22/ DECEMBER 2017 THE RIDER
Ontario Quarter Horse Association Inc. 2017 BOARD OF DIRECTORS
President 1st Vice 2nd Vice
Past Pres. Treasurer Sect’y Area 1 Area 1
Pete Hammer Karen Cook
Sherrill Tisdale
Shawna Crawford Sheila Easton
Cayley de Brouwer Mary Moore
Ken O’Donnell
oqhapete@gmail.com karen.cook@
nexicom.net
sigrey@hotmail.com crawfordqh@gmail.com sheilaeaston@xplornet.com cayley.debrouwer@
gmail.com mmoore40@cogeco.ca kkvnodonnell@aol.com
www.oqha.on.ca •
info@oqha.on.ca
Area 1 Area 2 Area 2 Area 2 Area 3 Area 3 Area 3 Area 3
Suzanne Pickard Jenn Pearce
Todd Cressman Annika Rear
Pat Chamberland Janet Fazackerley Corey Taylor Andrew Dewar
AQHA Director Kathy Patterson
iamdrboo@gmail.com
pchamberland4@gmail.com jfazackerley@orilliapronet.com coreyelainetaylor@gmail.com
dewarperformancehores@hotmail.com tbrkathy@hsfx.ca
Check out our website for the latest OQHA information! Affiliate 2017 All American Quarter Horse Congress Wrap Up
By Miss Tiana Domingos, 2017 Ontario Quarter Horse Queen
In the weeks leading up
to the 2017 All American Quarter Horse Congress Queen contest I couldn’t even imagine what an amaz- ing experience I was headed for! My mom and I headed down early to Columbus to provide me some extra time to watch classes, continue my studies and cheer on some Ontario riders. The Queens all started to arrive and it was really nice to meet them in person for the first time. On Tuesday, all the
contestants met at the host hotel and were provided with their roommates, their horsemanship draws and the itinerary for the jam packed week ahead. At that time we met the chairs of the Queen Committee who were Jamie Drury, Elaine Wells, Jess Elsass and Brit- tany Barker Hostettler; all of whom were so helpful and available at any time we needed them. We proceeded to the
welcome dinner and all the contestants’
introduced
themselves, the association they proudly represent and their guests. I was accom- panied to the dinner by my mom who is always my biggest support system and my close friend Taylor Gumz. Taylor is an entrepre- neur in the equine industry as well as a former Congress queen contestant. Her pearls of wisdom and guid- ance were so helpful to me throughout the contest. That evening we did
our gift exchange and set- tled into our rooms. The in- terviews were to follow bright and early on the fol- lowing day. I completed the interview and felt very good about how it went and some of us were able to debrief af- terwards and get an idea of
how each other did. Right after the inter-
views we headed to The Congress grounds and started to individually thank all of our sponsors in Con- gress Hall and the Annex. That night we met some of the Ohio Quarter Horse As- sociation officials who were so helpful and great to work with.
We proceeded to a
scheduled Queens’s auto- graph session in Congress Hall at the Queens booth. On the way there a small group of us met a family who was headed to the auto- graph session and asked if we could take a picture with “The Queens”. The kids were thrilled and chatted with us at the autograph ses- sion.
