Road to the Horse 2014 Recap

The World Championship of Colt Starting descended upon the Kentucky Horse Park’s Alltech Arena over the weekend. Lindsay Rausch shares some highlights.

From Lindsay:

Thursday night kicked off early with the Wild Card Competition. This group of seven competitors were each given a 6666 bred Quarter Horse a year ago to bring back for a chance to compete in the main event. Challenges included a fitness check, obstacle course and freestyle. The Wild Card prize was secured by Jim Anderson from Canada and his bay gelding Maverick — they also took the crowd favorite for their great performances. Mary Kitzmiller was there to represent the women from her time with the Mustang Million. She placed second on Pal, a stunning palomino with loads of chrome and flash.

Day1v2 from Tootie Bland Productions on Vimeo.

With hardly a chance to take a breath, on Friday Jim Anderson went in to pick his main event colt from the 2014 6666 Remuda. This time he took a small gruella gelding who insisted on negotiations in the round pen. The did end up taking the main event, making Jim Anderson the first ever Wildcard winner and also the first Double Winner. Other competitors included Dan Steers of Double Dan Horsemanship from Australia, Antoine Cloux from Switzerland, and Jonathan Field, also from Canada, who was the first ever winner of the Jack Brainard Award for the best horsemanship shown during the competition.

Road to the Horse 2014! Day 2 from Tootie Bland Productions on Vimeo.

As for the Road to the Horse’s grand finale on Saturday, well, we don’t want to spoil it for you. Just watch!

Congratulations to all of the competitors as well as the 2015 Wild Cards who selected their horses this weekend as well.

To anyone who was able to attend I would love to hear your stories — we encourage you to share them in the comments below. Go Riding!