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JUNIOR TRAIL CHEX ME IM CUTE WINS HER FIRST WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TITLE. BY TONYA RATLIFF-GARRISON, JOURNAL FIELD EDITOR AQHA Professional Horseman Bruce Vickery and Chex Me Im Cute were ninth in the draw for the junior trail finals. Bruce had already been through the tough Tim Kimura trail course earlier with The Totalperformance. Bruce and the 5-year-old mare gracefully weaved through the course with no ticks on the poles until the very last one, when she slightly nicked it on her way out. With scores being held until the award ceremony, owners Curtis and Priscilla Barnes hoped that the mare’s fast, smooth 360s would give Bruce enough points to overcome the tick. As the placings were called out, it came down to three: Team Wrangler member Jason Martin with Heavenly Mac, AQHA Professional Horseman John Briggs with In Prinzziples Image, and Bruce with Chex Me Im Cute. Jason was called forward for third with a score of 218.5. Down to Bruce and John, it was In Prinzziples Image’s name called out with a score of 220. Chex Me Im Cute had won her owners their first AQHA world championship. The Journal caught up with the Barnes in the Super Barn to ask them about the sweet chestnut mare and what it's like to win a title at their first AQHA World Championship Show. Q: Congratulations! Tell me about Chex Me Im Cute. PRISCILLA: We had purchased a yearling Quarter Horse and we traded her for this horse. J.R. Reichert picked her out for us and Jon Berry then came along with us. After she turned 2, we didn’t show her much. We then sent her to Bruce Vickery on John Berry’s advice to train her to do the trail and the western riding. She’s a great pattern horse. She is going to be a great amateur horse. That’s how we ended up with her. CURTIS: It’s been a thrill. We bought that yearling from Steve Heckaman but it didn’t work out. So John Berry said he’d call J.R. because he needed broodmares and we could maybe trade. J.R. picked us out this horse. PRISCILLA: That’s the only show Quarter Horse we own. Q. Wow! This is your only show horse? PRISCILLA: We’re into Appaloosas. CURTIS: In fact we won the 2-year-old western pleasure (Appaloosa) world championship with a filly we raised. But this is our only Quarter Horse show horse. Q. What does it feel like to when an AQHA World Championship then? PRISCILLA: Unbelievable. I didn’t believe we stood a chance but Bruce Vickery is wonderful with teaching these horses. CURTIS: I think he’s the best trail horse trainer in the country. I reckon he is. Q. What did it feel like watching Bruce and Chex Me Im Cute go through that course today? CURTIS: Oh, we were on pins and needles. I thought about not even watching. And Bruce said we had to have a perfect trip to win and we had a perfect trip until he got to that last set of poles and he ticked that last one. But he did his 360s so fast and beautiful, so that helped to overcome the tick. I think we won by three points. Q. And John Briggs and Jason Martin had great rides. Because you didn't know the scores, were you worried when it came down to Bruce, John and Jason at the end? PRISCILLA: You didn’t know where you’re at and we could have missed something that somebody else saw. CURTIS: I don’t know the technical aspects of trail and stuff but Bruce does. Bruce knows what you have to do to get the points. PRISCILLA: We’re so proud of him. It’s unbelievable. Q. If you show and raise Appaloosas, why did you show a Quarter Horse? PRISCILLA: Because we had the Quarter Horse (laughs). See, Appaloosas changed the rules on us and we couldn’t breed (non-colored Appaloosas) to Quarter Horses. CURTIS: Used to be you could get show papers on all Appaloosas, even if you got solids. They changed that rule and it put us in the Quarter Horse business. PRISCILLA: The thing with our Appaloosas we’ve won a lot of world and national championships, like 50 or 60, but we like to take colored mares and breed them to Quarter Horses. We like to have color but the best thing is the quality. Most of your really good stallions are Quarter Horses. CURTIS: We breed for quality first and color second. PRISCILLA: We started breeding to Zippo Pine Bar when we were first able to. CURTIS: In fact, with Zippo Pine Bar, we got a daughter by him out of a leopard app mare and 18 years ago she won the Appaloosa world championship 2-year-old western pleasure class. Eighteen years later, her daughter won it. Q. Does that mean you’re going to buy some more Quarter Horses to show? PRISCILLA: I don’t know. CURTIS: You take Chex Me Im Cute, we might end up breeding her to a top Quarter Horse some day. The gene pool in the Quarter Horse is much larger. We love to take a regular-papered, colored Appaloosa to cross with a Quarter Horse. PRISCILLA: But if we breed her, it will be to a Quarter Horse. CURTIS: She’s too nice of a mare. Q. Did you take Chex Me Im Cute to the All American Quarter Horse Congress this year? CURTIS: She got sixth in junior trail. It is so tough. Congress is tougher because you don’t have those eliminations and you go in there and show with all those scores. She did a very fine job but she got sixth. But she won the NSBA world championship in junior trail. She did do that. PRISCILLA: We’ve had a heck of a year, praise to God. Q. Is there anyone y’all would like to thank? CURTIS: I want to thank Jon Berry and J.R. Reichert and Bruce Vickery. PRISCILLA: Those are the people who have been honest with us. We’ve had good dealings with these people. They are good people to do business with. They treat you right and tell you honestly what you should do. CURTIS: And you get results for your money (holding up the gold trophy). FUN FACT WINNER STATS Horse name: Chex Me Im Cute Total class entries: 41
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