We all headed back to
the hotel once the session was over…but not to sleep! I met a great bunch of girls at the contest. It was my roommates Kate Clapp from Ohio Michigan Indiana Quarter Horse Association, Morgan McCarthy Warda from Michigan Quarter Horse Association and Lexy Ziemak from the Ohio Quarter Horse Racing Asso- ciation. This group of girls had
such an impact on me be- yond anything I could imag- ine. We became lifelong friends immediately and it was like we had known each other forever. That night we studied all night long and each person brought differ- ent expertise to the table. The next day was the
test! It is a very challenging test on the AQHA rulebook and we all debriefed after- wards and supported each other. After not sleeping all night and completing our test early in the morning we headed out for our group tour to Short North in Columbus in a tour bus in full Queen attire. What a great experience. We
to
laughed till we cried and enjoyed the day and even though sleep deprived, we had the time of our lives. We made our own candles and created our own lip gloss and had a great lunch. We couldn’t have had more fun. Then it was back the Congress
grounds to be flag bearers in the Heroes for Horses Class. It is a special event to honor service men
and
women and the horses helping them heal. When we finished we spent some time with family and then had our horsemanship prac- tice at 1am. Jess Lange and I headed up to the practice area with Simon and laid out a great practice pattern. Huge thanks to Jess for helping me and providing such great coaching expert- ise and to Simon, my horse, for giving it his all. We grabbed a little bit
of sleep and in the morning I had a date to help a friend who is a small fry exhibitor do her hair and makeup at 7am. The horsemanship class was slated for 12 noon and I was draw 12. I was ready! I com-
pleted the pattern to the best of our ability and brought Simon back to the stalls for a well-deserved rest. It was now time to head to my hair appointment to prepare for the crowning ceremony. My mom was on call for any last minute prep emer- gencies but all went smoothly. It was very senti- mental to me that I was able to wear my mom’s dress. I felt great heading into the coliseum. This year the crowning
ceremony was at the half time of the Freestyle Rein- ing. All of the contestants sat together for some well needed down time and en- joyed cheering on the rein-
ing patterns. All of us were called down to be individu- ally escorted into the coli- seum and introduced along with our association. We lined up and each category top 10 was placed. I was 10th in the inter-
view and 8th in the written test and I was so happy with my placings. A medallion was given for each contest- ants top 10 placing. Then it was time to
award the All American Quarter Horse Congress Miss Congeniality winner. I was overwhelmed when I heard them call out my name and The Ontario Quarter Horse Association! It was through tears that I collected my trophy and I was filled with excitement and pride. Next, Sara Laughlin
was crowned The All Amer- ican Quarter Horse Con- gress Queen and I couldn’t have been happier for her. She worked very hard and is a great Queen. Congrats Sarah! I was so very proud that all of my group of four queen friends placed in the top 10 of some of the cate- gories and three of us won Congress winner trophies! We all headed back to our seats to take some pictures and watch the rest of the Freestyle Reining. I was hugging my trophy close to my chest and couldn’t be- lieve it.
OQHA Annual General Meeting and Awards Banquet Saturday, January 20th, 2018
LOCATION: Sunbridge Hotel & Conference Centre (formerly Holiday Inn-Cambridge)
200 Holiday Inn Drive, Cambridge, Ontario 519-658-4601 •1-866-375-8241
Banquet Ticket Prices: Adult- $45.00 • 12 & under- $25.00 Payment-Visa/Mastercard, cheque or etransfer
For tickets contact: Mary Moore, 260 Cassandra Blvd. Sarnia, On- tario N7S 0A2
519-337-4168,
mmoore40@cogeco.ca
Room Rates: Double Room - $117.00 • King Room- $117.00 Booking Code: OQHA - Call the hotel to book your room!!
Schedule of Events Saturday, January 20th, 2018
Annual General Meeting - 10:00 a.m. Queen Contest
Youth Annual Meeting- 4:00 p.m.
Annual Awards Banquet: cocktails-5:00 p.m. Dinner: 6:00 p.m. followed by awards & dance
There will be a silent auction so remember your items!! Sunday, January 21st, 2018
Amateur Annual meeting- 9:30 a.m. That same family I had
taken pictures with before the autograph session came to find me in the stands and congratulate me. That made me so happy and I realized that is what it is all about! The youth that are the future of our association. They made my day even better when I thought that could never be possible. Here’s to everyone
Ontario Quarter Horse As- sociation and all of my fam- ily, friends, my Queen Team and sponsors a huge heart- felt thank you. I did my best to make Ontario proud and ended up 10th overall, and if given the chance would love to run for the crown again. It was more than I could have ever expected and I loved every minute of it!
who believed in me! To The Canadian strong!
oqhasuzanne@gmail.com jmpearce89@gmail.com jpc@golden.net
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