freedom to do what we do was incredible.  Other than the day I got married, it was the best night of my life.”

There were also a few youth participants, he says, and one in particular stands out in his mind.  “The mom of one little boy couldn’t find him, and they realized he had followed the trainer back to the barn to try to give the ribbon to the horse,” Hartman explains, “so the horse knew he would never forget him.”

Another of the participants, Hartman says, was unable to perform a trot, so he walked the entire pattern, and when he came out, he said how much fun he had.  “He said, ‘People don’t do stuff like this for us; people don’t give back to the military unless they are military,’” explains Hartman.

Hartman says knowing what horses have provided to trainers who make a living from them is extremely gratifying as it is, but seeing what the same animal provides to a person dealing with some form of PTSD, or to the family members of the military, was beyond compare.

“I want to give a shout out to NCQHA, AQHA Team Wrangler and AQHA Professional Horsemen, because without them, there’s no way we could have pulled this off,” Hartman says.  “Thank you first and foremost to our military personnel and their family members who were here with us and those watching from afar – without you all, none of the things we get to enjoy in life – like showing horses – is possible.”