Live From the AQHA Youth World Cup With Team USA- Day 1 and 2
On our way!
The 20th running of the American Quarter Horse Youth World Cup has begun in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia and Team USA is ready for the competition to start!
13 teams of riders from around the globe will compete June 23rd to July 3rd for the chance to take home the gold in multiple disciplines. Each team consists of five team members and a coach or manager. Classes will include Cutting, Reining, Horsemanship, Ranch Riding, Trail, Hunt Seat Equitation, Hunter Under Saddle and Showmanship.
The 2016 Team USA members are:
- Rider: Austria Arnold of Terrell, Texas
- Rider: Calley Huston of Argyle, Texas
- Rider: Ellexxah Maxwell of West Mansfield, Ohio
- Rider: Brock Murphy of Jackson, Missouri
- Rider: Haley Riddle of Gainesville, Texas
- Leadership/Rider Alternate: Sydney Hoffa of Massillon, Ohio
- Leadership/Rider Alternate: Ann Tebow of Piedmont, Oklahoma
- Leadership: Teri Dawn Haws of Tooele, Utah
- Leadership: Madelynne Herlocker of Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Leadership: Charles Lee of McAllen, Texas
- Team Manager: Dawn Forest of College Station, Texas
The Equine Chronicle is proud to be a sponsor of Team USA this year and is happy to have several members blogging about their journey throughout the competition! Stay tuned for blogs coming from Sydney Hoffa, Charles Lee, and Ellexxah Maxwell.
Day 1-
EC Blog by: AQHA Team member Sydney Hoffa
We have arrived! Team USA has touched down in Tamworth, so get ready Australia! Jet lag has already claimed a few victims, and it feels a lot like a Showmanship morning at the Congress here in Tamworth. Chilly, rainy, and sleepy.
Our first day in Australia consisted of:
- long plane trips (including the almost 17 hour trip to Australia)
- trying to fit everyone’s suitcases in tiny cars (4 oversized suitcases in the back of a car makes for a lot of laughing)
- nervously driving on the left side of the road and trying to figure out all the roundabouts (why are there so many roundabouts?)
- making friends and sleeping. In fact, three of us almost fell asleep at dinner!
People are already telling us that they love our accents, and some people stare at us on the street and whisper about how they think we’re from America. After arriving at the Hotel Ibis Styles, we walked down Main Street in Tamworth to check out little shops. We ate at Tudoor, and it was amazing! They put their lasagna on their fries, for some unknown reason, and tax was already included in their prices. Speaking of money, Australian money looks cool, yet strange to us.
Then, we visited the stores and had some laughs checking out what they had. Somewhere, there is a picture of us in Crocodile Dundee hats that we found in an Ugg store!
Last night, we said goodbye to our parents and hello to Nancy Cahill and Michelle Tidwell, our coaches and Australian parents for all intents and purposes. Some team members arrived late last night or early this morning, but we’re all excited to get to the competition, where we will ride and compete against 12 other countries for the gold! GO USA!
Charles Lee, another member of Team USA, will be reporting tomorrow for the Equine Chronicle.
– Sydney Hoffa
EC Blog by: AQHA Team member Charles Lee
Hello everyone!
Day two at the AQHA Youth World Cup started off with a bang for Team USA! Some of the members woke up early and went to breakfast with Ms. Michelle, and we got to meet some of the other teams that we will be competing against for the next couple of days. Some of these teams included Australia, France, Norway, and New Zealand.
We sat down at the table to eat breakfast; the majority of us ate toast and fruit. While we were getting breakfast, many of the Australians encouraged us to try an Australian delicacy known as Vegemite. Fellow team member Sydney Hoffa took a leap of faith and placed some on her plate. Ms. Michelle dared everyone to try some, all at the same time. I counted to three, and we all put it in our mouths. As shown in the pictures, it was disgusting! Some of the team members and I agreed it was like taking all of the sugar out of molasses and replacing it with salt!
