Showing at his first Bayer Select World Championship Show, Delbert Hostetler just turned 50 in July.
“I didn’t know I was eligible,” he said, chuckling.
“I’ve been in love with that horse since he was a baby,” Delbert said about his stallion.
The Preference, a 2003 sorrel stallion by Kid Clusified and Coolsie Coosa by Ima Cool Skip, won the 2007 Bayer Select World aged stallion championship. In 2006, The Preference was both open and amateur 3-year-old stallion champion. Delbert described The Preference as gorgeous.
“He’s got a gorgeous neck and good conformation. He just keeps getting better.
“Really, probably next year he’ll be more mature. We held off when he was 2 to even bring him to the show,” Delbert said.
Delbert said his world championship feels wonderful.
“This morning there was a rainbow. And when my dad died, my mom and I always said he brings us rainbows. So this morning when I got to the barn, I turn around and there were rainbows for an hour probably. So I knew this was my lucky day.”
Delbert carries a lock of hair from his favorite mare he showed at world, for luck, but Delbert didn’t need luck – just The Preference.
