Tragedy Turns to Triumph For Novice 14-18 Horsemanship World Champion, Catherine Goffard

By: Brittany Bevis

Often, when tragedy strikes, it does so at the most inopportune times. A routine longing session at the Pinto World Show turned disastrous for Catherine Goffard and her 15-year-old gelding, B Mister Machine. “Shaggy” tore a suspensory ligament in his leg, which effectively meant the end of their final show as a team.

After having driven 17 hours from Green Bay, Wisconsin to Tulsa, Oklahoma to compete, Catherine didn’t know what she was going to do. Catherine’s mother spoke with Tim Gillespie to see if he had a horse they might purchase to finish out the 2018 show season. While he didn’t have anything for sale, he knew of a unique leasing opportunity that would allow Catherine to compete at the Pinto World and the APHA Youth World Show.

“When Shaggy tore his suspensory, we didn’t really know what I was going to do,” Catherine says. “Tim said that one of his clients, Ally Fink, had just had back surgery and couldn’t show Gilly. She was looking for someone to lease him. We drove the four hours down to Texas and did boot camp with his other girls and went back up to the Pinto World, where we were Reserve Champions in Hunter Under Saddle!”

Then, it was on to Fort Worth for the APHA Youth World where Catherine and Gilly won Novice Youth 14-18 Hunter Under Saddle, placed third in Western Riding, and third in Trail.

“I really like the fact that Gilly is really honest. He took great care of me. The last extended trot was definitely my favorite. We went for it!”

Catherine has enjoyed her time spent with all the girls at Gillespie Show Horses. “They’re super fun, really supportive, and they understand what I’m going through. Georgia Vernal has been especially nice. If I’m not getting something, she will tell me what helped her in the past. In Western Riding, I was having trouble with my lead changes. I was asking him to change leads when his front feet were on the ground, so it was creating a front to back change. She told me to keep counting, and that helped me dramatically.”

Meanwhile, Shaggy is improving every day. “He’s getting better. It’s a 60% chance that he will heal up. He’s been healing dramatically, because we’ve been icing his leg four times a day.”

The Reserve Champion in Novice Youth 14-18 Horsemanship was Rela Ratner with Cool Krymsun Zip. Third was Riley Supertino with Borntobesensational. Fourth was Marla Leone with The Red Factor. Fifth was Taylor Daniel with She’s A Hot Lilli.