Third Championship Title of the ApHC Youth World & Nationals For Lori Girrbach and Chocolate N Jack

By: Brittany Bevis

First time ApHC Youth World Show and Nationals competitor, Lori Girrbach, is having an exceptional start to what we’re certain will be a long and successful career on the world stage. She’s already won three Championship titles here at the show in 14-18 English Showmanship and Novice English Equitation. The third came this afternoon in Novice Western Horsemanship 14-18 with her horse, Chocolate N Jack.

16-year-old Lori and 7-year-old “Jackson” have been a team since the end of 2014, but she’s only been with her trainers, Arturo Maestas and Jesse Jones, since March of this year. Luckily, she was able to spend a week prior to the Nationals at Maestas’ Texas ranch to prepare. As this team was waiting to hear the call-backs for the 13-15 Horsemanship, Maestas had only glowing praise for his pupil describing her as a sweet young lady with an incredible work ethic. He also gave her a few pointers before she entered the pen to compete.

“I had to make sure that I did straight lines and that I looked ahead so we didn’t go from side to side,” Lori says. “Also, we worked on our simple change to make sure it was nice and smooth. I think we plussed our right lead lope, because we did a really straight line, and our circles were evenly sized. Also, I tried to make sure that my square turns were really crisp.”

Because Lori and Jackson competed in both the Novice Youth and 13 and Under divisions, they had to learn two different patterns and only had two classes in between to prepare. However, Lori wasn’t worried. “We’d already practiced them quite a few times. I stayed at Arturo’s house a week before Nationals, and we practiced almost every day! Because this is my first time at Nationals, I was really nervous at first. But, after I went in my first couple of classes, it’s been really fun and I gained more confidence.”

Coming up later in the show, Lori and Jackson will compete in 13-15 Trail and Novice Trail. Later on this year, she hopes to attend the Color Breed Congress and regional shows in Michigan and Texas.

Scroll below to view more Horsemanship results from today.

Novice Western Horsemanship 13 and Under-

1- Sheza Charlie Chip/Abigail Bicknell

2- Chocolate Hotpants/Madison Schatzman

3- Burn Notice/Samantha Chichos

4- Zippos Pretty Women/Kennedie Owens

5-Lads Fashionista/Elle Rinewalt

Novice Western Horsemanship 14-18-

1- Chocolate N Jack/Lori Girrbach

2- Do My Thang/Chase Wilkerson

3- Chipette/Ally Burgess

4- JNZ Double Dip Chip/Ruth Libendorfer

5- Macho In Levis/Zoe Long

Walk Trot Western Horsemanship-

1- Hollywood Chocolate/Camille Kennedy

2- Just Like A Zip/Olive Holm

3- She’s Zippin Rageous/April Goolsby

4- Confidential/Stephanie Strachar

5- Chockstar/Kaydee Kallay

Western Horsemanship 12 and Under-

1- Sheza Charlie Chip/Abigail Bicknell

2- Whispermynamezippo/Grace Douglas

3- Burn Notice/Samantha Chichos

4- Craving Chocolate/Maggie Harrell

5- Blonde Barbee/Anya Leland

Western Horsemanship 13-15-

1- Designed To Be Blonde/Jacqueline Frimodt

2- Fancy Kind of Scotch/Jenna Chiarella

3- Chipnotized/Sierra Kane

4- Chocolate N Jack/Lori Girrbach

5- Hashtag Huntin/Savannah Carter