Courtney Ryan of Collinsville, Texas, captured her third amateur showmanship world championship on November 9, this time with her 17-hand 2000 gelding, The Iron Maker.

“It feels great especially with a different horse,” the 24-year-old said. “He’s very green at it, but he’s getting better now.”

Courtney purchased The Iron Maker in January 2005, and the two placed third in amateur showmanship at last year’s World Show. They also won the 2005 hunter under saddle high-point award.

“He’s handy,” she said. “He’s real willing to stay up there with me and is very responsive to my body. So it’s real easy to kind of sneak him through a pattern.”

“I hadn’t shown him since May, so I wanted to be correct and conservative in the first go,” Courtney continued. “He really wanted to wait on me there. So, I thought maybe in the finals I’d step it up a notch, and he just stuck right there with me.”

“He is a big horse,” Courtney said. “To show with a greater degree of difficulty (in the finals), in the trot around the cone I needed it to be tight.

“And he can do it, it’s just you’ve got to be paying attention to your space,” she added. “We did it tight and turned to come down and finish out the pattern. He hung in there; he’s a good boy.”

These days Courtney rides her own horses from her home in Collinsville, and wants to focus on her younger horses. She is also an AQHA 10-year cumulative breeder.

“My mom, she was great, she set me up with that,” Courtney said. “My first broodmare was a Reynolds Rap mare, we’ve been breeding her every year.”

The mare, Rosie Rap, has produced three point earners of 273 points in all divisions combined. Courtney’s mother is AQHA Professional Horseman and Judge Nancy Sue Ryan of Nocona, Texas.

“Mom has 14 (coming foals) this year,” Courtney said. “I myself have a reiner coming this year.”

Is there anyone she'd like to thank?

“Everybody who’s always stood behind me with this horse like mom,” she said. “He’s a challenging horse, but it’s rewarding.

“He wants to be good, and you’ve really got to be his friend if you want him to be there. He’s a very nice horse.”

But where’s her old champion partner, The Total Luke? Courtney and “Diesel” won the amateur showmanship world championship in 2003 and 2004 and the 2004 Sooner Trailer All-Around High-Point title.

“Diesel is with Dana Kennedy out in Georgia, and she’s going to start showing him in amateur stuff this spring,” Courtney said. “I’m so excited to see him out. He’ll be something to reckon with, I’m sure.”