BY CHRISTINE HAMILTON, FIELD EDITOR
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| Kathy Pettit of Sanger, California, and The Package, aka "Bubba," win their first world championship in amateur aged stallions. |
Kathy Pettit of Sanger, California, and her homebred 2000 sorrel stallion, The Package, won the world championship in amateur aged stallions on November 9.
It was their first gold trophy win at the World Show.
“It doesn’t matter if you win or lose,” Pettit said outside the arena, wiping tears from her eyes. “Winning is great, but he’s been a great horse all along. He just kept getting better and knows how to show, and he enjoys it.
“Meeting all the people, whether they like your horse or they don’t like your horse, it’s always fun to get together and to talk about it,” she added.
Pettit is a lifelong horseman and has “had something to do with Quarter Horses for 26 years.” She’s been breeding Quarter Horses for about 20 years.
“As a youth, I raised and showed Appaloosa saddle seat horses. I rode Saddlebreds and Morgans and Arabians and got out of it for a while, and when I got back into it I decided I wanted to own a Quarter Horse. I figured if I wanted an Appaloosa, if I had a Quarter Horse mare I could do that. If I wanted a Quarter Horse I could have a Quarter Horse, and if I wanted a Paint, I could have a Paint. It was a way of having the best of everything.”
She got into showing halter horses when she went to work for legendary Appaloosa showman George Minnick, who passed away this past May.
“At that time (he) was the leading exhibitor of Appaloosa halter horses,” Pettit said. “That’s how I got started.”
She and her husband, Wayne, own and operate Verde View Farms in Sanger, California, a boarding and show facility that holds horse shows of all kinds.
They also stand The Package, aka “Bubba,” to the public.
“We had him broke to ride this spring,” she said. “We figured at 5 years old, he needed a job.
“I noticed that he had a really good attitude. I had a friend get on him, and he said, ‘When you get your gold trophy, he comes to me next because I think he’s going to make a western rider!’ So, we’ll see!”
