Shannon Gillespie Rides Huntified to Win Senior Hunter Under Saddle L2 During His First AQHA World Appearance

By: Brittany Bevis

We’ve had the opportunity to interview several competitors here at the AQHA World Show this year, who have either never competed at the World Show before, or who have brought horses that are competing here for the first time. The six-year-old, bay, double registered gelding, Huntified, falls into this category.

His partner for today’s class, Shannon Gillespie, explains that this is the first time he’s even had the opportunity to attend, because of the previously overlapping schedules of the AQHA and APHA World Shows. Luckily, that all changed this year, which means many more double registered horses are in attendance in Oklahoma City. In fact, Shannon showed another double registered, Colorado Chrome, to win Junior Western Riding L2 yesterday. 

Earlier this year, at the APHA World Show, Huntified won Amateur Hunter Under Saddle with his owner, Betsy Juette, placed third in Senior Hunter Under Saddle, and was sixth in Amateur Hunter Under Saddle at the Quarter Horse Congress. Here at the AQHA World, Huntified has a busy schedule. Just shortly after winning Senior Hunter Under Saddle L2 this morning, Betsy and Huntified showed in the Amateur Equitation Preliminaries. Then, later today, this pair will show in the Amateur Equitation L2 finals. Shannon and Huntified will return to the pen later next week for the Senior Hunter Under Saddle L3 finals as well.

Shannon and Betsy are confident Huntified will handle the busy schedule like a pro. “We try to make the best plan to keep him mentally in the game and not get him overtired. Hopefully, we should have just enough time in between everything to let him regroup.” Shannon isn’t worried about her amateur rider, either. “She’s a very cool character, this one.”

Betsy was very pleased with Huntified’s performance this morning. “I thought he looked amazing! It was fun to watch!”

“It was fun to show!” Shannon adds. “He’s really steady and always very consistent. He’s a great loper and has a lot of self carriage. It’s easy for him. He’s big and bay; he has the whole package. He likes his job.”