BY CHEYENNE CRACRAFT, JUNIOR JOURNALIST
Samantha Ginger and Chocolate Chip Fudge are here for their Ford Youth World debut together.
Competing at the Ford AQHYA World Championship Show was like icing on the cake for Samantha Ginger of Burr Ridge, Illinois. She is competing on her horse, Chocolate Chip Fudge, aka "Fudge," for the first time at the Ford Youth World in western pleasure and is the alternate for trail and western horsemanship.
“Candy Waldy (Illinois youth advisor) called me up after my first (AQHA) show out in Gordyville,” Samantha explained. “She said she really likes the way I ride, and she asked me if I would be interested in representing the state."
Samantha is the western team captain for the Indiana University Equestrian team. She has been involved in American Quarter Horses for 11 years, but Fudge has allowed her to show competitively in AQHA for the first time. She showed Paint horses for four years before she became a part of the equestrian team.
“This is my last year of youth eligibility, so I knew I wanted to come (to the Ford Youth World),” Samantha added. “Candy called me a few weeks after Gordyville and said that I got the spot.”
Samantha and Fudge faced a few obstacles on their journey to the Ford Youth World.
“I bought Fudge about six months ago,” Samantha explained. “So I’m still trying to figure him out.”
Samantha mostly rides the horses that her college equestrian team owns.
“This is a completely different style of riding than what I am used to. I was taught to ride a lot with my hands, but here they want you to ride with a lot of leg,” Samantha added.
Samantha did come with the possibility of getting to show in trail and horsemanship, but she didn’t expect the opportunity to arise because she qualified for the show as an alternate.
A national qualifier is someone that has shown and accumulated AQHA youth points, and if they have earned a number of youth points in specific events, then they are qualified nationally for the Ford Youth World. There is a list put out by AQHA that specifies how many points much be earned in each class.
In addition, each state can send up to four kids as qualified riders. The state pays for the stalls and entry fees for all of the state qualifiers. A state can also send an unlimited number of alternates. They don’t pay entries for alternates because they may or may not get to show. If a position that a state entry is qualified for is canceled, then the alternate will fill that position.
Just before the trail practice ended, Candy learned that Samantha would be able to show in trail.
“I had about five minutes to throw a saddle on Fudge, memorize the trail pattern and run through it,” Samantha explained. “This horse knows how to do trail, but I haven’t shown in a trail class in my entire life.
“I loped over the cross-boards, so we got disqualified. But there were still a lot of really great aspects of the pattern,” Samantha added. “I can’t be upset. He performed really well.”
Samantha adds that coming to the Ford Youth World has been a wonderful learning experience.
“I’m playing with the big dogs. These kids have been doing this their entire lives,” she added. “And all of the sudden, I’ve been thrown into the mix.
“It’s been hectic and exciting, but honestly this has been the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had. It’s a totally different ball game out here,” she said.
