BY TIM MANZI, JUNIOR JOURNALIST
The Jackson Land and Cattle Youth World Show Assistance Fund helped 19-year-old Lindsey Blaine bring her mare to the Ford Youth World.
“I don’t have someone bossing me around,” Lindsey Blaine joked about not having a trainer.
Lindsey has qualified her 7-year-old mare She Knows Shes Good, aka “Roxy”, for the third year in a row, and will be competing in horsemanship, showmanship, trail and performance halter mares. However, she has had no help preparing for the Ford Youth World.
Just as Ceri McCaffery showed her six horses here at the show sans a trainer, the 19-year-old from Kevil, Kentucky, will have to be her own biggest critic.
“Not having someone correct me when I’m doing something wrong,” Lindsey said, may be the hardest part for her, but being self-sufficient is nothing new.
“I bought my first filly with my own money when I was 9 years old, for $400,” Lindsey remembered; she and her father broke and trained the filly as a 2-year-old.
Luckily for her parents, Lindsey is just as dollar-wise this year.
“Well, with gas prices I have kind of been cutting back with the shows I go to,” Lindsey said. “I had the Jackson Land and Cattle Co. support me coming here, too. If it weren’t for them, I probably would not get to come (here).”
Since 2005, the Jackson Land and Cattle Youth World Show Assistance Fund has helped more than 50 youth make it to the Ford Youth World through need-based monetary grants. The fund’s goal this year is to help 100 youth. (Read more about the Jackson Land and Cattle Co. in the January 2008 issue of The Journal, page 42, or online at www.aqhajournal.com.)
In addition to her budget-savvy ways, Lindsey has used her horse skills to teach Roxy showmanship, horsemanship and trail. The duo just completed their youth championship in February, and placed 10th in performance halter mares at the 2007 Ford Youth World Show, as well.
