November 17, 2011
By Samantha EckertThe American Quarter Horse Journal
Sheryl showing her husband's mare, Sum Incredible Miss, at the 2011 AQHA World Championship Show. (Journal photo.)
Sheryl Budde went through a lot of tragedies to make it to her first AQHA World Championship Show. Sheryl lost her husband, sister-in-law, father, and boss in the past year and a half.
It all started Valentine’s Day 2006,” Sheryl says. “Dennis, (my husband), was in an automobile accident. He had nine fractured ribs and a fractured sternum. He had three hernial tears from the seat belt and a concussion. As a result of the accident, a second look at the x-rays, they found lung cancer. In August of 2006, he went into surgery to remove half of his right lung. After that he went through chemo therapy which lasted through February of 2007.”
Sheryl and Dennis thought things were on the up and up and decided to attend a horse show in Winona, Minnesota. Sheryl was showing her western all-around horse and Dennis was there to support her.
He had always loved the halter horses,” Sheryl says. “He would just disappear and go watch the halter classes. I was the one that always showed. I was the one that had the riding horses and showed. We were watching the halter classes at Winona and a friend had told me that the mare was for sale.”
That mare was Sum Incredible Miss. The Buddes call her “Halle.” She is by Sum Persistance Pays and out of Wincredible Missy by Wincredible.
“She was a yearling at that time,” Sheryl says. “So I went up to Dennis and said ‘What do you think of her?’ And he said, ‘Well she’s gorgeous.’ So I said, ‘I understand that she’s for sale and she’s reasonable. If you want her go ahead and buy her.’ He came back to me with tears in his eyes and said, ‘We just bought a halter horse.’ We didn’t plan on showing her right away because she was real growthy. We did show her for the first time in the late summer of 2007 at a local show. She won her class and went grand under both judges. It was extremely emotional.”
Later that year Dennis was diagnosed with more cancer. After he went through an eight hour surgery and a series of 25 radiation treatments, the radiation damaged a main nerve in his neck and he developed a cough and spells of blacking out.
In the mean time, Dennis and Sheryl had sent Halle to AQHA Professional Horseman Ron and Kathy Doyle.
Get up-to-date on AQHA showing news at www.aqha.com/showing.
“They took the mare and made her what she is today,” Sheryl says. “They showed her, and in 2009 she qualified for the World Show. That’s the first horse we ever had to qualify. She was also the eighth highest point earning mare (in junior halter mare and halter mares in 2009). Ron took her, showed her and got tenth place, and Dennis and I went. That was the first time we had ever gone to the World Show. Thank God we did, because he passed away March 23, 2010. Just six months before that we had lost his sister and on February 16, we lost his little dog; she also had cancer.”
Sheryl decided to keep Halle in training with Ron and Kathy after Dennis’ death.
"This past year,” Sheryl starts, “Ron took her to the World again and she was tenth in the World again. And he asked me to try showing her. So I started showing her this past year. We went to a show in Iowa and I got her qualified for the Select World and the World in one weekend.”
Unfortunately, Sheryl ran into more tragedy before coming to Amarillo for the 2011 Adequan Select World Championship Show.
“The plan was to go to theSelect World,” Sheryl says. “Well, my dad became very ill and was at home in hospice care during the Select World and I couldn’t go. He died September 19. My trainer said, ‘Well, you qualified for the regular World Show, why don’t we try it?’ I was back and forth and back and forth because of my nerves, especially at this show, the most prestigious show. And I went. And she was eighth.”
Sheryl showed Halle in the amateur aged mares on November 8 with Dennis looking down on them.
“After I showed her,” Sheryl shares, “I went up into the bleachers and cried because I felt like, ‘Why couldn’t I have done this when Dennis was alive?’ But I know he was watching and smiling. I know he was so proud. He had fought so hard. A year before he had passed, he was diagnosed with a separate form of liver cancer. He’d gone through two major surgeries, chemo, radiation and the side effects of the radiation.
“He lost his independence. He had to give up so much. He couldn’t drive. The horse he wanted to show, he never could show. He finally got his own horse, and I’m so sorry he never got his chance to show her. But he was so proud of that horse. She did so well. You could just see it in his face every time. I think he lived vicariously through me this year when I showed her at the world. That was always his dream to do it. I never thought I’d be doing anything like that.”
If it wasn’t for Sheryl’s horse show family, she doesn’t think she would have made it through these past few years.
“The Quarter Horse people in Wisconsin are amazing people,” Sheryl says. “I must have gotten 200 cards when Dennis passed away. What I think was so touching was the parents that would write in the cards (and say) what a difference Dennis made to their children by being so supportive of them at the horse shows. These children are going to remember him and miss him because he always took the time to smile, be supportive and give them kind words of encouragement when they were showing. It just touched my heart that I got card after card like that. That’s the way he was. He always had a smile on his. He’s touched so many lives.
“If I didn’t have them to support me when I lost him, I don’t know how I would have gotten through. They’re watching out for me, making sure that I wasn’t alone. It was the first year I had to do it (showing and pulling a motor home) myself. I had people to help me when I needed help. They’re just the best people in the world. It’s the one thing that kept me going was the horse shows. Knowing that I was going to be with people that I loved, and that loved me, and doing something that I love. There are other things that I haven’t done since I’ve lost him, but the horses I kept up with. They just give me so much comfort to do it.”