2-YEAR-OLD WESTERN PLEASURE

FIRSTS ALL AROUND.

BY CHRISTINE HAMILTON, FIELD EDITOR

Lauri Jean Triggs of Orange, California, almost didn’t make it to the World Show.

“I’ve never been to the World,” she said. “I needed directions to get here.”

But even after missing a flight and losing her luggage, the struggle to arrive was worth it. She ended up with a world championship November 17.

AQHA Pro Horseman Troy Oakley of Pinnacle, North Carolina, rode Lauri Jean’s chestnut stallion One Hot Sudden to the world championship in 2-year-old western pleasure. The two placed in the top three on all five judges’ cards.

Lauri Jean thinks part of the win goes to the horse’s sheer presence in the arena.

“With his ears and those eyes, he just sparkles,” she said. “He’s very animated. You just don’t miss him. He’s a real stand out, and he’s a ten mover.”

“He has so much ring presence,” Troy agreed. “He is good-gaited; he’s a great jogger, a great loper. But his ring presence - you can’t miss him. He never lays his ears back, he looks through the bridle. When he walks in that the show ring he wants to be a show horse.”

Troy and his wife, Vicky, bought the horse’s dam, Chicks Big Leaguer, in foal to A Sudden Impulse, with One Hot Sudden. They owned the horse in partnership until they sold the colt to Lauri Jean.

AQHA Pro Horseman Troy Oakley rode Lauri Jean Triggs' One Hot Sudden to the world championship in 2-year-old western pleasure.

Lauri Jean, who called her husband, Kevin, first thing to tell him about the win, said she ended up with the horse because she was patient.

“I had an amateur mare with (the Oakleys) that I was getting ready to sell, and I wanted to move on to a non-pro futurity horse,” she said. “Troy got my horse sold and put me onto one of his best baby stud horses. I was a lucky, lucky customer.

“I was the only unmounted customer, let’s put it that way,” she added with a laugh. “I was patient, and I love him. It was worth it.”

The Oakleys own and operate Troy Oakley Quarter Horses, and this is their first world champion.

“I’ve been in horses a long time, but he’s been one of the best horses that I’ve had,” Troy said. “To raise one and bring it to the World Show and show it and to accomplish this has been a lifelong dream. This is my first world champion, and I’ve been coming a lot of years.”

It has also been a challenge to get to Oklahoma City. Andy Cochran rides with Troy, and rode the horse at the All-American Quarter Horse Congress.

“He won the first go-round, and in the finals, he was excused,” Troy explained. “He was sore. It was a real loss for all of us.

“But thanks to (Lauri Jean for) being patient; I told her that he was a great horse. And to come here and win the World Show, it was very redeeming, I can say that.”

The Oakleys have two sons, Tate and Tab. Tate was the 2002 youth western pleasure world champion.

“I want to thank my wife, Vicki,” Troy said and gave her a hug. “This is the best support system in the world.”

“We have a lot of help, a great team,” Vicki said. “Everybody (in the barn) has a role, and we just all work together. We’re very happy.”