Sometimes, the saying goes, all you need is a little help from your friends. And Victoria Burger of Merrill, Wisconsin, has a lot of friends.
A nurse anesthesiologist by trade, Victoria was showing at open shows, but last year began showing AQHA. She bought a gelding named Charlie Dont Dance, but decided to concentrate on some young prospects. Last fall, she sold him to a new home -- he and his young rider Elizabeth Forney are attending and showing at the Region 3 Experience at the invitation of Victoria -- and bought 5-year-old This Is Why Im Hott, or "Brownie," and, a few months ago, bought 4-year-old I Did It In A Minute, or "Junior." She rides Junior at home, and has Brownie with a trainer.
One of those friends is Megan O'Brien of Green Bay, Wisconsin, who attended the Regional Experience last year (and returned this year, successfully showing her horse Docs Paid In Cash) and insisted Victoria join her. So Victoria and husband Eric packed up the two horses and headed to St. Paul. They stall near fellow Wisconsin residents, and they've found even more friends in the barn aisle -- "We've all been hanging out and we're having a hoot!" she says.
Yet another friend came through the Ask A Professional Horseman program offered to all exhibitors at the Region 3 Experience. Victoria signed up for a lesson with Gayle Lampinen of Chassell, Michigan, and the free-of-charge assistance garnered her more than an hour of one-on-one help with Brownie. Gayle stepped up on her horse to feel out what the mare knew. "She's a little green," Victoria noted of Brownie, "Gayle took all the time I needed, and just instructed until I got it."
Victoria decided to try western riding for the first time -- "Isn't that what the Regional Experience is for, to try everything?" -- and Gayle coached her through the difficult class.
Wednesday, Victoria was top 10 in showmanship and on Thursday, she was a finalist in trail. That evening Victoria and Brownie cruised through their very first western riding classes -- and ended up as the reserve champion in one of them. The next day, she and Junior won the novice amateur hunter under saddle, out of 39 entries.
"I went from 'I don't know if I can get this done' to being a winner," Victoria says. "At home I wasn't willing to try it on my own, but Gayle was awesome. I'm green as grass (to western riding) and thought you just go straight. She helped me realize that I needed to move (Brownie's) shoulders and go laterally. My horses had all the right buttons, but I was just pushing the wrong spots. My hunt seat horse I wasn't even going to show. But Gayle said 'use your legs!' And today he went around like a superstar."
