JUNIOR HUNTER HACK

REGAL INTENTIONS IS A TRUE DREAM HORSE FOR LANIE DEBOER.

BY TONYA RATLIFF-GARRISON, INTERNET MANAGER

Lanie DeBoer found Regal Intentions on the Internet.

“My mom and I saw her on dreamhorse.com, and she was way up on the border of Canada and Minnesota at some place we would never, ever go to look at horses,” the AQHA Professional Horseman said.

“Abbie Ann’s” owner took the gray mare to a horse show in the middle of Minnesota, where DeBoer jumped her over a broomstick sitting atop two buckets.

“There were no jumps at the horse show, so that’s all I had to try her out on,” she said. “But she performed like a rock star, and I knew right then I was going to buy her.”

DeBoer is normally a catch rider at AQHA shows, so this is the first Quarter Horse she has ever brought along from start to finish. The 4-year-old mare has done well, with $45,919 in National Snaffle Bit Association earnings and qualifying for this year’s World Show in junior hunter hack.

“She is just a beautiful jumper,” DeBoer said. “Matter of fact, her very first jump, she landed and bucked in half and I knew then she was a tryer.”

Lanie DeBoer won her first world championship aboard Regal Intentions.

But DeBoer was worried about her at the World Show. With junior hunter hack entries at only 14, the preliminaries were cancelled, not allowing DeBoer a chance to show Abbie Ann under the bright lights of Jim Norick State Fair Arena.

“We had to go straight into the finals,” she said. “I didn’t even jump her before I walked in. I just walked, trotted and cantered her, and went straight down the chute and right in because that is just the way she is. She is a show horse because the minute she goes in that ring, she is all business. She doesn’t like to practice. She’s kind of a princess.”

Once in the arena, Abbie Ann performed beautifully.

“She got in there, and she was soft and quiet, lovely and wonderful,” DeBoer said.

She then waited calmly as the placings were called out.

“I felt good about it but I tried not to get my hopes up,” she said. “As they were counting down, though, it was just so cool.”

With only Alfred Hewitt on Becky King’s Vision of Art left in the ring with her and Abbie Ann, DeBoer smiled nervously at AQHA Executive Second Vice President Frank Merrill, who was handing out awards, and waited for the reserve championship announcement. As Hewitt’s name was called over the loud speaker, DeBoer broke down and gave Abbie Ann a hug. She had won her first world championship trophy.

“It was surreal,” she said. “It really was. I still can’t believe it.”

DeBoer recently sold Abbie Ann to Isabel and Kayla Bickman of Cave Creek, Arizona. They weren’t able to make it to the finals to see their new horse win her first world championship.

“So I’ll be giving her a phone call pretty soon,” DeBoer said. “Hopefully, this will be a long relationship.”