Candice Hall and Made By J Win First Congress Championship in Maturity Non Pro Ltd. Western Pleasure

By: Brittany Bevis

Dr. Candice Hall has been coming to the Quarter Horse Congress with her trainer, Gil Galyean, for the past ten years. During that time, she’s accumulated numerous top five finishes, but she’s never won a Congress Championship title. That all changed today when Candice rode Made By J to win the Maturity Non Pro Limited Western Pleasure.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she says. “I tied to be Reserve, years ago, with a little black mare I owned, UR Certainly Invited. We tied with Holt Pope and Mechanic. I lost the tiebreaker, so I was third.”

Today brought to mind a similar deja-vu moment; because, after the individual placings were announced, it appeared that Candice and “Jolene” had tied with Shawn Johnson and Lazy Holla Dayz. As a result, there was a tense moment before the announcer revealed that Candice and Jolene were the winners.

Jolene is now six years old and had quite a successful career as a junior horse. “Her first show was the Hylton Maiden when Taft Dickerson rode her. We bought her after that. Last year at the Congress, on the same day, she was the Reserve Maturity Champion with Gil in the Open and Reserve in Junior Western Riding. It was really cool.”

Part of Candice’s attachment to this pretty, bay mare is because she’s by Candice’s stallion, Machine Made.

“Of all my babies, she’s the one that, when I ride her, I feel like I’m on Machine Made. It’s this super-cadenced feel where they drive so deep. Every stride is the same. Also, she’s lazy, and I love that. She’s a lot like her dad. Her mom is Dark Jasmine, and she looks a lot like her.”

Having competed at the Congress for the past ten years, Candice knows that sometimes even the best laid plans go awry, so she had low expectations for this class. “Congress is never good to me, so I come in with zero expectations. I just hope not to get sick! Really, even today, I wanted to get around, not fall off, and not make Gil sad about my ride!”

It’s safe to say that Candice achieved her goal. Now, she may need to set her expectations a bit higher when she competes in the Non Pro Open division finals of the class later in the show. Also coming up, Jolene will be ridden in Amateur Western Pleasure, Senior Western Riding, Green Western Riding, Open Western Pleasure Maturity, and possible Amateur Western Riding. “I’m entered, so we will see how it goes in the warm up…”

 

The Reserve Champion was Shawn Johnson with Lazy Holla Dayz. Third was Richard Carr with I Will Be A Good RV. Fourth was Jennifer Bennett with Cool Aidy. Fifth was Courtney Archer with A Good N Hot Machine.