Time For a Trail Challenge!
By: Kristin Spinning
One of the highlight special events at the recent 2016 Farnam Arizona Fall Championship was the USTPC #13 Trail Challenge. USTPC is the brainchild of Sissy Roberts Shank and Holly Hover.
The challenges are team events pairing amateur and pro riders, often from across barns, in a fun, supportive environment. They are judged following AQHA rules and standards, but have a structure that takes incentive and payback elements from Team Roping and Barrel Racing. There is 100% payback, along with added money, and a guarantee of $1,000 to the winning team.
Co-founder Holly Hover explains, “Our goal is to encourage camaraderie, showcase the individual performance events, and to put some fun into the horse shows.” While not widely known, the events are wildly received by riders and spectators at the shows that host them. “Once we get people to join in, they really love it,” she adds.
“This time, it was particularly interesting because two of the riders chose to remove their bridles,” Hover says. “That’s something we haven’t seen before.”
While they don’t want the event to become freestyle, Hover was pleased with the result. “I thought they did a really good job of keeping the integrity of the event while throwing in that degree of difficulty.”
Hover also marveled at how much it demonstrates the abilities of those who chose to ride bridleless, Mike Weaver and Melissa Zanetti, and the horses they rode. “It was a great example of how well broke those horses were, and it was also very obvious they were doing it willingly. Plus, it was really loud and crazy in there with everyone hooping and hollering! It demonstrates their trust of the horse and the horse’s trust of the rider. The horses were so calm and focused.”
Thousands of people shared that sentiment. Videos of Zanetti’s and Weaver’s Trail patterns went viral on Facebook, racking up hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of shares with in a week.
In the USTPC #13 Trail Challenge, a total of $2,000 cash was paid down eight places, along with a $500 gift certificate from Show Me Again Show Clothing. “We want everyone to get something,” Hover says.
The teams of Mike Weaver with Zippos Ultra Gold and Tiffany Smith riding Without Regret took top honors. Re-rides can be bought for $25 in the challenges, so an additional $175 went to the High Point Trainer Award winner Melissa Zanetti for her ride on Traveling Abroad.
