Linda And Jeff Sargent – A Pair Of Select Dynamos
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72 – January/February, 2026
By Susan Winslow
It has been an incredible ride for Linda Ball Sargent. She has morphed from a scrappy five-year-old learning to manage a feisty Shetland pony to a polished multiple World Champion and well-respected breeder.
Now, well into her Select years, she is still a horse-loving, fierce competitor who won back-to-back Select World Champion titles, earning the 2024 Select Western Pleasure and repeating that accomplishment in 2025 against a field of talented competitors to earn the 2025 L3 Select World Champion Western Pleasure with her beloved mount, The Whoo. Joining her in the show pen was her husband, Jeff Sargent, who had a spectacular ride in that same class this year on his horse, Scoota Little Closer. He captured the Bronze while also winning the L2 Western Pleasure Championship.
Still on a high from the World Show, Sargent is thrilled with the results of their hard work with trainers Shane Dowdy and Lauren Louw Dowdy of Shane Dowdy Show Horses. She says, “It was probably the best show we’ve ever had. We had so much fun, and we were very proud of our horses. I’ve been doing this all my life, and this was one of the best shows we’ve had, which just shows that there’s always something to strive for.”
Now as a seasoned Select competitor, Sargent still loves the horses as much as she did when she was a youngster. She says, “When my dad bought our first ponies for my sister, brother, and me, it sparked a love of horses. I just fell in love with them, and I’ve always just had that feeling. We lived in a small town in Florida, so there weren’t a lot of Quarter Horse shows in the area. As I grew older, my dad got me bigger ponies, then a horse, and when I was about 13, he bought me my first registered Quarter Horse. I showed her in Pleasure in Open Shows and did quite well. As I got older, I’d get better horses and, for a while, I showed Palominos because my dad rais-ed them.”
Click here to read the complete article
72 – January/February, 2026
