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| 91-year-old Jack Finney was one of the first amateur western pleasure riders in AQHA history. He visited the Bayer Select World before the western pleasure finals on August 30, escorted by AQHA Pro Horseman and Judge Nancy Sue Ryan. |
Do you remember when there was no such thing as an amateur? 91-year-old Jack Finney does. Back in 1973 when AQHA offered its first amateur western pleasure class, Jack was one of the first to ride into that arena of competition.
And on August 30, before the western pleasure finals at the 2007 Bayer Select World Championship Show, Jack made another special appearance to the delight of the crowd.
Jack saluted the welcoming applause, shaking hands with people in the stands. He rode in aboard Alen Dick’s Rebas Stormin Norman, escorted by his former trainer and friend, Nancy Sue Ryan, on Cee Cee McDonald’s Chockfullachocolate.
From Greenville, Texas, Jack was one of the earliest and more ubiquitous competitors on the amateur western pleasure show scene throughout the mid 70s and into the 90s. Jack first began showing at the young age of 61. If Select classes had been offered at the time, he would have immediately been eligible for the division.
Operating out of his Ja-Lu Quarter Horses with his wife, Lou, and trainer, Nancy Sue McGregor – better known today as Nancy Sue Ryan – Jack went on to earn a long list of awards and honors in western pleasure including Registers of Merit, Superiors, high point and all-around awards, and top-10 finishes at the AQHA World Championship Show and the All American Quarter Horse Congress.
In 1979, riding his prized mare Schottische, Jack earned a reserve world championship in amateur western pleasure, a feat he would repeat the following year. In 1982, he and his mare Sophisticated Sue won the amateur western pleasure world championship.
If you look up the definition of Select, you see that one of its meanings is “special,” and Jack certainly is that. We appreciate this opportunity to salute this special competitor – a living piece of AQHA history.
