“When it got down to one, I thought, well, it’s all or nothing.” That’s what Victor Kruger said was going through his mind when he was standing in the pen just before the world champion 3-year-old gelding was announced. “He came through again.”
Victor led Kidlusion to his third world champion title at the Bayer Select World Championship Show on August 29.
“This is the hardest he’s ever shown for me,” the Norfolk, Nebraska, exhibitor said. “He kept wanting to move out, and I had to reset him.”
“He was feeling good,” Victor’s wife, Marie, said.
Victor and Kidlusion won the world championship in yearling geldings at the 2005 Bayer Select World. In 2006, the sorrel gelding earned a gold trophy at the Ford AQHYA World Championship for Victor and Marie’s grandson, Ryan, whom they have raised since he was 3, in the 2-year-old geldings. Victor said it was a great feeling to get another win as a 3-year-old.
“I was sitting there visiting with people all around me ,and I really wasn’t watching too close until it got down to the end,” Marie said. “Then I thought I better take it serious.”
Victor got into horses when he married Marie. Along with Marie’s daughter, whom Victor adopted, they showed in local shows and Victor said “it proceeded to go from there.”
The Krugers bought Kidlusion as a yearling in 2005 from Tim Hamlin.
“She walked him around one way, I walked him around the other way, and when we got done, we told him we’d buy him,” Victor said.
This is the Kruger’s third trip to the Bayer Select World, and Marie encourages anyone who’s eligible to come to Amarillo to give it a try.
“It’s a great show, great camaraderie,” Marie said. “It’s a lot of fun, and everyone seems happy just to be here.”
