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AGED GELDINGS A MY TE CHEERFUL WIN. BY LAUREN SCIBA, JOURNAL INTERN As a 3-year-old gelding, RPL My Te Cheerful earned 2007 world championships in both open and amateur divisions. For his first year playing with the big boys in the 2008 aged geldings class, he didn't do so bad. He was placed first under four of five judges, winning yet another world championship title. The Journal caught up with Terry and Leslie Wilkerson to visit about the horse. Q: Congratulations, how does it feel to have a world champion gelding on your hands? Terry: It’s wonderful, we love that horse. We’ve had some nice horses over the years but we really think that’s probably the nicest horse we’ve ever owned. We were just grand at the (All American Quarter Horse) Congress with him in the open and the amateur. We came out here two weeks ago; it’s been a long two weeks to wait for that opportunity but he’s a wonderful horse. He’s great to be around, and we think that’s what they are supposed to look like. He’s great-legged; he’s pretty; he’s big; he’s balanced. He’s a once-in-a-lifetime horse. He’ll be pretty hard to top in the future. Q: He won world championships as a 3-year-old, how does it feel to have him move up to the aged geldings class and win? Terry: That’s a big move. When you move up to the aged geldings, there’s a lot of nice horses in there. There’s a lot of world champions and a lot of really fancy horses. We’ve always loved that horse. We wanted to buy him when he was 2 and couldn’t. We wanted to buy him this spring, and we couldn’t. Finally, the Confrancescos agreed to sell him to us six weeks before the Congress. We think he is absolutely one of the greatest geldings ever. Like I said, we can’t be happier. The plan is for my wife to show him next year in the amateur division. I showed him at the Congress, but I’m going to turn him over to Leslie, and we plan for (AQHA Pro Horseman Don Bell) to bring him back and show him next year in the open. Leslie’s going to show him in the amateur. It’s hard for those horses to move up into the aged class and compete. Today, he had four firsts – I think he moved up pretty well. Q: Is Don the trainer? Terry: He is. Don Bell (brought him) from the Confrancescos. They had him through the Congress, and then Don took him home with him from the Congress. He’s had him about a month, actually, four weeks about today. Don hauled him home, kept him healthy, got him here. It was nerve-racking, he’s a nice horse, and we knew we had a great opportunity to do well, but you still have to get here and be healthy and get through the deal all intact. I have everything going to Don Bell for taking good care of that horse. WINNER STATS Horse name: RPL My Te Cheerful Total class entries: 22
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