Who Do You Think You Are? Unanimous Congress Champion in Novice Amateur Hunter Hack, That’s Who!

By: Brittany Bevis

At her first trip to the Quarter Horse Congress, Michaella Jo Gallina rode her 7-year-old gelding, Who Do You Think You Are, to a unanimous Congress Championship title in Novice Amateur Hunter Hack. Gallina and “Huey” have only been a team since January of this year, and they haven’t had the best of luck thus far. However, it’s not in the way you might imagine. Their foes haven’t been illness, missed strides, or fallen poles. Instead, they’ve been battling the weather.

“We hauled to Scottsdale early in the year,” she says. “I have a really crazy job, so I flew in over the weekend to ride. It got rained out. We didn’t get to show at that horse show. Then, we sent him to the Redbud, and there was a tornado. So, the third time is a charm! We were finally able to get on the road and get to a horse show. It’s been great.”

Gallina and Huey currently compete under the guidance of over fence expert Karen Banister of Colorado. Just the other day, Banister rode Huey to a third place finish in Progressive Working Hunter and placed in the ribbons in last night’s Hunter Classic.

“He’s had a long show,” she says. “We’ve been showing since Saturday, and he’s been in a lot of Open classes and Amateur classes. He really came back and jumped up really strong.”

While you might think Huey’s 17.2 hand stature would be an advantage, over hunter hack jumps that are considerably lower than those found in working hunter, Gallina says it’s actually the opposite.

“He is a 17.2 hand horse, so those are kind of speed bumps for him,” she says. “It was really nice to see him jump up real hard. He came back and went around the ring really solid in the flat portion.”

“He’s huge, but he’s really a gentle giant. I started riding him in January, so we’ve come a really long way. This is a really wonderful culmination of the show season. I’ve ridden some nice horses, but I’ve never ridden anything as nice to win [unanimously]. That was so special.”

 Tomorrow, Gallina and Huey will tackle higher jumps in the Amateur Working Hunter and Amateur Equitation Over Fences.

Novice Amateur Hunter Hack–

1-Who Do You Think You Are/Michaella Jo Gallina (unanimous)

2-Im Handy Andy/Dolly Anderson

3-Tall Dark and Rich/Rachel Rinke

4-A Lazy Romance/Sheena King

5-Sings The Blues/Christina A Topor-Burns

6-Iron Icon/Caitlin Bloyer

7-Sunny Cide Jazz/Kristen Liesman

8-Broker Of Record/Jennifer Manion

9-Chocolate Rules/Christian Beauchemin

10-Heza Blaze of Glory/Gregory Rust