Over Fence Champions Include Lainie Deboer, Linda Crothers, and Keri Lee Guanciale

By: Brittany Bevis

This morning’s classes at the AQHA World Show have been entirely devoted to the high flying action of Over Fence classes. First up, Linda Crothers rode Good By Me to win Progressive Working Hunter. The Reserve Champion was also Linda with I’m Hunting Blue Sky. Third was Lauren Patterson with Chosen Honor. Fourth was Chuck Briggs with Blue Kahlua. Fifth was Lainie DeBoer with Part Blue.

Lainie DeBoer was in the saddle of DGS Don’t Tell Tales to win Junior Working Hunter for owner, MJ Fowler. Lainie rode 5-year-old Dillon to win Progressive Working Hunter and to be named Reserve in Junior Working Hunter at the Congress. This is the first time that one of MJ’s horses have won at the World Show.

“My first World Show was in 1998, and then I didn’t come for a while,” MJ says. “I’ve been helping Lainie for the last four or five years. The last time I showed was in 2012.”

Given Dillon’s success at the Congress, MJ was a little worried heading into the World Show, because of an experience she had with a prior Congress Reserve Champion. “With another gelding I had, I tied to win at the Congress and ended up being Reserve, so I had such high hopes for the World Show. It was a bomb. In the back of my mind, I was hoping that a good Congress wouldn’t mean bad World Show.”

Luckily, Dillon broke the streak and delivered a beautiful, clean run with Lainie in the irons. It was a performance that the judges rewarded with unanimous placings. “It was beautiful. We schooled this morning, and he was a little fresh, so I longed him. Then, I made sure that I had him going until she could get on him. He hit the last fence when we were schooling right before he went in. That was actually a good thing, because he didn’t make the Progressive Working Hunter finals here because he pulled a rail in the preliminaries.”

MJ had a few special people here for her big win. Dillon is by PR Tells A Tale, bred by Judy Pryor and now owned by Kelsey Doughman, and out of Skys Blue Blood, owned by Robin DeGraff, who also bred and raised Dillon.

“We came specially for him,” Judy says. “I drove through rain, sleet, snow, and hail, from Omaha, Nebraska to get here.”

“I knew he was going to win; I just didn’t know how many classes he was going to win,” Robin says.

The Reserve Champion was Linda Crothers with Good By Me. Third was Chuck Briggs with Blue Kahlua. Fourth was Lee Paul Shinn with Metallic Iron. Fifth was Stacey Roberson with Al Ways Couture.

Keri Lee Guanciale rode Art In The Air to win Senior Working Hunter. Keri Lee was in the irons for owner, Caroline Bradley, and trainers, David Miller and Scott Jones. “I hurt my back last year, and Scott and I had so many horses. We were going to so many different horse shows, and I needed help. I bought a horse four years ago from Keri’s parents, and we’ve been friends ever since. I called her and asked if she could ride with me at a horse show. We got 109 points in two days with six horses. We kind of figured that maybe the team worked.”

This was a very special win for Keri Lee, because this is her first time competing at the AQHA World Show and thus her first World Championship title. She was also Reserve in the Level 2 division with 10-year-old “Moose” just a few days ago.

“I clicked with him instantly,” Keri Lee says. “He goes a lot like my horses back home. It was like a match made in heaven. I loved him. His ride today was soft and it felt like every distance was exactly the same. He jumped amazing.”

This has been a long road for Moose, because he sustained a very odd injury in February of this year. “He was bitten by a brown recluse spider in February. We were at the Dixie Nationals and came home, and his tail was falling off and bleeding. We ended up going to multiple vets and using multiple medicines. He lived at a rehab facility for months. Within 48 hours, the poison had followed the nerve endings down his tail.” Thankfully, Moose is doing much better now, as evidenced from today’s impressive performance.

Although Keri Lee has just begun her AQHA career, she’s spent her whole life around horses. “I’ve shown in USEF my whole life. My dad is a horse trainer, so I rode ponies, and then I was an amateur when I was in school. After I graduated, I turned professional and started helping my dad with the business. I will help Dave any time he wants!”

“They’re both great riders, trainers, and teachers, but they’re also our friends,” David says. “We’ve just laughed since we got here. We’ve gone from one horse to the next, laughing.”

The Reserve Champion was Ryan Painter with Kamanyawannadance. Third was Linda Crothers with Dance If You Wanna.