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FROM ZIMBABWE TO OKLAHOMA CITY LOOKING TO MEET A REAL COWBOY. BY CHRISTINE HAMILTON, FIELD EDITOR Let’s see if we can get this straight. Abi Holland lives in London, England. She has a cousin, Leanne Tamn, who lives in Dallas, Texas. Their families are originally from Zimbabwe. Abi, an IT project manager, was between contracts and decided to come stateside to visit Leanne. Abi told Leanne two things on her Texas visit wish list: “I really want to see some cowboys,” and “If I’m coming to Texas, I want to ride in a western saddle.” Now how was Leanne, a psychologist, going to manage that? Leanne happened to mention Abi’s trip to her good friend from work, Laure Ames. It just so happened that Laure’s daughter, Audra, is a longtime exhibitor in halter, reining and over fences classes; in fact, Audra has earned several youth halter world championships. “You know,” Laure said. “There’s this little show going on in Oklahoma City.” So Laure loaded up Leanne and her London cousin, Abi, and drove to the 2008 World Show the weekend between Bank of America Amateur Week and FedEx Open Week. They sat in the stands on November 15 and watched ALL of the junior and senior cutting prelims and happened to meet 2005 Featherlite All-Around Amateur C.J. Murphy of Granbury, Texas. C.J. introduced them to Boyd Rice who was riding turn back. They waved at Boyd from the rail and he waved back. Wish No. 1 was fulfilled – they’d seen a lot of real cowboys. Then C.J. offered to let Abi ride his horse, Lookin To Travel, aka “Wilbur,” and she jumped at the chance. She spun and stopped and said, “He’s so sensitive!” And wish No. 2 was done. To make the experience complete, Laure took Leanne and Abi to The Cattleman’s for dinner, down in Stockyards City, and then to Chisholm’s later for some good two-stepping. “We’ve had a blast!” Laure said – and Abi and Leanne agreed. Plans are in the works for the 2009 World Show visit. Check out the photos below that Leanne took of Abi's visit: Boyd Rice waving from the cutting pen and Abi finally getting to ride in a western saddle.
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