Western Horsemanship

Lacy Watson earns a horsemanship world championship with HF Tahnee Zippo.

by Larri Jo Starkey
The American Quarter Horse Journal

That last thing Lacy Lynn Watson’s trainer told her before she entered the ring was “I love you.”

That’s because her trainer, Jamie Watson of Goshen, Ohio, is also her mom.

Then Lacy went in and did her mom proud on a difficult horsemanship pattern at the 2012 Built Ford Tough AQHYA World Championship Show.

“The pattern worked pretty well,” Lacy said. “In the prelims, it was all about circles and the maneuvers of where to hit your mark on the rail with the circles, then this pattern was all straight lines. The most challenging part was the first spin, (then) coming out of it to the right lead slow (lope) to the fast (lope) back to the slow.”

After all 15 competitors completed their patterns, they came back in for an extended rail session sans stirrups.

Lacy’s horse for her championship ride August 7 through the Jim Norick Coliseum was HF Tahnee Zippo, the last foal from the legendary mare Tahnee Zippo, who died in 2005.

Before the Ford Youth World, Tahnee Zippo had produced two open and one amateur world champion and one reserve world champion. Her offspring have earned $104,536.13 through the National Snaffle Bit Association and $32,960 through the AQHA World Championship Show.

Lacy calls her pretty bay mare “Tahnee,” and it was love at first sight.

“We’d been looking for almost a year,” Lacy said. “I got on her and fell in love with her. She’s very sweet, yet she’s a big princess.”

Lacy and Tahnee only get a brief chance to celebrate before the August 8 trail finals, so Lacy plans to “go back (to the stall) and give Tahnee all the treats she wants. She eats anything, although the biggest favorite here was fruit snacks.