“I’m really happy; I’m kind of shaking,” said 16-year-old Paige Lechtenberg of Oakland, Nebraska. She and her 1998 brown gelding Get Wise, aka “Hanson,” had just won the 2007 youth world championship in working hunter, their first world championship.
Hanson has been Paige’s partner for a long time.
“I’ve had him since he was 3, and I was 9,” Paige said. “So we learned to jump together, and it’s been really fun.”
Paige thinks their time together adds something to the win.
“It does make it so much more special,” she said. “I’m really happy that we’ve gone from riding hunter under saddle to coming this far in the jumping.”
Just prior to the working hunter finals, Paige had another horse to ride in the equitation over fences finals, Distinctly Sweet; they finished seventh in that class.
“I was trying to forget about my ‘eq’ ride and just worry about my working hunter ride,” Paige said. “My plan was to just go in there and do the best I could. It was a different horse, so I had to adjust myself to a different horse, and forget about the last class, forget about what happened, what I placed and everything.”
When the scores were processed, Hanson and Paige were first on two judges’ cards, second on the next two, and third on the fifth judge’s card – the gold trophy was theirs.
“It feels really cool,” Paige said. “I’ve been working a long time on this – I’m really, really excited. I spent a lot of time down at my trainer’s this summer, so I’m really happy my work paid off.
“I’m from Nebraska, and I spent most of my summer pretty much in Texas, the whole month of June and most of July down there,” she added. “It’s really hard to be away from friends and family.”
Paige’s trainer, Cindy Hale, a 2007 AQHA World Championship Show judge, was on hand for her win. As were friends and family, including her dad, Kelly, her mom, Marcia, and two older sisters, Jana and Brooke.
“When he jumps really big, he likes to shake his head and play a lot,” Paige said of her old friend. “He’s really, really sweet to be around.”
But Paige’s 2007 Ford AQHYA World Championship Show experience isn’t over yet – she made the finals in the hunter hack on August 11 on Distinctly Sweet.
