November 8-23, 2013, Oklahoma City

Senior Hunter Under Saddle

Junior horse Blended Choclate returns to AQHA World Show form in the senior.

by Larri Jo Starkey
The American Quarter Horse Journal

After an outstanding career as a junior horse, Blended Choclate has now left his mark on the senior hunter under saddle world.

On November 16, he won the world championship for owner Kimberly Lloyd Wright of Scottsdale, Arizona, at the 2012 AQHA World Championship Show.

“It was good,” AQHA Professional Horseman Stacy Huls said after riding the horse to his world championship. “I know him like the back of my hand. It’s not the first time he’s been here and done this. It’s his first time to win as a senior horse. I’m kinda speechless at this point after yesterday winning the junior.”

That’s right, Stacy won hunter under saddle world championships two days in a row, first the junior class November 15 with A Beautiful Maiden and then senior November 16 with Blended Choclate.

“To be able to come back and do this is just crazy,” Stacy said. “He is the closest thing to a machine, I think, that you can come to in a horse. He’s just a really good horse. And it was fun.”

“Ben” was third at the 2007 All American Quarter Horse Congress Masters 2-year-old hunter under saddle class for breeders Barbara and Wayne Liska of Grants Pass, Oregon. In 2008, he won junior hunter under saddle at the World Show, following it up with the 2010 world championship in junior hunter under saddle. The 2012 championship is his first as a senior horse.

“We have an ongoing joke that the even (numbered) years seemed to be my thing,” Stacy said. “He’s been in my barn forever, and I’m very grateful to Kim to have faith in me to buy him as a young horse. He’d been shown in the Masters and was third there, but we were still buying a young, inexperienced horse, and she had the faith to go ahead and go with that decision. It has worked out way beyond our wildest dreams. We thought we were buying a really nice Select horse, because he’s so good-minded and he just grew into himself and has become an amazing horse.”

Ben placed first under two judges, was second under one and third under two for the win. The 2005 chestnut gelding is by Sweet Talkin Chip and out of Kinda Showy by Sonny Showcase.

“(I’d like to thank) all kinds of people,” Stacy said. “Again, Doug Huls. Kim for buying the horse. I have a great support group within the barn. All the customers are very behind you 100 percent, give you that trust. I could go on and on and on. My fellow competitors. They’re a good group. Everybody supports you and gives you encouragement. There are just too many people to name who definitely got me here in this position. I would say Kim was very much the start of the hunter under saddle success in putting that faith in me and getting me to where I’m at.”