In 1991 Fox, mom and I ventured out to join the Quarter Horse Circuit. This was where I belonged. We were dynamite. We'd win. We'd loose. We brought home more than our share of all-around awards. I was finally in my element.

The year I moved up into Youth Activity and out of the Novice division, I would earn enough points to be crowned Rookie of The Year in my age group...however...I had entered a Youth Activity Under Saddle class the previous year and won a half point, so I no longer qualified…(damn Cobleskill horse show) This bummed me out heavily. Part of what bothered me about loosing out on the Rookie award was this lingering voice in my head; the ghosts of conversations past.

When we first acquired Fox, I remember sitting on the back lawn of Tantivy below the apartment deck and listening as Jennifer had made a comment in passing about how he was a great “novice” horse and when it was time for me to show seriously in Quarter Horse we would have to sell him and get something better. But why wasn't he good enough? We would have won Rookie, right? So of course my determination would kick into over drive and I would have to prove that Fox belonged.

I spent every waking minute at horse shows scouting out the trainers I respected...the ones that were winning and I would watch every single thing they did with every horse they touched. I watched for cause and effect with every pull of the rein, and twist of their seat, the placement of their legs. Then poor ole Fox...I would go home and try it out on him. I tried everything, read every thing, and learned every thing. What ever it took. It also helped that the Hoyts had moved into Sandy's barn so I had them there to watch and learn from as well. Tom always let me ride their horses in my free time and he never stopped trying to teach me reigning. That was fun to play with, for me, although I don't think Fox cared too much for that. He liked that almost as much as when Sandy took up cutting and would bring in truck loads of cattle every week. Features Fox is terrified of cows...by the end of her cutting phase however; fox and I were loading them back on the rig at the end of the cuttings. He had his teeth bared and lunging at them…not quite the way a cow horse should work, but regardless…he was loading them!

Quarter Horse was the best thing that happened to me at the time. I met the best people and have SO many great memories of showing. I joined the youth club and to my chagrin found myself newsletter editor. I hated that idea, but did, I will say, find my nitch. I enjoyed it so much that I did it for two years and was recognized in the Quarter Horse Journal for my outstanding monthly letter.

Fox and I would eventually cut out showing in so many classes at shows and I would finally get the courage to tell my mother that if she liked Showmanship so much, she would have to do it herself...and she did. Fox and I found our place in equitation classes and most notably Hunter Hack. "Joe Hack," is what Christy would call me. In the summer of 1991 we would travel to the Youth World Show in Tulsa, Oklahoma, state qualified in both Equitation and Western Riding. Equitation of course is completely political and if you don't have a full page spread in the Journal you might as well not even ride. The Western Riding is another long story that I won't get into right now. Let's just say the class started the whole horse show event and I was randomly chosen as first to go in a class I had only ridden in three times. Anyway...word to the wise...always open the gate inward so that the proverbially cows don't get out.

After returning home, I decided that Fox was for sale. I needed a new mount. Not that he wasn't good enough, because he certainly was, however I needed a change. An ad went into Horse Bits that August.

September 1st 1992...the evening before I began my first day of college, Danielle, on a young horse she had hoped to buy, along with Fox and I went on a ride down Bartlett road. I will not get into the whole story, but a drunk driver came very quickly over the knoll in the road and struck us. Scooter was killed. Danielle was hospitalized for months. Fox had a large cut in his hind leg. I was fine...physically. Dan Eggleston sewed up his leg and we spent the next few weeks dealing with that amongst other things. Fox, you may have guessed, was no longer for sale.

A few weeks past, and if I were to keep my horse, I would still need just a few points from the Fall Show to qualify nationally in Hunter Hack for Worlds. Danielle made me go (I never win arguments with her) We showed well, but weren’t good enough. We’d have to head out in early spring for that last point I needed and keep our fingers crossed.

March 1993 we headed to Quarterama...back to Canada where it had all started for Features Fox. What a show that is! A two story barn, a three foot by three foot holding area…that people were actually jumping in! Fox’s personal favorite, an open staircase on the sides of the shoot…and did I mention the driving? Separate lanes and traffic signals for public transportation…I drove the wrong way down a one way…and COLD! Have you ever been in Toronto in March?! My boots were inadvertently left in the truck over night…so they were a bit frozen, but all in all it was actually a lot of fun and an experience I’ll never forget. That write up in my newsletter actually got me a standing O' at an Empire meeting the next month...lol. As for showing, Fox was quite stressed while waiting in the shoot as the people moved up and down the stairs (he has a fear of anything over his head) We did mess up our hunter class…by messed up I mean, we took an entire fence down…not just the pole…the entire thing. But that was okay. I was there for Hack, so I shrugged it off. The hack line was alright…not my best and if memory serves I think I chipped the last stride, but in the end, we did place third. And it was enough…we got what we came for. We place well enough in Canada to earn us a place nationally on NY's team to the Youth World Show now held in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas. We also qualified that year in Jumper.

…Stay tuned for that story….




1991 World Show, Hunt Seat Equitation, Tulsa, Oklahoma




1991 World Show, Western Riding, Tulsa, Oklahoma





1993 Quarterama, Toronto Canada, Hunter Hack