2007 Congress News

From Trail Riders to Congress Champions: River Cities Quarter Horse Association takes NYATT Championship

When the River Cities Quarter Horse Association began, their mission was to be a trail riding organization, says team advisor Dee Staley. "The kids asked 'why can't we show?' They wanted to put a team together for the Congress." So six years ago, Staley helped the association submit its by-laws to OQHA and become an officially recognized association in the NYATT contest. Since then the team has worked hard and improved each year, placing twelfth in the contest in 2006.

The association gets its name from its region, which includes all the states bordering the Ohio River and its tributaries. "We have members from Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia and Pennsylvania," said Staley. "We thought we had a contending team, at the least a top ten team, but we never dreamed we could win the tournament." Staley says team members show all year, at shows from Franklin Furnace and Canfield, Ohio, to Winfield and Phillipi, West Virginia, to Harlansburg, Pennsylvania.

With a one-two punch as first and second in NYATT Western Pleasure led by Taylor Singmaster and Jack Drove A Bentley's first and Annelise Kimmel and Radical Rumors second, and second and fifth in NYATT Reining with Austin Griffith and Mifsubishi's second and Vinciezo Santos and Whittle Man Whizard's fifth, the River Cities team built a comfortable lead in the contest. They iced the tournament title with a third place finish in NYATT Hunter Under Saddle.

Team members include Olivia Sniezek, Sarah Arena, Taylor Singmaster, Ty Paris, Annalise Kimmel, Austin Griffith, Vinciezo Santos, Dakota Griffith, Emily Snell, Nicole Cosner and Summer Shafer. With only one team member at the end of their youth career, this team could well defend its title in 2008!

Rounding out the top ten teams in the 2007 NYATT tournament were:

2nd - Indiana Quarter Horse Association
3rd - Horseman's Quarter Horse Association
4th - Illinois Quarter Horse Association
5th - Tennessee Amateur Quarter Horse Association
6th - Oklahoma Quarter Horse Association
7th - Massachusetts Quarter Horse Association
8th - Eastern Ontario Quarter Horse Association
9th - Florida Quarter Horse Association
10th - Missouri Quarter Horse Association

In the annual drawing for a Featherlite two-horse bumper pull trailer, it took three drawings to name a winner, who had to be present to win. Emily Sutton, daughter of advisor Beth Sutton, representing the Northwest Virginia Quarter Horse Association, will take the trailer home.

by Connie Lechleitner, photos to come from Jeff Kirkbride Photograpy