WORLD CUP WESTERN PLEASURE-SATURDAY

THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM FOR SHARNAI THOMPSON WHILE GERMANY TAKES HOME FIRST SILVER MEDAL.

Sharnai Thompson and Principle Income won western pleasure Saturday.

Sharnai Thompson, 19, has already won two medals today. She won the bronze in showmanship and the silver in trail. In the third class of the Youth World Cup on Saturday, Sharnai and Principle Income finally struck gold.

“It’s a relief,” Sharnai said. “I can’t say that I didn’t come in here having high expectations for the team. It’s a good feeling to win.”

Principle Income, a 12-year-old bay gelding owned by Joe Moran, already carried Sharnai through the trail. She changed her strategy a little to ride in the pleasure.

“I changed into split reins from romal reins,” Sharnai said. “I didn’t go over any poles. I petted him a little because he’s been a little nervous. I loped him a few circles, and just went in. I just figured whatever he’s going to be, he’s going to be.

“I didn’t have any expectations for him to win, so I fixed him when I could, and it worked,” Sharnai said.

Sharnai has been riding since she was 3. At 7 years old, she won the small fry horsemanship at the All American Quarter Horse Congress in Columbus, Ohio. She has been showing in western pleasure ever since. She started showing the all-around events eight years ago.

Coach Nancy Cahill is happy with how Team USA is doing.

“I’m so proud of them,” the AQHA Professional Horseman said. “They’re just like everyone else: We overcame adversity and we have problems. One horse will do something, another horse will do something, you get in the pen, and all of a sudden that’s not the horse you rode all week. Some of them have taken horses that have never done the event and worked with them a lot.”

Sharnai said she and teammate Jolene Wadds, who placed ninth, were happy to have done so well.

 “We’re glad we’re making Trevor and Sarah as proud of us as we are of them,” Sharnai said. “They set the standard from the beginning. But we’re not really keeping track. We’re just doing what we can, doing our very best in every class.”

GERMANY WINS THE SILVER 

Philip Knebel and One In A Hundred placed second out of 48 in the Saturday class.

Philip Knebel may have been second out of 48 but his horse is “One In A Hundred.”

“He’s a really good horse,” the 16-year-old German said of One In A Hundred, a 1990 sorrel gelding owned by Alexandra Nichols. “He’s an old horse but he does his job.”

Although Philip said his ride felt good, he was a little surprised to receive the silver medal.

“I knew it was a good horse but I saw many good horses out there, and many good riders,” he said.

Philip was also competing in horsemanship and western riding.

Philip became interested in showing American Quarter Horses only a few years ago through his friends who showed. This is his second Youth World Cup, having competed at the 2004 event in Australia.

Team Germany’s coach Torsten Haier said it was tough making this year’s German team.

“We have quite a program in Germany for youth,” he said. “We started out with 30 kids who wanted to be on the team. We then split them into two sessions. Out of those, I invited 10 to join the team.”

Torsten then brought the members together a couple of times in Germany to practice before coming over to the States.

“The kids are getting more used to their horses at home, but we got two really good ones in the group of horses here,” Torsten said. “But I’m really pleased with all the kids. They are doing a really good job.”

For the full results, click HERE.