With four futurity classes and hundreds of Trail runs throughout the day, exhibitors kept quite busy during the final Saturday of The Madness AQHA and NSBA show, underway at the World Equestrian Center - Wilmington.
Highlighting the day’s money-earning classes was the NSBA Equine Chronicle Three and Older Maiden Horse Slot Class. The highly competitive class saw 14 entries and awarded a total purse of $43,000, paying eight places as well as an Intermediate and Limited rider division.
Celebrating Sudds
Rusty Green showed All A Sudden Lopin to the win for owner Dr. Robert Stein, earning the $15,000 first place payout. “We call him Sudds,” Rusty laughed. “He’s by The Lopin Machine, and he’s just such a good mover. He jogs his butt off, and he is so good behind and has such great separation behind. He’s going to be a nice horse for a long, long time.”
Owner Robert Stein, an ophthalmologist from Hermitage, Pennsylvania, had been active in NSBA showing Western Pleasure horses for several years before turning to Ranch Horse events in recent years. “Rob wanted to get back into Western Pleasure horses, so we found this horse for him,” Rusty said.
“We got him in December, and decided to give him a try. We were really at a crossroads this week as to whether we were going to show him this year or save him for a Novice Horse for next year. He started to really click since we’ve been here at The Madness, so we entered him about 15 minutes before the entry deadline for the Maiden class yesterday.”
Sudds was raised by Teresa McDavitt.
Blake Britton Rides A Lexus
Marilynn Monroe and Blake Britton tied for second in the Maiden class with Making Them Want Me and Bret Parrish, showing for Cheryl Mullikin, for the reserve title, with each earning $6,250. Blake and ‘Lexus’ were also awarded the top prize in the Intermediate division, earning an additional $1,000.
“We bought her early in the year last year from Ken and Marilyn Masterson,” Blake said.
She’s been special right from the beginning and we love her to death. Becca and I saw her tied to the wall at the farm and just thought she was drop-dead gorgeous.
“Becca was the one that actually said, we’re buying this horse.’ She’s by Machine Made and out of KM WeKnowShesHot, so it’s a great cross. We hope to keep her and show her, and then raise some babies with her.
“She showed way better than I ever expected. I knew when she stepped off into the lope that she was going to be good.”
In The Clutchh
Clutchh, shown by Zach Favorite for owner Sheila Masson, was the champion in the Limited division, earning a $1,500 paycheck. “He is by Only In The Moonlite, and I’ve only been working with him for about four months,” Zach said.
“What I like most about him is his willingness. He tries so hard, and he wants to be good. It makes your job so much easier when they want to learn.”
Zach reflected on being named the Limited champion in the class. “It feels really good to earn the win in the Limited,” he said.
Taking The Trail
Trail classes highlighted much of the day on Saturday, with three futurity classes mixed among the AQHA and Dual-Approved events.
Deanna Green showed Beez N The Trap to win the All Age Non-Pro Trail Futurity. They earned $2,500 for the win. “We’ve been showing Trail for about three years now, so she’s starting to get really solid at it,” Deanna said. “We won the Horsemanship the other day, and I think that really set us up for a great go today in Trail.”
The pretty buckskin mare is known as Berniece, and is special to the Green family. “She was the last horse my grandmother, Mary Rogers Green, had and she left her to us,” Deanna said. Winners in the class were determined by the top three scores among the six judges from the AQHA Amateur, Amateur Select and Youth Trail classes held at the Madness.
Michael Colvin showed Sleepininthestands to the win in the Green Junior Trail Futurity, earning $5,000 for owner Gillian Chant. Like the Non-Pro Trail Futurity, the Green Junior Trail Futurity champions were determined by the top three scores among the six judges from the Level 1 AQHA Junior Trail held at the Madness.
After 91 runs of AQHA Senior Trail, Sugaray and Chad Evans were named the champions of the Six and Older Trail Futurity. They earned $1,074.45 for owner Kathy Huspeni with a total score of 243.5. The futurity champion was determined during Saturday’s AQHA Senior Trail and ran concurrent with that class.
The Madness concludes on Sunday, May 16, with Western Riding, Horsemanship and Western Pleasure classes and the final futurity event of the show, the Three Year Old Non-Pro Western Pleasure. To view complete show results or learn more about the show, please visit anequineproduction.com, visit the SOQHA Facebook page, or view the Show Tracker app for updates.
