A re-post from last year's Region 15 Championships! I'm looking forward to many more fun stories from this year!
Seen At 15 2017
Horse shows are filled with fun moments—and we certainly had many at Region 15! But for me, one of the best images came from the Purebred Show Hack Open class on Thursday when two full siblings, Revvolution and Halo Afire were named Champion and Reserve Champion respectively! Ridden by Rae Shumate Tysor and Christine Johnston!
Halo Afire and Revvolution at Region 15 Championship
Photos for Region 15 are at www.jeffjanson.com
These full brothers (by Afire Bey V and out of Toi Jabaska) were purchased by Iron Horse Farm when they were three year olds. Iron Horse Farm trainer, Christine Johnston had been looking for a prospect to train up for Rae, saw these two, and made the decision to buy them both. They have been trained exclusively by Christine since that time. As amazing as this win photo is (and a huge thank you to Jeff (Jeff Janson Photography) for getting me this very cool picture so quickly), as I did a little research for this post I quickly became diverted by their dam, Toi Jabaska+//, owned by Cedar Ridge Arabians! That diversion pretty much started when I saw Toi Jabaska+// has 24 foals to her credit! Of course, with modern breeding technology, and with the right resources you can make as many darn babies as you want every year. That doesn't always mean that you should. But in the case of Toi Jabaska+//, when you look at the stats their faith in her ability to contribute to the Arabian horse gene pool in a positive way has been more than justified. The second really fun moment for me was when I found a victory lap picture of Toi Jabaska+// taken 15 years ago, with a very familiar signature on it. Yep! Jeff was the lucky photographer in the ring in Louisville, KY in 2002 when Toi Jabaska+// won her first National Championship. That year Jeff photographed all three Arabian National Championships, Youth, Canada and US.
Back to the amazing Toi Jabaska+//. I'm sure her own show career prompted the decision to breed her in the first place. By 2002 she already had five National titles to her credit, four National Championships from US and Canada as well as a US Top Ten in the English Pleasure Futurity. She looks like she would have been a blast to ride so it was most likely not a difficult decision to continue to enjoy showing her and to have surrogate mares carry her foals while she burned up the show ring! As a matter of fact, while Halo and Rev were "still cooking" in 2005, Toi Jabaska earned her 11th National title when she carried Teal Dowling to a Championship in English Pleasure 14-17 at Youth Nationals. From every picture I've been able to find of Toi Jabaska+//, she looks like she loved to show and had the heart and soul of a champion. I've always like riding mares, and when you have a fun one to show it's a dilemma as to whether to keep enjoying the thrill of showing them, or sacrifice that so her DNA can continue on to future generations.
Fortunately for the lucky owners of her babies, she was able to do both!