November 8-23, 2013, Oklahoma City

Junior Western Pleasure

Huntin Big Dreams finds his way to gold for Pam Bilek.

by Larri Jo Starkey
The American Quarter Horse Journal

Changes of gait, changes within the gaits and changes of direction were part of the test for junior western pleasure horses November 15 at the 2012 AQHA World Championship Show.

With a happy step and a hard-working attitude, Huntin Big Dreams finished that test with a gold trophy for owner Pam Bilek of Chino Hills, California.

AQHA Professional Horseman Adam Wainscott of Highpoint Performance Horses in Aubrey, Texas, rode “Clint” to the title, just one year after they were reserve world champions.

“There are so many things that I love about this horse,” Adam said. “I’ve gotten to show him for three years now. He’s really fun to show. Like tonight, he knows when it counts and he knows when to do his thing. He’s always happy. I kid around that it’s almost like he wakes up in a new world every day. He’s a happy-go-lucky kind of a horse.”

Huntin Big Dreams is a 2007 gray gelding by Huntin For Chocolate and out of Ima Bodacious Dream by Docs Bodacious. He was bred by Charles and Jeannie Pircher of Rio Medina, Texas, and is owned by the Bilek Family Trust of Chino Hills, California.

“I thought he was really good tonight,” Adam said. “He got a little tired by the end of it. You could tell he was still really good and tried really hard, but it’s been a long week and it had been a long couple of months on the road between the (All American Quarter Horse) Congress and the World Show. Everything I asked for, everything I wanted, when they called for the gaits and transitions and everything, he was right there for me in everything I wanted him to do. He was really good.”

The world championship was Adam’s first.

“It feels pretty good,” he said. “I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s a pretty amazing feeling.”

After the initial trot down the center of the Jim Norick Coliseum, the judges worked the western pleasure finalists at the walk, jog and extended jog before asking for a reverse at the jog, then more gaits and another reverse. It was a fair test, Adam said.  

“To be the world champion and to be in that group of horses, that is the best. You should have to perform some of those things,” he said. “It was fun to show like that tonight. I enjoyed it.”

Clint has had a busy show schedule in the fall between his trips to the All American Quarter Horse Congress and the World Show. He’ll get a break now before the next show season when he'll be a senior horse.

“(I) definitely (want to thank) Pam, who owns the horse,” Adam said. “She’s been a phenomenal owner. I wouldn’t have been able to do a fraction of what we’ve done with him if it hadn’t been for her and her support of our program. The trust that she has given is – there are just no words for it.

“And Charlie (Cole) and Jason (Martin), obviously, for the opportunity of giving the horse to me and letting me do what I do with him. I just got married a few months ago. My wife has been a huge support. I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without her, either. She stays at home for the most part and takes care of things there so I can come here and do this.”