Some of the other teams had gone back to their hotel rooms, but we noticed that Team New Zealand had gone to play a game of ball to pass time in the parking lot. Sydney, Teri, and I decided that we would go join in on the fun. We walked out of the lobby into the chilly morning air and approached Team New Zealand. They were very friendly and eager to enlarge their game. We tossed a ball around to the other team members and continued this game for about fifteen minutes. As we were playing, more of Team USA came out and joined in. We had so much fun playing lots of games including the classic Duck Duck Goose and a game where each person had to clap before they caught the ball. During our fun, we talked about our different customs and got to know many of the members on a personal scale.
After we left our New Zealand friends, we got to meet one of our last two members of Team USA, Ellexah Maxwell. Ms. Michelle and Ms. Nancy had planned for us to go to Tamworth Marsupial Park and Adventure Playground so we could see some of Australia’s native animals. After getting everyone in check, we all piled up in the vehicles and headed to TMP. When we landed, we saw a lot of native trees and heard a lot of birds (and trust me, they were loud!). Team USA, along with the parents, walked through an enclosure full of animals. Many of the birds we saw were vibrant with colors of blue, red, and green and others were pretty gray.
Everyone on Team USA got to see a variety of animals including wallabies (a pony in the kangaroo world), ducks, cockatoos, peacocks, and the famous kangaroo. Calley, who was the first to hold a baby wallaby, was extremely excited to hold one. It was very cute and had beautiful eyes. The tour guide, John, told us some interesting facts about these cute creatures. We also got to see a variety of cockatoos and some peacocks. We were laughing a lot because the cockatoos would repeat some of the words we were saying! Some of the cockatoos wanted their heads to be scratched and others were not very friendly…
John then led us to see some of the kangaroos in the enclosure. We got to see a lot of kangaroos and even saw a mother and her joey! They proved to be very interesting to watch because some of their habits were funny to see. As we finished touring, we got to see some of the emus and play in their adventure park. We had some funny moments including Brock landing on his butt in the playground and some of the team riding on a zipline! We had a blast at TMP.
Then, we drove 45 minutes away to another park with more of these native animals. When we entered the room, we were given an ice cream cone filled with rice krispies. All of the Team USA members were very curious about what they were given, but we were later informed that we could feed the animals with it! We walked into a pen with five koalas inside. We all melted at the sight of their cute faces. We went in and took lots of pictures with them. Brock made a koala happy by scratching its back, and many of us took lots of selfies with one, including a sleeping koala.
We continued to tour the place and met a lot of Australia’s native animals including a wombat, an ostrich, wild dingoes, and so many more. In fact, we actually got to see two male kangaroos have a boxing match! After touring, it was close to 5:00 p.m., so we headed back to our hotel to get ready for our welcome dinner. As we drove, we got to see a lot of the country’s beauty and landscape. Many locals were saying Tamworth was in a drought for quite some time, and it rained only a couple of weeks ago. When we got to Hotel Ibis Styles, we met Austria Arnold, our final member of Team USA.
We got ready for the Welcome Dinner and headed over to the place where we would be eating. We saw all of the teams there and many of the owners, managers, coaches, and families that came to support their respective teams. We got to meet so many members of different nations and learn about their respective customs. Team USA was dressed nicely in our lime green shirts and jeans sponsored by the generous folks at Cinch. We were led to a table that had backpacks with our names on them. We sat down and began to take out some of the items in the backpacks. These items included an official program, a shirt, patterns for the riders, and so much more!
Then, we ate a very nice dinner with many Australian delicacies like fish, chicken breast, and a vegetable turnover. They were very delicious and the meal was very pretty in how it was arranged. The program then moved to the selection of the team horses and individual team member selection for Cutting and Reining. Maddie, our representative, selected packet number five, which had many great horses to work with. These horses were statistically very impressive and Team USA is excited to see them work. After selecting the all-around horses, it was time for Cutting and Reining. Austria went up and selected two horses for Cutting. She chose many good horses and many of the members who were familiar with cutting bloodlines are very excited to see them work, along with Austria. Brock then went up and selected two horses for Reining. We were happy for him because he chose some very good horses to work with, and we were also excited to see them work.
We ate a lovely dessert and left the club to head back to the hotel. As we left the club, Team USA was filled with excitement and hope to work with some great horses. Tomorrow begins the hard work, and Team USA is excited to see the horses. Sydney will be back to continue blogging Team USA’s journey through YWC 2016.
-Charles C. Lee, Team USA member
