Morning Congress Champions Include Weakly/Be My Agent/Legacee, Johnson/The Maintenance Man, and Lagace/Platinum Sensation

By: Brittany Bevis

First up this morning in Amateur Weanling Geldings, Josh Weakly led Be My Agent to win the class as well as the Elite Halter Futurity portion, for which he was awarded a nice check for $2,500. Weakly purchased his Heza Secret Agent-bred gelding back in August from Brian Ellsworth, but the purchase came as somewhat of a surprise…

“[My trainer] Andy Staton went and looked at him, and he didn’t even call me,” Josh ways. “I got an email from Kaplow saying thank you for insuring a horse. He got up there, saw him, and decided he was the one we had to buy. He said to send up a check.”

“We showed him in Iowa and won the Open Breeders’ Futurity. Then, Andy showed him here and won the Open Weanling Geldings. He’s by Heza Secret Agent and out of a Self Employed mare.”

Between Andy’s win last week and Josh’s win this week, the little weanling gelding now has $4,800 to his name, which makes Josh very happy. “We like this Futurity deal. It’s awesome!”

The Reserve Champion and Limited Champion in Amateur Weanling Geldings was Steve Day with Tocooltobeasecret. Third was Joy Stehney with Pipe It Up. Fourth place was Michelle Matlock with Watch My Wind Up. Fifth was Ronald Mays with Its Touchdown Time.

Later in the day, Josh led Legacee to win Amateur 2-Year-Old Geldings. The Reserve Champion was Robin Robinett with JCG Game On. Third was Amy Jo Erhardt with DMM Secret Sinsation. Fourth was Elizabeth Beauchamp with Gives Me Chillz. Fifth was Thomas Walker with Secret Agent.

The last time Josh showed this gelding was at the AQHA World Championship Show last year, when Legacee was named the World Champion in both the amateur and open division as a yearling. We asked Josh why the long absence from the show pen. As it turns out, it’s all part of his strategy.

“If you win, you don’t have to qualify them for the next year, so we thought we’d let him down to be a horse. Then, we got him ready for here. With some of these older horses, if you show them a lot, they just don’t stay fresh in the show pen. They won’t use their ears, and they’re over it. They’ve only got so much in them. I’d rather save it for the Congress than going somewhere just to show.”

At the conclusion of the Halter competition, Josh led Legacee to a Reserve Amateur Grand Champion title. Josh will be taking Legacee, By My Agent, and his aged mare, PF Supreme Surprise, to the AQHA World Show this year.

Over in the Celeste Arena, Clara Johnson rode The Maintenance Man to win 15-18 Trail with a score of 233.5. Aside from being named the NSBA Champion in Novice 13 and Under Horsemanship, as a younger competitor, and then Reserve in NYATT Horsemanship yesterday, this is Clara’s first Congress Champion title. “It’s my first official win with a neck wreath, and I’m very excited about that!” she says.

Clara purchased “Jimmy” at the end of his three-year-old year, and they’ve been a team ever since. “He was my novice 13 and under horse. Then, when it was time to move up, my previous trainer told us that he wasn’t going to cut it for the next age group and that we were going to have to get a different horse to compete. You know, I always say that green and green equals black and blue, because I’d never shown in Trail before and he’d never done Trail before. We just kept trying, and obviously all the hard work eventually paid off.”

Clara doesn’t mince words when she describes her red roan gelding as a “bit of a brat.” However, over the past six years they’ve spent together, she’s come to love his quirky personality. “He doesn’t like attention. He’s not cuddly at all. He has quirks, but when you know a horse as long as I’ve had him, you learn to love his personality.”

Clara’s mother, Cindy, describes how she knew her daughter would one day become a dedicated equestrienne. “She was two years old and my 4-H horse was 28. I looked out the window and saw her walking in between his legs. Then, we proceeded to ponies, 4-H, and finally AQHA.”

In this particular pattern, Clara really enjoyed the complicated back-through, because it’s something she frequently practices at home. “What I liked about this pattern is there were a lot of turns, and we practiced that back-through at home. When I saw it was in the pattern today, I was happy because it’s something I’ve struggled with so much. Since we’ve practiced so much, it’s gotten kind of easy. I knew how difficult it was, so I knew other competitors might struggle with it.”

Clara and Jimmy currently compete under the guidance of John Konecne. This evening, they will compete in 15-18 Horsemanship.

To close out our interview, we had to ask Clara about her fantastic show jacket, complete with dark green fringe, corset ties, and a bit of snakeskin print. “I helped design it with Ronda Roozeboom,” she says. “I wore black lipstick with it at the World Show, but I was told that was a little intimidating! It’s looks really heavy, but it’s super lightweight.”

Finally, 10-year-old Jayna Lagace rode her 13-year-old, white gelding, Platinum Sensation, to win her first Congress Championship title in 11 and Under Trail. Jayna’s horse trainer is also her mother, Whitney Lagace, and she’s certainly inherited her love of Trail from her mom. “It’s my favorite class to compete in,” Jayna says. “I love doing poles, and he’s really great at it.”

Jayna explains that her horse, Platinum Sensation, has three different names. “We call him Wyatt, or Wy-Wy, or White Lightning.”

Just the other day, Jayna and Wyatt were named the Reserve Champions in 11 and Under Western Riding. Before she entered the pen to compete this afternoon, Jayna says Mom gave her some helpful advice. “She said to calm down and keep him calm. That means I can’t touch his face a lot, and I have to let him do the pattern how he wants to do it so he doesn’t get antsy.”

Jayna’s favorite obstacle in the pattern was the trot serpentine at the beginning, because it had pumpkins! She would like to thank her mother as well as Gene Spagnola and Tim Kimura for all of their help teaching her how to compete with Wyatt in Trail.