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Read below for a special
recap of this past year's world show.
JUNIOR LIGHTNING CAN STRIKE TWICE. BY CHRISTINE HAMILTON, FIELD EDITOR,
Nineteen-year-old
Ashley Dunbar of “You know, I never
thought I‘d make it back to the finals my first year, she said. “You have to
‘walk the chain’ as they say. “(With it being) my
last year as a youth and still being young competing Ashley qualified the
mare, Smokin Sensational, to the junior trail finals and the gelding, RL Tune
Up, to the senior trail finals. Both horses are owned by Rancho Brillando
Inc., of “And then in the
finals, I just said, I’m just going to go in and show my horse,” Ashley said. Both patterns called
for an extended lope with downward transitions - down to a jog over poles in the
junior, and down to a stop or break to a walk in the senior. “In the extended part,
I said, ‘I’m just going to push it and push my extension’ just to show (the judges) they
can make it through the course with a pushed extension, she continued. “I never thought in
my wildest dreams I would win two world championships back-to-back.” But that’s exactly
what she did. Ashley and Smokin
Sensational scored a 224.5 in the junior. “We’ve had her for two years now,” Ashley said of the mare. “She was
just a pasture pony; she came straight out of a pasture to us. In a million
years, I never would have thought that she would pull out for me as she has
tonight. “She’s a great little
horse, and we always give her a hard time because The biggest challenge
Ashley had with the mare was that she tends to “Her big thing and my big thing together was, on all the trot stuff, don’t push too hard and don’t lope off. But she held her own. She’s a great mare, and I love riding her.” But Ashley wasn’t too
worried about RL Tune Up in the senior. The two scored an impressive 238.5. “He has been down the
road and around the block,” Ashley said of the gelding. “He doesn’t have any
Up in the stands, no one was more pleased than Lisa Sheppard, one of the owners behind Rancho Brillando Inc. Rancho Brillando Inc. includes Lisa, her husband, Ron Levy, daughter, Lauren, and son, Chris. “This all started
because my children rode horses, Lisa said. Chris used to show youth, and
Lauren still does. “Sort of like a
snowball, it developed over the years, she continued. “We created a
corporation and built a “It was incredible to
me that they could (both) make the finals, Lisa said of her world champion
trail horses. “And it didn’t seem to me that lightning could strike twice,
even though I knew they were both really great horses. That’s asking a lot to
have two winners. I was just crossing my fingers. I knew they had the capability “Ashley did such an
incredible job, she added. “I’ll always remember this ride. I am just
thrilled to be here to see it.”
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