|
|
TWICE TALENTED LONGTIME EXHIBITOR HAD TWO SONS IN THE TOP 5 IN TRAIL. BY CHRISTINE HAMILTON, FIELD EDITOR Susan Johns of Paradise Valley, Arizona, was doubly proud as she watched the 2008 World Show amateur trail finals on November 9, 2008. Her sons Trevor and Jeffrey had both made the finals riding Susan’s horses, New Lark In Town and I Gotta Good Name, respectively. Susan and her sons come from a family with a long history of showing AQHA – Susan’s father is the late Robert Kieckhefer, an AQHA past president. She and her older sister, Kathy Tobin, showed as youth and now as Select riders. In fact, Susan and Kathy both made the trail finals at the 2008 Bayer Select World Championship Show, Susan finished fourth on I Gotta Good Name, and Kathy won it on New Lark In Town. Of course, AQHA Pro Horseman Jim Searles, the family’s longtime trainer, didn’t think Susan had watched much of their goes, she was so nervous. And that nervousness started well before the prelims when Trevor almost didn’t arrive in time to show. Trevor is in his second year at Loyola Marymount University in California. He had a final exam and couldn’t fly to Oklahoma City until late Friday, November 7, the night before the trail prelims. All was set, until his flight out of Los Angeles was delayed two-and-a-half hours, which would make him miss the only connecting flight out of Phoenix that would put him into Oklahoma City in time to show in the prelims. Fortunately, the airlines actually held the plane for him. He arrived in Oklahoma at 12:45 a.m. on November 8, slept until 6 a.m., got up to practice his pattern and was ready to show by 8 a.m., early in the draw. And Trevor and Jeffrey drew back-to-back in the prelims go order. In the finals, Trevor took reserve with a 226, just one point shy of the champion's score. Jeffrey finished fifth with a 219. But poor Susan didn’t get to relax until it was time to take photos.
RESULTS
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
