This was the World Show that almost wasn’t for the pleasure-driving Saul family of Des Arc, Arkansas.

In December 2006, after showing at the AQHA World Show, Joyce Saul and her husband, Darrell, 70, headed to Florida for horse show circuits in Tampa and Venice. At those shows, even with the help of a hoist, Darrell had difficulty loading the buggies onto the trailer.

“When we got back home, the next day we went to Little Rock (to the doctor), and they put him in the hospital,” Joyce said. An arteriogram was next, followed immediately by open-heart surgery. As Darrell was in recovery, his blood pressure shot up and a stitch burst open, Joyce recounted.

“They were giving him blood, but they couldn’t give it to him fast enough,” she said. “It was just going out of him faster than it was going in.”

But he fought his way back from that, and the family thought he was on the road to recovery. Then another complication struck

Shortly after he had gotten home from the hospital, Darrell became unable to move his legs. He had suffered a stroke due to the blood loss, Joyce said, but thankfully, he suffered no permanent damage and was able to make another recovery.

Just a month ago, he was strong enough to undergo shoulder surgery to correct a problem that had been nagging at him, and now he’s focusing on strengthening that shoulder.

“We didn’t know if we were going to get to come to the World or not,” Joyce said. “But he’s doing great.”

So with the help of their son Dean, the Sauls brought two horses to Oklahoma City – Queen Of The Blues for Joyce to drive and CC Lukin Surprised for Dean’s wife, Kathie, to drive.

But you can imagine that with all the medical emergencies this year has brought, qualifying for the World Show wasn’t easy, especially since Darrell “has always been there, helping me, doing everything for me,” Joyce said.

After the Florida shows, Joyce and her horse, “Lucille,” showed at a circuit in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and another in Culpepper, Virginia, that gave her the necessary 2.5 qualifying points.

Other family members pitched in to fill Darrell’s void. Dean, in particular, helped out by riding Lucille and getting her tuned up.

An equine family, too, was behind the Sauls’ successes this year.

CC Lukin Surprised is out of CC Surprise, a mare that Joyce drove to five consecutive world championships in amateur pleasure driving, from 1992 to 1996. The mare also captured two open world championships and one open reserve championship.

And Queen Of The Blues is a 4-year-old granddaughter of CC Surprise, out of a mare named Cee Regals Surprise. Joyce has held the lines on all three of these mares.

“I have enjoyed this little horse,” Joyce said. “She may not be broke as good as I would like right now to be going (in the preliminaries November 5), but she’s doing pretty well.”

As for Darrell, don’t expect him to be out of commission much longer.

“I’ll go to the barn for a couple of hours every day and mess with young horses,” he said. “I’ll be back. I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time. I’m in good shape.”

Watch for the finals of amateur pleasure driving on November 6.