Dana Wilson said her sorrel gelding, Intoxikating, got a little sleepy toward the end of the yearling geldings class.

“I was like, wake up!” she said. But the almost-nap may have been just what “Toxie” needed. When he left the ring, he was the world champion yearling gelding.

“He’s such a character,” Dana said. “He always wants food, his ears are always up and he takes like five naps a day. He has to have his beauty sleep, or he’s worthless. But he’s so much fun.”

Dana’s family bred Toxie. He’s by A Phenomenal Clue and out of My Image Is Obvious, a mare Dana showed at the Ford Youth World three years ago.

“We’ve raised him, that’s been the most fun of everything,” Dana said. “We were there when he was born, so he’s like a pet, pretty much.”

Dana showed Toxie three times to get him qualified for the Ford Youth World. She put more than 60 points on him and earned his hater Superior.

Dana knew Toxie was something special the day he hit the ground.

“My dad, when we first had him, told me he’d be my Youth World gelding,” she said. “Then we showed him at the futurities as a baby, and my dad was like, ‘Wow, he’s pretty nice, I don’t think I want to geld him.’ But we gelded him in March, and my dad wouldn’t come out to the barn for like a week.” Judging by the hug her dad gave her after winning the world championship, the decision must have been worth it.

Dana and her parents, Randy and Pamela Wilson of Ball Ground, Georgia, trained Toxie, but family friend Gene Parker has helped her get ready this week in Fort Worth.

Dana was proud of her yearling’s performance in the ring.

“He was so good. He was so good for me,” she said through laughter and tears.