“Every time [I show], he is watching,” she says. “He sets his alarm clock and gets up in the middle of the night. If I had to show in the evening, he would get up at 3 in the morning!”

“There are two goes that stand out in my life,” Gilliam says. “One was at the Redbud with the horse I won the World Show with [Design By Leaguer], and then there’s this one.”

“In 1982, I dreamed of someday going to Congress and the World,” she says. “It just took me 31 years to do it.”

“She’s fabulous,” Roberts says. “She’s so willing, and she wants to please. I could not find a better mare.”

Originally, Robin was not meant to be a maiden Coughlin horse. Lakins planned to show him at the Little Futurity and Tom Powers Futurity earlier this year.

“I’m looking forward to [the Coughlin tonight] and being in the stands with my warm feet up! I’ll be holding my trophy!”

Although Cochran is the son of western pleasure trainer, Jeff Cochran, he’s only been showing horses for six months. In fact, the Congress is his sixth horse show, ever.

Thus far this year, Katerina Mendel and Willys On The Green have claimed a Youth World Championship in Hunter Under Saddle and three NSBA World Championship titles. Today, the pair added a Congress Championship title to their long list of accolades.

It’s slightly ironic that Joni Nelson won a Congress Championship title in the NSBA 3 and 4-Year-Old Open Trail Stakes on a horse named Too Hot To Frisk, on a morning when it’s snowing at the Congress.