“It’s unlike anything most horses are accustomed to,” she says. “As you turn the corner of Orange Grove and start down Colorado Boulevard, it’s like a gauntlet of bleachers on the sides, the sounds of the bands echoing off the buildings, the fly-overs from the jets, and the nonstop noise from the crowds.”

“We prepared like we normally do, and my horse was right there for me. Once the dust settled from our final stop, we found out that our score was high enough to earn us the top placing and the title of the 2013 NRHA Rookie of the Year.”

“We are simply trying to constantly improve how all of our horses are judged and, until now, we had not developed a ‘monitoring’ system for halter. When monitoring other classes, we identify the major faults as identified with that class. This is the very first step toward accomplishing the same thing in the halter classes.”