SHOWMANSHIP

A TROPHY TO MATCH.

BY MEGHAN MACKEY, INTERNET MANAGER 

Jessica Baird and Assigned With Love are the 2007 AQHYA showmanship world champions.

When Jessica Baird and Assigned With Love first trotted off in the showmanship finals Tuesday afternoon, Jessica thought they were a little slow. But like an old pro, she told herself to just keep showing.

“So I kept going, and it just got better,” the 17-year-old from Rockville, Indiana, said. “My back was great. I just thought it was really good.”

Jessica said she and “Emma” weren’t always so shiny in showmanship. It took them two years to get solid at the class.

“We never thought this would happen,” she said. “She was terrible at it. You just had to keep telling her that it was OK. After about a year and a half of doing it, we could ask her to do more, and she started responding with a better attitude. But now that she’s got it, she’s great at it.”

When the patterns were completed, Jessica reentered the arena with the top 15 youth showmanship exhibitors in the country. With tears running down her cheeks, she said she couldn’t believe it when the five finalists had been announced, and she was still standing in the arena with the top 10.

“Then when I was in the top five, I was like, I’m going to be fifth,” she explained. “Then I was top three and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I’m getting a trophy!’”

Wearing a golden showmanship jacket, it only seemed right that she’d take home a trophy to match.
“When they called reserve, and it wasn’t me, I was like, ‘Is this for real? Am I dreaming?’ It didn’t seem real at all.