There were several things that were adding up to a fantastic weekend for Terri Hendricks of Youngstown, Ohio.
For one, she had her homebred mare, Heart Of The Asset, at the Region Four Regional Experience in Columbus, Ohio, and the horse was really beginning to shine.
For another thing, Hendricks was enjoying the Select competition, which she’d only been eligible for for three years.
Oh, and there was the matter of the three championship belt buckles and the all-around trophy saddle the pair won.
Hendricks and “Elly” won regional championships in amateur select showmanship, amateur select hunter under saddle and amateur select hunt seat equitation. They also scored top-10 finishes in their divisions of trail and western pleasure and won a reserve regional championship in horsemanship.
“This is a first” Hendricks said of the saddle she won for her all-around in the Select division. She had set that as a goal at the beginning of the summer, but then wondered if it was realistic. Her 5-year-old mare stepped up to the plate, though, and hit a home run.
It was particularly satisfying, since Hendricks had bred, raised and trained the mare, up until this year, when she sent her to Dan and Darlene Trein for some fine-tuning.
“I love working with the babies and the young ones because you see such results,” Hendricks said. “You take them from knowing nothing to them being an animal that can really be enjoyable and get out there and win some ribbons – and a saddle!”
It’s also nice for Hendricks to compete in the Select division. She showed horses as a youth, qualifying for what was then the American Junior Quarter Horse Association world show and earning a Superior in trail. And then, in 1983, she sold her horse, went to college and got busy with life. By 1998 – after a 15-year-break – she was ready to get back into it, and she purchased Elly’s dam. She showed her for a while – even coming to a Regional Experience with her – and then moved on to the up-and-coming youngster, a daughter of Investment Asset.
“It’s neat to have competed as a youth, and then to come back into it. And I came back into horses at a good time, and the (Select) program was there for me,” said Hendricks, who is a treasurer at a Catholic high school in Youngstown.
“I’m so glad (that program was started), because it really gives us an avenue to compete in, and the classes are growing,” she said. “When it first started out, there were like maybe four or five in showmanship, and now on a weekend show, we can have 10, 12, 15 in a class, which is great. And down here, there were 18 in the showmanship and 15 in our horsemanship, and I think there were 25 or thereabouts in the western pleasure.
“I think it’s a great, great thing that AQHA did to give us a place to compete. Just like the kids have their (division), and the amateurs have theirs, and now we’re on the opposite end.”
