Shannon Gillespie and Colorado Chrome Win Junior Western Riding L2 at AQHA World

By: Brittany Bevis

In true horse show fashion, exhibitors must learn to expect the unexpected, which was very true for Shannon Gillespie and Colorado Chrome this evening during the Junior Western Riding L2 finals at the 2017 AQHA World Show. After going relatively early in the draw, this team’s score was under review for the remainder of the class.

Ultimately, the judges determined their score to be the winning one, a 235, to take the lead and the golden trophy.

“They didn’t announce my score until right before they did the awards, so we were pretty stressed out,” Shannon says. “I was happy with my score, and none of us could find anything that would’ve been bad in the go. But, not knowing your score is pretty hard.”

Thankfully, all’s well that ends well, and both Shannon and Colorado Chrome’s owner, Tami Dietrich-Dobbs, were thrilled with the result. “Decker” has been in the Gillespie’s program for the past three years and has had much success in that time. At the recent APHA World Show, he won both Green and Junior Western Riding.

Decker is in fact double registered with AQHA and APHA, a fact that’s evident from his four, high, white socks and large belly spot. But, interestingly enough, he wasn’t bred that way. “He has two Quarter Horse parents,” Tami says. “He’s by Certain Potential.”

Coming up on Sunday, Shannon and Decker will compete in the Junior Western Riding L3 finals. Next year, Tami is hoping to add more events to his repertoire.

“He’s actually a really good Showmanship horse, so I need to get my game on with that,” Tami says. “And he’s getting pretty darn good with Horsemanship as well.”

The Reserve Champion was Beth Case with Lookin Good In Red. Third was Chris Holbin with VS Game Changer. Fourth was Jeff Mellott with Hez Pretty Extreme. Fifth was Laura Mueller with Next At Batt.